Author Archives: Ben Azar

SAN JOSE “”mdash; Darren Collison stripped the basketball from Kansas forward Julian Wright, grabbed it, and was fouled with just 37 seconds left to play. Suddenly it became apparent: UCLA was going back to the Final Four. Collison waved an intense UCLA crowd to its feet and No. 2 seed UCLA (30-5) closed out a […]

SAN JOSE “”mdash; Throughout Pac-10 play and the first three rounds of the NCAA Tournament, UCLA has played a plethora of “grind-it-out” teams ¬”“ the kind of teams that like to slow down the tempo and impose a half-court style of game. That’s why when sophomore point guard Darren Collison was asked whether he was […]

SAN JOSE “”mdash; For anyone that’s covered the UCLA team long enough, what happened at Friday’s press conference should come as no surprise. As Arron Afflalo sat down to answer the first question at the press conference, Howland interrupted him in order to quiet down the noise in the back. Howland would go on to […]

SAN JOSE “”mdash; As the ball came out of his hands, Josh Shipp fell flat on his back, unsure of whether he had made the shot. When he got up, he heard the good news from the crowd noise. Sophomore forward Shipp had just sunk his third 3-pointer of the game, and his team was […]

SAN JOSE “”mdash; All week long, the UCLA players heard tales of a gargantuan man who had the game to match his size. Then the Bruins saw him in person and he was even bigger than they thought he was. “He’s huge,” sophomore forward Alfred Aboya said of senior center Aaron Gray after the game. […]

SACRAMENTO — Just when everything seemed to be secure for UCLA, March Madness reared its ugly head. Arron Afflalo and company made sure it didn’t get out of hand. Afflalo made four critical free throws down the stretch to help UCLA fight off a furious rally from Indiana and emerge with a 54-49 victory over […]