That was fun.
From beginning to end, UCLA’s thrashing of USC was the
perfect game for the players, students and fans in attendance.
More importantly, it made a big assertion about the current
state of the rivalry; USC may beat UCLA in football, but even
though they’re getting better, they aren’t anywhere
close to UCLA in basketball.
Leading up to the game, a lot of the players were saying the
match-up with the Trojans was just another game. The rivalry was
secondary ““ the focus was on simply winning the game.
But from the moment the team came onto the floor before the
game, it was clear to the fans and the players that this was not
just another game. The crowd was electric, the team was pumped up,
and USC was overwhelmed before the jump ball even took place.
Senior center Ryan Hollins, who played one of the most
energy-filled games of his UCLA career, has seen three years of
this rivalry and felt that it was his responsibility to share that
with his younger teammates before the game.
“I was telling our guys before the game, you’re
gonna come out and you’re gonna feel it in the air,”
Hollins said.
But even Hollins had to be surprised at what he saw when he came
out. Over 13,000 screaming fans were extremely pumped about a team
that hasn’t been this good since Hollins was in high
school.
“A lot of (the younger players) didn’t understand
the importance of the rivalry,” Hollins said. “In my
freshman year, I thought it was just another game.
“But it’s not the same and when we go over to their
place it won’t be the same. It fulfilled every bit of my
expectations.”
This was not only a rivalry game, but a game that made a
statement about the type of character that this team has, even
after suffering a slew of injuries and coming off of a tough loss
to a good Washington team.
And the Bruins could not have possibly made a better statement
with their play. From a game standpoint, UCLA played a perfect
all-around game for 40 complete minutes. The team defense
frustrated the Trojans’ top two scorers, Nick Young and Gabe
Pruitt, who combined to go just 2-for-13 in the first half before
their attitudes got the best of them in the second half, forcing
USC coach Tim Floyd to hand out marching orders to the end of the
bench.
One of the better moments in a UCLA game this year took place
when USC’s Ryan Francis committed an offensive foul and Floyd
threw a temper tantrum, kicking the ball, screaming at the
officials, and doing pretty much everything a coach can do without
getting thrown out of the game. But what made the moment so great
was the reaction of the UCLA students and fans, who pounced on the
opportunity to rip the frustrated USC coach. The players took
notice.
“When Tim Floyd got that technical foul, (the students)
just erupted,” a still enthusiastic Jordan Farmar said after
the game. “They went crazy.”
Farmar was able to feed off of the energy of the student
section, hitting three 3-pointers and leading the Bruins to a 24-5
start.
“(The fans) were great,” Farmar said. “They
were out here before our practice the day before, and it shows
their dedication. They’re showing the same kind of dedication
we are putting into this every day, sleeping out on the concrete in
the cold weather. They were there from the beginning doing a great
job of bringing energy to the crowd.”
While the student section has been consistently enthusiastic
throughout UCLA basketball’s rebuilding, the energy that goes
back and forth between both entities has never been more genuine
than it is now. That’s just one of the other positives that
comes with a winning basketball team.
Beating USC as severely as this UCLA team did showed how genuine
the energy really was. It was one thing for everyone to be pumped
and excited before the game, but when the players and students have
that same positive energy after a game, it says a lot about how far
the program has come under coach Ben Howland.
Not only is the team winning and not only are the fans showing
up, but there is a real excitement in the air that can’t come
in any other atmosphere than in college sports. When a red-hot West
Virginia team comes into Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, it is going
to see something it hasn’t seen the past two years ““
what a real college basketball school looks like.
E-mail Azar at bazar@media.ucla.edu.