Friday, February 20, 1998
Duke game tests Bruin confidence
M. BASKETBALL: Shaken UCLA team could turn season around with
win
By Brent Boyd
Daily Bruin Staff
Perhaps Kris Johnson said it best.
"If you can’t get up for this basketball game, then you can’t
get up for anything."
When the Bruins travel up Tobacco Road this weekend to take on
second-ranked Duke, it could be construed as the biggest game of
the season thus far.
No, it won’t count in the league standings, it won’t determine a
national championship, and a loss will not eliminate the Bruins
from the NCAA Tournament.
But a win could do wonders to a team whose psyche has been
teetering on the edge of self-destruction the past few months.
"It’ll definitely be a big confidence booster for us," senior
forward Kris Johnson said. "I think that’s what it’ll do mostly for
us. I think that’s what this team needs right now – is a big win
there.
"We might be able to get some confidence back and hopefully shut
up a couple of people’s mouths that keep saying we’re
finished."
A blowout loss, on the other hand, could be disastrous for the
team, which in the last week has lost one of its key players and
have barely pulled out victories over Pac-10 also-rans USC and
California.
"I just see this game as a big challenge for us," senior forward
J.R. Henderson said. "It’s an obstacle for us that we can either
leap over or get smashed by ."
But, Johnson was quick to add, "We’re not going to put any kinds
of ridiculous amounts of pressure upon ourselves."
The Bruins will be up against a team that has been extremely
hot. Duke (24-2) has gone 13-1 in the extremely tough Atlantic
Coast Conference, outscoring its conference opponents by an average
of nearly 17 points per contest – the only loss coming to
top-ranked North Carolina.
Led by guards Trajan Langdon and Steve Wojciechowski, Duke has
shot an average of nearly eight three-pointers per game and has
scored 88 points per game.
In addition, forward Roshown McLeod has performed excellently –
averaging a team-high 17.2 points per game in the conference
season.
UCLA head coach Steve Lavin sees this game as an excellent
litmus test for the Bruins.
"It will kind of simulate the conditions that they’ll face in
the NCAA Tournament," he said. "I think we’re just at a point in
the season where it’s really more than Duke being important.
"We have five opportunities to look good before the NCAA
Tournament."
For the Bruins to hang tough, they will need a good performance
from their big guys as well as solid performances from the freshmen
guards Earl Watson and Baron Davis – tasks easier said than done –
considering the raucous atmosphere at Cameron Indoor Stadium, an
arena in which the Blue Devils have won 20 consecutive
contests.
AARON TOUT/Daily Bruin
Freshman guard Earl Watson flies high, dishing off during the
UCLA victory over the USC Trojans.