The time for watching scoreboards and standings is long gone.
Instead, with a 10-10 record, the UCLA women’s basketball
team has had to reassess its goals and its strategy entering the
final seven conference games of its season.
“I don’t think we’re in a position to watch
the scoreboard right now,” head coach Kathy Olivier said.
“This team needs to find something else to hold
onto.”
As the Bruins (10-10, 5-6 Pac-10) head up north to play
Washington (12-8, 5-6) on Thursday, they’ll desperately be
trying to find some semblance of consistency and balance on the
basketball court, something that has eluded them for the majority
of this season.
But with this UCLA team, no one knows what to expect from one
game to the next.
Last Thursday’s 61-55 defeat at the hands of Oregon at
Pauley Pavilion was one of the most disappointing efforts put forth
by a Bruin team in Olivier’s tenure in Westwood.
To follow that miserable showing with its best performance of
the year, a 91-58 drubbing of Oregon State, typifies the
Jekyll-and-Hyde complex of this year’s UCLA squad.
“I don’t want to show people we’re good one
game, and the next game play flat, and not do the things that we
were just good at,” Olivier said. “The team knows
they’re representing UCLA, and UCLA’s expectations are
high, so let’s be consistent.”
A rematch with Washington may be exactly what the Bruins need to
achieve the consistency their coach is looking for.
On Jan. 11 at Pauley Pavilion, the Bruins soundly defeated
Washington 65-60 behind sophomore Lisa Willis’ 19 points and
by smothering Huskies’ leading scorer Giuliana Menidola on
defense, limiting the sharpshooter to 11 points on 4-of-14
shooting.
However, the road has not been kind to the Bruins, who will need
to prove their 2-7 record away from Pauley Pavilion is a thing of
the past.
“We’re going up to Washington and playing our type
of game,” Olivier said.
“We’re going to do the little things, and
we’re going to do them well.”
With the Pac-10 regular season crown well out of reach, the
Bruins are looking to the conference tournament as their last
chance at earning a berth in this year’s NCAA tournament.
But if they are going to upset perennial Pac-10 powers Stanford
and Arizona, they need to be on the same page, and they need to
start soon.
“I don’t think we can win the Pac-10 (regular
season),” Willis said. “But I do think we’re
capable of winning the conference tournament.
“We really feel like we can beat Stanford and the Arizona
schools, but it really doesn’t matter who we play.
There’s nobody in the Pac-10 that’s too great,”
said Willis.