A Good Night for Two UCs

Both UCLA, and UC Riverside had more points than their opponents at the final horn. I like it when that happens.

UCLA over Stanford

Mercifully, Fox College Sports kind of screwed up and didn’t show the first 10 minutes of this game. When they finally cut over from the Wazzu-ASU game, UCLA had started to make their comeback, and played fairly well the rest of the way, doing just enough to pull off the victory on the road.

After a rough junior season shooting the ball (43%; 32% from three), Josh Shipp has been very reliable this year. He’s up to 49% from the field, and 40% from three. He’s had an excellent senior season, and he had a great game tonight, pouring in 24 points on 9/12 shooting, 4/5 from long range. The other surprising senior has been Alfred Aboya. He’s stayed in games, his numbers are up in every category, and he hit four clutch free throws tonight to salt the game away.

On the other hand, contrary to what the Illini have seen, the young players have not lived up entirely to expectations. I don’t really mean that as a knock, because expectations were REALLY high. Probably unfairly high. I’ve been impressed with Drew Gordon, and Malcolm Lee plays like a talented freshman, where maybe 3/5 plays are really good, but with a few mistakes mixed in. The jury is still out on Jerime Anderson. And honestly, I kind of feel bad for Jrue Holliday. We were spoiled with Kevin Love’s polish last year, and I think we expected great things from Holliday this season. We’ve gotten inconsistency, which is really what you should get from a freshman. But he needs to defend better. That’s where the Bruins are really lacking this season. I’ll say right now that if he’s a lottery pick, he should go. That’s a lot of guaranteed money, with a new CBA looming. But if he does, I suspect that UCLA fans will be a bit disappointed with what they got, and Holliday will be a little disappointed with what he gave. Then again, we’re almost to March, and perceptions can change really quickly when the tournament rolls around.

After a lackluster first ten minutes, the Bruins did something we haven’t seen much of this year. They showed some heart. They made Stanford play at their tempo in the last ten minutes of the first half, and that got the Bruins back into the game. The squeaked out a lead in the second half, and they hung on, despite, as usual, some questionable road officiating. I loved the series of plays I saw from Aboya late in the game when he tipped in a Josh Shipp miss to give the Bruins a seven point lead at one end (gingerly avoiding an over the back call), then calmly stepped out of the way on a Josh Owens dunk. He realized he wasn’t going to stop Owens, he avoided his fifth foul, and he was a critical component of the win down the stretch.

I still think the team that blitzed the Bay schools, U$C, and Notre Dame is out there, lurking. We’ll just have to see whether that team shows up down the stretch. Saturday at Berkeley is going to be a big test, and how they respond will tell us a lot about what we can expect the rest of the way. They should sweep the Oregon schools, so a win Saturday keeps them in the hunt for a share of the conference title.

UC Riverside over Cal State Fullerton

Yay! Didn’t see it. But they’re 16-10, and over .500 in conference. I’m proud of my alma mater.