UCLA's Michael Roll celebrates making the winning basket in the final 2 seconds during overtime in the Bruins' victory Wednesday against California. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
Bruins shake, don't rattle, then Roll
By Jon Gold Staff Writer
The Los Angeles Daily News
Updated: 01/06/2010 11:16:48 PM PST
BERKELEY - In a season with twice as many questions as answers, UCLA learned one solid, incontrovertible fact Wednesday.
You can't shake a rattled Roll.
UCLA senior guard Michael Roll drilled a desperation leaning jumper at the free-throw line with 1.9 seconds remaining in overtime to lift the Bruins to a 76-75 victory at Cal's hostile Haas Pavilion.
Roll collected a loose ball with four seconds left after sophomore point guard Jerime Anderson appeared to have thrown it away. After the ball ricocheted off a Bears defender and into Roll's hands, Roll quickly looked up and let loose. The ball dropped into the net as the Cal crowd sat stunned, unwilling to believe.
But did Roll believe?
"Yeah, oh yeah," he said. "I really did. It was only right. (Senior forward Nikola Dragovic) made a good pass to me on the play before and I kind of missed it, hit it off my knee, so I was feeling terrible after that.
"It was only right that it would come back to me and I would make the shot."
A miracle ending would have been laughed at early in the game.
After a Roll jumper with 15:22 left in the first half, UCLA (7-8, 2-1 Pac-10) did not score again until Anderson's 3-pointer more than four minutes later.
By then, Cal (9-5, 1-1) built an eight-point lead and controlled the tempo, with guard Patrick Christopher breaking his defenders off the dribble to the tune of 12 first-half points on 6-of-11 shooting. The Bears went into the second half with a 34-26 lead despite shooting just 43 percent, including 14 percent on 3-pointers.
Cal stretched the lead to 12 points with just under 16 minutes left in regulation and still maintained an eight-point lead with 12:44 to go in the second half. But the Bruins put the clamps on the Bears, particularly on the perimeter, as Cal shot just 1 for 10 from long range in the second half.
"Two for 17? Wow," Roll said of the Bears' 3-point shooting before the official stats were released with an additional Cal 3-pointer. "You really can't expect that; they are really all great shooters.
"It's shocking. I didn't even know that."
The Bruins harassed the Bears early in the second half, though, by mixing and matching 2-3 and 3-2 zones and coach Ben Howland's typical man-to-man defense.
For a six-minute stretch starting after a jumper by Theo Robertson, who led all scorers with 24 points, with 12:25 left in the second half Cal scored just six points as UCLA took control.
"We showed some resiliency, we showed some toughness, not to give in," Howland said. "This is a huge win for us. Winning on the road in a true road game is always tough.
"As disappointing and as down as our last game was, I thought we showed some good bounce-back."
Howland said Tuesday he regretted not moving into the zone against Arizona in a 77-63 loss on Saturday at Pauley Pavilion. With freshman forward Tyler Honeycutt in the starting lineup - Anderson was benched for being late to a injury rehab session on Sunday - the Bruins opened the game in a 2-3 zone and continually went back to it to give the players some defensive breaks.
At the end of the game, Roll was fresh despite playing a team-high 41 minutes.
"This is what I've trained for all summer," Roll said. "This is what I want, this is what I have. Also, we played zone and that kind of helped us with the wind factor. It gives a chance to get back and set up, not as much commotion."
At the end of the game, it was all commotion.
A desperation heave by Bears forward Jamal Boykin missed the backboard and the Bruins celebrated, a bit shocked but relieved to eke out a win after what surely looked like their first loss at Cal since Howland's first season in 2003-04.
Well, not everyone was shocked.
"I was looking at the ball, and I swear to God I saw it inside," Dragovic said. "I wasn't even going for the rebound. If you see the tape, I was just standing right there. I saw it going in."
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COLLEGE BASKETBALL: UCLA gets a Roll, stuns Cal
By Jon Gold, Staff Writer
Pasadena Star-News
Posted: 01/06/2010 11:10:55 PM PST
BERKELEY - It boiled down to one possession, and when the UCLA men's basketball team looks back at its 2009-10 campaign it might realize the whole season did.
UCLA senior guard Michael Roll hit a desperation leaning jumper with 1.9 seconds remaining in overtime to lift the Bruins to a 76-75 victory at Cal's hostile Haas Pavilion on Wednesday.
Roll collected a loose ball with four seconds left after Bruins sophomore point guard Jerime Anderson appeared to have thrown it away. The ball bounced off a Bears defender and into Roll's hands, Roll quickly looked up and let loose, the ball dropped into the net and the Cal crowd sat stunned.
A desperation heave by Bears forward Jamal Boykin hit off the backboard.
Early in the game, a miracle ending would have been laughed at.
After a Roll jumper with 15 minutes, 22 seconds left in the first half, UCLA did not score again until an Anderson 3-pointer more than four minutes later.
By then, Cal built an eight-point lead and controlled the tempo, with guard Patrick Christopher breaking his defenders off the dribble for 12 first-half points on 6-of-11 shooting.
"We have some limitations this year defensively because of athleticism," UCLA head coach Ben Howland said. "We're just not as athletic as we've been. When you're having to take those long slides to recover - from how I typically like to do which is hard hedge - it's been the biggest problem, being able to tweak our defense to fit our personnel better."
UCLA opened up in a 2-3 zone and interspersed a 3-2 zone in addition to man-to-man.
While impressive on the glass - chipping in 10 rebounds - freshman forward Tyler Honeycutt struggled to work off screens and was beaten to the basket by Bears senior Theo Robertson.
Honeycutt, making his first start after Anderson was benched for being late to a Sunday rehab session, had one spectacular play early, when he grabbed an offensive rebound, faked going up and then scored.
However, his main attribute was his rebounding, and he did not let down.
"Rebounding has been something lacking in a few of the games we lost," UCLA senior forward James Keefe said. "He's a presence in the key; on help side he can block shots. He's a very good athlete, and he's really good at being in position."
UCLA's offensive attack was balanced, albeit lacking, as it scored just 26 first-half points.
The Bruins heated up in the second half and overtime, though, in hitting 15 of 27 shots and 7-of-9 3-pointers.
Roll led the team with 19 points, with senior forward Nikola Dragovic adding 18.
As it so often has this season, it boiled down to shot selection.
On Cal's court, that's not the easiest task.
"I remember I came in the game and I airballed a free-throw," UCLA sophomore guard Malcolm Lee said of his freshman performance at Cal. "I just over-analyzed it - my first free throw was hard, and I tried to try take something off of it. I heard it from the crowd. That crowd gets really intense."
Not enough to shake a rattled Roll, though.
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UCLA 76 CALIFORNIA 75 (OT)
Michael Roll's shot is a winner
By David Wharton
The Los Angeles Times
January 7, 2010
His 15-foot jumper with 1.9 seconds to play in overtime gives the Bruins an unlikely victory that Ben Howland calls 'huge.'
Berkeley - There was no doubt in Michael Roll's mind.
The clock was ticking down. The ball was ricocheting amid a jumble of players.
No problem.
That bouncing ball somehow found its way to the UCLA senior, who calmly sank a 15-foot jumper with 1.9 seconds to play in overtime, giving his team an unlikely 76-75 victory over California.
"I just turned and shot it," Roll said. "And it went in."
The victory was, as Coach Ben Howland called it, "huge" for a Bruins team struggling this season, facing an opponent picked to finish among the top two in the Pacific 10 Conference.
"I felt like they played harder than we did," California Coach Mike Montgomery said. "Kind of from the get-go."
The win also justified a lineup change, point guard Jerime Anderson on the bench to begin with -- Howland called it punishment for showing up late to a rehab session.
The switch made for a longer and arguably more athletic squad on the court, Malcolm Lee shifting to the point and 6-foot-7 freshman Tyler Honeycutt inserted at forward.
"Tyler, I mean, he brings more of a slashing threat," Roll said after the shift was announced. "I feel he can get some more rebounds and obviously we're taller."
The move paid dividends, Honeycutt grabbing a game-high 10 rebounds and earning another start against Stanford on Saturday.
Still, the Bruins (7-8 overall, 2-1 in conference play) would need a comeback.
They simply had too many missed free throws and turnovers, and by midway through the first half, the Golden Bears (9-5, 1-1) had scored 13 points off miscues to open an eight-point lead.
Cal guard Patrick Christopher, on his way to 14 points for the game, did most of the damage, showing a nice jumper and hyper-quickness getting to the basket.
The Golden Bears led, 34-26, at halftime, but Roll and two of his teammates -- Lee and Nikola Dragovic -- told each other to keep shooting.
"We figured we've got to start making shots," Dragovic said.
It was not the best environment for a comeback, not at Haas Pavilion, where fans go so far as to cheer over the national anthem, yelling "Blue!" over "rocket's red glare" and changing the end of the song to the "home of the Bears."
But the Bruins started a turnaround with Roll and Dragovic getting hot, making six of seven shots from three-point range. They would finish with 19 and 18 points, respectively.
Freshman center Reeves Nelson got into the act after that, powering inside and making his free throws.
With less than seven minutes remaining, UCLA led by a basket and the game turned into a back-and-forth affair, both teams missing chances to win in regulation.
Overtime was more of the same, UCLA opening a brief lead, the Golden Bears fighting back to tie the score.
In the final seconds, Anderson drove the lane off a screen and tried to dish to Reeves but the pass got knocked away. It glanced off Cal guard Jerome Randle's hands and deflected straight to Roll.
"The ball was there," Montgomery said. "Should have been ours."
Watching from a few feet away, Dragovic knew Roll's jumper was good.
Cal had just enough time to heave up a desperation shot that missed the mark.
No doubt about it.
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