UCLA Travels Crosstown to Face USC

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UCLA Travels Crosstown to Face USC

The Bruins lead the all-time series with USC 128-103 and are 3-1 in Galen Center.

The Official UCLA Men's Basketball website
Jan. 8, 2011


LOS ANGELES -


GAMEDAY CENTRAL
DATE: Jan. 9, 2011
SITE: Galen Center (10,258)
TIP-OFF: 7:36 p.m. (PT)
TV: FSN and Prime Ticket
TALENT: Steve Physioc (play-by-play), Steve Kerr (analyst) and Rebecca Haarlow (reporter)
RADIO (UCLA ISP SPORTS): AM 570 KLAC
SIRIUS SATELLITE RADIO: 122 (USC)
SIRIUS XM SATELLITE RADIO: 143 (USC)
TALENT: Chris Roberts (play-by-play) and Don MacLean (analyst)
SERIES: UCLA leads 128-103


IN THE POLLS
UCLA is unranked in the AP Top 25 and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll (Jan. 3). The USC Trojans (9-6, 1-1) are unranked in both polls, and like the Bruins, did not receive any votes in either poll.

SERIES VS. USC
This is the 232nd meeting between UCLA and the USC Trojans with the Bruins leading the series 128-103. The Bruins have won three of the four meetings in Galen Center, but lost last year's matchup 68-64. The three Bruins' victories were 64-60 in 2009, 56-46 in 2008 and 65-64 in 2007. In last year's meeting at USC, the Bruins trailed by 11 (63-52) with 57 seconds left but made a furious rally, scoring 12 points in the final minute to make the game close. Dwight Lewis led all scorers with 23 points for USC. Donte Smith was the only other Trojan to reach double figures with 12 points. Michael Roll led four Bruins in double figures with 21 points. Malcolm Lee chipped in 13 points and a game-high tying eight rebounds. Nikola Dragoviæ had 12 points while Reeves Nelson added 10 points and seven boards for UCLA. The Bruins outrebounded USC 46-25 (including 21 offensive rebounds), but had 20 turnovers and were held to 39.3 percent (24-for-61) shooting from the floor. Head Coach Ben Howland is 9-7 all-time against USC.

BRUINS' INJURY REPORT
Junior guard Lazeric Jones has a ruptured tendon in his middle finger on his right hand. He injured it in the first half in the loss to Washington and was limited in the second half (played just seven minutes and didn't attempt a shot). He will wear a splint and practiced this week and will play in this week's game at USC (Jan. 9).

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Sunday's USC-UCLA game presents a pair of interesting matchups involving four big men -- Bruins' Reeves Nelson, left, vs. Trojans' Nikola Vucevic, and USC's Alex Stepheson vs. UCLA's Joshua Smith. (Christine Cotter, Wade Payne, Lori Shepler / Associated Press)


USC-UCLA basketball showdown could be decided inside

Each team relies on two quality big men — Joshua Smith and Reeves Nelson for the Bruins, Nikola Vucevic and Alex Stepheson for the Trojans. The team that wins those matchups figures to win Sunday's game.

January 08, 2011 | By Baxter Holmes | The Los Angelinos Times


Most basketball coaches pray for one, just one, grade-A big man.

But if a coach has two, as UCLA's Ben Howland has in Joshua Smith and Reeves Nelson and USC's Kevin O'Neill has in Alex Stepheson and Nikola Vucevic, then consider that coach lucky because good big men are hard to find, harder to keep and even harder to stop.

Just ask Washington State Coach Ken Bone, whose Cougars recently visited Los Angeles and were feasted on by the L.A. schools' down-low duos.

The foursome scored 55 points, grabbed 38 rebounds and threw Bone two losses, which left him gushing, "They're very efficient, very good."

Sunday night at the Galen Center the four players will collide in the first of two matchups between UCLA (9-5, 1-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference) and USC (9-6, 1-1) this season, both of which could come down to post play.

"Me and Reeves versus those two, it's going to be a battle," said Smith, the Bruins' 6-foot-10, 305-pound freshman center.

The matchup is intriguing on production alone.

The four have 22 double-doubles this season; the rest of the Pac-10, entering Saturday, had just 36. They also make up four of the league's top nine rebounders (including the top three), four of its top 20 shot-blockers, and four of its top-25 scorers.

And they do it in different ways.

Vucevic, a 6-foot-10, 240-pound junior from Montenegro, averages 15.9 points and 10 rebounds, is leading the Pac-10 in rebounding for the second straight season and leads the league in double-doubles (nine).

But his style fits the traditional European big-man mold, in that he prefers to play outside the lane, passing and shooting over shorter players.

Nelson, UCLA's 6-foot-8, 235-pound sophomore, averages 15 points and 8.1 rebounds, and will likely face Vucevic, whom he called "really skilled."

Howland agreed, saying, "I've said he's either the top player or one of the top two players in our league in terms of big guys for sure."

Likewise, Vucevic praised the versatility of Nelson, who can post up, push the ball in transition and shoot from outside.

Vucevic also admires Nelson, a heavily-tattooed Modesto native, for his grit: "He plays hard and he never quits."

Nelson is streaky, with strong games — he has twice been named Pac-10 player of the week — followed by no-shows, which is also true for Vucevic.

But while Nelson and Vucevic are new-age posts, their frontcourt fellows are more old-school, fit for bruising contact near the bucket.

Smith, UCLA's super-sized former McDonald's All-American, averages 10 points and 6.9 boards in 19.8 minutes, and few can match his size and strength.

The Washington native has struggled with conditioning and foul trouble, but he's still the front-runner for Pac-10 freshman of the year and a (literally) huge factor in UCLA's success.

"Big Josh, he's a load," said the man expected to guard him Sunday, Stepheson, a muscular 6-10, 250-pound senior.

Stepheson, an L.A. local from Harvard-Westlake High who began his college career at North Carolina before transferring, averages 10 points and 8.7 rebounds and uses his pogo-stick leaping ability to rebound and block shots.

He's been hindered by a fractured left hand for nearly the entire season, but doctors gave him an all-clear Wednesday.

All four said they're looking forward to Sunday, though none would say who has the edge in the matchups.

That's no surprise for two teams that hail from the same city, have five players apiece scoring in double digits, pride themselves on defense, nearly won at No. 3 Kansas and are considered strong contenders for a conference title.

USC has won three straight in the series, including a sweep last season, but it has almost no frontcourt depth, whereas UCLA has 6-foot-9 sophomore Brendan Lane, who ranks second in the Pac-10 with 23 blocks.

O'Neill, USC's coach, said both teams have played well lately, but that each has a lot to prove.

"The inside game," he said, "will decide a lot of the game."

A crosstown showdown determined by some of the West Coast's finest big men.

As Smith said, "It's going to be a lot of fun to see how it turns out."

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U-C-L-A (9-5) at U-S-C (9-6)

By Sports Network
The Sports Network
via Kansas City.com

Posted on Sun, Jan. 09, 2011 09:40 AM


GAME NOTES: Long-time rivals will clash once again this evening, as the UCLA Bruins and USC Trojans square off in Pac-10 Conference action.

UCLA carried an impressive six-game win streak into a matchup with Washington on New Year's Eve. Unfortunately for the Bruins, that tilt resulted in a 74-63 defeat, dropping them to 9-5 overall and 1-1 in league action. They have played just one true road games thus far, and that ended in a one-point loss to a powerful Kansas squad.

USC has also been idle since December 31st when it knocked off Washington State by a 60-56 final. That victory was the third in the last four games for the Trojans, who are 9-6 on the season, including 1-1 in conference. Of the nine home games that USC has played thus far, seven have resulted in wins.

UCLA owns a 128-103 series lead over USC, but the Trojans have won the last three meetings.

The Bruins have achieved tremendous balance at the offensive end through 14 outings, as five players are averaging double figures in scoring. Reeves Nelson leads UCLA with 15.0 ppg and 8.1 rpg, while fellow forward Tyler Honeycutt checks in with 14.6 ppg and 7.6 rpg. Malcolm Lee is netting 12.8 ppg, while Lazeric Jones (10.7 ppg) and Joshua Smith (10.0 ppg) are solid contributors as well. The Bruins are posting 73.6 ppg overall while limiting opponents to 68.6 ppg. In the 11-point loss to Washington, Nelson posted 19 points and 10 rebounds. Honeycutt and Lee both registered 12 points in that affair, but the Bruins shot just 35.2 percent from the floor, including a 2- of-11 showing from three-point range. If not for a 25-12 advantage in points from the foul line, the final score would have been even more lopsided.

Through 15 outings, USC has played strong defense, holding opponents to 62.6 ppg on 40.1 percent field goal efficiency. Like the Bruins, the Trojans have five double-digit scorers in the fold. Nikola Vucevic is tops with his 15.9 ppg and 10.0 rpg, and he also paces the team with 22 blocked shots. Jio Fontan, a transfer from Fordham who became eligible recently, is netting 14.4 ppg through the five games that he has played. Maurice Jones checks in with 10.3 ppg, Donte Smith is scoring 10.1 ppg and Alex Stephenson provides 10.0 ppg and 8.7 rpg. USC is generating 68.3 ppg, and while the club managed just 60 points against Washington State last time out, it did limit the Cougars to 56 points on 36.7 percent field goal efficiency. The Trojans committed a mere nine turnovers in that affair and earned a 36-30 rebounding advantage. Stephenson and Smith both scored 14 points in that clash, and Vucevic came through with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

In a game that figures to go down to the wire, give a narrow edge to USC based solely on the homecourt advantage.