ucla v. cal first game

So what happened to UCLA? Did they take a wrong turn on the way over to Stanford for Saturday's game against the Cardinal? Nope. They took a trip to the Circus. They went to see Raymond "Circus" King, who blew it for the Bears in the final seconds.

The better question is what the hell is wrong with the Bears? What were they thinking? Better yet, were they thinking at all? With a chance to at least tie the game, and only 3 seconds left, Raymond "Circus" King, the younger brother of "Carnival" King, who had just an amazingly hot hand all night for Cal, made the worst mental mistake of his career. Instead of going for the tie, with the score 74-71, and instead of taking the open look three point shot, passes the ball directly to the wide open Sean Marks who's standing under the basket. Of course, there's a reason Marks is wide open. UCLA does not, absolutely does not care, if Cal scores two points. It means nothing. But Marks, apparently not knowing what else to do, just jams the ball, scoring the two-point dunk.

Guess what? UCLA dodges a giant bullet. They inbound the ball to Toby Bailey, who dances away from the defenders, letting the clock run out.

If we were Circus King right about now, we'd think about running away. To the circus. Because even PT Barnum wouldn't believe this sucker play. Another one born every minute.

But lest you think UCLA had it easy, think again. Did they take a wrong turn somewhere? Nope. They just got a little bit lost on the way to this win.

First they had to go through Oakland (aka Berkeley) to the "New Arena", i.e., the Old Oakland Coliseum Arena refurbished for the miserable Warriors, where the Bears play during the building of the new Haas Arena on the Cal campus.

So what happened. J.R. Henderson scored 25 points and Kris Johnson added 23 as eighth-ranked UCLA rallied for a 74-73 victory over Pac-10 rival California. Henderson was 7-of-11 from the field and 11-of-13 from the line while Johnson added 12 rebounds. The Bruins (13-2, 4-1 Pac-10) have now won four straight league games. They're ranked either 8 or 9 (depending on the poll) and they'll be meeting seventh-ranked and unbeaten Stanford on Saturday.

During the first 4 minutes of this game, it looked like it would be a UCLA wipeout, as Cal's zone defense was just not working, and UCLA managed to exploit the big holes and gaps that the 2-3 zone created. And Cal's offense couldn't get going either, and the Bears trailed by as much as 10-0 before Geno Carlisle and Sean Marks managed to get things going from inside the paint. But then midway through the first half, Cal just came alive, and the Bruins started to struggle. There was Bailey, hitting a three, and then forcing the rest; there was Baron, again over-playing on defense and picking up two fouls early in the half. But then Cal went on a scoring run, and and with 1:53 left to play in the half, UCLA was instead playing Cal's game, failing to exploit any of the large gaps in the Cal zone, and the score was 29-25 Cal leading by four.

Sean Marks, sporting a darker hair cut (more time in the gym, less time surfing back home "down under"?) was just everywhere both offensively and defensively, and Baron Davis, the foul king, picked up his third foul with about 1 remaining in the half on a player control foul. Thought he could only foul on D? Forget that, he does just fine dropping his shoulder on the offensive play. Kendall Gill of the Bears managed to take the scoring pressure off Geno Carlisle, and Raymond Circus King's bad dribbling also settled down after an early foolish turnover off his own knee. But it was just a harbinger of things to come. Toby Bailey and Henderson managed to keep UCLA in it during the first half, and Watson also looked impressive early, even if he wasn't scoring at all, grabbing a rebound over Sean Marks. And what is Brandon Loyd doing in this game during the first half? Missing his three's that's what. We feel bad for Brandon, but Lavin has got to sit him down and play someone who can give the Bruins yet another inside scoring threat. Like maybe Travis Reed. Like maybe Sean Farnham. Like maybe Billy Knight. None of whom played.

The story in the first half was simply that Cal led 32-25, outscoring UCLA in the last 9 minutes of the half 17-4. At the half the high scorers were J .R. Henderson for the Bruins with 12, and Michael Gill with 9 for the Bears. Marks had 7, Kilgore 6, and Carlisle 7 for the Bears. Only Henderson with his 12, Bailey with 7 and Kris Johnson with 6, scored for the Bruins. Triggered by their impressive zone defense, Cal managed to reduce UCLA's naturally athletic ability, and forced them to look to the perimeter, and the freshmen just weren't getting it done. Baron Davis, scoreless. Earl Watson, scoreless. Gill starting, then coming back in off the bench just took an incredible load off the Cal starters, and gave them that extra added spark that UCLA couldn't seem to find. Or stop. The Bears forced 13 turnovers from the Bruins in the first half (to the 5 which the Bruins forced against Cal). And Marks also had 7 boards. Very impressive.

In the second half, Gill opened with a foul against Henderson, who made the free-throws, bringing it to a 5 point game. UCLA went to a trapping, full-court press, trying to create some up-tempo defense. While the Bears have been known to be bothered by the press, it didn't seem to hurt them that much. Watson then scored off the transition, but Gill came right back, and the Bears went back up 35-29 with 18 minutes to play. Carlisle then spotted up for three, missed, but Watson jumped with him and fouled him, picking up his third with 18 minutes left in the game. That forced Lavin to move Bailey to the shooting-guard spot, and McCoy came in with two fouls to cover for Watson. Just what McCoy was doing out of this game, considering the sheer size of Cal's front-line of Marks, Kenyon Jones and Lampley, was an absolute mystery. Carlisle hit two of three free-throws, and the Bears led 37-29 with 17 to play.

So there's Baron again, playing with three fouls, with his body all over Gill on the inbounds play. Lucky. No call. Henderson scores next time down, but then McCoy gets called for goal-tending, grabbing the rim, and again, it's 39-31 Cal. Next possession down the floor, there's Gill, picking up his third foul, and only seconds later, Kenyon Jones picked up his third foul. So, with only minutes gone in the second half, now Cal's in a bit of foul trouble.

Davis gets the ball inside on a dish from Toby, but misses wildly, gets the ball back then turns it over, and with 16 minutes left, it's now Cal's ball again, but then Sean Marks, picks up his second foul on a moving screen call, and Cal starts to experience some of the angst that the Bruins are having with the foul situation. No doubt about it though, Baron's going to foul out. You can just see it shaping up.

Cal, no longer in a zone, breaks down on the man on man coverage, and Baron Davis finally picked up his first points of the game. 15:30 left to play. Carlisle then fouls Bailey, and with those four quick points, it's now 39-35 with less than 15 to play. Marks travels again (his third of the evening), and the Bruins get another lucky break. Next time down the floor, Cal commits it's sixth team foul with Elson's foul on Henderson, and JR, just implacable at the line, sinks two, and now its only a two point game, 39-37.

Braun puts back Circus King and Kilgore. King is an interesting little player, who never or rarely shoots. Jones' shot misses, but Marks' putback dunk is with authority. Cal up by four. But then Bailey again from the perimeter hits and two point game. Next time down, Carlisle, staying patient, reading the D, hits for two, and Baron Davis turns it over with a double dribble. UCLA turnover. Next possession, Jones just stuffs it, and the size difference between UCLA and Cal is becoming apparent. Cal leads 45-39 with 12:40 to play, and Toby fouls over the back.

The matchup between Circus King and Baron Davis became apparent, and Baron showed that at times he's just one of the best defenders around, managing an impressive steal against King who was really no match. But Henderson comes right back, and Carlisle hits again, and it's still a four point game, 43-47 with 12 minutes to play.

Jones gets called for his fourth and has to sit as McCoy goes to the line on the bonus, non-shooting foul, missing the shot, and Cal dodges a bullet. UCLA is playing just miserably, and they're lucky that at this point its not a 20 point game. The only thing that's saving them is Cal's fouling, and with 11:40 to play, Michael Gill picks up his fourth. And UCLA's transition, which is managing to change the tempo of the game. UCLA, by picking up the tempo, is managing finally to beat the zone, hit the gaps, and force Cal into the "over the back" type of defense. With less than 11 minutes to play, UCLA trails only by two, 47-45.

Circus King then shows why he and Watson can get up and play, hits a great little J in the lane, which is answered by Toby with a 3, and now it's only a 1 point game with less than 10:00 to play; but Circus comes right back with a left hand penetration in the lane, which he just throws up, desperation style, and it drops, and UCLA is now down by four. But Toby goes to the line, hits one, and it's a three point game, 49-51.

Next time down, Elson fouls McCoy, hard, and picks up his fourth foul. McCoy sinks them both, and it's back to a one point game 50-51. Lampley, on the next possession down, posts up, turns and shoots right over Henderson. Boom.

Marks then blocks Toby forcing it to the basket, and Watson picks up his fourth on a very hard block on Kilgore who's streaking to a certain lay-up, which because of the foul he misses. But he gets both ft's and its now back to a 5 point game, 50-55 Cal. But KJ comes right back, and hits the three. Cal starts to go itself to the transition game, forcing the foul from UCLA, and Circus King hits another two ft's, and it's back to a four point game 53-57 with 8:25.

Davis, demonstrating again that he's still a freshman, exposes the ball on the inbounds, and Cal steals from Davis, immediately takes a page from the UCLA play book and goes again to the transition, and Lampley hits. Boom, two. Next time down, another steal, this time by Circus King, pass to Kilgore who scores again, and its suddenly 61-53 with 7:44 to play.

At the time-out, Cal has only 7 turnovers. UCLA has 17. That's one of the differences. One of the others is that this is just the game of the year for Sean Marks, and Cal is demonstrating that they're just as dangerous as any team in the Pac 10. Henderson hits a putback for McCoy who had missed an easy shot, but then on the transition fast break, Circus King does it again. 63-55 Cal.

But then Kilgore just gets out of control, gets called for a T-, and UCLA makes the two shots, gets possession and with the score 63-57, and 6:39 to play, Baron loses the handle, JR loses it, and then Baron gets it back, and hits the three. Boom 63-60.

Now it's starting to get a bit out of control. The players are shoving, pushing after the calls, and after KJ fouls King, Lampley just nails Johnson in the back, but isn't called. After King hits the two, Henderson scores, and it's back to

But Carlisle makes a very interesting move locking Baron Davis arm in his right armpit, while he then dribbled down court with his left, making it look like Baron was reaching, and there it is: Davis picks up his fourth with more than 5 minutes to play. In fact, with 5:40 to play, four Bears and four Bruins have four fouls. Henderson then scores over Lampley, and its back to a 64-65 game, with Cal leading by one.

Circus King, standing on the outside of the rebounding action, manages to knock the ball away from Bailey and Cal recovers after the out of bounds. With 4:37 to go, Cal calls time-out. Cal runs a delay, misses the shot from Kilgore penetration, and Baron Davis, dribbling on the transition break, gets the ball stolen from him by Kilgore, and then Baron, unbelievably, pushes Kenyon Jones from behind as he's about to make a dunk. Bye-bye Baron. Number 5. So instead of stopping a score, Baron's gone, Jones gets one of two. But on the rebound, Carlisle fouls, and Henderson makes two, and so its Cal 66, UCLA 65. Marks manages to just wrest the ball away from Henderson, but Carlisle, cutting to the hole, loses the handle. Turnover. Turnover.

2:57 to go, and Marks fouls Henderson. He hits the first tied game. 66-66. Second shot. UCLA leads for the first time since early in the first half.

Cal doubles to the ball, not giving anyone a look, but Bailey, on one of the worst looks he's had all night, hits one of the biggest threes of his career, with only three seconds on the clock, just draining the bottom of the net. UCLA 70, Cal 68. 1:39 to play. Time-out on the floor. Fox does it's thing. Everyone huddles.

Cal's got Carlisle, King, Marks, and Gill and Jones. Carlisle blocked by Henderson and Bailey, and then Jones commits his fifth, a really stupid foul, and he's gone. Kris Johnson goes to the line, with a chance to puck the Bruins up by four. First one good. Second one good. 72-68 UCLA. Cal calls a 20 second time-out, with only 1:13 to play. Bears with only a 20 second left, UCLA with a full. Watson guarding Marks, King drives the lane, and McCoy blocks the shot out of bounds. King inbounds to Elson, who's standing directly under the basket. Count it, and one. Elson hits, one point game.

1:00 to play, UCLA and Toby driving, and the ref commits one of the worst calls in history, and calls Carlisle for his fourth. Bailey, however, misses the first, hits the second, and its still a two point game, 73-71. Watson manages to tip the ball out of bounds, but it goes back to Cal, 34.9 remaining. Still a two point game. Unbelievable.

So, with 34.9 to play, Cal gives the ball to King, who passes to Carlisle, who eats the shot clock, and with only 6 seconds on the shot clock, shoots, misses, and UCLA recovers the ball. Elson is then forced to foul Johnson, who misses the first, still a two point game, with 11.2 to play, he hits the second. UCLA 74, Cal 71.

Still enough time for a three point play. Plenty of time. In fact, Cal still has a 20 second time out. Best move: Get the ball inbounds, across the half-court, call a time out, and set up the three-point play.

So is that what these Nobel laureate Bears do? Nope. Instead, Marks inbounds to Circus King, who pushes the ball up, passes up the open three point shot, and passes the ball to Marks. . . who has raced the full length of the court and is standing about as far from three-point country as a player can get. In fact he's standing right smack under the basket.

Marks is stunned. He's got the ball. King actually passed it to him. Everyone is stunned.

Except it still leaves Cal down by one, without possession, and only about 2 seconds left on the clock. Before Cal has time to blink, and before anyone's got time to look for Toby's missing contact lens, Watson grabs the ball and inbounds it to Toby, who runs circles around the stunned Bears who are just beginning to realize, slowly but surely, what King and Marks have done.

And UCLA should count it's blessings because they dodged the biggest bullet they've faced this year. Bigger than Oregon. And it doesn't bode well for what'll happen up in Stanford.

UCLA (74)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Bailey          39   4-8   5-6   2-3  1  1   16
Johnson         38  6-15 10-12  5-12  0  4   23
Henderson       40  7-11 11-13   3-9  2  2   25
Davis           30   3-5   0-1   0-3  6  5    7
Watson          25   1-4   0-0   2-2  2  4    2
Loyd             2   0-1   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Knight           3   0-2   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
McCoy           23   0-1   1-3   0-5  2  3    1
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 21-47 27-35 12-34 13 19   74
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.447, FT-.771. 3-Point Goals:
5-18, .278 (Bailey 3-5, Johnson 1-6, Henderson
0-1, Davis 1-3, Watson 0-1, Loyd 0-1, Knight
0-1). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 4 (Bailey
2, McCoy 2). Turnovers: 19 (Davis 8, Henderson 3,
Bailey 2, McCoy 2, Watson 2, Johnson, Knight).
Steals: 1 (Davis).

CALIFORNIA (73)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Gill            28  6-11   0-0   1-4  0  4   14
Marks           35   4-8   3-4  7-12  1  3   11
K Jones         23   3-8   2-3   4-7  0  5    8
Kilgore         34   3-7   6-7   1-1  2  2   12
Carlisle        37  4-14   4-6   0-3  4  2   13
Elson           15   1-4   1-1   1-1  0  5    3
King            15   3-7   0-0   1-1  2  2    6
Lampley         13   2-5   2-2   1-2  1  1    6
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 26-64 18-23 16-31 10 24   73
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.406, FT-.783. 3-Point Goals: 3-13, .231
(Gill 2-2, Marks 0-1, Kilgore 0-1, Carlisle 1-7, King 0-1,
Lampley 0-1). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 4
(Marks 2, K Jones, Elson). Turnovers: 10 (Marks 4, King 3,
Lampley 2, Gill). Steals: 10 (Kilgore 5, Gill 2, Marks 2, Carlisle).

So UCLA has now won five of its last six games at California and leads the all-time series, 113-85.

UCLA next meets Stanford this Saturday at Maples. The land of the giants. We're taking bets: UCLA is gonna fall this time. Stanford is just too big, too physical, too strong. Maybe. We'll see. Don't miss it.