It wasn’t quite the tortoise racing the hare this past
weekend at Pauley Pavilion. Instead, UCLA had to chase both. Two
days after digging themselves out of a 15-point halftime deficit
against slow and methodical Washington State, the Bruins
successfully played catch-up again against a faster, run-and-gun
Washington squad. The contrast in the style of play of the Cougars
and Huskies is perhaps as great as any two teams in the nation, and
the Bruins had just one day to transition from one to the other.
While Washington State was averaging a conference-low 49 points a
game heading into Thursday’s game, Washington was averaging a
Pac-10 best of 90. This weekend, the Bruins will again have to make
similar adjustments as they go from playing a more half-court
oriented offense in Arizona State to faster-paced Arizona. But if
last weekend was any indication, UCLA is more than capable of
matching up against both styles. It’s not to say that the
young team won’t struggle early on, though. Ten minutes into
each contest, the Bruins didn’t appear ready to face either
Washington school. The marked differences they were presented with
on the offensive and defensive ends of the floor allowed both the
Cougars and Huskies to jump out to early double-digit leads.
“We started off slow in both games,” UCLA coach Ben
Howland said. “They’re both very good defensive teams.
Washington State positions in front of you and beats you up.
(Washington) plays into you. They’re all over the
place.” Yet despite the lethargic starts, UCLA made the
necessary adjustments and kept its undefeated record at home on the
season intact. “It was my fault in the first half for not
pushing it harder,” Howland said of Saturday’s game.
“In the second half, we got it quickly to Jordan (Farmar) and
he looked to push it.” On multiple occasions during the
second half against Washington, Farmar was able to throw outlet
passes ahead to his wings, who took advantage of a Husky defense
slow to recover. Those opportunities were not available against the
Cougars, who rarely gave up fast-break points to UCLA. “We
really enjoy playing that style,” Farmar said after the win
over Washington. “We like to run and push it.”
DRIBBLERS: UCLA received 23 votes in this
week’s Associated Press Top-25 Poll … Senior Dijon Thompson
is third in the Pac-10 in scoring and second in rebounding. Arizona
State’s Ike Diogu is first in both categories.