Friday, January 23, 1998
Bruins try to put Cardinals in red
PREVIEW: Shaky Louisville beat UCLA in past two meetings
By Mark Shapiro
Daily Bruin Staff
If the UCLA men’s basketball team was seeing red after last
week’s thumping at the hands of the Stanford Cardinal, then revenge
of a sort is on hand this Sunday at Pauley Pavilion. The
10th-ranked Bruins (14-3, 5-2) will be welcoming a bird of a
similar feather when they take on the Louisville Cardinals in a
non-conference battle.
The unranked Cardinals (7-10, 2-3 Conference USA) come stumbling
into this year’s match, playing well below their form of years
past. They have lost three of their last four and are struggling to
remain in the hunt for an NCAA tournament bid.
With a power ranking hovering below the Mendoza line, and only a
win over sixth-ranked Kentucky keeping them afloat, and a lineup
with no players averaging over 12 points per game, history is one
of the few advantages Louisville holds over UCLA. The Cardinals
have won the last two meetings between the schools.
"They’re a very dangerous team, they beat Kentucky," UCLA head
coach Steve Lavin said. "They have a Hall of Fame coach (Denny
Crum), they’re quick and athletic, and they seem to get up for big
games."
Two starters return from last year’s team that knocked off the
Bruins, 74-71 at Freedom Hall with junior forward Alex Sanders
carrying the mantle. He leads the team with an 11.1 scoring average
and 6.5 rebounds per game.
While Louisville has struggled lately, the Bruins come into the
game four days removed from what was possibly their finest outing
of the season to date.
Wednesday night’s 101-84 drubbing of USC featured the Bruins
shooting 65 percent from the field, (including 9-16
three-pointers), racking up a season high 25 assists and
out-rebounding the Trojans by nine.
The victory also gave the Bruin reserves the chance to see
quality minutes for the first time since the return of Kris Johnson
and Jelani McCoy.
The UCLA bench was emptied with five minutes to play, and
freshmen Billy Knight and Travis Reed chipped in seven points
apiece.
"It was a great game to get all of our players some minutes,"
Lavin said after the game. "There was a great bench and great
spirit because everybody got involved."JAMIE SCANLON-JACOBS/Daily
Bruin
Kris Johnson, who has scored at least 20 points in his last four
games, hopes to continue his streak aganist Louisville this
weekend.