PALO ALTO “”mdash; It came as no surprise that Stanford was
mentally stronger than UCLA.
So during the Cardinal’s 67-52 win Thursday, naturally
Stanford was smart enough to identify and exploit the Bruins’
main weakness ““ their strength. It turned out that 7-foot
softies Ryan Hollins and Michael Fey were targeted from the minute
Stanford laid eyes on them.
“We said (after watching film) that we were going to go
after those guys,” said 6-foot-10, 265-pound Stanford center
Rob Little. “You look at them and they’re big but not
very heavy.”
The effects were most devastating in the first half, as Stanford
led by 21 points at the break. That Stanford had two fouls to give
on UCLA’s final possession of the half showed just how much
the Cardinal had dominated in the paint.
Hollins, weighing in at just 225 pounds, looked lost at both
ends of the floor in his first start of the season at center.
Fey was worse, coming off the bench and throwing around his 257
pounds to pick up three fouls in his four minutes on the floor. He
finished the game with more fouls (5) than points (2) and rebounds
(1) combined. Before Thursday, Fey had grabbed just three rebounds
total in the last three games.
“We’ve got to keep their noses to the grindstone and
working hard,” UCLA coach Ben Howland said.
“They’re sophomores, and they’ve got a long way
to go to be able to play with Little and (Stanford forward Justin
Davis).”
“We were beaten in the boards and in transition,”
added Howland, whose team was out-rebounded for the second straight
game, this time 36-25. “It looked as if we hadn’t even
talked about it in practice.”
What’s worse for the Bruins is that while they
didn’t do the job down low, they faltered on transition
defense as well, allowing Stanford to get out on fastbreaks,
ruining their comeback chances.
“I don’t know what we have to say for our big men to
get back,” guard Dijon Thompson said. “We tell them,
and they listen, but they keep saying, “˜We were crashing the
boards.’ You can’t fault them, but they have to put two
and two together.”
Stanford’s big men, meanwhile, were as good as the Bruins
were bad, with Cardinal forwards Josh Childress and Davis scoring
14 and 21 points, respectively. Davis made his first nine field
goals, mostly in the paint, and finished the game shooting
10-for-11.
“They’re physical every year because they buy into
their strength program and lift hard to get stronger,” said
Howland, adding he believed his team to be weaker physically at
every position in the lineup.
“We didn’t come to play,” Hollins said.
“We have to fight. We have to be stronger.”