Bruins prepare for Trojan war

  KEITH ENRIQUEZ/ Daily Bruin Senior Staff Matt
Barnes sets up for a windmill dunk in a victory earlier
this season over Oregon State.

By AJ Cadman
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

The UCLA men’s basketball team doesn’t need to be
reminded who they’re playing tonight.

The Bruins don’t need anyone to tell them how crucial
their current three-game stretch is for their hopes at a conference
title, which would be UCLA’s first since the 1996-1997
season.

And they certainly don’t need anyone to explain where
their focus should lie come 7:30 p.m. at the Los Angeles Sports
Arena against No. 22 Southern California.

“It’s going to be a war,” said UCLA senior
co-captain Earl Watson. “It’s like two trains coming
head-to-head at each other. The stronger team is going to
win.”

Both teams enter the contest with tail end victories following
splits in the Bay Area. UCLA has won eight of their last 10; USC
has taken seven over the same stretch.

However, UCLA returns to action fresh off its upset of then-No.
1 Stanford in Palo Alto on Saturday with eyes focused on their
crosstown rivals.

“We have been extremely focused on the next game coming
up,” sophomore forward Jason Kapono said. “We had a
extremely hard practice here on Monday. We had to forget about
Saturday and can’t worry about any of that now.

“Thursday is the start of a new season and we have to
forget about the first half of the Pac-10 season.”

The Bruins can ill-afford to bury the memories of an 80-75
victory back on Jan. 11. Before a season-high 12,109 at Pauley
Pavilion, the Bruins used the full-court press to disrupt the
balanced Trojan attack. UCLA also received an all-around
performance from Kapono, whose team-high 20 points and nine
rebounds helped the Bruins improve to 3-0 in conference play.

The pivotal point in the previous meeting occurred just a minute
into the ball game. UCLA’s Dan Gadzuric and USC’s David
Bluthenthal were slapped with technical fouls following the
anticipated exchange of pleasantries that surface in the annual
rivalry game.

“It was probably the most emotional game of the year thus
far,” said Watson, who had 17 points and four assists in that
contest. “Both teams have a style of play that’s fun to
watch. It’s going to be a battle.”

The Trojans, led by head coach Henry Bibby, march into
tonight’s game having salvaged their road trip to Northern
California with a 80-66 victory over the California Golden Bears
““ a squad that manhandled the Bruins two nights earlier by 29
points.

The Trojans’ run for the NCAA Tournament lies in the
consistent play of junior forward Sam Clancy. Clancy is the third
leading scorer in the Pac-10 at 18.6 points per game and is 53
percent from the field, but he is not just a prolific shooter.
Clancy is also sixth in the conference in rebounding (7.1) and atop
the charts in blocked shots (2.38).

“Clancy is playing well right now and is as solid of a
player you will find in the conference,” said Kapono, the
Pac-10’s fifth leading scorer. “He dropped 31 (points)
and 11 (rebounds) on us last time and has been killing
everybody.”

UCLA head coach Steve Lavin offered further praise.

“Clancy is playing as well as anyone in the
conference,” Lavin said. “He is having an All-American
type of season. So we will need to have a collective effort on
defense to know where Clancy is.”

Aside from Clancy, the Trojans rely heavily upon junior point
guard Brandon Granville, the conference leader in assists.

“Granville makes them run effectively and may be the
reason why they are playing as good as any team in the conference
right now,” Lavin said.

Yet earlier this year Granville wasn’t playing so well,
accounting for eight of the Trojans’ 28 turnovers the last
time UCLA played USC. With added scoring opportunities and the
press in effect, the Bruins led by as many as 19 points in the
second half and captured a crucial win that helped UCLA jump out to
its best conference start since 1997-98.

“We don’t want to let USC get up (in the standings)
with us,” Watson said. “We want to give ourselves a
chance to win the Pac-10 (title).”

The main concern in the “40-minute war” will be who
forces the tempo of the game in their favor and handles the
pressure of an important conference matchup with ease.

“It’s going to be tough like the game here earlier
in the year,” Kapono said. “They are going to come out
hard at us and we have to stay composed and poised.”

“It will be interesting to see which players for both
teams step up when they are needed in such a big game,”
Watson said. “I think the win on Saturday makes us hungry. We
always knew we could beat the quality teams.”
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

The UCLA men’s basketball team doesn’t need to be
reminded who they’re playing tonight.

The Bruins don’t need anyone to tell them how crucial
their current three-game stretch is for their hopes at a conference
title, which would be UCLA’s first since the 1996-1997
season.

And they certainly don’t need anyone to explain where
their focus should lie come 7:30 p.m. at the Los Angeles Sports
Arena against No. 22 Southern California.

“It’s going to be a war,” said UCLA senior
co-captain Earl Watson. “It’s like two trains coming
head-to-head at each other. The stronger team is going to
win.”

Both teams enter the contest with tail end victories following
splits in the Bay Area. UCLA has won eight of their last 10; USC
has taken seven over the same stretch.

However, UCLA returns to action fresh off its upset of then-No.
1 Stanford in Palo Alto on Saturday with eyes focused on their
crosstown rivals.

“We have been extremely focused on the next game coming
up,” sophomore forward Jason Kapono said. “We had a
extremely hard practice here on Monday. We had to forget about
Saturday and can’t worry about any of that now.

“Thursday is the start of a new season and we have to
forget about the first half of the Pac-10 season.”

The Bruins can ill-afford to bury the memories of an 80-75
victory back on Jan. 11. Before a season-high 12,109 at Pauley
Pavilion, the Bruins used the full-court press to disrupt the
balanced Trojan attack. UCLA also received an all-around
performance from Kapono, whose team-high 20 points and nine
rebounds helped the Bruins improve to 3-0 in conference play.

The pivotal point in the previous meeting occurred just a minute
into the ball game. UCLA’s Dan Gadzuric and USC’s David
Bluthenthal were slapped with technical fouls following the
anticipated exchange of pleasantries that surface in the annual
rivalry game.

“It was probably the most emotional game of the year thus
far,” said Watson, who had 17 points and four assists in that
contest. “Both teams have a style of play that’s fun to
watch. It’s going to be a battle.”

The Trojans, led by head coach Henry Bibby, march into
tonight’s game having salvaged their road trip to Northern
California with a 80-66 victory over the California Golden Bears
““ a squad that manhandled the Bruins two nights earlier by 29
points.

The Trojans’ run for the NCAA Tournament lies in the
consistent play of junior forward Sam Clancy. Clancy is the third
leading scorer in the Pac-10 at 18.6 points per game and is 53
percent from the field, but he is not just a prolific shooter.
Clancy is also sixth in the conference in rebounding (7.1) and atop
the charts in blocked shots (2.38).

“Clancy is playing well right now and is as solid of a
player you will find in the conference,” said Kapono, the
Pac-10’s fifth leading scorer. “He dropped 31 (points)
and 11 (rebounds) on us last time and has been killing
everybody.”

UCLA head coach Steve Lavin offered further praise.

“Clancy is playing as well as anyone in the
conference,” Lavin said. “He is having an All-American
type of season. So we will need to have a collective effort on
defense to know where Clancy is.”

Aside from Clancy, the Trojans rely heavily upon junior point
guard Brandon Granville, the conference leader in assists.

“Granville makes them run effectively and may be the
reason why they are playing as good as any team in the conference
right now,” Lavin said.

Yet earlier this year Granville wasn’t playing so well,
accounting for eight of the Trojans’ 28 turnovers the last
time UCLA played USC. With added scoring opportunities and the
press in effect, the Bruins led by as many as 19 points in the
second half and captured a crucial win that helped UCLA jump out to
its best conference start since 1997-98.

“We don’t want to let USC get up (in the standings)
with us,” Watson said. “We want to give ourselves a
chance to win the Pac-10 (title).”

The main concern in the “40-minute war” will be who
forces the tempo of the game in their favor and handles the
pressure of an important conference matchup with ease.

“It’s going to be tough like the game here earlier
in the year,” Kapono said. “They are going to come out
hard at us and we have to stay composed and poised.”

“It will be interesting to see which players for both
teams step up when they are needed in such a big game,”
Watson said. “I think the win on Saturday makes us hungry. We
always knew we could beat the quality teams.”