UCLA women's basketball focusing on increased intensity for home game against Oregon State
Junior guard Mariah Williams and the Bruins lost to USC this Saturday, but look forward to competing against Oregon State today at 7 p.m. in the John Wooden Center.
Women’s Basketball
Oregon State at UCLA
Today, 7:00 p.m.
John Wooden Center
No TV info
Info: UCLA women's basketball hosts Oregon State, the first opponent of their two-game weekend home stand.
By Lee Witbeck
Jan. 19, 2012 12:06 a.m.
Basketball games are not always decided by skill and talent. Often enough, games come down to intangibles: desire and heart.
On Saturday, the UCLA women’s basketball team (7-9, 2-3 Pac-12) lost one of those games to rival USC, who simply outworked the Bruins.
“It can never be comfortable when a team outhustles us, and gets more hustle rebounds than us,” coach Cori Close said.
“That is one thing that you can never allow yourself to be okay with. … How focused we are together and how hard we play, that has to be a deep characteristic of this program. And it wasn’t where it needed to be on Saturday.”
When a team has a stretch like this one has had ““ they are 3-7 since the start of December ““ morale and focus are in danger of flagging, and justifiably so.
But when a team starts to lose confidence and engagement, that’s when a loss can become a lost season.
As the losses pile up, the focus has to shift away from the opponent, back to one’s own team.
A game, like tonight’s matchup against conference foe Oregon State (11-6, 2-4), is no longer about a tournament resume, but becomes solely about improvement and progress.
“It’s about finding what the priority improvement areas are each particular week that put us in a situation where we can make a run in March,” Close said.
“We need some luck to go our way. … We’re not a bubble team right now; we’re completely focused on improvement.”
That theme was mirrored in practice, and echoed by the players ““ worry about what UCLA needs to be doing, not what Oregon State is planning on doing.
“We just need to learn from our mistakes, learn from what we didn’t do in that game,” junior guard Mariah Williams said.
“We need to follow our game plan. … We need to continue to work hard, despite the injuries, despite whatever else is going on.”
The first lesson to be learned from the game against USC is that of effort and intensity, as Close already mentioned. That has been a sticking point for UCLA this week in practice.
“We definitely need to come back with more aggression,” sophomore forward Rhema Gardner said.
“We need to come back with a better mindset. We need to be more aggressive and more willing to go get (the rebounds). If it’s a 50/50 ball, whoever wants it more is going to get it.”
This has been a tough season, undoubtedly, for the Bruins.
Injuries have piled on, continually disrupting chemistry and flow. Tough losses have damaged confidence.
But neither players nor coaches are ready to give up on this season, and Close is still preaching, albeit a slightly different message.
“It’s got to be about, “˜Am I different this week than I was last week?’ That’s the simplest way to say it,” Close said.
“And if we’re not different, then we’ve lost ground. … At the end of practice today, that’s what I asked this team: Did you get out of yourself, and give more to the unit?”
