New year, same old result.
OK, so there was no controversy surrounding Kevin Love on this trip to the Northwest, and there wasn’t a presidential in-law roaming the sidelines at Oregon State a season ago (new Oregon State head coach Craig Robinson is Michelle Obama’s brother).
But UCLA’s stranglehold on the Pac-10 conference continued. After easily dispatching Oregon State 69-46 on Friday night and gritting out an 83-74 victory over Oregon yesterday, UCLA is now 47-9 in conference since 2006.
It was difficult to learn much about this team in December against milquetoast like Mercer, Wyoming and Loyola Marymount. At last, the dawn of conference play presented the Bruins with a viable measuring stick to gauge their improvement after a dozen out-of-league games and nearly two months of playing together.
Here’s what we learned from the weekend foray through the Beaver state:
1. UCLA can shoot
This is the best outside shooting team in Westwood in some time. On this trip, the Bruins were a staggering 22-46 from behind the arc as a team (47.8 percent). Seven players connected on 3-pointers in Oregon, including the artist formerly known as Josh Shipp.
Shipp started the season 8-37 (21 percent), continuing his struggles from the second half of last year when he shot 13-62 ““ the same 21 percent clip ““ to close the season. Whether Shipp can build off of his five second-half triples on Sunday is as mysterious as the technology in “Duck Hunt” (How does the TV know where I’m pointing the gun? How?)
Darren Collison is shooting 50 percent from downtown, and Michael Roll is shooting with video-game precision. At one point Sunday, Roll had hit 19 of his previous 25 3-point attempts.
2. Big men bother UCLA
Everyone knew the departure of Kevin Love and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute would leave holes in the paint. Oregon confirmed that these losses have yet to be addressed defensively.
Despite yeoman’s work by Alfred Aboya and productive offensive play from Nikola Dragovic, the size, and in particular, the strength of Oregon’s post players dominated UCLA at times in the lane. There were a handful of times where either Joevan Catron (235 pounds) or Michael Dunigan (255 pounds) simply bullied their way into position for easy scores.
It seems expanded waistlines will be the kryptonite of the defense.
3. Collison will take over close games
Collison has always been unselfish, sometimes to a fault. With the influx of youth on this year’s team, the onus was on Collison to exert himself more on offense.
When the game was close in the second half against Oregon, the senior immediately looked to attack the basket and score. He quickly switched gears from game manager to an aggressive finisher.
The Bruins, who take on rival USC on Sunday, will need Collison to step up and individually take over a few games as the season progresses. He looks ready for the part.
If you think anyone can challenge UCLA’s dominance in the Pac-10, e-mail Taylor at btaylor@media.ucla.edu.