To assure itself a spot in this year’s NCAA Tournament, which it was denied last year, the UCLA women’s basketball team needs to turn its current four-game win streak into an eight-game win streak.
And with four games left in the Pac-10 regular season before the conference tournament begins, the Bruins’ quest for eight straight begins tonight when UCLA (18-7, 11-3 Pac-10) takes on Oregon State in Corvallis, Ore.
The Beavers (9-16, 1-13) are currently sitting in last place in the Pac-10 standings. The last time the Bruins and Beavers faced off ended in a 70-44 UCLA rout at Pauley Pavilion.
But that was almost a month ago, and according to UCLA coach Nikki Caldwell, the worst mistake her team could make would be to take the Beavers lightly.
“You have to respect your opponent, no matter where they are ranked in conference play,” Caldwell said. “They’ve been very close in a lot of their games, and this is also a team that beat us last year at their place. So I just hope that this team has the maturity to take what we’ve been doing here at home and bottle it up … and bring it for 40 (minutes).”
Although the Bruins did not have the services of sophomore guard Jasmine Dixon and freshman forward Markel Walker in last year’s road loss to OSU, offensively, UCLA has some major improvements to make, namely in the turnover department. In their lopsided 93-58 win over Washington State Saturday, the Bruins committed a whopping 36 turnovers, much to the chagrin of Caldwell, who was not shy in expressing her irritation over her team’s lack of ball management.
“It makes our offensive flow very choppy,” Caldwell said about her team’s tendency to turn the ball over. “It obviously has led to points for the opposition. I told the team today, “˜You’ve got to take pride in this basketball. This basketball affords you a scholarship, it affords you to be able to travel … so don’t just throw it away.'”
As it stands now, the Bruins average nearly 18 giveaways per game, as opposed to 14 assists per game. On a more positive note, during its four-game win streak, UCLA has played some of the best basketball the team has played all season. During their recent streak, the Bruins have won by an average of more than 20 points per game, and have not won by fewer than 12 in the three weeks since the streak began.
And surprisingly, the difficult-to-please Caldwell is impressed not only with her team’s play as of late, but with their maturity on the court.
“I think we’ve got to finish out the regular season strong. You got to start playing your best basketball now with March Madness right around the corner,” she said. “I feel like we’re still a work in progress … but I like where this team is at as far as taking on their responsibilities, individually and collectively.”