ucla and usc win

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SoCalHoops College News

UCLA Beats Fairfield;
USC Beats Memphis--(Nov. 24, 1999)

Both of the SoCal Pac-10 teams won, and it was a contrast in early season style. UCLA won 76-57, but it was anything but impressive. Sure, we can all say, "They haven't practiced together, they haven't been healthy, the Bruins have been hurt by not playing together, " etc, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. But the fact is, for UCLA right now, they are not playing well, and they haven't yet adjusted to the offense. Fairfield is a team which could be D-II if they didn't offer all 16 of the D-I sports required; their biggest player is listed at 6'-5". Yet the Bruins shot only 29% in the first half. Rush, Moiso and Watson all looked tense, stiff, and out of sync. Thank goodness for Jason Kapono, who scored 18 points in his freshman regular season debut.

Jon Wilner of the Daily News kind of summed it up in his article today, when he said "Two bad teams played one bad game Tuesday night at Pauley Pavilion."

Sure the Bruins have been hurt, sure they haven't practiced, and they haven't learned the offense. But at least in the first half, as Wilner wrote, they "were awful. . . when the Bruins shot 29 percent, had 14 turnovers, missed half their free throws and shot 14 percent from 3-point range."

Both the Daily News and the Times' stories today also carried the details of one persistent heckler who bombarded Watson, and Bill Plaschke's column really said what a lot of people were thinking (even if Plaschke is quickly becoming the epitome of evil incarnate to the Bruin faithful after his hatchet, er, write-up of Lavin's coaching abilities last week in the Times). Here's what Bill had to say:

So the men took the floor against outmanned Fairfield in their season debut and, well, looked precisely as they did in March against outmanned Detroit.

They would call a play, run down the court, and JaRon Rush would throw up a three-point basket.

They would call a play, run down, and Earl Watson would throw up a running one-hander.

Some of this freelancing could be blamed on an injury-plagued preseason.

Bruins fans, already justifiably impatient, are clearly hoping that all of it can be blamed on that.

In case there was any wonder whether the honeymoon has ended for this team's veteran players and coaches, one otherwise reasonable-looking fan ended all doubt during the first-half lull.

The middle-aged Bruin supporter began heckling, but not at Fairfield. He was screaming at his own point guard.

"C'mon Watson, play basketball!" he yelled, his voice resonating through the half-empty house. "Geez, you stink! Watson, do something! Pass the ball!"

Watson finally turned to him and muttered, "Go home."

That, of course, is not happening. There are plenty of good reasons to stick around here this winter.

Watson could eventually be one of them.

Of course, Fairlfield did exactly what Detroit Mercy did against the Bruins in the first round of the NCAA's last year, which was run a zone defense against the Bruins, and it also seems as though the UCLA coaches will have to figure out a good zone attack, because the 1-4 high just wasn't working in the first half. . . of course, the players also need to learn how to run it. "We're definitely not where I'd like to be in terms of conditioning and timing because we haven't had our full complement of players," Coach Lavin told reporters after the game. "It's not a mystery. We haven't had the practice time as a team. They're connected," Lavin told Jon Wilner of the Daily News. "The players that were injured don't have the conditioning level they need. Because they aren't in practice, it affects the timing of the offense, and they don't have a feel for the press or man-to-man defense because they haven't had the repetitions. Everything that's been breaking down is all from conditioning and not being together."

But even without the timing and conditioning, or the lack of knowledge about how to run the offense (or more importantly, which offense to run against which defense), the Bruins still had Jason Kapono, who is smarter and wiser than his years. But we've been saying that for years here. Thankfully, the Bruin coaches paid attention and finally offered him. Now, if they'd only listened to Mike Miller when he told them to go get Nick Vander Laan, or to us when we told them to go get Gilbert Arenas. . . .but then it would be a different world, wouldn't it?

At least Earl Watson sees it. As he told Jon Wilner about Kapono last night: "He makes everybody better," Watson said. "He's very smart, very mature for his age."

The Trojans, on the other hand, looked pretty good yesterday. Brandon Granville scored 19 points and set a school record with 15 assists Tuesday as USC beat Memphis 92-65 in the consolation bracket of the Maui Invitational. The day before, USC had lost to North Carolina, 82-65 in the opener of the tournament. Granville was 4-for-9 from 3-point range and also had five steals, and broke the Maui Invitational record of 14 assists. He also broke the USC record first set by Larry Friend against Texas in 1986 and tied by Stais Boseman in 1996.

USC led throughout the first half of the game, but Memphis cut it to 12 points, 55-43 on a 3-pointer by Marcus Moody with 15:17 left. The Trojans then went on a 16-3 run that featured two spectacular dunks by Jeff Trepagnier, who finished with 19 points. Sam Clancy ended the run with a dunk and SC led 71-46 with 11:44 left. The closest Memphis got after that was 80-61 with 5:28 remaining.

David Bluthenthal scored 18 points and looked good, as did Brian Scalabrine with 17 and Sam Clancy with 15. The only problem the Trojans will have, which is similar to the Bruins, is that they don't have an especially deep bench. The Trojan starters will next face Utah State in the third and final game of the Maui Invitational today, and all of the starters will have played three days in a row without rest, so this one could go either way for them. Hopefully, they'll have a chance to recuperate in time for Saturday's game against Duke at the Pond in the 1999 Wooden Classic. That game gets underway about 2:30 p.m. or as soon as possible after the first game of the day between Stanford and Auburn, which is set to tip off at 12:30 p.m.

See you there.