DANIEL WONG/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Senior forward
Matt Barnes might need to score a lot as UCLA is
likely to find itself in a shootout against Oregon on the road.
By Christina Teller
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Loud with a high chance of three-pointers.
That’s Thursday’s forecast at Mac Court where the
No. 13 UCLA men’s basketball team (14-5 6-3 Pac-10) will take
on unranked Oregon (15-5, 7-2).
The Ducks enter the contest as the Pac-10’s leading men in
scoring margin (plus-16.7), field goal percentage (.490) and
three-point field goal percentage (.423).
But this is nothing new to the Bruins. When UCLA defeated
then-No. 1 Kansas Jan. 12, the Jayhawks entered with the
nation’s highest average points per game.
Going up against the Ducks, UCLA’s game-plan is focused on
defense. The Bruins hope to continue the kind of defense
impermeability they displayed in the game against Cal on Saturday,
during which UCLA held Cal to a dismal 37 percent shooting clip and
just five three-pointers. This came after the Bears drained 12
threes against USC just two nights before.
“We’re at our best like in games against Alabama,
Georgetown, Kansas and Cal, when our defense is tight and
packed,” UCLA head coach Steve Lavin said, “when we
take away inside shots and make them beat us from over the
top.”
Mac Court is one of the toughest places to play in the nation.
The Ducks have won all of their 11 home games this season by an
average of more than 26 points.
“It’s a great atmosphere up there,” Bruin
senior forward Matt Barnes said. “I feed off the crowd. The
Oregon trip is my favorite one every year.”
The Bruins look back to their game at Arizona on Jan. 19 as a
sort of preparation for Thursday’s contest. The decibel level
in Tucson’s McKale center was loud, but according to Barnes,
that was nothing.
“Some of the younger players thought Arizona was loud, but
Oregon is much louder,” Barnes said.
According to Lavin, the key to winning on the road is as simple
as having a high shooting percentage, playing well at two speeds,
getting good looks at the basket, dominating on the boards and not
turning over the ball.
Shouldn’t be a problem.
But seriously, if the Bruins focus on defensive fundamentals,
especially containing dribble penetration, Dan Gadzuric, who has
had his share of foul trouble this season, will be more likely to
stay in the game, giving the Bruins an offensive and defensive
boost.
“The perimeter players have to keep the other team’s
guards from getting inside,” senior guard Billy Knight said.
“I think a lot of times when the guards get in there, they
run into Dan and even if he has his hands up, he gets a foul called
on him.”
Jason Kapono, Barnes and Knight hold steady as the Bruins go-to
shooters, which should balance out the Ducks’ three-point
game.
“Kapono is having an outstanding year, and coming back to
college has done him a lot of good,” Oregon head coach Ernie
Kent said. “(The Bruins) are a very good basketball team as
is evident when they are on their game. We’re going to work
extremely hard to neutralize as many players as we can.”
Oregon’s scoring duo of Luke Ridnour, the 2001 Pac-10
Freshman of the Year, and Frederick Jones have been hot from the
field. Ridnour averaged 23.5 points in the Ducks’ games
against the Washington schools last weekend, while Jackson is
averaging 16 points per game, including a team-high 27 in the
Ducks’ loss to Washington last weekend.
It will be a battle of the shooters, and what the game may
ultimately come down to is whether the Bruins can keep their
composure in the midst of Oregon’s raucous crowd.