Five and oh my. With a win over Arizona State, the Bruins are
5-0 in the Pac-10, and the last time that happened in 1996, UCLA
was only one year removed from the national title. Did that just
blow your mind?
Don’t let your head fly too far into the clouds, however.
The Bruins are slowly creeping into position to solidify themselves
as the third best team in the Pac-10, but not much more. ASU coach
Rob Evans, whose team has already played Arizona and Stanford, put
it quite succinctly.
“Those two are in a class above everyone else right
now,” Evans said.
But UCLA is making some noise in the conference. Heck, Pauley
Pavilion is making noise. The arena was as loud as it’s been
in quite some time, and this time they weren’t cheering
because the Bruins miraculously had upset a big-name team. The
student section was involved and boisterous simply because UCLA has
something to play for ““ and something to prove. I dare say
the Bruins might have a real home-court advantage once again.
Case in point: Sophomore Ike Diogu, one of the best players in
the country, eventually drew his fifth foul late in the game, and
the students let him know it. Chanting as he walked off the court,
the fans were waiting to scream “Sit down!”
With his team losing and coming off a poor performance, Diogu
wasn’t about to give them the satisfaction and remained
standing.
“It was getting close to the end of the game, so I wanted
to stand up and see everything,” he explained.
“That’s why I was standing up.”
Yeah, right. Next time try and convince me that “The
O.C.” is just as good as “Beverly Hills
90210.”
Still, the fans didn’t give it up. During every time-out
they kept up the chant, until finally he sat with less than a
minute left in the game, to a rousing cheer from all those kids
dressed up in ugly blue T-shirts.
Defensively, the Bruins were marvelous until the last two
minutes, especially on Diogu. Centers Michael Fey and Ryan Hollins
did an outstanding job of holding their position, allowing the
forwards and guards, such as T.J. Cummings and Dijon Thompson, to
swarm the big man every time he pivoted in the paint. Diogu started
to rush shots in order to beat the triple teams and finished
3-of-14 from the floor.
On offense, Cummings dominated the opening minutes of the half,
hitting jumpers and crashing the offensive glass for put-backs. He
displayed the kind of tenacity that, quite frankly, I haven’t
seen from him in a long time, if ever. Cummings also led the team
in rebounds with 12 for his second double-double in as many games.
In the second half, Thompson took over, scoring 13 of his 19 points
on a series of jumpers.
But, there is still plenty of room for improvement. As they are
wont to do, UCLA blew a 13-point lead late in the game, and the Sun
Devils eventually got within three at 61-58. The Bruins forgot
there’s a difference between milking the clock and standing
around with the ball for 35 seconds, and then ASU started
penetrating off the dribble on the other end.
The inability to guard quick perimeter players is something that
no doubt will haunt UCLA all season but perhaps especially in its
next game against Arizona, with Salim Stoudamire, Hassan Adams, and
Mustafa Shakur basically the definition of “fast.”
But at 5-0, the Bruins have to be pleased with themselves. Heck,
they went 21-28 from the free-throw line, and Bozeman even went
5-6. Awesome. For a while there I thought teams were going to start
playing “Hack-a-Bruin” if it was close and late.
Fans are starting to forget last season and for good reason:
They’ve got a team with something to prove.
Colin’s head fell off. E-mail him if you find it at
cyuhl@media.ucla.edu.