Holding serve
The UCLA men’s basketball team split its final homestand
of the season against the Bay Area schools and moved the team one
spot in each of the two national polls this week. Only one of them,
however, bumped up the Bruins. The Associated Press dropped the
Bruins to No. 13 after their 85-79 loss to unanimous No. 1 Stanford
Saturday at Pauley Pavilion. Meanwhile, the coaches moved UCLA up
to No. 17 in the ESPN/USA Today Top 25 following UCLA’s
impressive showing.
“Our emphasis is to play well down the stretch and carry
that momentum into the NCAA Tournament,” UCLA Coach Steve
Lavin said. “We have a chance to go 15-3 in conference play.
But playing good basketball is our priority now.”
UCLA maintained the fifth spot in the Ratings Percentage Index.
Playing Stanford ““ currently No. 1 in the RPI ““ moved
the Bruins up to No. 2 in the country in strength of schedule.
The drive for five
With Selection Sunday just four days away, the Pac-10 Conference
looks to place five teams in this years’ field of 65 for the
NCAA Tournament. With three teams ““ Stanford, UCLA and
Arizona ““ already making the cut, the Pac-10 is trying to get
California and USC in the brackets. Both the Golden Bears and the
Trojans need a split this weekend to hit the 20-win mark. If that
happens, it would be the first time the Pac-10 has five 20-win
schools since 1939. Cal hosts the Arizona schools this week, while
USC travels to the Northwest to play the Washington schools.
“I think the Pac-10 deserves five teams in the
Tournament,” Lavin said. “(A team) with 20 wins and
with the quality of our conference, the (selection) committee
should give us five.”
Predicting the field
When asked what seed he thinks the Bruins might get this Sunday,
Lavin said he has no idea.
“There are so many good teams that are in position for a
two or three seed,” he said. “All we can do is take
care of business on our end. We need to sweep to get a good seed.
The selection committee takes a good look at the last 10 games as
an indicator. Having won nine out of our last 10 ballgames,
that’s a strong case for us.”
Put your hands together
“¢bull; UCLA senior point guard Earl Watson had three steals
against the Cardinal to give him 226 career steals, passing Tyus
Edney (224, 1992-95) for the top spot on the school steals
list.
Watson, who has started 124 straight games in his Bruin career,
was named to the NABC District 15 First Team along with sophomore
forward Jason Kapono. Kapono was also named one of 20 Wooden Award
Player of the Year finalists on Saturday. He is 22 points away from
notching 1,000 career points for his UCLA career (978).
“¢bull; With their win over Cal last Thursday, the Bruins
assured themselves of 20 wins for the 13th consecutive season. This
is the 40th time UCLA has achieved the feat in school history.
“¢bull; Bruin junior forward Matt Barnes had a career-high 32
points against Stanford. It was the most scored by a UCLA
men’s basketball player since 1997-98, when Kris Johnson
scored 33 against Arizona State on March 5, 1998.
Briefs compiled by AJ Cadman, Daily Bruin Senior Staff.