A Pair of First-Place Teams Square Off in Pauley Pavilion
UCLA leads the all-time series with California 132-94 (.584), 64-35 (.646) in Los Angeles and 37-7 (.841) in Pauley Pavilion.
from the Official UCLA Men's Basketball website
Feb. 5, 2010
LOS ANGELES -
GAMEDAY CENTRAL
DATE: Saturday, Feb. 6, 2010
SITE: Pauley Pavilion (12,819)
TIP-OFF: 1:06 p.m. (PT)
TELEVISION: CBS
TALENT: Verne Lundquist (play-by-play) and Clark Kellogg (analyst)
RADIO: AM 570 KLAC
SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO: Channel 130
SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO: Channel 104
TALENT: Chris Roberts (play-by-play) and Don MacLean (analyst)
BRUIN INJURY REPORT
Sophomore J'mison Morgan sustained a partially torn (second degree strain) quadriceps in his right leg in practice on Jan. 12, 2010. He returned to practice on Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010 and is listed as probable for the games this week against Stanford (Feb. 4) and California (Feb. 6). Jerime Anderson, who missed three games (Washington, Washington State and Oregon) with a hip flexor returned to action at Oregon State.
SERIES VERSUS CALIFORNIA
This is the 227th meeting between UCLA and California with the Bruins leading the series 132-94 (.584). UCLA leads the all-time matchups in Los Angeles 64-35 (.646) and is 37-7 (.841) vs. Cal in Pauley Pavilion. UCLA swept the regular-season meetings last year, marking the second-straight season sweep, and has won six straight games in the series. Earlier this year, Michael Roll scored a team-high 19 points and hit the game-winning jumper with 1.8 seconds left in overtime to give the Bruins a 76-75 win. Cal's Theo Robertson led all scorers with 24 points. UCLA Head Coach Ben Howland is 15-4 against California. He has more wins against Cal than any other team he has faced in his 16 years of coaching.
DOUBLE-DOUBLE BONANZA
The UCLA Bruins completed the first 19 games of the season without a double-double and have recorded at least one in each of the last three games, including recording two in the overtime loss at Oregon on Jan. 28, 2010. Nikola Dragovic had his second career double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds while Tyler Honeycutt posted his first with 13 points and 10 boards. Then Nelson Reeves recorded his first in the win at Oregon State with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Honeycutt recorded his second in the win over Stanford with 12 points and 11 boards, just missing a triple double with eight assists.
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from the Cal Bears official website...hey, their press release is as puny as ours!!!
Bears Hope to End Losing Skid With Road Trip at UCLA
Cal ends four-game road trip on Saturday
Feb. 5, 2010
BERKELEY -
California Golden Bears (14-8, 6-4) at UCLA Bruins (11-11, 6-4)
Saturday, Feb. 6, 1 p.m., Pauley Pavilion, Los Angeles, Calif.
Radio: KFRC 1550 AM TV: CBS
Having lost its last two games in the final minutes, California enters Saturday afternoon's contest at UCLA in a four-way tie for first place in the Pac-10, with the Bruins as one of those teams in the tie at the top. Saturday's game also marks the end of the Golden Bears' four-game road trip. Following Saturday's game, Cal will play five of its last seven regular-season contests in the Bay Area. The Bears and Bruins square off at 1 p.m. at Pauley Pavilion.
Cal jumped out a 30-17 lead in the first half at USC last Thursday. However, the Bears offense went flat shortly thereafter, as the Trojans enjoyed a 25-0 run that put them up by 12 in the second half. Back-to-back three-pointers by senior guard Jerome Randle sparked a Cal comeback, and the Bears were able to reclaim the lead. Two key treys in the final two minutes by USC's Mike Gerrity proved to push USC over the top for the win. Sophomore guard Jorge Gutierrez tied his career high in rebounds with eight, helping to ignite the Bears' comeback.
Randle passed Ryan Drew on Thursday for the school record in most career three-pointers made. He needed two, and recorded six on the night. He tops the chart with 219 treys. He also needs 24 assists to become just the third player in school history to record 500 assists, and he is 18 behind Jason Kidd for third all-time.
The team leader in steals with 38, senior guard Patrick Christopher is ninth on the school's career scoring list with 1,510 points, having scored his 1500th career point against the Trojans. He is currently second on the team in scoring with 16.2 ppg and second in rebounding at 5.7 rpg.
Randle's 346 career free throws ranks seventh all-time in school history. He also leads the team in scoring, averaging 19.3 ppg, and is averaging 4.6 assists per game.
Cal is finally close to getting its team back to 100 percent health, something that hasn't been the case for the entire season. In addition to playing with short bench, the Bears have faced some tough teams, having played four nonconference opponents that were ranked in the AP Top 20 when they played. Cal's RPI is 27, and its Strength of Schedule is No. 4.
Senior forward Jamal Boykin is the team's rebounding leader at 6.2 rpg, while sophomore forward Omondi Amoke is third on the team in rebounding at 5.3 rpg after Christopher.
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Bears looking to reverse downward slide at UCLA
Vittorio Tafur, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, February 5, 2010
Los Angeles -
It rained here Friday, and the Cal basketball team is doing its best not to have a gloomy forecast for today's game at UCLA and the rest of the Pac-10 season.
The Bears (14-8, 6-4), amazingly in a four-way tie for first place, are going to have to dig down and find something inside after being outscored 25-0 during one stretch of a 66-63 loss at USC on Thursday night.
"We had high expectations for this year, and we're not living up to it," point guard Jerome Randle said. "I'm disappointed in the team's effort.
"We're not playing now like we want it. We have to come together and try to figure something out before it slips away."
Randle caught fire and scored 17 of his 29 points after the Bears trailed 42-30 following the 25-0 run.
"Jerome just decided he didn't want to lose," Cal coach Mike Montgomery said. "He just started making plays. We need more guys to think like that."
Small forward Theo Robertson had his second straight bad Thursday, a scoreless game at Arizona State and Thursday's eight-point effort sandwiched around a career-high 27-point game at Arizona on Sunday. The senior only had two points in the first 37 minutes at USC.
"He's played some very good games, and other games he's not very confident," Montgomery said.
Senior shooting guard Patrick Christopher and senior forward Jamal Boykin only had two points in the final 28 and 29 minutes, respectively, on Thursday.
Cal went 10:44 without scoring, going 0-for-9 from the field and 0-for-2 from the free throw line, with seven turnovers.
"We get in lulls where we're not very aggressive," Montgomery said. "I can't tell you what's in the kids' heads psychologically."
The Bears do not have a dominant post player, which goes without saying, but they can still expect more from big men Boykin, Markhuri Sanders-Frison and Max Zhang. The trio combined for two rebounds in 42 minutes, the big reason for USC's 39-31 advantage on the glass.
The Bears have been in four Pac-10 games decided by four points or less, and lost three of them, including the last two.
Maybe the sun will come out today in Los Angeles.
"Maybe we will come together and figure this thing out," Christopher said.
Briefly: The Bruins (11-11, 6-4) have won four out of five and are much improved from the team that stole a 76-75 overtime win in Berkeley on Jan. 6. "UCLA reinvented itself," Montgomery said. "They've gone exclusively to the zone (defense) and they're better and more confident at it. They figured out a way to win." ... Cal sixth man Jorge Gutierrez left his knee brace back at the hotel before Thursday's game and played his best game since coming back from the sprained knee. The guard had five points, eight rebounds and two steals in 27 minutes.
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UCLA BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK: Bruins not surprised by lofty standing in Pac-10
By Jon Gold, Staff Writer
Pasadena Star News
Posted: 02/05/2010 08:28:30 PM PST
LOS ANGELES - All season long, UCLA men's basketball coach Ben Howland has fended off questions about the Pac-10 tournament, about the conference standings, about the future.
Coach-speak be damned, he has stuck his chest out, his chin up and repeated, time in and time out, that his Bruins were still in this thing.
Reporters scoffed, fans shrugged, even the players at times didn't seem to believe.
Now they do.
With Thursday's 77-73 victory over Stanford and losses by Arizona and Cal, UCLA is tied with four teams for first place in the Pac-10 standings at 6-4 heading into today's game at Pauley Pavilion against California.
Tipoff is at 1 p.m.
A late-season push with four road games - at Washington/Washington State and at Arizona/Arizona State - could leave the Bruins in prime position come Pac-10 tournament time.
Who would have thought.
Well, UCLA, for one, which is not caught by surprise by the recent ascension.
"Not really, because we as a conference have underperformed," junior guard Mustafa Abdul-Hamid said. "There's some great players in the Pac-10. You look at Washington's Isaiah Thomas and Quincy Pondexter, Landry (Fields) ... and (Jeremy) Green (for Stanford), we've got great players, a lot of future pros. But as teams, the Pac-10 has underperformed. It really doesn't surprise me. We knew this was how it was going into it.
"That's what we did, we set our goal as whatever it takes, whatever that record is going to be, to be first, to get good positioning going into the Pac-10 tournament."
While the Bruins are far from perfect and know they are - particularly after a loss at Oregon last Thursday - they are quick to point out what they are now is not what they were, and not even what they will be.
"Our overall record is a lot different from how we're playing right now," said senior guard Michael Roll, who has as half as many losses this season (11) as in his first four seasons combined (22), including his injury-shortened redshirt season. "Our nonconference schedule was really tough, our team was a lot different than it is now, and we've come together."
Tyler Honeycutt has made a world of difference, as he continues to get healthier and more comfortable after missing the first six games with a stress reaction in his shin. Honeycutt had 12 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists in the Bruins' victory over Stanford, his best performance this year.
"That's why it was so disappointing when he was hurt and had to miss the whole summer," Howland said. "It was really a blow - it was obvious his opportunity to play major minutes was going to be there. I'm really pleased that he's been able to improve through the course of the season."
But Honeycutt isn't the only reason for UCLA's upswing.
It took a downswing first.
The players point back to the dreadful 67-46 loss to USC on Jan. 16 as the turning point, the day that they finally said enough.
The Bruins are 4-1 since.
"I can't say that it was any one thing, but us being together, we were so tired of it," Roll said. "We got our tails whooped. We hated that feeling."
Mix and match
First, strictly man-to-man defense.
Then, a sprinkling of zone.
Then, strictly zone.
Now, a sprinkling of man-to-man.
Howland has become a tinkerer this season, and in Thursday's victory, he proved he was willing to go back to what has brought him so much success in the past, as the Bruins switched to a man-to-man defense midway through the second half.
"We still have to use both," Howland said. "I just thought they were really grooving against our zone. They were shooting the ball extremely well and getting too many open looks. The team we're playing (today) is even a much better team shooting on the perimeter."
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