Bruins Hit The Road To Face Notre Dame
from The Official UCLA Men's Basketball website
UCLA sports a 28-19 all-time record against the Fighting Irish and is 11-11 in contests at Notre Dame.
GAMEDAY CENTRAL
DATE: Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2009
SITE: Joyce Center (9,154)
TIP-OFF: 11:05 a.m. (PT)/2:05 p.m. (ET)
TELEVISION: CBS
TALENT: Spero Dedes (play-by-play) and Greg Anthony (analyst)
RADIO: AM 570 KLAC
SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO: Channel 121
TALENT: Chris Roberts (play-by-play) and Don MacLean (analyst)
BRUIN INJURY REPORT
UCLA senior forward James Keefe suffered a dislocated left shoulder midway through the first half of the Bruins' 100-68 home win over New Mexico State on Dec. 15. His X-rays were negative, but he is slated to be out 2-3 weeks for strengthening and rehabilitation. It is the same shoulder that Keefe had surgery on in August of 2007 to repair a torn labrum that cost him to miss the first 12 games of the 2007-08 season.
SERIES VERSUS NOTRE DAME
This is the 48th meeting between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and UCLA with the Bruins leading the series 28-19. The Bruins have won the last two games in the series, including last year's 89-63 win in Pauley Pavilion on Feb. 7, 2009. UCLA is 11-11 all-time in games at Notre Dame and has won the last two meetings on the road, the last coming on Feb. 27, 2005 when the Bruins posted a 75-65 win. In last year's contest, Alfred Aboya scored a game-high 19 points and had seven rebounds while holding Luke Harangody to just five points and one rebound. Darren Collison had 17 points while Nikola Dragovic and Jerime Anderson each scored 10 points. UCLA Head Coach Ben Howland is 5-7 against Notre Dame.
SCOUTING THE FIGHTING IRISH
Notre Dame is 9-2 on the year and is 8-1 at home after losing its last game, an 87-85 heartbreak at home to Loyola Marymount on Dec. 12. All-American senior Luke Harangody is again averaging a double-double, leading Notre Dame in scoring (24.6 ppg) and rebounding (10.1 rpg). Junior forward Tim Abromaitis is averaging 15.7 points per game while leading the Fighting Irish in three-point shooting (29-for-59, .492). Senior guard Ben Hansbrough is the only other Notre Dame player averaging double figures at 12.5 ppg.
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Notre Dame vs. UCLA: Must-win or must-not-lose?
Tim Prister
IrishIllustrated.com
rivals.com, yahoo!sports
December 18, 2009
Notre Dame's 87-85 upset loss to Loyola Marymount last Saturday is a setback that the Irish may not be able to live down this season unless they go out and win 10 or 11 Big East games, thus rendering the early-season setback to a blip on the radar.
UCLA (3-6) is trying to build some momentum off a 32-point victory over New Mexico State Tuesday night after losing six of its first eight games, including a 27-point loss to Portland and an 11-point loss to Long Beach State, whom the Irish defeated by 20 in mid-November.
The two struggling programs clash on the hardwood for the 48th time at Purcell Pavilion in one of the great intersectional rivalries in college basketball history.
The rivalry has lost much of its luster, however, since this will be just the fourth time since 1995 that the teams have squared off.
"Right now, I'm not even thinking about UCLA being 3-6," said Irish All-America forward Luke Harangody. "All I'm thinking about is that UCLA is coming in here Saturday. They have a great program, and Notre Dame-UCLA is always a great game. I think they're as hungry as we are coming into this game, so it will be a good one."
And a very important one, particularly for Notre Dame (9-2). The Irish have had a week to stew about the bad loss to the Lions, who won just three games all last season and who left the Purcell Pavilion last Saturday still three games under .500 in 2009-10.
If the Irish right the ship and go on to win 10 or 11 games in the Big East, the loss to Loyola Marymount won't matter much. The NCAA tournament selection committee will reward the Irish for playing well in conference competition.
But let's say the Irish finish 9-9 in the Big East, or even 10-8 in a year when the conference is a bit down from previous years. That loss to the Lions could continue to hang over Notre Dame like a dark cloud.
Of course, there's one way to compensate if not eliminate the damage of losing to Loyola Marymount: beat UCLA.
"I think it's great that it's UCLA (up next)," said Irish head coach Mike Brey. "When we lost to Northwestern (in late November), I talked about how we were going to bounce back because we're going to be in that mode a few times this year. That's the frame of mind that we have. If you come back from those things, you can make something good happen and make a run at an NCAA tournament bid."
Here's the catch: The Bruins are struggling, so a win by Notre Dame at home against a UCLA team that has yet to play a true road game this year won't have nearly as much positive impact. A loss, of course, would be even worse.
So does that make this a must-win for Notre Dame, or a must-not-lose?
"(A victory over UCLA) can't eliminate (the loss to Loyola), but it can help out and help us build some momentum," said senior guard Ben Hansbrough. "You can never take back what happened, but you can make yourself feel better about it."
"I wouldn't call it a must-win because you don't want to put that pressure on yourself," said senior guard Tory Jackson. "We just have to come in here and be ourselves. Come in and play our brand of basketball, lock things up defensively, and just play hard."
Beating the Bruins, despite their early-season struggles, won't be easy. Whereas the Irish have been playing a steady stream of average mid-major programs, UCLA has lost to Butler, Kansas and Mississippi State among its six setbacks. The one common opponent with Notre Dame-Long Beach State-handed the Bruins a loss on a neutral court in Anaheim while the Irish pulled away for a victory over the 49ers at Purcell Pavilion.
The Bruins showed signs of snapping out of their early-season doldrums a few nights ago with a 100-68 victory over New Mexico State, although they lost senior forward Ben Keefe (sic, prob meant James Howland) to a shoulder injury in the process
"They're into their offensive rhythm; they played really well," said Brey of UCLA's victory over New Mexico State. "They've got really good players. They're not different than us in trying to plug some guys into new roles and trying to figure things out.
"Last time I checked, all the guys playing their roles are top 30 high school guys. They're pretty good players. I think they're going to win double digits in the Pac 10 once it's all said and done, and they come in playing pretty confidently given how they played Tuesday."
Still, UCLA is averaging just 67.6 points per game and is shooing a woeful 56.5 percent from the free-throw line. The Bruins' assist-to-turnover ration is just 137-to-123, and in addition to the loss of Keefe, senior forward Nikola Dragovic was expected to miss Thursday's practice with the flu.
Six-foot-five senior Michael Roll leads the Bruins with a 14.0 scoring average while 6-foot-5 sophomore Malcolm Lee is averaging 13.6 and 6-foot-8 sophomore Drew Gordon is scoring at an 11.2 clip.
"A win will help, but it won't (compensate for the loss to Loyola Marymount)," Harangody said. "We still have a lot of things to work on. (The loss is) not the end of the world and we know we have to bounce back. The season is a marathon and there are still a lot of games to be played."
"The good thing about college basketball is you've got all year," Jackson said. "You don't put yourself out the first couple of games like you can in football. In college basketball, it's a long, long season. You've got to be ready to take those bumps and bruises, those upsets. The team that prevails is the one that can bounce back from it and keep their head high."
It's time for Notre Dame to make a statement, albeit one against a struggling UCLA squad.
"Notre Dame needs to take its spot on the national scene again," Harangody said. "It's been a while. The loss to Loyola hurts, but we just have to bounce back Saturday."
"There's still a hangover from (the loss to Loyola Marymount). That loss came when we had finals and couldn't play for a week.
"Revenge (against UCLA) is a factor, but more importantly, we need to play a better than we did last year."
? ND vs. UCLA future: Don't look for the Irish and Bruins to renew the yearly rivalry like they did back in the days of Digger Phelps.
Notre Dame wasn't in a conference back then, making it much easier for the Irish to schedule around a big game against UCLA.
"Nothing specifically has been discussed between (UCLA head coach) Ben (Howland) and me, but we're open to doing it," Brey said. "If we cranked it up, it wouldn't be next year. But I think it's a good one to revisit every couple years. It's a good rivalry."
The Irish flew to Los Angeles last year in February during conference play and played one of their worst games of the season in a 89-63 loss to the Bruins, Harangody scored just four points with one rebound in 25 minutes of action.
"If we play them, we're going to have to do it in December," Brey said. "We can't do (February) anymore. I just don't feel good about going out there amidst what this league has become now. What gets tricky is that they're on quarters and we're on semesters. It would have to be a December or November game.
"It's not going to be an every-year thing. Play two in a row, take a couple (years) off, and come back and play two in a row. Something along those lines."
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Irish men's basketball team set to face UCLA on Saturday
Last year, UCLA crushed Notre Dame 89-63. It was the worst game of the season for Luke Harangody. He hasn't forgotten that.
Reporter: Angelo Di Carlo, wndu.com
Posted: 12:27 AM Dec 18, 2009
Coming off a last second loss to 3-7 Loyola Marymount, the Irish men's basketball team couldn't get back on the court right away.
Instead they had to go through a week of finals.
Now, that's all done with and on Saturday, they finally get to play hoops again.
Motivation won't be hard to come by in this next game. It's against UCLA--the team that crushed Notre Dame 89-63 in Westwood last February.
Luke Harangody admits that was his worst game of last season. The numbers reflect that. Gody had just five points and one rebound against UCLA.
Luke says he's ready to get back at the Bruins.
The day after the loss to LMU, Irish head coach Mike Brey brought up last year's game with the team. The 26-point loss capped off a 7-game losing streak for ND, preventing the Irish from making it to the NCAA Tournament.
Tory Jackson remembers the game well, "Everyone was an all-star on their team that game."
This year, the Bruins are just 3-6. The Irish are 9-2.
Tipoff is at 2pm (11am Pacific) Saturday at Purcell Pavilion.
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