ucla beats santa clara

SoCalHoops College News

UCLA Impressive In Season
Opener Over Santa Clara--(Nov. 19, 1998)

UCLA stared it's youngest lineup ever tonight in this season opener against Santa Clara, Jerome Moiso (6'-11" Fr. C), JaRon Rush (6'-6" Fr. G/F), Matt Barnes (6'-7" Fr. F), Dan Gadzuric (6'-10" Fr. PF/C) and one sophomore, Earl Watson (6'-0" So. PG), but youth prevailed, and the Bruins are now 1-0 on the season, while Santa Clara, a very big and powerful team that just collapsed in the last 10 minutes of the game, dropped to 0-2 as the Bruins won going away 89-76.

This was a game which was close at times, but when it mattered, UCLA just put the pressure on and pulled away. At one point during the first half, UCLA trailed for a couple of minutes, but then moved out to a comfortable 8 point lead at the half, 44-36. In the second half, Santa Clara pushed the deficit to 4 on the great shooting of Nathan Fast (6'-4" Jr. G) from Clovis West, who had a game high 25 points for the Broncos. Other players who looked impressive were Delano D'Oyen (5'-10" So. PG) from Carson (Bishop Montgomery) who's younger brother Kenny (5'-7" So. PG) is going to help run the show for Bishop Montgomery coach Doug Mitchell. Delano had 12 points, 9 assists and only one turnover and 5 defensive rebounds. Todd Wusching (6'-7" Jr. F) from Carson (Banning High) also looked impressive, scoring 16 points in 33 minutes and grabbing 10 rebounds. Likewise Alex Lopez (6'-9" Sr. F/C) from North Hollywood (Campbell Hall) looked like he was really hustling his butt off, blocking out Gadzuric down low, but he just couldn't stop Moiso, and he had a terrible game offensively, committing 7 turnovers in 29 minutes and only getting 3 boards. But he's got the type of body that makes NBA coaches dream nice dreams, and there were a few coaches and scouts in the stands who were still eyeing him seriously for this spring, if there is a spring in the NBA.

For the Bruins, JaRon Rush was again the hero of the game, playing with more style and control than many seniors in college basketball, and he finished with 19 points in 28 minutes. His numbers were just amazing for a freshman: 5-12 shooting from the field (ok, so that's not amazing, but it's good), 1-4 from 3 point range (ok, not great, but we're getting there), 8-10 from the line (now we're talking), 8 rebounds, 3 assists and only 1 turnover. A couple of monster jams, including one with only a few seconds remaining on the clock which capped what was a nearly flawless night of play for him. After the game he told us, "I'm really having fun out there. I almost injured myself on that last dunk, but it was great fun. That was a very tough team. I think we're going to be pretty good this season."

Pretty good. Right. How about very good. After the game, coach Lavin said, "We knew JaRon was going to be dynamic and explosive. He's been doing the same thing since we first saw him in the 9th grade. He's one of those special players that only comes around once in a long while."

Lavin was fairly pleased with what he saw tonight. "This is an entirely different experience than the last two years," coach Lavin told us after the game. "This team is what I would call 'low maintenance': You just coach them and they'll play. There are no super egos colliding into each other, like we had the last two years, no guys who expect to get all the playing time and get upset when they don't. This is a really great bunch of players, low maintenance, highly coachable. And there are no country club membership players, everyone is working their tails off, and the great thing is that everyone in practice has to constantly keep on their toes, always looking over their shoulder because the next guy might be overtaking them, that's how deep we are."

For the game, the Bruins were led by Rush with his 19 points. Jerome Moiso followed closely behind with 16 points in 22 minutes, and he also shot 5-12 from the field, shooting his height, 6-10, (okay, some say he's 6'-11 or even 7'-0", but he sure looks 6-10 to us) from the line, and he had 7 rebounds, 5 offensive and 2 defensive, 2 assists, 1 blocked shot and only 2 turnovers. Rush is playing better and better every time out, and he's also got one of the sweetest pull up 15' jumpers in all of college basketball. By the time this season is over, he'll be the master of the fall away jumper, and the turnaround, drop-step as well. He's just so athletic, strong and quick, it's like watching a ballet dancer play, and we haven't seen that kind of play from anyone in a Bruin uniform that we can recall since, well, maybe not since Kareem Abdul Jabber. Really. Very smooth, poised, and always, always knows where he is on the floor. Will be a candidate for Freshman of the Year not just in the Pac-10, but the NCAA.

Earl Watson scored 15 points and played 35 minutes, and by the end of the game you could tell he needed a rest. "35 minutes is just too much for Earl, and you could tell his game was starting to hurt towards the end," said coach Lavin. He shot 5-14 from the field overall and actually, his first half stats for shooting weren't much better (3 for 7) and by the end of the game he had 5 assists, but 5 turnovers. "The turnovers were way out of hand," said Earl after the game. "I've got to stay under control and improve my passing," he told us. But the 5 assists is the type of figure that he and Lavin are looking for, and other than the turnovers and the shooting percentage, Earl also played a tremendously good game, getting the ball to the big men, and especially to JaRon when he needed to. And the most amazing stat of all, especially against a team as big and tall as Santa Clara, was Earl's rebounding: 8, 4 offensive and 4 defensive. Mr. Hustle.

Even Rico Hines was excited about things, and not just about being back in the game after resting from a pulled hamstring. "It's just amazing to watch JaRon and Earl at times," Rico told us. "JaRon is really coachable. You only have to show him something once, and he does it. And every now and then, you watch Earl on the floor and you can see him and JaRon looking for each other. It's really electric when it happens, but it's just a thing they have going." Rico saw 18 minutes of playing time, but struggled for his shot all during that time, only coming away with 3 points. "I'm glad to be back, and give the young guys some leadership and be a calming influence." He's a bit more than that, as he also got 3 assists too.

Matt Barnes continues to impress everyone and anyone, as he got 9 points in 28 minutes, but also got 8 rebounds, and he had some spectacular passes and a couple of dunks. If he's had any continuing problems with the foot, it sure isn't showing, and he's melding into the team as well as possible. He's smart, dives for loose balls, is willing to throw his body on an opponent, and he did it all night with Todd Wusching and Alex Lopez (formerly of Campbell Hall).

Dan Gadzuric is going to continue to be the enigma in this rotation. He started strong, picking up 9 points in the first half on 4-5 shooting in 11 minutes, 3 boards, 1 assist and 2 blocked shots. But then in the second half, a strange thing happened. He took one shot, missed, and that was that from the field. He never shot the ball again, and he only played another 6 minutes of the game, sporadically coming in when the defense dicated it, but they were important minutes, as he somehow manged to pick up another 2 boards, and 2 more blocked shots. His tendinitis seems to be acting up a bit, and in the locker room, with two huge bags of ice taped to his ankles, he said, "Yes, my legs hurt a bit. I really had fun out there though, and 4 blocks was good. I'm looking to continue getting better and being a bigger contributor."

Travis Reed played well, but didn't score a ton, only 4 points in 21 minutes of play (but he did shoot 2-2 from the field), and he didn't do extremely well on defense either, picking up 3 boards and 4 personal fouls. But he set some great picks and screens, and opened things up for JaRon and Moiso when they were all in together.

Ryan Bailey did see a lot of action tonight, but we hope that we see more production from him during those minutes, because 9 points and zero assists for someone playing the point is not the kind of ratio the coaches look for. But then he's a different type of player than Earl, more of a penetrator, who will go to the basket no matter who is in the way. He has a great way of getting up and under, or wiggling into and through spaces that others don't even see, and he did that on a couple of occasions tonight. And only one turnover was pretty impressive too.

Todd Ramasar played 4 minutes, had 2 points, both from the line, and no other line. Ray Young is going to be the mystery man, the x-factor, and we're still waiting for him to heat up. Tonight he shot 1-3 from the field, hit one three pointer and finished with one rebound in only 5 minutes. In high school, Ray was not afraid to be a slashing type of wing player, using his great calves and springs to get up and elevate. But for some reason, here he doesn't take on that role, and usually drifts around the perimeter, waiting for someone to pass him a cross-court lob, like only Brandon Loyd would do tonight. He needs to turn up the intensity and start working into the middle to get the higher percentage shot, because it looks like he's starting to get that "look" of someone who isn't going to finish, and missing a fast-break all-alone dunk tonight sure didn't help the cause. We really like Ray, think he's tremendously talented, but for some reason, he just needs to learn how to get into the flow of things quicker than he's doing.

Brandon Loyd only played 4 minutes, and he only took one shot, a three pointer that missed. He got a rebound, had one assist and one turnover. "I'm still having fun. This is a really good group of guys, and it's fun being the only senior," Loyd told us in the locker room. Sean Farnham also got one minute towards the end of the game, but didn't score.

Overall, the Bruins continue to do some spectacular things, but they will need to improve their shooting percentage and shot selection, especially during the second half of games. "We really need to work on shot selection," Lavin said at the end of the game. "With as many freshmen as we have, that's almost to be expected, but we'll need to improve it come tournament time."

Coach Lavin thought that it was a good game overall, saying "I thought playing Santa Clara was extremely valuable to how the conference will be. Their style is very physical just like Washington, Oregon and Stanford will play. Their style is very deliberate and patient, but it's their physicality that helped them stay in the game."

Santa Clara Coach Dick Davey wasn't as impressed: "I didn't see lots of effort. I thought we digressed. Hopefully, there will be lots of room for improvement. I thought it was poorly played by us. We didn't get the shots we needed. Our rebounding was horrendous (33 boards, spread between 7 players, vs. 44 boards for UCLA by 11 players, three with 8, one with 7)." Coach Davey summed it up by saying, "In a nutshell, we played horribly."

He was called for a technical in the second half but didn't complain about it afterward. "The officiating was fine."

Davey also had criticism for his big men, saying "In think we didn't defend well enough inside. Our intereior play was non-existent. We played the game pretty much the same. We didn't press too much. We were a little thin in numbers. We've got to get better in our interior play."

UCLA now gets ready to leave for the Puerto Rico Shootout where they'll be from November 26-28. They play San Francisco on November 26, at 3:30 p.m. and we're not sure about the television schedule for that one, but it should be on ESPN.

The next home game is December 2, when the Bruins will take n Delaware State at 7:30 p.m. That game will be televised on FSW2. After that, on Saturday, December 5th, the Bruins will be at the John R. Wooden Classic at the Anaheim Pond where they'll be the second feature in a double-header. The 2:00 p.m. game features Pepperdine vs. Kansas, and the Bruins will take on Oklahoma State.

See you there.