Defense is key to Bruins’ game versus Pepperdine
By Daily Bruin Staff
Nov. 27, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 MIKE CHIEN Senior forward Matt Barnes
tries to tip the ball away from the Global Sports offense earlier
this season.
By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The UCLA men’s basketball team hasn’t forgotten
about Ball State.
Oh, no sir, it hasn’t.
The Bruins (2-1), who play their first home game of the season
tonight in Pauley Pavilion against Pepperdine (1-1), still see
Cardinal guard Patrick Jackson dancing through their defense.
They still see Ball State’s Chris Williams hitting threes
and Lonnie Jones muscling his way inside toward the hoop.
But being butchered by the Cardinals in the Maui Invitational
semifinal did No. 10 UCLA some good, team members say.
“We were looking ahead to Duke (during the Ball State
game),” Bruin guard Billy Knight said. “This will make
us more focused. Pepperdine is capable of beating us. It was good
to get an early loss to a small school like (Ball State). It
brought us back down.”
It happened once, it can happen again ““ especially against
a team that Bruin head coach Steve Lavin said is similar to Ball
State.
Better be ready to defend your basket, boys.
Since returning from Hawaii, Lavin has done whatever he has been
able to do to improve the Bruins’ matador-style defense.
“First and foremost, we need to work on our
defense,” said UCLA junior forward Jason Kapono, who is
averaging 20.3 points per game. “We know it, we saw it, we
played it. It’s our major weakness right now.
“We know we have scoring threats, starting with me, but it
all starts on defense.”
Score they have.
The Bruins are hitting 54.8 percent of their field goals and
78.8 percent of their free throws. Offense isn’t their
problem; defense is.
So what have practices been like?
“A lot of defense,” Kapono said, laughing.
“Drill after drill to get better on defense. Three-and-a-half
to four hours of defense.”
“Our biggest weakness right now is containing the
dribble,” Lavin said. “We need to improve our
communication, our vision, moving our feet and finishing the
possession with our rebound.”
Tonight, the Bruins will face another quick team, Pepperdine,
that could break them down the way Ball State did.
The Waves, who lost in double overtime to UC Irvine Nov. 20,
have dropped their previous 12 games against UCLA. Pepperdine,
however, is now headed by former NBA coach Paul Westphal, who is in
his first year at Malibu and has plenty of swift-moving skill
players on their squad.
Senior guard Craig Lewis is averaging 14.0 points per
contest.
