UCLA looking to erase bad memory against Stanford

February, 8, 2012
Feb 8
10:54
PM PT
Lazeric JonesJason O. Watson/US PresswireUCLA guard Lazeric Jones says of the earlier loss to Stanford: "It's been eating at me for a while now."

LOS ANGELES--Ben Howland was saddled with the unfortunate task of watching the game film from UCLA's first go-round with Stanford this season.

"It brought back a lot of bad memories," Howland said.

Lazeric Jones, Jerime Anderson and the rest of the Bruins have been replaying that nightmare in their heads for the last six weeks. The Bruins lost, 60-59, at Stanford on Dec. 29 when Anderson missed a wide-open, 3-point attempt with 11 seconds left, the Bruins got the rebound and then Jones tried to drive the lane and had his shot blocked by Stanford's Josh Huestis at the buzzer.

"It’s been eating at me for a while now," Jones said.

"That’s really bothered me since that game because I had a chance to win the game," Anderson said.

The Bruins (13-10, 6-5 Pac-12) get a chance at redemption when they meet the Cardinal (16-7, 6-5) Thursday night at 8 p.m. at the Sports Arena. It begins a critical stretch during which the Bruins play five of their final eight games at home as they try to regain footing in the Pac-12 Conference standings.

It could be argued that they lost that footing in that game against Stanford because the season has been a broken record since then with UCLA getting in close road games but unable to pull out the victories. The Bruins were within a point at halftime before getting blown out by Cal, blew double-digit, second-half leads at Oregon and Washington and forgot how to play defense in a three-point loss at Oregon State.

Poor free-throw shooting also hampered the Bruins in those games, but the inability to close out games on the road haunted UCLA until the Bruins held off Washington State last Saturday in Pullman, Wash. Before that, UCLA had not defeated a Division I team away from Southern California.

"It’s a huge boost," center Anthony Stover said. "We love winning in L.A. but to win someplace else it just makes us a lot more happy. When we come out and we know we won a game on the road, it gives us a little bit of a boost."

This weekend, the Bruins will be at home to play Stanford and California in what the Bruins are looking at as revenge weekend. The players feel as if they could have won both of their earlier matchups and will be looking for redemption.

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Poor free-throw shooting has cost Bruins

February, 8, 2012
Feb 8
6:49
PM PT
LOS ANGELES -- UCLA players often talk about the problems that arise when they don't take what is given to them, but what has really been holding back the Bruins this season is when they don't take what is free.

UCLA (13-10, 6-5) ranks eighth in the Pac-12 with a 66.1 free-throw percentage and those misses have cost the Bruins several games.

They missed nine free throws in a 60-59 loss at Stanford, missed 11 in a 75-68 loss at Oregon and missed five in a 71-69 loss at Washington. The Bruins shot 58.3 percent on free throws in those three games, but had they shot 70 percent, those games would have been much different, and had they shot 80 percent, the Bruins would have won all three and would be alone in first place atop the Pac-12 standings.

Even in wins, the Bruins have put up some ugly numbers at the free-throw line. They were 9-for-17 against Arizona State and 13-of-22 against Utah. Those games ended in blowout victories for UCLA, but missed free throws still have a psychological effect and UCLA's players can't figure out how to fix it.

"In practice when we work on free throws we’re all really good free-throw shooters so it’s frustrating when we get in a game and we’re shooting 50 percent some games," said David Wear, who is second on the team at 77.8 percent on free throws this season.

Lazeric Jones, the team leader last season at 81 percent, is shooting only 65.7 percent in conference games this season. Tyler Lamb, a 70.8 percent shooter last season, is at 61.9 percent in conference this season and center Joshua Smith -- the team leader with 107 attempts, is shooting only 57.9 percent this season.

"It's frustrating because we’re good shooters," said Jerime Anderson, a 60 percent free-throw shooter. "We have guys that can put the ball in the basket. It’s got to be mental now. That’s exactly what it is. We just have to step up the confidence at the line and make our shots."

Jones said he is working on his free-throw mechanics and routine to try and get back to where he was last season. Lamb is also trying to find his stroke. Coach Ben Howland said he's devoting extra time in practice this week to free-throw shooting.

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Rapid Reaction: UCLA 63, Wash. St. 60

February, 4, 2012
Feb 4
5:08
PM PT
UCLA won for the first time against a Division I team away from Southern California, defeating Washington State, 63-60, Saturday at Beasley Coliseum.

It was the 19th consecutive victory for UCLA (13-10, 6-5 Pac-12) at Washington State and the first loss at Beasley Coliseum this season for the Cougars (12-11, 4-7).

OVERVIEW: Neither team could pull away for most of the game, but UCLA finally opened a 58-51 lead with 3:11 to play by going on an 8-0 run and then hung on down the stretch.

The Bruins had a 61-54 lead with 21 seconds to play, but Washington State's Reggie Moore made two 3-point shots in the final 13 seconds and the Bruins made only 5-of-9 free throws over that stretch, but David Wear and Lazeric Jones each made 1-of-2 in the waning seconds to seal the victory for UCLA.

TURNING POINT: UCLA switched to a zone defense with about 15 minutes to play and pretty much took over the game after that. Washington State led, 40-38 at the time of the switch and extended it to 45-39 shortly thereafter, but struggled against the zone the rest of the way.

The Bruins held Washington State to only four field goals over the final 11:30 -- including the two desperation 3-pointers by Moore at the end of the game. Washington State shot 45.5 percent in the first half, but were 10-of-33 (30 percent) in the second half when UCLA played mostly zone.

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UCLA heads to friendly confines of Pullman

February, 3, 2012
Feb 3
7:51
PM PT
After losing a heartbreaker in a place that is no stranger to UCLA losses, the Bruins head to a venue that has been much more friendly over the years for an afternoon game at Washington State.

The Bruins have won 18 consecutive games in Pullman with Washington State's last victory coming Feb. 6 1993 -- three months before UCLA freshman Norman Powell was born.

UCLA (12-10, 5-5) will be looking to keep that streak alive and get its first victory over a Division I team away from Southern California. The Bruins appeared to have that elusive road victory Thursday night at Washington but blew a 10-point lead in the final six minutes and lost, 71-69, for their ninth consecutive loss at Washington.

"Basketball is a game of runs," coach Ben Howland said. "There’s always going to be runs by the other team and we, I thought, did a pretty good job for the most part and really stubbed our foot at the end of the game. I don’t think it’s any one specific thing. We lost a little bit of poise at the end of that game."

Particularly disturbing was UCLA's inability to execute on offense against Washington's zone. The Bruins had done a good job against the zone when Washington went to it earlier in the game but seemed to get frazzled in the waning moments as the Huskies made a comeback.

"We just did a poor job," Howland said. "I should have stayed more simplistic. We actually had a couple of opportunities where we set high screens. Each time the guy inside was open and we just didn’t see it and that’s the first guy you look for. And one shot was rushed against the zone. We did attack it well until the last four or five minutes."

The Bruins will see a lot more zone Saturday against the Cougars (12-10, 4-6), who play a 3-2 zone and a 2-3 zone along with some switching man-to-man defense. They are also playing very well at Beasley Coliseum, where they are 8-0 this season and two weeks ago swept Stanford and California. Washington State's lone home loss came against Oregon in Spokane in the conference opener.

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Rapid Reaction: Washington 71, UCLA 69

February, 2, 2012
Feb 2
9:51
PM PT
 Joshua SmithJoe Nicholson/US PresswireUCLA's Joshua Smith had arguably the best game of his career, but it wasn't enough in a loss.

UCLA blew a 10-point lead in the final six minutes and lost, 71-69, Thursday at Washington, the eighth consecutive loss for the Bruins at Alaska Airlines Arena and the fourth time in five road losses this season that UCLA has let a game get away late.

Joshua Smith had a career-high 24 points to go along with nine rebounds, but it wasn't enough as the Bruins (12-10, 5-5) remained winless against Division I teams away from Southern California.

Overview: UCLA led, 65-55, with 6:02 to play, but had four turnovers and went 2-for-7 from the field over the rest of the game. Washington went on a 13-0 run to take the lead and held on for the victory when Norman Powell's 15-foot jump shot with two seconds left fell off the front of the rim and Smith couldn't corral the rebound as time expired.

Washington guard Terrence Ross scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half, including 12 in the final 6:21 as Washington (15-7, 8-2) rallied back and remained in first place in the Pac-12 Conference standings. Ross made 7-of-8 shot attempts in the second half and Washington shot 52 percent from the field in the game despite a 4-for-11 performance by leading scorer Tony Wroten.

Turning point: UCLA led by 10, but during a 28-second span, Lazeric Jones and Tyler Lamb each picked up their fourth fouls and a minute later David Wear picked up his fourth.

Those fouls seemed to deflate the Bruins, who went a stretch of five minutes, 30 seconds without a field goal. Twice the Bruins committed offensive fouls for turnovers during that span and Ross began heating up.

His layup with 2:35 to play gave Washington a 66-65 lead, it's first since halftime, and his 3-pointer with 1:15 to play gave the Huskies a 71-67 lead.

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UCLA zoning out for Washington road trip

February, 2, 2012
Feb 2
6:53
AM PT
LOS ANGELES -- When UCLA faces Washington on Thursday in Seattle, the Bruins will face a three-guard starting lineup that is quick, athletic and difficult to defend.

It's exactly the type of team that might call for the zone defense UCLA unveiled for a brief period this season, but coach Ben Howland said that the team is no longer practicing the zone and hopes to use a man-to-man for the remainder of the season.

UWUCLA"We could bring it back in certain situations but we’ve really been focusing on our man," Howland said. "I think we’ve improved with our man defense as the year has progressed."

The Bruins (12-9, 5-4 Pac-12) have, indeed, improved in the man defense. Since ditching the zone after winning against Arizona State, the Bruins have held three of five opponents under 40 percent shooting. Before the zone, three of UCLA's first seven opponents shot better than 50 percent.

The Bruins had some success with a 2-3 zone against Penn, Richmond and in a loss at Stanford, but Howland has used it sparingly since and it's been pretty much nonexistent the past two weeks.

"Our man has picked up recently," forward Travis Wear said. "I think our team is just really confident in our man defense right now. We’re forcing teams to take bad shots and for the most part consistently holding them to lower field goal percentages, but right now I think we’re just confident in our man and fell like we don’t have to work on our zone."

Whatever defense the Bruins play against Washington, they'll need to play it well. The Huskies (14-7, 7-2) have three of the top seven leading scorers in the Pac-12 in Tony Wroten (17.1 points per game), Terrence Ross (15.1) and C.J. Wilcox (14.8). They are second in the conference in scoring at 76.7 points per game.

Not only that but Washington is a notoriously tough place to play, especially for UCLA, which hasn't won at Alaska Airlines Arena since 2004.

"They have a good crowd," guard Jerime Anderson said. "They’re right on top of you. It’s not too big of an arena, but it’s big enough to where they fill it and it gets really loud. And they play inspired there."

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Jim Mora's first recruiting class a success

February, 1, 2012
Feb 1
7:24
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LOS ANGELES -- When Jim Mora took over as UCLA coach in December, the first question asked of him was: How are you going to recruit?

Mora, who had spent 25 years in the NFL and never had to recruit before, didn't have an answer at the time, but he responded in emphatic fashion Wednesday when he announced that his first recruiting class contained a number of high profile recruits and was rated No. 19 in the nation by ESPN.com's recruiting ranker.

"A lot of hard work went into this year’s class," Mora said. "We certainly could have conceded the 2012 class because we got such a late start and focused our energies on 2013. We decided not to. We decided to attack it and try to take chunks out of it every day and the culmination of that is the players we are presenting to you today."

Highlighting UCLA's 25-player class are four members of the ESPNU 150: defensive lineman Ellis McCarthy of Monrovia, quarterback Devin Fuller of Old Tappan, New Jersey, quarterback T.J. Milleweard of Fort Worth, Tex. and Ishmael Adams of Oaks Christian in Westlake Village.

The Bruins also got a surprise recruit when Oaks Christian four-star receiver Jordan Payton signed Wednesday after going on television Tuesday and announcing he was going to sign with Washington. Other four-star players UCLA landed were linebacker Aaron Porter of La Habra, and receiver Randall Goforth or Long Beach Poly.

"I don't think anybody expect them to finish this last month the way they did," ESPN.com recruiting analyst Greg Biggins said. "They're going to have a class that is close to top 15 in the nation and I don't think anybody saw that just a few weeks ago."

That's because UCLA was a program in flux. Coach Rick Neuheisel was fired in late November and Mora came on board on the middle of December with no notable experience at the college level or with recruiting. In order to make up for that shortcoming, Mora made some strategic assistant coach hires, notably Adrian Klemm, Demetrice Martin and Steve Broussard.

Those coaches used existing relationships to help get UCLA in the door of some the recruits they signed Wednesday and made Mora's first recruiting class a success.

"They did everything, I was just along for the ride," Mora said. "It's called recruiting, but really what it is is going out and forging and building relationships and these guys are fantastic at it because they are genuine. There is nothing fake about them. So when they walk in a home, you feel the warmth that they have already created with the relationships that they have with these people."

Mora and his staff got into the game so late that it would have been easy to just sit tight and build a recruiting strategy for next year, but that wasn't in their nature. They first needed to figure out which Neuheisel recruits were still interested in UCLA and also targeted players for this year's class who were committed to other schools and then hit the road.

"One of the things I learned was how competitive the recruiting really is," Mora said. "The process of recruiting is how you accumulate your talent and it’s completely different than anything I had ever been through before in the NFL. When you draft, you’re picking players. When you’re recruiting, you’re picking players, but they have to pick you, so that’s very, very different."

Luckily he had some recruiting aces to help. Klemm, who came from Southern Methodist, Martin, from Washington, and Broussard, from Arizona State, had all built reputations as excellent recruiters. They helped Mora along in the process by teaching him the dos and don'ts of recruiting while also accompanying him on home visits and offering recruiting pitch advice.

"Some of those things were challenging because you expect your head man knows all that," Martin said. "But he’s all new to it so he had to learn fast and he did. Once he got going he became pretty good at it."

Still UCLA had other challenges. With a new staff, it's always going to be a tough sell, especially for a team coming off of a 6-8 season. UCLA was an easy target for negative recruiting, where opposing coaches point out the negatives of different schools, The coaches hit recruiting hard and expected to get a decent class, but were surprised by how things turned out.

"I thought we could have a really good class, but I thought it would be a little more shaky than it was today," Klemm said. "People were using some of that stuff against us, but a lot of kids believed in what we’re doing and bought into what coach Mora was saying when he went into their living rooms and I think the type of person that he is, they saw the genuineness when he was speaking to them. They understood that everything he was saying was true and it wasn’t a hustle."

Mora's energy had a lot to do with that. He worked tirelessly, sometimes visiting as many as four states in one day in order to meet with recruits, sit in their homes and deliver his pitch. Mora's naivety about the recruiting process also came in handy. He said he really didn't pay much attention to the fact that players had committed to another school because as far as he was concerned, if they hadn't signed a letter of intent, they were fair game.

That paid off in the form of Payton, the coveted receiver from Oaks Christian.

"I don’t even know what the word commit means quite frankly because it doesn’t mean anything right now," Mora said. "I think what’s happened is that the pressures that the media has created, especially the bowl games, is they pressure these kids to make a commitment on TV to push the rating up for a bowl game. There’s a tremendous amount of pressure on these kids and they are easily swayed."

The entire process was a learning process, Mora said. He acknowledged that his initial approach to recruiting was to take the same presentation to each recruit and try to sell the school and the UCLA program. He quickly learned that each player and each family had different concerns.

"I thought I knew what recruiting was but I really didn't," Mora said.

Judging from the results, however, he picked it up just fine.

"We signed the class that we worked to sign," he said. "We signed the guys that we wanted to sign so we’re very happy about today’s results."

Video: Jim Mora on UCLA signing day

February, 1, 2012
Feb 1
4:54
PM PT


UCLA coach Jim Mora announced on Wednesday an inaugural recruiting class of 25 high school seniors and a junior college transfer. Here is the list of recruits who signed on the first day of the national signing period:

UCLA Bruins 2012 Signing List

Ishmael Adams DB 5-10 190 Westlake Village, CA Oaks Christian
Eli Ankou DL 6-3 284 Bear, DE Red Lion Christian Academy
Jeremy Castro LB 6-3 253 Murrieta, CA Vista Murrieta
Alexandru Ceachir OL 6-5 305 Santa Monica, CA Santa Monica College
Justin Combs DB 5-9 165 New Rochelle, NY Iona Prep
Colby Cyburt OL 6-4 265 Mission Viejo, CA Mission Viejo
Ka'imi Fairbairn K 5-11.5 171 Honolulu, HI Punahou
Devin Fuller QB 6-0 195 Old Tappan, NJ Northern Valley
Randall Goforth DB 6-0 180 Long Beach, CA Long Beach Poly
Simon Goines OL 6-6 314 Keller, TX Keller Central
Ahmaad Harris WR 5-8 170 Suwanee, GA Peachtree Ridge
Carl Hulick OL 6-2 296 Anaheim, CA Esperanza
Nate Iese LB 6-4 240 Sacramento, CA Sheldon
Taylor Lagace S 6-1 205 Arcadia, CA Arcadia
Ellis McCarthy DT 6-5 326 Monrovia, CA Monrovia
T.J. Millweard QB 6-4 225 Fort Worth, TX All Saints Episcopal
Fabian Moreau RB 6-0 185 Davie, FL Western
Kenny Orjioke ATH 6-4 225 Marietta, GA Lassiter
Jordan Payton WR 6-2 205 Westlake Village, CA Oaks Christian
Paul Perkins ATH 5-11 190 Chandler, AZ Chandler
Aaron Porter LB 6-2 230 La Habra, CA La Habra
Marcus Rios DB 6-0 185 Elk Grove, CA Cosumnes Oaks
Ian Taubler TE 6-4 250 Fresno, CA Bullard
Kenny Walker WR 6-0 175 Richmond, CA Kennedy
Lacy Westbrook OL 6-4 320 Compton, CA Dominguez
Javon Williams WR 6-5 195 Chandler, AZ Chandler

UCLA recruiting updates

February, 1, 2012
Feb 1
12:01
PM PT
UCLA coach Jim Mora has taken to Twitter to announce the Bruins football signings as the national letter of intents arrive at his office.

Here are the updates:

11:22 a.m.--K Ka'imi Fairbairn, Phnahou (HI).

11:05 a.m.--LB Aaron Porter, La Habra; DB Marcus Rios, Elk Grove Cosumnes Oaks; TE Ian Taubler, Fresno Bullard; OL Lacy Westbrook, Compton Dominguez; WR Javon Williams, Chandler (AZ).

10:55 a.m.--S Taylor LaGace, Arcadia; QB TJ Millweard, All Saints Episcopal (TX); RB Fabian Moreau, Western (FL); ATH Kenny Orjioke, Lassiter (GA); WR Jordan Payton, Oaks Christian; ATH Paul Perkins, Chandler (AZ).

10:39 a.m.--DB Ishmael Adams, Oaks Christian; DL Eli Ankou, Red Lion Christian (DE); OL Simon Goines, Keller Central (TX); WR Ahmaad Harris, Peachtree Ridge (GA); OL Carl Hulick Anaheim Esperanza.

9:00 a.m.--DT Ellis McCarthy, Monrovia; LB Jeremy Castro, Vista Murrieta; QB Devin Fuller, Northern Valley (NJ); LB Nate Iese, Sacramento Sheldon.

Five Observations: UCLA 77, Colorado 60

January, 28, 2012
Jan 28
5:37
PM PT
Anthony Stover, Travis WearJayne Kamin-Oncea/US PresswireAnthony Stover, left, and Travis Wear helped a strong UCLA defense in a victory over Colorado.

LOS ANGELES -- Some wins mean more than others.

UCLA coach Ben Howland will tell you that every win is equally important, but his body language and enthusiasm said something different after the Bruins defeated Colorado in convincing fashion, 77-60, Saturday in a Pac-12 game at the Sports Arena.

This victory meant more simply because it came against a team that was tied for first in the Pac-12 and it helped erase doubts that UCLA could, in fact, pull out a victory against an upper-tier conference team. UCLA's last three wins had come against conference cellar-dwellers Utah, USC and Arizona State, but the Bruins (12-9, 5-4) stayed afloat in the conference race with the victory over Colorado (14-7, 6-3).

"I was very enthused," Howland said. "I knew this was a big game for us to get us back above .500 in the conference against a good Colorado team that has been playing extremely well. That was a very solid win for us against a very good team."

Five observations from the game:

(Read full post)

Wooden still touching basketball people a world away

January, 28, 2012
Jan 28
8:26
AM PT
UgandaCourtesy of UCLAUCLA hosted a delegation from Uganda who study the teachings of John Wooden.


It's hard to say exactly why UCLA softball coach Kelly Inouye-Perez showed up Thursday afternoon. Her boss had sent an e-mail earlier in the week mentioning an event where UCLA was hosting a delegation of Ugandan basketball coaches who were studying and applying Wooden's principles. But it was a mention, not an ask. If she had time, only. Which she probably wouldn't since the opening of softball season is just a few weeks away.

But for some reason Inouye-Perez wanted to come. Had to come. The mention of something new to do with the late John Wooden drew her in reflexively. The chance to connect with a group of coaches who'd travelled around the world just to be in the place he once was, was too intriguing. And so she spent three hours she really didn't have on Thursday afternoon watching an old video of Wooden speaking to a sports psychology class at UCLA, somehow knowing it would be worth it.

"You know," Inouye-Perez said. "It just never gets old. Every time I get a chance to relive how simply he puts things, it's just really special. As a coach, any time you hear his words or his philosophies like that, you can't help but get excited to go to practice the next day."

It was probably the 20th speech Inouye-Perez had heard Wooden give. It could've been the 100th time she heard him talk about the tenets of his Pyramid of Success. But as she watched, she took notes on her iPad like it was the first she'd heard of any of it.

"I love when he says: 'Don't be so engrossed in making a living that you forget to make a life,' " she said, reading from her notes. "Or the part when he says, 'We are many, but are we much? Until we are together, we can't do much at all.'

"It's the same stuff I've read about and even talked to him about when he was alive, but every time I get a chance to relive it, it's just really special."

Wooden has been gone more than 18 months. The grief and sadness over his death in June of 2010 are muted now. Time is good at making such amends.

(Read full post)

Bruins looking for quality win vs. Colorado

January, 27, 2012
Jan 27
5:08
PM PT
LOS ANGELES--UCLA got it's confidence-boosting victory, now it's time for a little morale booster.

Fresh off of Thursday's 75-49 drubbing of Utah, the Bruins face Colorado Saturday at the Sports Arena looking to make a statement that they can compete with the teams in the upper half of the conference standings and that they still intend to compete for the Pac-12 regular-season title.

So far UCLA has yet to show either of those things in conference play, but a victory over Colorado (14-6, 6-2 Pac-12), which is in a four-way tie for first place, would certainly fit the bill.

"We have a huge opportunity tomorrow against a very good team," coach Ben Howland said.

UCLA's last three victories certainly haven't put the Bruins back on the conference radar. Sure, UCLA (11-9, 4-4) won those games by an average margin of 20.6 points, but those games were against Arizona State (6-14), USC (5-16) and Utah (5-15), the only three teams in the conference without an overall winning record. Sandwiched in between those walkover wins was a disappointing road sweep at Oregon State (13-7, 3-5) and Oregon (15-5, 6-2)

The good news is that the Bruins are still only two games out of first place and the Pac-12 is still up for grabs. They have been in it to the end in three of their four losses and were only a point behind California at halftime in their other loss. The bad news is that UCLA has won only three games against Division I opponents with winning records this season.

They have Colorado and then a road trip to Washington (13-7, 6-2) and Washington State (11-9, 2-5) so now is the time to put up some resume-worthy victories.

"The Pac-12 is still wide open," center Joshua Smith said. "There’s not really a team that has defined themselves as the top team and a lot of the teams are winning home games. This is a big week for us to get above .500. Colorado is a pretty good team."

(Read full post)

Five Observations: UCLA 76, Utah 49

January, 26, 2012
Jan 26
11:36
PM PT
David Wear Jayne Kamin-Oncea/US PresswireDavid Wear was part of UCLA's balanced attack in the Bruins' rout of Utah on Thursday.

LOS ANGELES -- UCLA bounced back from its disappointing weekend in Oregon with one of its most dominant performances of the season in a 76-49 Pac-12 victory over Utah on Thursday night at the Sports Arena.

The Bruins (11-9, 4-4 Pac-12) raced to 36-21 halftime lead and unlike Saturday at Oregon, where they blew a 13-point halftime lead, the Bruins finished the job and evened their record in conference play.

"What I said to my team at halftime, I told them two words," senior guard Jerime Anderson said. "One was something I can’t say right now and the other was Oregon. I just said, ‘Man, we cannot let this happen again.’ If we have a lead like that we should be able to control the lead and come out with the win."

UCLA began the second half with a 6-2 run, expanded the lead to 20 points four minutes into the half and led by as many as 35 before coach Ben Howland cleared the bench and got all the walk-ons in the game.

"I talked about the first five minutes of the second half being huge and our intensity level," Howland said. "We have a 15-point lead and have to build on that right away and set the tone in the second half."

Five observations from the game:

(Read full post)

UCLA returns 'home' to Sports Arena after more than a month away

January, 26, 2012
Jan 26
12:12
AM PT
LOS ANGELES -- It's back to kinda-home sorta-sweet, kinda-home for the UCLA basketball team when the Bruins face Pac-12 newcomer Utah on Thursday at the Sports Arena.

Certainly the jury is still out on just how sweet the Sports Arena is and whether it's actually UCLA's home is also up for debate, but the Bruins will be playing there for the first time since a Dec. 23 victory over Richmond meaning it has been more than a month away from the arena they are calling home while Pauley Pavilion undergoes a makeover.

Since then, UCLA has played at Stanford, California, USC, Oregon State and Oregon and had two games at the Honda Center in Anaheim. It has been so long since the Bruins have played on their "home" court that center Joshua Smith joked "I hope it's not too dusty."

It might be difficult to remember way back before Christmas, but UCLA has won four consecutive games at the Sports Arena and is winless against Division I teams away from Southern California, so the Bruins are actually looking forward to a return to the Sports Arena even if they've forgotten what the place looks like.

"I was thinking about that the other day, I was like, 'Man, I hope I still have the feel for the Sports Arena,' " guard Lazeric Jones said. "I felt like I started to get a good feel for the court and then now it’s like we’ve been gone for so long, it’s different."

By the time this weekend is over, UCLA (10-9, 3-4 Pac-12) will be halfway through the Pac-12 schedule, but these will be the first Pac-12 games at the Sports Arena. Such has been the nomadic life in the UCLA road show this season.

"It’s definitely been strange and going back there is going to be different just because we haven’t played there in so long," forward David Wear said. "It is supposed to be our home gym but it's going to be a little different at first going back there after so long away."

(Read full post)

Video: Joshua Smith's Oregon struggles

January, 25, 2012
Jan 25
8:05
PM PT
UCLA center Joshua Smith struggled during the two-game trip against Oregon State and Oregon over the weekend, scoring only 16 points with eight rebounds with five turnovers and seven personal fouls in 31 total minutes.

Here, Smith, coach Ben Howland and teammate Jerime Anderson offer some insight on Smith's struggles:

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