We’re more than a week into the new year, which means
I’ve already broken most of my resolutions (sorry, I just
like buying DVDs too much). It also means that Pac-10 play has
started, and while most of us were trying to figure out what to do
with all those Christmas or Hanukkah gift certificates, the Bruins
managed to figure out how to win their first
two conference games.
That’s right, just like last year, UCLA is 2-0 to
start the Pac-10 season. But don’t worry, these aren’t
last year’s Bruins. At 6-3, they’re actually a
legitimate team in the conference. As much as it shocks me to say
this, this team could finish as high as third.
What’s that you say? Didn’t I predict this team
would never even sniff the top of the conference? Well, that is
true. And I still stand behind my conviction that this team is not
very good, not by a long shot. What I didn’t count on,
however, was how bad the rest of the Pac-10 would be. The Pac-10 is
more disappointing than finding out a Wednesday 12:30 p.m. section
has been changed to 8 a.m. Friday.
I knew Oregon had some question marks, but after UCLA managed to
build a 20-point lead against the Ducks in an eventual Bruin
victory, I could only gawk at how lame they really were. Poor Luke
Jackson; now that he’s lost his Frodo Baggins (Luke Ridnour),
Samwise the Brave can only pine away for the glory days. Those
two Hobbit-haired buddies were great together.
I look at Cal, and I see nothing. Freshman Leon Powe
was supposed to dominate, but that hasn’t happened.
Arizona State has looked meager outside of Ike Diogu.
USC, despite having two sets of twins on its roster, has stunk
up the joint. Coach Henry Bibby may have been hoping the
twin-telepathy thing could overcome his awfully inept coaching and
recruiting, but that isn’t the case. Washington and
Washington State have improved, but by how much? Honestly, and
it frightens me to say this, the Bruins may very well be the third
best team in this conference, behind Stanford and Arizona.
How did they get to be so … well … decent? It starts and
ends with the defense. Much like their
footballing cousins, they’re normally always solid on
defense, and at times they have been downright brilliant.Â
In a 52-50 loss to what some consider a title contender in
Kentucky, the Bruins played aggressive man-to-man defense
and mixed in some zone now and again. No team has lit UCLA
up yet, and guys like Trevor Ariza, Cedric Bozeman and
Dijon Thompson are crashing the glass. Not to mention that
they’ve accomplished this feat without being completely
healthy yet: Ariza returned from his collapsed lung only to see
Brian Morrison go out with a hamstring pull.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This is not a great
team. In an unfortunate parallel to the football team,
the offense has a tendency to come to a crashing halt.
Sometimes their possessions seem more desperate and chaotic
than a freshman trying to score at his first frat
party.
And yet it gets enough done to win games. I’ve always
maintained that the team will improve slowly throughout the season:
Ben Howland is a good coach and will have his team playing its best
ball when March rolls around. Shockingly (to me anyway), that may
mean 18 wins and perhaps even an NCAA tournament berth.
Then again, this team is also prone to lose a few games to some
bad teams. Because of the style they play, they stick close to
everyone. That’s great when they’re beating Michigan
State and only losing by a basket to Kentucky, but less thrilling
when they’re barely scraping by LMU and Vermont, or losing to
UCSB by one. They’ve been shaky at best at the free throw
line, and all it takes is one hot player to break their defense. If
UCLA can avoid a bad losing streak, they could end up doing very
well for themselves. But avoiding that streak may prove easier said
than done.
Easier, at least, than keeping those wretched resolutions.
Colin bought 11 billion DVDs over the
break. E-mail him your list of movies at
cyuhl@media.ucla.edu.Â