The original version of this article contained an error and has been changed. See the bottom of the article for additional information.
SPOKANE, Wash. — The final week of the season presented UCLA with a unique opportunity: A chance to share or win its first regular season conference championship since 2008.
“We control our own destiny,” said coach Ben Howland before the team’s win over Arizona. “If we won our last three games, we could have a part of the Pac-12 championship. We know we control what happens to us.”
The plan was simple. Sweep the Washington trip and UCLA could do no worse than tie first-place Oregon for the title, regardless of what the Ducks did Thursday against the Colorado Buffaloes or Saturday against the Utah Utes.
Easier said than done.
Road wins are far from guaranteed, but popular opinion dictated that if the Bruins were to lose on this trip, it would be in Seattle against the Washington Huskies (17-13, 9-8 Pac-12) on Saturday.
Howland, now in his 10th season, has never beaten Washington in Seattle, a streak his team will try to end Saturday at 11 a.m.
But a longer streak, one Howland could be proud of, crashed and burned on Wednesday when the No. 23 Bruins (22-8, 12-5) were routed by the Washington State Cougars, the team’s first loss in Pullman, Wash. since 1993.
“We’re just not dominant enough to just show up,” Howland said after the game. “You’ve got to show up ready to roll. That’s my responsibility, and obviously I failed.”
With the loss, UCLA also failed to remain in control of its conference championship hopes. Oregon lost to Colorado on Thursday meaning UCLA needs a win against Washington and an Oregon loss to Utah on Saturday to be in first-place.
“It’s tough waiting on Oregon to lose,” said freshman guard Jordan Adams. “We really didn’t want to do that. We wanted to keep everything in our own hands, but that’s the way it goes. You lose some, you win some.”
The Bruins lacked energy and fell into a 25-4 hole against the Cougars, something they will need to avoid on Saturday as Washington’s Hec Edmundson Pavilion has traditionally been one of the conference’s more imposing venues.
Wednesday was not the first time UCLA has started slow on the road. The California Golden Bears quickly built a 15-point lead over the Bruins in a double-digit win last month.
“We have to learn from our mistakes and we really haven’t done that yet,” said redshirt junior forward Travis Wear. “That’s definitely something we need to correct.”
They may be attempting to correct those mistakes without the services of third leading scorer Wear, who left Wednesday’s game after landing awkwardly on his right foot.
He previously injured the same foot in practice, forcing him to miss wins over USC and Arizona State.
Correction: Oregon lost to Colorado on Thursday meaning UCLA needs a win against Washington and an Oregon loss to Utah on Saturday to be in first-place.
STUDENT ALERT, STUDENT ALERT!!!!!!!!! Message to UCLA DAILY BRUIN EDITORIAL STAFF: YOU are a bunch of worthless POS’s. WE THE STUDENTS OBJECT to Deans of certain colleges HERE at UCLA , after lowering their salaries to 200k, raised them back over 400k, quietly. WE ARE PISSED because just a few yrs ago OUR TUITION WENT UP BY 32%. WE ARE PISSED BEACUASE YOU IDIOTS DONT REPORT the deans salaries, how they raised them, other shananagins, which is your job if you’re really journalists and not some spin machine that covers up the relevent news, while spining for machine candidates like you did in this last election for PAUL (TAXMAN) KORUPTZ in LA CITY COUNCIL 5 (Westwood)!!!!!! So make it up to us students and do your job, report 400k salaries of deans at UCLA that are forcing up OUR tuitions YOU BIACHES!!!!!! Report how they were supposed to go down until those corrupt sob’s like you covered it up so us students would be in the dark. GET the whole story too, don’t just write some cover spin, soft on the deans article, while us students are suffering. WE WANT LOWER TUITIONS not 400k salaries you knuckleheads!!!!!!! We want a paper that is OBJECTIVE no SUBJECTIVE. Hope this slap in the FACE wakes you up to YOUR attrocities and makes you a better editorial staff, cause right now usuc big time! This message is brought to you by “We the STUDENTS will fuch YOU w/ YOUR paper UNTIL YOU WAKE UP AND START REPORTING LIKE REAL JOURNALISTS committee.”
Where is Larry Drew going to end up playing pro ball next year?