Arron Afflalo refuses to take credit for the defense that No. 5
UCLA played on Oregon’s Aaron Brooks. He insists it was a
team effort more than anything. “It wasn’t so much of
what I did, it was about what my teammates did,” Afflalo
said. “Luc, Lorenzo, James, Alfred. The way Darren helped and
supported me when I needed it, when (Brooks) drove past me. The way
Lorenzo took a charge. It was truly a team effort.” Brooks,
who scorched the Bruins for 25 points in Eugene to hand UCLA its
first loss of the season, was limited on Thursday night by superb
team defense. Entering the game, Brooks was at the top of the
Pac-10 in scoring average with 19.1, but was held to just 14 points
on 5-13 shooting in the Ducks’ 69-57 loss. “I
don’t know what it was,” Brooks said. “To be
honest, I have to look at the tape and learn from that.” What
the senior will see is the ability of UCLA’s big men to come
outside beyond the perimeter and put additional pressure on him by
applying impressive help-side defense. Whenever Brooks was able to
use his quickness to get around Afflalo, the Bruin big men would
respond by coming to the top of the key and getting in his way,
forcing him to dish the ball to one of his teammates. “Arron
played pretty good defense and he got a lot of help from the big
men in the middle,” Brooks said. “They got after us and
played really well.” Brooks’ inability to drive the
lane showed as he was forced to settle for outside jumpers due to
the presence of UCLA’s big men in the lane. He was
successful, however, in nailing four of six 3-pointers with Afflalo
in his way. When he attempted to take inside shots though, it was a
completely different story as he shot just 1-for-7. “Arron
did a great job of guarding Aaron Brooks,” UCLA coach Ben
Howland said. “He definitely made him earn all his points
tonight.” Afflalo refused, at all times, to take complete
credit for the lockdown defense on Brooks, but his teammates
acknowledged the job he did with his on-ball defense. “We
played some great team defense today,” sophomore point guard
Darren Collison said. “Arron did a great job on Brooks even
if he won’t say it.”
ARRON’S 28-FOOTER: In the first half,
Afflalo sank a deep 3-pointer 28 feet from the basket, a shot
Howland was not very pleased with, even though it dropped.
“Coach doesn’t like it,” Afflalo said.
“That’s what he said when we came back in the huddle.
“˜That’s a bad shot, you just got bailed out.’
It’s not something I’m going to make regular.”
But Collison had his own take on his teammate’s shot.
“I thought that was a good shot because it was one of those
times we were lackadaisical in the zone and the shot clock was
winding down.”
ARR(ON) AFFLALO: In a rare occurrence, Afflalo
soared over Aaron Brooks for a dunk in the second half to revive
the crowd and re-energize his teammates. For him though, there was
just one thing in mind when he went up for the bucket. “It
was two points,” he said. “Two points.”
CREDIT HOWLAND: UCLA’s win over Oregon
after already having lost to the team once in the season is not the
first such victory under Howland. Last season, the Bruins lost
early-season matchups to both Cal and Memphis but were able to
successfully seek revenge after heavy video scrutiny by the Bruin
coach. “His job is to prepare us to the best of his ability
and no one does it better than him,” Afflalo said of his
coach. “He’s all about winning. He’s going to do
whatever it takes to win.”