For the majority of the past two decades, UCLA has reigned as basketball royalty in Los Angeles, crowned champion over crosstown rival USC 30 out of their 43 meetings since the 1994-1995 season and in seven of the past eight matchups.
That throne may finally be contested Wednesday.
As the Bruins (10-7, 2-2 Pac-12) continue to put out the fires of their tumultuous past month, in which they lost five of seven games, they seem as vulnerable to the Trojans as they have in years, crossing enemy lines to play at USC (9-7, 1-3 Pac-12) in the Galen Center.
While USC certainly is no juggernaut this season, sitting at 9-7 on the year, it comes into Wednesday’s game with some positive momentum: USC’s past two games were a 14-point win over Cal and a narrow, 2-point loss to Stanford.
“(Travel) is the only part that’s (not difficult) … depending on traffic,” said UCLA coach Steve Alford. “It’s difficult because it’s an in-city rival, you got a lot of things that are fun about college basketball … I think (USC coach Andy Enfield’s) team is playing better than what it was a month ago and I think we are too. So it makes for a really good early conference game.”
UCLA’s struggles this season seem to indicate the USC matchup may be closer than in the past – the Bruins won both games against the Trojans last year by a combined 44 points – but, like USC, its recent play suggests some improvement.
The Bruins came back from down 14 to beat the Stanford Cardinal in double overtime Thursday, then followed it up with a 19-point blowout win over Cal on Sunday.
The key to those wins, and the formula to maintaining that success against USC and for the rest of the season, is straightforward: get the ball in the paint.
Perhaps the greatest indicator of UCLA’s success this season has been the success of its bigs and, more specifically, relying more on inside scoring than jump shooting.
In the Bruins’ first 10 games of the season, in which they went 8-2, UCLA averaged 31.8 points in the paint per game. The following five games, all UCLA losses, that average dropped down to 20.4 points in the paint per game.
The Bruins’ strategy seemed to change in those games. Rather than looking to freshman forward Kevon Looney and junior forward/center Tony Parker inside, UCLA seemed content to settle for long and contested jump shots more frequently.
Perhaps it was a newfound timidness inside spawned from the 13 shot attempts by UCLA that were blocked by Kentucky or perhaps, more likely, it was the taller, talented and more physical opposing front lines the Bruins faced.
Either way, the Bruins withered inside the paint.
Looney topped double-digit scoring just once in that stretch, the only games all season he has scored fewer than 10 points. Parker was similarly limited offensively, reaching 10 or more points just twice in those five games, being held to two points twice and scoring just five once.
UCLA returned home and regrouped, altering its offensive scheme to give Looney and Parker more space to work with, and as a result, boosting their scoring inside. As the two big men found more success, so did their team, as the interior scoring created more open looks on the perimeter for UCLA’s guards.
“Teams are going to have to pick their poison to help (inside),” Parker said. “We can kick it back out (to the guards) so it’s a big-time thing for us because our guards can shoot … you have to respect them. They open it up for us and we open it up for them.”
In the two games since the losing streak, both wins, Parker averaged 17.5 points and Looney averaged 21 points. Looney’s performance, which included a 27-point, 19-rebound game against Stanford, earned him honors as Pac-12 Player of the Week and Wayman Tisdale National Freshman of the Week.
“It was a great honor. Really proud of it,” Looney said. “It’s my first time doing that for myself so it’s really big time for me. But really this week I just played hard, picked up my energy and got the wins.”
Keeping that strategy going against USC Wednesday will be crucial for UCLA in maintaining L.A. supremacy and maintaining its newfound momentum. If the Bruins needed more incentive to continue their improved play, facing the Trojans will certainly provide that for them.
“(The USC game) is always something I mark down on my calendar,” said senior guard Norman Powell. “The last two years, we’ve had the upper hand on them so I’m not trying to let that slide on my last year, last go around against them.”