Bruins Host Montana State Tuesday Night

Bruins Host Montana State Tuesday Night

The Bruins lead the all-time series with Montana State 1-0 with a 36-21 victory in the 1925-26 season.


The Official UCLA Men's Basketball website
Dec. 20, 2010


LOS ANGELES -


GAMEDAY CENTRAL
DATE: Nov. 21, 2010
SITE: Pauley Pavilion (12,819)
TIP-OFF: 7:37 p.m. (PT)
TV: Bruin TV
TALENT: Chris Roberts (play-by-play) and Don MacLean (analyst)
RADIO (UCLA ISP SPORTS): AM 570 KLAC
SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO: 121
SIRIUS XM SATELLITE RADIO: 141
TALENT: Chris Roberts (play-by-play) and Don MacLean (analyst)
SERIES: UCLA leads 1-0


IN THE POLLS
UCLA is unranked in the AP Top 25 and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll (Dec. 20). The Montana State Bobcats are 6-5 on the season and also unranked in both polls. MSU is coming off a 67-78 setback at UC Riverside on Dec. 19.

SERIES VS. MONTANA STATE
This is just the second meeting between UCLA and Montana State. UCLA won the only meeting 36-21 all the way back in the 1925-26 season. UCLA Head Coach Ben Howland is no stranger to the Bobcats, amassing an 8-3 all-time record against Montana State while at Northern Arizona of the Big Sky Conference.

BRUINS' INJURY REPORT
No injuries to report.
_________

Bobcats set for first trip to Pauley Pavilion

By WILL C. HOLDEN Chronicle Sports Writer
The Bozeman Daily Chronicle
Posted: Monday, December 20, 2010 9:32 pm



One of Brad Huse's earliest basketball memories is watching Eric Hayes and the Montana Grizzlies come within three points of toppling John Wooden's mighty UCLA Bruins during the legendary coach's swan song and 10th national title season in 1975.

On Tuesday night, when the Montana State head coach steps into Pauley Pavilion, the house that Wooden built, it will be for the first time. It's been a long time coming for both the coach and his team.

It will be the first time any Bobcat has set foot in a building with a design that dates itself, seeing as how it was constructed in a period where the preference was to have fans further away from the action (Wooden was concerned about fans pulling out Lew Alcindor's leg hairs - true story).

MSU has played UCLA just once in the two programs' history. It was a 36-21 win for the Bruins in 1925 and was played at UCLA's Student Activities Center - affectionately known to the students whose activities it housed as the B.O. Barn (as in body odor - true story).

Built for a mere $5 million - roughly one-20th of what it will cost to finish the renovation that has begun on the 45-year old structure - MSU won't find Pauley Pavilion unlike its own home.

Having played host to Bob Marley, Bob Dylan and Bob Hope, the Summer Olympics and an NCAA volleyball championship, a presidential debate between George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis along with nine national championship basketball teams, the cavernous Pauley, much like Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, was meant to be a multipurpose facility.

It will serve one purpose tonight. And after taking in the uncannily similar grounds, the Bobcats will stare at a team unlike any other they've faced this year.

"UCLA has major talent, Pac-10 length and a ton of confidence," Huse said. "They'll create some major challenges for us."

But with its Big Sky Conference opener a mere nine days away, MSU can't afford to get starry eyed in Hollywood. And considering one of its conference opponents - Montana, no less - has already toppled the Bruins (8-4) this year, the measuring stick comes out Tuesday.

It will also be a decent opportunity for the Bobcats to gauge themselves, personally. A year ago, they were run out of the gym 89-66 by Oregon, another Pac-10 team with length and athleticism similar to UCLA's.

Huse knows one thing: If MSU (6-5) shoots below 40 percent for a whopping 10th time this early season, Pauley Pavilion won't play host to his team's first road win this season.

After opening the year 5-1 - their best start since 2006 - the Bobcats have gone 0-4 against Division I schools. Their most recent contest, which saw the Bobcats shoot 38 percent in a 78-67 loss to UC Riverside on Sunday, was a good microcosm of their struggles this season.

"The question you have to ask is if we're missing good shots or taking bad shots?" Huse said. "I'm leaning toward the second part of that. We're really having a hard time staying patient right now. We need to get more efficient, especially on the road."

Being without two of its guards won't help. A week ago, promising freshman Shawn Reid and Tor Anderson both went down with injuries in practice that will keep them out vs. UCLA.

Reid, who tallied a team-high 23 points in a 72-70 loss to Seattle and is the team's leading scoring off the bench, is expected to be back from a mild concussion for MSU's league opener against Weber State on Dec. 29. Huse said Anderson is "week-to-week" with an Achilles injury.

"We only had one wing available (off the bench) in Chris McCall and he got in foul trouble," Huse said. "He and Casey did a nice job offensively coming off the bench, but our starting five are a little better defensively. They're just not shooting the ball all that well right now, so it's put us in kind of a rough spot."

The opposite is true for UCLA. Led by their pair of 6-foot-8 leading scorers, Tyler Honeycutt and Reeves Nelson, the Bruins are coming off an 86-79 win over BYU, the nation's 16th-ranked team.

It will make leaving Los Angeles with a win difficult for the Bobcats. But for a brief moment, on the crest of their plunge into the rest of this season, Huse and his group will take a moment to admire the 11 championship banners hanging from the rafters.

And they'll pay their respects to Wooden, who attended his final game at the historic facility last season before passing away just shy of his 100th birthday.

"Across college basketball, we all follow his lead," Huse said. "It's a privilege to have a chance to play on his floor."