Before practice Tuesday, the men’s basketball team watched footage of the loss to Texas that ended its 25-game home winning streak.
Then the players took the court, and coach Ben Howland saw something else that has not happened in Pauley Pavilion in quite some time ““ a practice with a full healthy roster.
For the first time this season, the Bruins had all 11 scholarship players available to practice, with forward James Keefe getting cleared.
“It’s a huge thing for us,” Howland said in a press conference. “It’s hard to get better in practice every day when you’re playing Luc (Richard Mbah a Moute) at the four in practice and the three in the game.”
Playing in different positions than they have been playing in games has limited the Bruins’ ability to improve as a unit and kept them from seeing game-like situations. For the coaching staff, it has also been tough to keep everything straight with all of the shuffling.
“(Against Texas) Darren (Collison’s) coming in, Josh (Shipp) is moving from two to three,” Howland said. “I called a play early in the game thinking it was for Josh at the two, forgetting he’s at the three.”
The Bruins will have no more of that confusion this week as they prepare for the Wooden Classic this weekend at the Honda Center in Anaheim. UCLA will look to get back in the win column Saturday at 2:30 p.m. but will be pitted against a challenging opponent in Davidson.
Davidson has made a name for itself this year by giving highly ranked teams a lot to worry about. The smaller school had No. 1 North Carolina on the ropes on the Tar Heels’ own court, leading for most of the second half before falling 72-68. More recently, the Wildcats played No. 7 Duke very close, losing 79-73 on Dec. 1.
Sophomore Stephen Curry, son of former NBA player Dell Curry, leads the team and makes a huge impact. Against North Carolina, Curry had a game-high 24 points. Additionally, when he was on the bench with two fouls against Duke, the Blue Devils went on a 17-4 run.
“Curry’s a great shooter, and it’s a very good team we’re playing Saturday that could have beat Carolina at Carolina early in the season,” Howland said. “It’s a one-point game with a minute and a half, two minutes to go. … They’re a team that all shoots it well; they set a lot of ball screens. They’re a smart, very heady, experienced group. We have our hands full.”
For UCLA, still trying to get the taste of the Texas loss out of its mouth, the focus is on attacking the zone at the high post and getting the ball to center Kevin Love inside more. The Longhorns’ effective zone caused major problems for the Bruins’ offense at points, keeping the ball on the perimeter for long stretches of time and out of Love’s hands.
“I think that once we get the idea, we’ll be a very good zone team,” Howland said. “Primarily because we have two outstanding passers in the starting lineup in Luc and Kevin that can attack the interior of the zone, and we’ve got to utilize their ability to pass.”
With the Bruins’ offense having trouble, the defense had to shoulder a bigger load, tiring as the game went on. Howland commented that they finished the game exhausted and that he utilized Collison too much and guard Michael Roll not enough. Collison played 39 minutes in his second game back, and Roll, in his first game back, played no second-half minutes.
For Howland, the biggest thing is being back to 11 healthy scholarship players with the Pac-10 season not so far off.
“I’m just glad that we are finally getting back to healthy again,” Howland said. “I think that if we had played the Pac-10 conference starting at the beginning of the year, with all our injuries and everything, that we would really be in tough shape right now.”