Wednesday, February 3, 2010

UCLA aims to break the 0.500 mark when it goes up against Furd

UCLA welcomes fellow 10-11 Stanford to Pauley Pavillion tomorrow.

UCLA-USC Road Swing Up Next For Men's Basketball
from the offical Stanford Men's Basketball website
Feb. 3, 2010

Stanford (10-11, 4-5 Pac-10) opens the second half of league play on the road in Southern California.

Stanford Cardinal (10-11, 4-5 Pac-10)
at
UCLA Bruins (10-11, 5-4 Pac-10)


Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010 • 7:30 p.m.
Pauley Pavilion (14,141) • Los Angeles, CA
Series History: UCLA leads 132-90
Last Meeting: Stanford 70, UCLA 59 (Jan. 9, 2010)
Radio: XTRA Sports 860 AM (PBP: Dave Flemming, Analyst: John Platz)
KZSU 90.1 FM (PBP: David Lombardi, Analyst: Alexi Waul)
TV: Comcast SportsNet Bay Area (PBP: Bill MacDonald, Analysts: Don MacLean, Dan Belluomini, Sideline: Sean Farnham)

The Opening Tip
Stanford (10-11, 4-5 Pac-10) opens the second half of league play on the road in Southern California. The Cardinal visits UCLA (10-11, 5-4 Pac-10) to begin the week, attempting to complete a season sweep of the Bruins for the first time since 2005. Meanwhile, Stanford is still searching for that elusive first road win of the year after dropping an 88-70 decision at Arizona State last weekend.

Media Memo
Thursday's game can be heard live on XTRA Sports 860 AM and Stanford's official athletics website, www.gostanford.com, featuring the chemistry-rich tandem of Dave Flemming (play-by-play) and John Platz (analyst). KZSU 90.1 FM provides rare road coverage with David Lombardi (play-by-play) and Alexi Waul (analyst). Television coverage on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area features Bill MacDonald (play-by-play), Don MacLean (analyst), Dan Belluomini (analyst) and Sean Farnham (sideline reporter).

Scouting UCLA
Tabbed to finish third in this year's Pac-10 preseason media poll, UCLA checks in at 10-11 overall and 5-4 in Pac-10 play. The Bruins have rebounded nicely after a 3-7 start.

UCLA has won three of its last four games, including a sweep of last week's road trip in Oregon. The Bruins are 8-4 at home this year.

Michael Roll (13.0, team-best 49 three-pointers, 76 assists) leads four players in double-figure scoring. Malcolm Lee (12.7 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 77 assists) and Reeves Nelson (11.1 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 62.8 field goal percentage) also pace the Bruins.

UCLA averages 66.8 points and a Pac-10 best 15.0 assists per game while shooting 46.6 percent overall. But the Bruins shoot only 33.7 percent from long range and a league-low 61.8 percent from the charity stripe.

Stanford All-Time vs. UCLA
UCLA owns a 132-90 edge in the series, which dates back to the 1924-25 campaign. Prior to posting a 70-59 win last month at Maples Pavilion, Stanford had dropped six in a row and eight of the last nine meetings overall. In 2009, the Bruins won handily 97-63 in Los Angeles and came away with a 76-71 win at Maples Pavilion. Stanford's last win at Pauley Pavilion came back on Jan. 20, 2005, in the form of a 75-64 decision.

Who To Watch Against UCLA
In seven career games, Landry Fields has averaged 5.8 points per game while shooting 20-54 from the floor. Jarrett Mann has scored more points (12) against UCLA than any other Pac-10 opponent while Jeremy Green broke out for 30 points in this year's earlier meeting after going 0-4 from the field in two games last year.

Looking Ahead To The Second Half
Stanford is 4-5 at the turn in league play, one game ahead of last year's 3-6 mark through the first nine games. The 2009 mark of 3-6 represented the first time since the 1992-93 campaign (1-8 through the first rotation) that the Cardinal had not tallied at least six victories in the first nine conference games. Stanford will play five of its final nine games at home.

Season Snapshot
Despite the mounting injuries and lack of depth, Stanford currently stands two games out of first place in the crowded Pac-10 standings. Picked to finish last in the preseason media poll, the Cardinal is 10-11 overall and hanging tough despite a relatively inexperienced roster that currently features only five scholarship players. The Cardinal has been impressive at home (9-2) but is still searching for its first road win of the year (0-8).

Fields And Green: The Nation's No. 2 Scoring Duo
The duo of Landry Fields and Jeremy Green has provided Stanford with a devastating 1-2 punch, accounting for 56.1 percent of the team's scoring. Fields is averaging a Pac-10-best 22.3 points per game, while Green is up to 18.0 points per game, ranking fifth in the conference. As of Feb. 3, Fields and Green ranked second among 1-2 scoring tandems across the nation behind Notre Dame's Luke Harangody (24.2 ppg) and Tim Abromaitis (16.7 ppg).

Road Unkind To Stanford
Excluding a 1-1 finish at the Cancun Challenge (played of course at a neutral site), Stanford is 0-8 on the road so far this year. The Cardinal has been outscored by an average of 15.4 points while averaging 68.9 points per game and shooting 39.8 percent from the field. Conversely, opponents are averaging 84.2 points per game and shooting 49.0 percent from the floor. Stanford finished 1-8 last season in Pac-10 road games, with its only win coming in the form of a 74-64 upset of No. 21 Arizona State during the final week of the regular season.

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