Bruins looking for a sweep with win over Arizona State

Bruins looking for a sweep with win over Arizona State

By Scott Yamaguchi

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

TUCSON­Perhaps Arizona men’s basketball head coach Lute
Olson would now like to withdraw the bold prediction he made on
Tuesday.

Olson, whose Wildcats squad dropped a 53-52 decision to Arizona
State Jan. 5, went out on a limb at his weekly press conference
this week and stated the improbability of any team sweeping the
Arizona schools in Arizona this season.

That, however, was before No. 11 Arizona received a visit from
No. 4 UCLA. And after the Bruins’ 71-61 victory at the McKale
Center Thursday night, even Olson was second-guessing himself.

"UCLA is much more talented than Arizona State," he said
Thursday. "They don’t seem to be lacking in any one spot, and they
can come off the bench with some pretty good players. But, that
doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy for them up there (at ASU)."

No doubt about that. Arizona State (13-3 overall, 3-1 Pac-10)
enters Saturday’s 1 p.m. showdown (televised live by Raycom) with
UCLA (10-1, 4-1) fresh off an 81-71 victory over USC in Tempe on
Thursday.

"The sad thing about the Arizona win is that we’ve got to go
down (to Arizona State) and do it again Saturday," UCLA head coach
Jim Harrick said.

The 13th-ranked Sun Devils are led by 6-foot, 9-inch junior
forward-center Mario Bennett, who leads the team with 16.8 points,
7.3 rebounds and 3.3 blocks per game. In the Sun Devils’ run to the
championship of the Maui Invitational earlier this season, Bennett
connected on 30 of his 37 shot attempts, had 13 dunks and was named
the tournament MVP.

Should UCLA find a way to contain Bennett and complete the road
trip sweep, the Bruins could find themselves atop the Pac-10
standings, considering first-place Oregon’s 83-78 loss at
Washington State Thursday night.