Bruins lavish big praises
Ben Howland walked out onto the Pauley Pavilion floor on Dec. 28 after most of the fans had already cleared out for his postgame radio interview. His UCLA Bruins had just defeated Washington State 55-52, and the victorious coach had some words of praise for his opponent.
“The team we beat tonight, in my opinion, is an NCAA tournament team,” Howland said. “They’re going to beat a lot of people.”
At the time, it seemed a bit far-fetched, the notion that this WSU team, even at 11-2, would be worthy of the NCAA tournament. Since then, though, the Cougars have gone 12-3 to not only secure a tournament berth, but also to pose the biggest threat to UCLA’s attempt for a second consecutive season atop the conference.
On Thursday night, when the No. 2 Bruins pay No. 13 WSU a return visit on Friel Court, it will be a battle between the top two teams in the Pac-10 standings.
“We knew they were a good team, but we never thought they were going to be challenging us for the Pac-10 championship,” UCLA point guard Darren Collison said, thinking back to that Pac-10 season opener in the final days of 2006.
Time has given Collison and the Bruins reason to think otherwise.
“Looking back at it, we’re not surprised that they’re challenging us for the Pac-10,” Collison said. “That’s a very good team.”
Howland, known and respected as a defensive-minded coach, has an obvious respect for the style of basketball that the Cougars have made so successful.
His players feel the same way.
“They’re a lot more patient than we are,” said Collison, who has emerged as one of the leading candidates for Pac-10 player of the year honors. “Every shot is a high-percentage shot for them. We’ve just got to play our game. We know they like to slow tempo.”
WSU has given its better-known counterparts all kinds of trouble, too. Since Howland and Dick Bennett arrived in the Pac-10 together in 2003, the Cougars have beaten the Bruins just once. But five of WSU’s six losses have been by either two or three, including the game from earlier this season.
In years past, that result might have been tossed out as a fluke. This year, it seems to be a rock-solid indication of how close the two teams are.
“I’ve been watching film of Washington State and my stomach’s in knots right now,” Howland said Tuesday. “We were very, very fortunate to win. They had the ball down one with 25 seconds to go and a chance to beat us in Pauley. I have great respect for their team.”
Both WSU and UCLA have evolved since that first game, Howland and Collison acknowledged. The Bruins have learned how important Collison is to their team, having lost at West Virginia without him.
For the Cougars, Nikola Koprivica went down with a season-ending knee injury, and he had 12 points and five rebounds as a starter in that first game. Still, it’s clear that UCLA is headed for Pullman well aware of how much its opponent has improved in stature since that December night in Westwood.
“The bottom line with Washington State is they have good players,” Howland said. “They’re very well-coached, but they have very, very good players, athletic (guys). … I think both teams are much better than they were at that point.”