M. hoops challenges Oregon
Bruins face Ducks tonight, looking for win, better stats
By Scott Yamaguchi
Daily Bruin Staff
Looking to maintain its hold on first place in the Pac-10
standings, the UCLA men’s basketball team hosts Oregon tonight in a
7:30 p.m. matchup at Pauley Pavilion.
If the Bruins – who close out the first half of their league
schedule against conference doormat Oregon State on Saturday –
survive the weekend unscathed, they will turn the corner with at
least a one-game lead over California, which met Stanford on
Wednesday.
"We’ve got another challenge this week with Oregon, and then
Oregon State coming in," UCLA head coach Jim Harrick said. "It
gives us a chance to just keep going in the conference and do what
we need to do."
What the Bruins (13-5 overall, 6-1 in the Pac-10) really need is
some improvement in ball handling and three-point shooting defense.
Heading into tonight’s game, they rank last in the conference in
turnover margin, committing 18.5 per game while forcing only
14.6.
They do lead the league in field goal percent defense, but have
been susceptible to the trey in several of their defeats.
UCLA allowed 10 three-pointers in an early-season loss to
Vanderbilt at the Maui Invitational, then gave up 13 and 12 to
Arizona and Louisville, respectively, in recent losses.
"More of my philosophy is to get beat over the top and not
around," Harrick said. "We want to take away your inside game and
make you beat us over the top, and a few times a year, we’re
probably gonna get beat by that.
"But if you didn’t take that away, there may be a lot of times
you’d really get beat on the inside."
That has yet to happen to the Bruins, who lead the Pac-10 in
rebounds, rebounding margin, and field goal percentage, and it
doesn’t appear that Oregon, which starts a three-guard lineup,
poses any real threat in the paint. The Ducks do rank fourth in the
conference in rebounding margin, but their tallest starter – center
Rob Ramaker – stands 6 feet 9 inches tall, and besides
6-feet-8-inch forward Kyle Milling, no other starter is taller than
6 feet 2 inches.
It all bodes well for UCLA center Jelani McCoy, who is averaging
9.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per game but was held to five points
and zero boards against an undersized Louisville lineup.
"Jelani plays with a great emotion, and I didn’t think he played
with great emotion against Louisville," Harrick said. "He had had
five straight double-figure rebounding games. The greatest thing
about freshmen is that they become sophomores."
Oregon, which started the conference season with two victories
but has lost five in a row, could cause problems from the outside,
where they rank fifth in the conference in three-point shooting
percentage. Most of the barrage comes from freshman Terik Brown,
who averages 10.7 points off the bench and has made 45 percent of
his three-point attempts.
Junior guard Jamal Lawrence has also been a steady contributor
for the Ducks, averaging 13.4 points per game with a 37.5
three-point shooting percentage.
Point guard Kenya Wilkens, a 5-10 junior, leads Oregon in
scoring with 14.3 points per game and ranks third in the league
with 5.8 assists per game.
FRED HE/Daily Bruin
Tonight Jelani McCoy hopes to improve from previous game’s
play.
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