Bruins play bruising defense
LOS ANGELES – Add a “D” to UCLA.
The Bruins play defense as well as any team in the country, and now comes their biggest challenge – defending champion Florida and its multifaceted offense.
“The bottom line is we know that in order to win these games, you have to play defense,” UCLA forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute said Tuesday. “You look at the Kansas game, we had 25 turnovers and still were able to win (68-55). That’s our defense.
“Even when you’re not shooting well, you can always rely on defense. It makes the offense easier. You can see it on our team. We create a lot of turnovers and get our good transition and easy baskets.”
The Gators, who defeated the Bruins 73-57 in last year’s NCAA championship game, will present a variety of problems again in Saturday’s rematch in the national semifinals at Atlanta.
With the same starting lineup from last year’s championship team, Florida has a well-balanced offense that’s difficult to defend. All five starters are scoring in double figures, with not much of a gap between the leader (Taureen Green 13.3 points per game) and No. 5 (Lee Humphrey 10.1).
“They’re very talented at every spot and they require a lot of attention,” UCLA assistant coach Kerry Keating said. “There’s no secret why their numbers are so good.
“It’s going to be a big challenge for our guys. And I think they’ll be up to that challenge.”
The Bruins finished second in scoring defense in the extremely competitive Pac-10 this season, limiting foes to an average of 59.5 points. They’ve improved on that in the NCAA tournament, holding all four teams to 55 or fewer points.
UCLA also averaged 7.5 steals – led by Darren Collison’s 2.3 – and 3.3 blocks.
One plus the Bruins have going for them this year is Josh Shipp, a 6-foot-5 swingman who missed all but four games in the 2005-2006 season after having hip surgery. He’s provided a big boost on both ends of the court.
“Josh has really, really done a good job defensively for us,” coach Ben Howland said. “Not only in the NCAA tournament, but throughout the year. He really rises to the challenge and he’s going to have another big challenge in this game.
“He’ll be guarding both (forward Ronnie) Brewer and Humphrey. He’s our best help defender, too. He sees the floor better than anybody on our team as a weak-side defender, which is very important.”
Shipp said Howland “preaches that defense wins championships. We hear it every day. He just makes us have pride in playing defense and trying not to let the other man score.”