Consider it another tune-up game.
Tonight the No. 4 UCLA men’s basketball team hosts Biola in the final of two exhibition games before the season officially begins on Wednesday.
On Monday, the Bruins defeated the California Baptist Lancers handily by a score of 86-58. The team did a number of things well ““ rebounding, forcing turnovers and scoring in transition ““ yet it displayed signs of rustiness.
According to senior point guard Darren Collison, while Monday’s win revealed signs of some of the good things to come, there is still a lot of work to be done.
“If we want to win a national championship, we got to be real with ourselves, and (that’s) not where we’re at right now,” Collison said. “I think we need a lot more work, but this is early in November we’re playing, so we can take that into consideration. But I think we’re going to be all right. These guys, especially the freshmen, they seem to pick up on things real easy and real fast so we should be all right.”
If anything came out of the Bruins’ win on Monday night, it was that the five freshmen ““ guards Jrue Holiday, Jerime Anderson and Malcolm Lee, forward Drew Gordon, and center J’mison Morgan ““ can play well at the collegiate level.
Holiday showed why he was named the 2008 Gatorade National Player of the Year, tallying 12 points, seven assists, seven rebounds, six steals and just one turnover in 23 minutes.
Morgan led the team with nine rebounds, something coach Ben Howland said will be crucial if the Bruins wish to repeat the success they have had the past three seasons.
“We lost our four leading rebounders from last year’s team, so I’m very excited to see those nine rebounds,” Howland said.
Another encouraging sign was the performance of senior forward Josh Shipp. After struggling last season with his shot consistency, Shipp turned in a solid shooting performance Monday night, making seven of eight attempts from the field, including three out of four from behind the 3-point line. He led the Bruins in scoring with 20 points.
It is a much different scene following the first exhibition game than it was last season. Last year, the Bruins lost Collison to a knee injury that forced him to miss six games of the regular season.
Suffice it to say, Howland was very relieved.
“Overall, I was happy that, number one, we got out of this game healthy,” Howland said.
Before the Bruins open the season Wednesday against Prairie View A&M in the first round of the 2K Sports Classic at Pauley Pavilion, Howland said that there are improvements that need to be made in many areas, including execution in the team’s offensive sets and hedging screens on the defensive end.
“We got a lot of work to do,” Howland said. “There’s a lot of areas that need improvement, but overall it’s a good exhibition game for us and gives our guys a chance to play against some other people.”
WOMEN TO PLAY TEAM SRP: The UCLA women’s basketball team will wrap up its exhibition season at home Sunday at 2 p.m. against Team SRP.
In their first exhibition game of the season last weekend, the Bruins topped Love and Basketball, 86-80, thanks to strong performances by sophomore guard Doreena Campbell, who led the team with 16 points, and senior guard Tierra Henderson, who tallied 11 points, seven assists and seven rebounds.
UCLA will open its season Nov. 16 at home against Cal State Fullerton.
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