UCLA New Mexico Notes

Boy, have we been busy with all the high school and AAU youth tournaments these last few weeks, and we ignored some pretty important games, and some really lousy ones, which was just as well, all things considered.

We won't rehash the UCLA-New Mexico game, but it reminded us all of why Toby Bailey was on this team in the first place. Game of his life. Better than we can ever remember him playing, including the National Championship run three years ago. Even if he still does over dribble and force shots on occasion; at least on Saturday they were dropping.

Just how important was UCLA's win on Saturday by a score of 69-58 over No. 8 New Mexico? Pretty damn important. UCLA came out and made a statement proving that Bailey and Henderson really do have some senior leadership potential, and that the freshmen, Davis, Rico, Earl and Travis, know how to win when it counts.

Bailey had 18 points and seven assists and just played outstanding basketball. We take it all back Toby. Every word we've ever uttered about your "selfish play". . .at least until next time you don't pass the ball and force a shot.

The win was the third for UCLA in the Wooden Classic, and almost had us forgetting the huge loss to UNC in the Great Alaska Shootout. UCLA entered the game ranked 15th after slipping from the No. 5 or 6 spot in the preseason (depending upon which polls you read). This game should either increase their ranking, or certainly serve to lower NM's. We'd like to think it's the former. The polls should be out by the time this article is posted. [Note: And guess what, it did both. UCLA is now ranked 14 while New Mexico dropped to 12 in the ESPN/USA Today Poll and in the AP Poll UCLA is No. 12, while NM has dropped all the way to No. 14.]

This game was a great show of defensive pressure, with Davis and Watson forcing as many as 23 turnovers between them, and which caused New Mexico's star to simply fade into oblivion. Where was Kenny Thomas, anyway? Not a single point in the entire first half, and only 8 in the whole game. Amazing. Wooden was proud.

Props also to Travis Reed, who scored 14 points. Amazing performance young man. And even Henderson stepped up at the right moments, hitting for 21 points and driving the lane and crashing the boards. And it was largely Henderson who was responsible for Kenny Thomas' disappearance with his excellent defense. With Kris Johnson due to play (start???) in Saturday's home opener against the Fullerton Titans, UCLA is looking better and better. Wonder when Jelani's going to play; word is that it will be for the Pac-10 opener, but you didn't hear that here.

NEW MEXICO (58)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Long            40   5-8   0-0   2-7  4  2   10
Shields         38  5-11  6-10   0-2  1  3   20
Thomas          40   3-9   2-2   2-6  1  4    8
Olney           28   3-9   3-4   2-5  0  2   10
Gibson          40   1-8   0-0   2-3  6  4    2
Davis            2   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Henry           12   3-4   0-0   0-1  1  0    8
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 20-49 11-16  8-24 13 15   58
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.408, FT-.688. 3-Point Goals: 7-20, .350 (Long 0-2, Shields 4-6, Thomas 0-2, Olney 1-5, Gibson 0-2, Henry 2-3). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 3 (Thomas 3). Turnovers: 23 (Long 6, Olney 5, Thomas 4, Gibson 3, Henry 2, Shields 2, Davis). Steals: 9 (Shields 3, Gibson 2, Long 2, Henry, Olney).

UCLA (69)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Davis           36   2-5   0-0   0-6  4  4    4
Bailey          40  8-18   0-0   3-4  7  3   18
Henderson       40 10-18   4-8   3-7  3  1   24
Loyd            16   1-2   0-0   0-0  1  1    3
Watson          36   1-7   3-4   2-9  2  3    6
Knight           2   0-0   0-0   0-1  0  0    0
Reed            28   7-8   0-0   2-3  0  2   14
Hines            2   0-2   0-0   0-0  0  2    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 29-60  7-12 10-30 17 16   69
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.483, FT-.583. 3-Point Goals: 4-14, .286 (Davis 0-2, Bailey 2-7, Loyd 1-2, Watson 1-2, Hines 0-1). Team rebounds: 5. Blocked shots: 4 (Watson 2, Bailey, Davis). Turnovers: 19 (Bailey 5, Davis 4, Henderson 2, Knight 2, Watson 2, Hines, Loyd, Reed). Steals: 10 (Watson 5, Henderson 3, Bailey, Knight).

New Mexico 30 28 - 58 Ucla 34 35 - 69
Technical fouls: None.
A: 14,274.
Officials: David Dodge, Bruce Benedict, Tony Greene.

What a great game. But we do have one bone to pick: The official attendance was reported at 14,274. No way. But the organizing committee did do a great job. And if you taped the Stanford game also, or watched on TV live, you got to see the terrific interview of Coach Wooden between the Stanford-Georgia game--now that was a great game-- and the UCLA-New Mexico game. If you can get your hands on the tape do so. If not too bad. The man is a national treasure. Great games, nice results, terrific event. And some great SoCal basketball.