Now that we are on Humpday let’s start compiling our notes on our next opponent: Southern Cal Trojans. These guys are going to be a little more fired up for this game on Sunday which will pretty much define their season. How fired up they are going to be for UCLA? Well apparently they were thinking about UCLA prior to their last game against Oregon State. As bruinhoo noted here was Daniel Hackett before their game against UCLA @ the Costco Center:

"We have a big opportunity at home," guard Daniel Hackett said. "I don’t see why we can’t go on a streak."

Well we know how that worked out. The Trojans despite building a double digit lead in the second half choked away a win by coughing up the ball 17 times, getting outhustled on the boards, and flailing away against the Beaver’s effective zone defense. After the game I caught a little bit of the "Trojan Live" which was a little hilarious. Some bald headed guy who was playing the role of a "Trojan basketball analyst" was telling Leslie Sotto how Trojans could see more zone defense from UCLA because of the way they struggled against the Beavers on Sunday night. He actually said on tveee that Howland might throw zone against the Trojies. LOL Also, apparently the Trojan beat writer in the LA Times have been pathetically trying to denigrate Oregon State’s win this week ignoring the real story about how the Trojans didn’t learn their from the football team this season.

Anyway, so Timmeh’s Trojies are going to be an angry bunch this Sunday night (why is this game on so late on Sunday night BTW?). They are going to come out with focus and locked in to make a point. And they are more than capable pulling off an impressive win (like a Lavin "coached" team). Here is the current rotation for Timmeh’s bunch:

Usual Starters -- F DeMar DeRozan, F Keith Wilkinson, C Taj Gibson, G Dwight Lewis, G Daniel Hackett. Key Subs -- G Marcus Johnson; G Donte Smith.

They don’t really have true pg. However, Hackett and Lewis is a tough combination who will pose extremely physical matchups against DC and JH. I saw lot of the second half and OT against the Beavers last Sunday and I also caught their game against Georgia Tech (in which they won in an impressive fashion). From what I saw in their Georgia Tech, I think it will be extremely important for DC, JH and rest of their team-mates to stay CALM and POISED because I think it’s a good bet that Hackett and rest of this bunch will try to get on our nerves. In case anyone wants a reminder of how this bunch can play, remember what they did to Oklahoma's Blake Griffin earlier this season:

Blake Griffin hit in balls (via jt4643)

I know that's not really a shock around here but our guys will have get mentally prepared for that kind of nonsense because you can bet they will try every dirty trick goading UCLA players to lose their poise.

The other tough matchup for UCLA will be containing Taj Gibson. He scored his 1,000th career point in the win at Oregon and broke Sam Clancy's school record of 196 blocked shots. He scored 15 more points at Oregon State and now has 1,023. He is a load inside and will be a tough matchup for AA2. I have a lot of confidence in AA2’s ability to defend against the best, however, he will have to take his game to another level on Sunday night and also make sure he calibrate his game based on how referees are calling the game early on. We can’t afford to lose AA2 in foul trouble.

The matchup between JS and DeRozan will be interesting. DeRozan had 14 points and 12 rebounds in the win at Oregon, his first double-double of the season. Hopefully JS can force DeRozan to spend a lot of energy playing defense by staying on the same rhythm he found himself in second half of the Oregon game.

We will also have to be tenacious around the rims. Trojans are second in the conference in offensive rebounding. AA2, JK, DG, JS, ND, JH and the whole team will have to step up to make sure they are securing the ball on the defensive end and not giving up easy second chance opportunities to the Trojans. BTW ML might be available for Sunday night. Per Coach Howland doctors cleared him to practice yesterday:

"He's going to try and do a little bit, for a half-an-hour or 40 minutes, and see how it feels," Howland said. "I guess well have a better feeling of what he can or can't do after he works out this afternoon."
Lee said after the win at Oregon he was hopeful of playing in UCLA's next game, which is Sunday against USC.

Here is to hoping ML is fully healthy and can contribute. Having him would be a huge help.

The most interesting aspect of Sunday’s game to me is to find out what kind of defense Floyd will throw against UCLA. Last couple of years Floyd has thrown combination of junk defenses such as ""Triangle and 2" and "Box and I" to deal with the talent disparity against the Ben Ball warriors. In a Triangle and 2 defense, two defenders play man-to-man against the two best scorers, and other three defenders stay back in a zone. From what I can remember Floyd’s strategy worked against us at Pauley last year as Davon Jefferson played very effectively in the middle and his two defenders around the low blocks were covering the corner well. The strategy was very effective as it limited the Bruins to 33.3 percent shooting at Pauley (don’t forget LRMAM also went down with an injury). This year the Trojans are second in Pac-10 in FG Pct defense (.391).

Floyd has also show Box and 1 defense against UCLA. It’s the kind of defense that works against a team with an elite pg.  Four defenders sit back in zone in a standard box set and fifth guy plays man-to-man against the elite pg. In other words, Floyd might stick his best (or the most tenacious) defender against DC to put all out pressure on him. Oregon tried to double DC in second half as he was bringing the ball up court during the second half. So it will be to JH, JS and MR to make sure they are ready to help out by alleviating that expected pressure on DC.

BTW if you live around Southern California head out to Costco Center Sunday night. We need to turn that place blue.

Those are some of my initial thoughts on Sunday night. I would specifically love to hear more from you re. Xs and Os on defense. As mentioned above, Floyd does like to throw interesting combination of junk defenses to make up for the talent disparity between these two teams. If you have thoughts on what we should be on the look out for and what our guys need to do to adjust and counter with more aggression and focus, fire away.

GO BRUINS.

CrouchingBruin already fanshotted the fantastic profile of DC in the Oregonian. I have already read it couple of times but still can’t get enough of it. I think it’s time we start savoring DC’s remaining games as a Ben Ball warrior. I know we are going to take this season game by game because it makes it that much more fun. But I remember going back to 1995 how as senior students on campus we were savoring every game of Ed O, Tyus Edney and George Zidek. For some reason I am feeling the same way about DC, JS and AA2. LMR was the first official Ben Ball warriors who had a special senior day after four years under Howland. Since Howland’s arrival we also have had wonderful senior moments featuring the departures of DJ, CB and RH. But this year it will be something special. Saying goodbye to DC, JS, and AA2 after their 4-5 years of Ben Ball will be an incredibly emotional moment. I know I will feel the goosebumps when I see their last game at Pauley.  I am sure I will be writing stand alone posts on JS and AA2 before it is all over but for now at least I wanted to single out DC.

For some reason, sometimes I get the sense that DC has been underappreciated since his arrival in Westwood. We worship AA around these parts for all the right reasons and what he gave to our programs for three incredible years but perhaps its time to think about what DC has meant to UCLA basketball for last four:

Photo Credit: Kevork Djansezian, AP

No doubt AA (and JF) were the two of the key cornerstones who started the Ben Ball party in Westwood. IMO, AA became the early poster child of what the Caretaker started with the incoming class of 2004. Then, we were blessed with the incredible talents of LRMAM, KL, and RW. All of them and JF left early (which was fine by me). DC will be the first CBH recruited All American who will be graduating after four full years in Howlandwood. That is worthy of celebration every game, especially when you read comments like this (from the Oregonian piece, flagged by bruinponcho):

"I said what I wanted to do, and that’s win a national championship, and I’ve had four years to do it," Collison said. "If I don’t do it, at least I can say I took four years to try and accomplish that."

Coach Howland expanded on DC’s leadership in a Daily Bruin piece zeroing on the senior pg "stepping up once again":

After the game, coach Ben Howland expanded upon the leadership Collison brings to the team.

"He’s very calming because he’s so good," Howland said. "He’s a big-time player, which there is no doubt about."

In addition to making big plays, Collison displayed a great ability to calm down the Bruin offense, orchestrating a patient offensive attack against the Ducks’ 2-3 zone.

"First of all, it’s really hard to pressure him," Howland said. "He handled the ball for 38 minutes and had one turnover today, which I’m really proud of."

More from the article on DC’s steady leadership:

 "You don’t want to change what you’ve been doing from the first tip-off all the way up to the end of the game," Collison said. "You want to continue to execute the same way you’ve been executing the first half. When it did get loud, we just remained poised and took our time and executed."

With the Ducks mounting a comeback and the Bruins struggling to get good shots against the pressuring zone defense, Collison said it was a focus on getting stops on defense that allowed the Bruins to come away with a victory.

"We had the lead. It seems like they were getting momentum every time they got a stop; they were feeding off their crowd," Collison said. "So we just wanted to remain poised and quiet the crowd as much as possible."

Yes, the FT streak he is on right now is just sick (and reminds me of Tyus in his senior season). But what I am enjoying most about DC is watching him terrorize the opponent like a silent assassin. He is deadly (as usual) from the outside but he looks smoother in this silky drives right to the hoop. Yes, he got rejected in a dunk attempted against the Ducks on Sunday afternoon but he was killing them in the second half while driving to the hoop. He was fearless, just like he has been in so many clutch situations during last four years:

Photo Credit: Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

Too often college basketball fans from elite programs feel sorry for themselves when elite talents leave early for the NBA. UCLA is not an exception as I often read a lot of moping about the great players who leave for the League early. As I have said before I have no grudges against Ben Ball warriors (specifically Howland recruited players) leaving early. More power to them. Yet, I think it is more important to celebrate and appreciate every senior moments of warriors like DC (as well as JS and AA2) who have given everything to the magical four letter word infront of their jersey:

Photo Credit: Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images

To me DC represents everything that is special and holy about UCLA basketball.

Let’s enjoy him. Let’s root for our unquestioned floor general rest of this season. It will make the season even more fun.

GO BRUINS.

Let’s start our roundup with a quick update on CRN’s search for a new DC. Not a lot of information coming out at this point (which I think is good news because I always appreciate a hiring process without leaks). However, not surprisingly beat reporters such as Dohn are anointing Bullough as an “early front-runner”:

UCLA linebackers coach Chuck Bullough is the early front-runner to become the Bruins defensive coordinator, but more names could surface in the process, sources said Monday.

Bullough spent the last three seasons at UCLA under former defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker, who accepted the head coaching job at New Mexico State last week.

Bruins coach Rick Neuheisel said he doesn't "have a timetable" on hiring a defensive coordinator, and added he would not comment about specific candidates.

"I think there are a number of candidates out there that are very qualified, including guys on our staff," Neuheisel said. "I want to be thorough and make sure I'm not jumping quickly, so I don't have a timetable. I think we're fine in recruiting. It doesn't mean it won't happen quickly. I just don't need it to happen fast."

Also, Bruins coach Rick Neuheisel will speak with Montana coach Bobby Hauck, sources said. Hauck coached with Neuheisel at UCLA, Colorado and Washington, and interviewed with Neuheisel last offseason before deciding to remain with the Grizzlies.

None of this should be a surprise to anyone here on BN. Dohn is probably anointing Bullough as a "frontrunner" because well ... Bullough is easily accessible in Dohn's beat. Hauck news was predictable. We have been pointing to his name for a while. From all accounts either Bullough or Hauck would be solid choices as DC IMHO. So we are off to a pretty good start.  I like the fact that CRN is taking his time and not feeling any pressure to make a quick hire without considering all available options for the program. From reading the tea leaves it seems like CRN has a deliberate and calculated process in place.  Also, per Dohn’s report he is not feeling any pressure to hire a DC immediately because things are looking solid on the recruiting front:

There is no push to get it done before the recruiting weekend coming up. Most of the players coming in are already committed, and I was told UCLA coaches already called all the recruits to make sure they were still on board despite DeWayne Walker's departure.
I was also told no recruits were wavering at this time.

So much for any concern that Walker’s departure would have a negative impact on UCLA’s reruiting.

Speaking of which as Dohn mentioned above a huge recruiting weekend in coming up at UCLA. Mark Saxon from the OC Register has a list of 17 recruits who are coming into Westwood for their “official visits” this weekend:

• OL Nik Abele Irvine
• LB Isaiah Bowens La Puente
• QB Richard Brehaut Rancho Cucamonga
• OL Greg Capella Visalia
• WR Randall Carroll Los Angeles
• WR De’Von Flournoy Van Nuys
• LB Todd Golper Arcadia
• LB Taniela Maka Long Beach
• WR Ricky Marvray Corona
• WR Alex Mascarenas Mission Viejo
• DB Marlon Pollard San Bernardino
• DB Sheldon Price La Puente
• TE Billy Sanders Idaho
• DB Brandon Sermons Pomona
• DT Branden Warner Compton
• WR Markus Wheaton Arizona
• OL Eddie Williams Walnut

Note that neither Carroll no Flournoy are listed as “commits” to Southern Cal any more on Scout.com.  Sanders is committed to Miami. Pollard is currently committed to Notre Dame (he was originally committed to UCLA before decommitting during summer). IIRC Maka is an Arizona commit. All other kids are solid commits to UCLA. Not a bad list at all for a program which is in the middle of tough but expected rebuilding process.

Lastly, since we were on the topic of recruiting, we will end with the following amusing note from Scott Wolf’s Southern Cal blog on Daily News where Scottie theorized that Petey orchestrated Kenny’s recent outburst v. CRN:

Q: What do you make of the recent back-and-forth between Neuheisal and Ken Norton Jr? I'd heard that Neuheisal had been saying he had Norton lined up for a while now, so one would think this is Norton's way of putting an end to that, but it also closes the UCLA coaching window for him, at least as long as Neuheisal is there.

A: The superficial answer is Ken Norton got tired of hearing rumors about UCLA and wanted to put an end to it. But if that is the case, why did Norton refuse to answer several times this week whether he would talk to UCLA if they talked about the defensive coordinator's position. Even after the Rose Bowl, he refused. Now if I was so angry to complain about things Rick Neuheisel said, I would think you would have no problem saying you're not interested in working at UCLA.
However, here is my own theory on the situation. It was Pete Carroll, not Ken Norton, who was upset about any alleged comments made to recruits. Specifically, the decommitment of Morrell Presley. So a plan was orchestrated to go to the media to get out a message that Norton was upset about these alleged comments. I doubt Norton was behind it because he really hates dealing with the media.
Even if Neuheisel said it, it's no different than if other Pac-10 schools say Pete Carroll is going to the NFL. And I know schools are talking about the shooting of track star Bryshon Nellum. So why isn't USC complaining about these too? Maybe because they don't think it affected Presley?

In other words Scott basically agrees what we have suspected all along: Kenny is nothing but Petey’s poodle.

GO BRUINS.

UPDATE (N): The video is still up:

In case anyone missed the Ray Maualuga and Erin Andrews video has now been pulled off YouTube. I wonder why.

What is interesting to me is the reaction of Trojans in response to the video. Here is how Adam Rose (a USC alum who comically blogs on "What's Bruin" and "All Things Trojan") initially posted this reaction to Maualuga's approaching of Andrews and doing that dance:

Rey Maualuga, the closest thing college football has to Chuck Norris, decided to celebrate the new year by dancing with ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews.

And when you're Rey Maualuga, you don't need to ask for a dance -- you just boogie.

This video may be the underground highlight of the 2009 Rose Bowl game.

Adam thought it was kind of funny. When he got called out on it this is how he backpedaled this way:

This wasn't rape, and I'm not even sure it was a simulated sex act. In 2009, that's more of a silly dance move (especially with his hands making circles in the air). 50 years ago, it would be totally inappropriate under any circumstance. Of course, they said the same thing about Elvis. Today, the connotation isn't quite the same. To some, he may as well have done bunny ears in a still photo. Perhaps it's a generational thing, but I think most people under 30 were amused.

And dismissed it as Maulauga being "silly":

I'm not inclined to give anybody a pass because they're a good player. I might be inclined to give Maualuga the benefit of the doubt on some of his jokes because he's self-deprecating. Ever see the pics of him wearing a pink thong over his workout clothes? It's one thing if you take yourself too seriously, but he always seemed like a silly kid. That's why I'm not jumping to conclusions.

Nothing wrong with a football player - who is the face of a football program - walking around in a pink thong I guess. Adam didn't jump to conclusions except for the fact that he thought it was kind of kewl and funny.

Adam also threw up this:

I'm NOT saying what Maualuga did was appropriate. Because it's on a national stage with cameras all around, he should have been on better behavior.

In other words this would have been totally appropriate if there were no cameras around? Seriously?

So my question is specifically for all the women who are members of BN, read this blog or lurk around here who saw the video before it got pulled down.

Do you agree with Adam or others who thought it was just Ray being "silly"?  Really interested in hearing your takes. Thanks.

GO BRUINS.

Let’s build on 66’s game notes from yesterday afternoon’s victory, which following the entire first weekend of Pac-10 action is looking even better. Bruins pulled out a huge win thanks to steady and clutch leadership from their nucleus of seniors. They came through in a tough situation despite not playing up to their usual standards of Ben Ball in the department of defense and rebounding.

I will start with JS. What can you say about him? The kid has been so maligned by number of Bruin fans and also subjected to constant psychoanalysis by concern trolls in the traditional media re. his three point shooting. We were hearing some of that whining from Marques Johnson himself early on when he was wondering when JS would step up. Well stepped up he did in a pressure packed situation when rest of his team-mates were looking a little out of sync to start the second half. From the LA Times game report:

Shipp, who came into the game shooting 21% on three-pointers, made three from long range in the last 10 minutes. Dragovic, at 20%, made a critical three-pointer after the Ducks drew close.

"If you're a good player, you love those situations," Shipp said. "When it's the loudest and you have the most adversity, you see what type of player you are."

Also from the Daily News:

"This is a great gym to shoot in, and (Shipp) made big shots," Howland said. "He is that type of kid. He feeds off the energy to quiet a crowd with a big shot. He's been doing that since I've coached him. He enjoys that. That's his personality."

Shipp acknowledged he took pleasure in quieting the hostile fans.

"I've always had to prove people wrong, so when the crowd gets hectic, you want to silence them," Shipp said. "You want to show them that you are good, and you can knock down shots at that time."

JS was money (like he has been in number of other clutch situations over his Ben Ball careers) knocking down one clutch shots after another. If anything he vindicated Howland re. why he has entrusted his senior (and one of the cornerstones of his first recruiting class) with starting position in this team. In addition to JS, ND came through some clutch shots and Coach Howland is hoping both JS and ND’s shooting were good omen for rest of the season:

"This is how I expected (Dragovic) and Josh to shoot," UCLA coach Ben Howland said. "This is a good omen for us. I really believe in them, and I'm not surprised between the two of them they're 8for12. That's a huge stat."

Both players were in 3-for-18 slumps, Shipp during a five-game period, and Dragovic in the past seven games.

"I hope this is a breakthrough game for them," said UCLA senior center Alfred Aboya, who scored 12 points. "I hope they'll start shooting well from now on. It boosts our confidence that we can set a screen for them at any time and they'll be able to make that shot."

Hopefully yesterday’s performance will give ND some much needed confidence. Still from what I saw yesterday it seems like he still needs to get a little more comfortable and fluid in his shots.

One guy who doesn’t need to get any more comfortable is our senior pg and the unquestioned floor leader of this team. DC had a fantastic game. He was in total control down the stretch and ICE from the FT line (more on that below). Given all the excitement around our freshmen and emergence of MR,  DC has been somewhat under the radar this season. At least to date. Yet, he is quietly putting together the kind of senior season, justifying his selection as a first team pre-season All American. Right now at least from what I have seen at least in my (homerific) mind he is clearly playing at the level way above everyone else.

Howland showed an interesting look at the backcourt yesterday afternoon. Before heading up to Oregon he hinted at the idea of shifting ND to the wing and putting DC and JA on the court at the same time. Well we saw DC and JA on the court at the same yesterday and it seemed to work out pretty well in the first half. JA looked as composed a freshman pg as Edney did in 91. He looked at ease handling the rock and showed no hesitation in knocking down a 3 point shot.

Rye also brought up the point during the game thread that an interesting look would be to move MR to 2 and shift JH to 3. I like that idea because MR is as good as anyone in the team in terms of getting ball movement going and JH can potentially be explosive at the wing.

I really liked our FT shooting yesterday. I was biting my nails when both DG and AA2 came up the lines in the second half. They went 4 for 4. There is not much to add re. DC's FT shooting at this point except for the fact that it drives me up the wall when announcers mention it right before he takes clutch shots as if they are intentionally trying to jinx him. lol As a team we shot 20 of 23 from FT line in one of the more rowdy arenas in the West. Simply an outstanding effort in that department given the problems we were having earlier in the season.

Speaking of shooting not sure whether Pac-10 teams and others around the country will reconsider the strategy of throwing zones against us. MR is scorching hot. DC is just DC shooting his usual 50 percent from behind the arc. JS is now a threat to go off any night.  JA is increasingly getting confident. JH, ND, and JK are doing their best to take their shots from within the flow of the offense (actually our entire team has been doing a solid job in being selecting with their shots which became glaringly clear in Tajuan Porter's flailing long shots during crunch time). So, it will be interesting to see how much zone we are going to see from here on out.

The glaring stat from last night's game was offensive rebounding. The Ducks rebounded the Bruins by 13 to 5. They were getting way too many second chances in the second half to keep them alive in a game in which they were limited to less than 40 percent shooting to close the second half. One of the explanations here is our front court – AA2, JK and DG – were plagued with foul trouble due to some horrific (and not so unusual) SPTRing throughout the whole game [See 66’s Game Notes for more on the SPTRs]. Our bigs became tentative down the stretch. Here were AA2’s thoughts re. his foul problems in the Daily News:

In the locker room after the 12th-ranked Bruins beat Oregon 83-74 Sunday at McArthur Court, Howland spoke with Aboya about the importance of staying on the court and off the bench because of the Bruins' lack of center depth.

"It was a physical game," Howland said. "We talked about it after the game. This is the first time all year, and we want it to be the last time, that's for sure."

Aboya finished with 12 points and four rebounds, and played 28 minutes, nearly three above his season average. However, he was limited to 11 minutes in the second half.

When Aboya fouled out with 2:44 to play, Howland did not go to freshman Drew Gordon. Instead, power forward James Keefe moved to center.

"I really don't know what happened," Aboya said. "I thought the game was called really tight at the beginning. I have to make the adjustment now. Going into the game, fouling is always the first thing for me. I've done a great job so far, but (Sunday) wasn't the same."

AA2 and rest of his frontcourt team-mates will have to make some adjustments (without sacrificing their defensive intensity) because it’s a good bet yesterday was not the last time we will see SPTRing this season.

Still from what I was seeing I thought the Ducks were more active than our entire team in the second half. It seemed like they wanted it more in the way they were battling for boards and our guys were also finding themselves out of position. I am going to guess one of the points of emphasis in practices during this entire week (since we don't have a Thursday game) will be getting our guys in the right position and also work on securing the rebounds. It will be key against a Southern Cal team with a decent front court featuring 40 year old Taj Gibson.

Also as mentioned earlier, we need to work on coming out with more focus and sense of urgency in the second half. We took a lead against Michigan in first half but then let them get back in it and then win the game at MSG. Oregon State made a 6-0 run to start the second half on Thursday night and Oregon torched our D right out of the gate in second half last night to make the game a nail biter. Not sure what the specific issue is here except for the need to focus and come out with more intensity. However, if you think there is another angle to this scheme wise that we are doing or the our opponents are doing, would love to hear that take.

We also didn’t have a good game defensively as we allowed a season high 74 points (45 of them in the second half). Defensively JH and our other guards had a tough time in the second half. JH specifically was having a brutal time with Porter's speed. His struggle yesterday was reminiscent of the trouble he was having guarding A.J. Abrams. Luckily for us Porter while being extremely fast didn't have the shooting touch for Abrams. JH was having a hard time playing on ball defense along with DC and JS. Last year in those situations we would have the luxury to have a stopper like LMRAM in the paint. Yesterday not only we were missing LMRAM we were also getting killed by our tentative frontcourt dealing with foul trouble all game.

Despite the aforementioned issues I am feeling pretty good about where we are right now. I think Coach Howland will do his best to tighten up the defense although I think we will see JH and other frosh go through some more growing pains on the defensive front. Speaking of frosh and pain, some possible good news re. ML:

UCLA freshman guard Malcolm Lee says his injured left knee is feeling better and he hopes to play against USC next Sunday.

Though Lee accompanied the team on its swing through Oregon this weekend, he did not suit up.

He is scheduled to meet with a doctor today.

Lee initially suffered the injury in practice.

An MRI exam showed no serious damage but the pain lingered.

Now, he said he expected to be cleared to resume practicing early this week.

"It's feeling a lot better," Lee said. "I want to start playing again."

Hopefully ML will be ready to go on Sat.

We will have tough game coming up this Sat against a JustSC bunch who will be treating this game as their Final-4. We will need to come out with the same aggressiveness and intensity we showed against the Oregon teams, but we will have to work on sustaining that focus and keep our focus and poise for the entire 40 mins. Can't wait till the next game. It will be a long week till tip off.

GO BRUINS.

[Note by Telemachus, 01/04/09 3:28 PM PST ]

Updated with video highlights of Josh Shipp's 5 of 6 3-point shooting. (see page two)

As I mentioned this am I don't know what it is about Oregon and the Mac Court but somehow Bruins always manage to get themselves into a tense situation in that place.

Ben Ball warriors survive a MAJOR scare against Ernie Kent's Ducks, but thanks to JS's clutch shots (and best game of the season) manage to pull out a nail biting win to pull out a road sweep in Oregon:

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Don Ryan (via ESPN)

The final score was 83-74. Here is the early box score.

Bruins once again came out strong and took 40-29 lead at the half time. Bruins were clicking from the outside early on as 7 different Ben Ball warriors connected from the 3 point line early on. However, it was the Ducks who looked like[Note by Telemachus, 01/04/09 3:28 PM PST ] Ben Ball warriors after the half time with inspired effort around the boards and showing a little more hustle and intensity in the second half.

Thanks to JS's one clutch shot after another Bruins finally took control of the game very late in the second half and cemented it with DC's clutch shooting from the FT line. DC replicated last year's effort in Eugene with 22 pts and 9 assists. JS finished with 17 pts going 5 for 6 from the 3 pt line. AA2 despite being plagued by foul trouble (due to some horrible officiating by the typical SPTRs) finished with 12 pts and 4 boards. Our seniors came through in a big way down the stretch.

Otherwise, Bruins will have lot of issues to work on heading into their next game against Southern Cal. They will need to figure out how to get their intensity around the boards and work on tightening up their defense which was leaky both around the perimeter and the interior.

Anyway all in all still a clutch win for a team featuring so many freshmen. Bruins run up their record to 12-2 and 2-0 in the conference. I will take it and open up the post game thread for all your takes.

GO BRUINS.

Continue reading this post »

Here we go.

DC went off for 22 points and 6 assists in Ben Ball Warriors last outing on the Mac Court. We will need another classic effort from him this afternoon to close out the always tough Oregon road trip:

Photo Credit: oregonianphoto's photostream (flickr)

You can check out our game notes here.

The tipoff is scheduled for 12:33 pm PST.  Once again it will be broadcast on FSN/FSNPT. You can track it via the official site.

As always if you are watching the game, share your instant thoughts/commentary here in our game thread.

Fire away.

GO BRUINS.