Well, I apologize. Never again will I make mention of opportunities for free food in my column. For those of you compelled to send me nasty e-mails about the lack of free hot dogs after Thursday’s game, I understand. Life is rough, and it only gets rougher without free hot dogs.
Despite the disappointment of not finding thrice-cooked free sustenance after the game, the game (Cal v. UCLA for those who cannot be bothered to look to the left of this column) itself was a story of satisfaction.
The Bruins opened the game on a 85-75 run and never looked back. Josh Shipp continued his resurgence, playing within himself to the extent that he took only one 3-point shot during the entire game. Not coincidentally, he also had another game of 20-plus points (22).
Lorenzo Mata proved once and for all that he is the best free-throw shooter on the team. He went 8-9 on the game, which will probably raise his free-throw percentage a few ticks.
It was certainly a game of optimism for the Bruins. It was a Thursday game against the weaker Bay Area team, yet the Bruins only had 10 minutes of lethargy, which is quite good for a team that has been prone to entire halves of shoddy play against inferior opponents this year.
While the halftime score stood as just 35-34 in favor of the Bruins, there was little doubt the Bruins would have a pretty comfortable second half.
Still, the blitz that took place took me a bit by surprise, simply because the main scoring came from Shipp and Mata. Mata drained free throw after free throw, and Shipp just dominated, taking guys off the dribble for tricky layups and not settling for the outside jumper. He facilitated as well, an underrated but crucial aspect of his game.
Arron Afflalo and Darren Collison have been playing better than any other back court in the country. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute has had flashes of his old self recently, which is a good sign for the NCAA Tournament. Now, Shipp has had two consecutive games of under-control, solid basketball. Mata had such an improved stroke at the line, and so much more confidence down low, that hopefully his teammates will treat him like Keyshawn Johnson and give him the damn ball, which would bode well for the future.
So, if my counting is correct, that means five out of the five players in the starting lineup are playing well.
The key to last year’s tournament run was obviously the play of Ryan Hollins. Once, the proud co-owner of the nickname “Fellins,” Hollins rose out of the Siamese-twindom of his relationship with Michael Fey to turn into a legitimate threat as a low-post scorer, and even more of a threat as a defender.
Here’s the thing. No one predicted that. Hollins was not a good player before, let’s say, late February last year. I’d go so far as to say Mata has been by far a better player this year than Hollins was for the beginning part of last year. So if Mata can have a turnaround of the magnitude of Hollins’ last year, well, I may be singing an old sweet song (that keeps Georgia on my mind).
But talk of the Final Four is probably premature, and for the second time this year, I will exercise perspective. The Bruins need to secure a 1-seed. They need to sweep through these last three games and secure the regular season Pac-10 title. And they need to have a talk with concessions about reinstituting the free hot dog policy because I was hungry after the game.
E-mail Woods at dwoods@media.ucla.edu if hunger makes you angry.