CORVALLIS, Ore. “”mdash; In the basement of Gill Coliseum
following Saturday’s game, protective curtains were set up to
shield the UCLA men’s basketball team from onlookers as
players traversed between their locker room and the showers across
the hall.
But at the midway point of the Pac-10 schedule, it’s no
longer a secret what the Bruins have used to vault themselves to
the top of the conference standings.
Defense. Rebounding. Toughness. Composure. Preparation.
Sound familiar?
All five were on display in a 63-54 victory over Oregon State on
Saturday, as the Bruins continue to more closely embody what UCLA
coach Ben Howland has represented from the day he first set foot on
the Westwood campus.
The Bruins smothered the Beavers on defense, holding them to
35.4 percent shooting in securing their first sweep of the Oregon
schools since February 2001.
UCLA (17-4, 7-2 Pac-10) dominated Oregon State (10-10, 3-6) on
the boards, holding a 39-31 rebounding advantage en route to
winning its first four conference road games for the first time
since the 1991-92 season.
And for the fourth consecutive game, UCLA held its opponent to
under 26 points in the second half, as the Bruins used a
backbreaking 15-4 run down the stretch to put them in position to
match last season’s 18-win mark as early as this
Thursday.
Even with Arron Afflalo still mired in an offensive slump
(4-for-14 shooting), UCLA received ample contributions from Luc
Richard Mbah a Moute (14 points) and Ryan Hollins (11 points) to
dim the prospect of a Beaver comeback along with the spirits of
most of the 8,250 fans in attendance.
“In today’s game, we got humbled,” Oregon
State coach Jay John said. “We have to scratch and claw back
into a competitive mindset.”
For Howland, who doesn’t like to begin his postgame press
conferences until he’s had a chance to analyze the final box
score, it appears his team has already adopted that mindset as well
as his attention to detail and preparation.
“Nobody has any idea how much goes into preparing for a
team in terms of their sets, what they run, their personnel, and
their tendencies,” Howland said. “These guys are doing
an unbelievable job of preparing to win, preparing for each
game.
“In football, they have a whole week. We’re doing it
on a 42-hour turnaround, and that’s hard to do.”
The Bruins’ preparation for Saturday’s game started
within minutes after beating Oregon on Thursday night at McArthur
Court in Eugene, Ore.
The high fives and congratulatory remarks after that game were
quickly replaced with ideas about how to attack Oregon
State’s Pac-10 leading field-goal percent defense.
Sophomore Jordan Farmar didn’t need Eugene’s lack of
nightlife or the steady downpour outside to convince him to go to
sleep as quickly as he could ““ another game was just on the
horizon.
“I needed to get some rest for Saturday,” said
Farmar, who, after he found his family after the game on Thursday,
found the bed in his hotel room.
“In our walk-throughs and film sessions on Friday, we were
all focused. Nobody was wandering, nobody was joking around and
laughing. We’re mentally focused, intense, and paying
attention to details to get it done.
“The key is the young guys really want to learn, and
they’re really focused. They don’t care about numbers.
They’re just out there competing.”
That certainly was evident with Mbah a Moute on Saturday. For
the second consecutive game, the freshman led the Bruins in scoring
with 14 points. That apparently was news to him.
“For real?” Mbah a Moute asked. “Oh, I
didn’t even see that. Wow.”
Later, about his preparation and recent offensive surge, he
said, “The more you play, the more you learn.”
And this season, UCLA is learning that it begins and ends with
defense.
As they’ve done with Cal’s Leon Powe,
Washington’s Brandon Roy, West Virginia’s Kevin
Pittsnogle, and Oregon’s Malik Hairston, the Bruins once
again neutralized the opposing team’s leading scorers.
Coming into Saturday’s game, OSU’s Chris Stephens
and Nick DeWitz combined to average nearly 25 points a game. The
duo had four points apiece against UCLA, who held Oregon State to
its lowest total score of the season.
Though Beaver sophomore center Sasa Cuic scored a career-high 24
points, 10 of those came when Oregon State was already trailing by
double digits in the second half.
Farmar made sure that was as close as the Beavers would
come.
The Bruin sophomore staved off a late 8-0 Oregon State run by
penetrating into the lane time and time again, either finding
teammates with one of his game-high eight assists or taking it
himself on his way to scoring 13 points.
Saturday’s performance for Farmar was in stark contrast to
the last game he played in Gill Coliseum. As a freshman last season
playing in his first conference game, Farmar committed a
career-high nine turnovers in an 85-80 overtime loss to the
Beavers.
On Saturday, Farmar was only a minute away from a turnover-free
performance until he was whistled for a debatable five-second
violation, his only turnover of the game.
“That was a tough one to take,” he said. “But
it’s part of the game.”
So is the chess match that the Bruins are starting to play
before games this season, which according to Farmar, gives them an
advantage over their opponents before they even step onto the
court.
“Definitely, almost every time we’re the more
prepared (team),” Farmar said. “When we’re not
more prepared, when we didn’t focus a week prior to the game,
you can definitely tell.”
Oregon State never got the chance to.