Bruins prepare to defend home floor
By Daily Bruin Staff
Jan. 23, 2002 9:00 p.m.
 BRIDGET O’BRIEN/ Daily Bruin Senior Staff Junior forward
Jason Kapono looks to be a major factor in the
Bruins’ game against Stanford tonight.
By Christina Teller
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Forgive the Bruins if they don’t put out a welcome
mat.
With three of Stanford’s players hailing from the Los
Angeles area, this weekend’s trip to the Southland will be a
homecoming of sorts for some members of the No. 17 Cardinal
basketball team.
The Bruins (13-4, 5-2 Pac-10) haven’t defeated Stanford
(11-4, 4-2) at Pauley Pavilion since Rico Hines and Billy Knight
were freshmen. In other words, the Cardinal have a four-year
winning streak on the Bruins’ home floor, and they’re
not keeping it a secret.
Casey Jacobsen is quoted in the Stanford media guide commenting
about the Cardinal’s success in Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins
have used this as bulletin-board fodder to motivate them.
“Casey Jacobsen said that he feels really confident coming
into Pauley, and they always play really well in Pauley,”
Hines said. “The Stanford guys always seem to have something
to say, but we’re over that. We just try to get better each
and every day and focus on winning ball games.”
It makes sense for the Cardinal to want to rub in the fact that
they’ve won at Pauley four years straight, as it is was the
Bruins who defeated then-No. 1 on its home court of Maples Pavilion
““ twice.
But bragging rights aside, this game is crucial. In the Pac-10,
a conference without a clear heavyweight, more than a few losses
could come back to haunt a team come conference tournament
time.
Dan Gadzuric’s play is critical for the Bruins against
Stanford. Though the Cardinal is without the dynamic duo of Jason
and Jarron Collins, they have Curtis Borchardt, a 7-footer who can
shoot. Borchardt is averaging 16.1 points and a Pac-10-leading 10.3
rebounds. He will be a handful for the Bruin front line.
“I think that is a pivotal match-up,” Stanford head
coach Mike Montgomery said. “Curtis has been one of our go-to
guys, and Gadzuric might not be one of their top options. He is
UCLA’s inside presence. For both teams, it represents some
real quality size.”
Both teams know what they’re in for ““ a physical,
inside-outside conference-rival game. Try saying that 10 times
fast.
EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Fourth-year civil
engineering student Timothy Chen does homework
while fellow senior Matt Brunnings keeps warm in his sleeping bag
as both camp out for the Stanford game. “They have a balance,
inside-outside, and depth in the front line,” UCLA head coach
Steve Lavin said. “They still have a tremendous inside attack
even without the Collins twins. They really remind me a lot of the
last couple Stanford teams.”
And almost as important is the fact that the fans are ready.
Bruin supporters started camping out as early as Monday night
for Thursday’s show-down. Gate 10 at Pauley Pavilion looks
more like a homeless encampment than the outside of a college
sports arena. Relying on gloves, warm sleeping bags and on-time
pizza delivery for survival, the Bruin faithful will be ready when
they enter Pauley Pavilion.
“(Camping out) is part of the college experience,”
said fourth-year student Megan Perisho, who has been camping out
since Monday night. “It’s worth it when you get good
seats for the game and if you get to rush the floor. It’s
about camaraderie and school spirit.”
In the days leading up to the game, members of the UCLA
men’s basketball team spent time with the fans to show their
support.
“The fans are great. We love it,” Matt Barnes said.
“The fan support has been exciting this year. We’ve
never really had a home-court advantage since I’ve been here,
and this year we do.”
One thing fans can expect is a duel between two of the
conference’s premier sharp-shooters, UCLA’s Jason
Kapono and Stanford’s Jacobsen.
Kapono brings his 18.6 points-per-game average and is poised to
go for even more this weekend after heating up in the desert last
weekend, averaging 22.5.
Jacobsen, the main cog in the Cardinal offense, currently sits
just ahead of Kapono on the all-conference scoring list, averaging
19.7 ppg.
Stanford presents the kind of challenge that UCLA gets up for,
and the Bruins will have the benefit of having Hines back in the
lineup. The Bruins missed Hines’ energy and defensive
pressure last weekend against the Arizona schools.
But no matter who is in the lineup for the Bruins tonight, one
thing is for sure ““ UCLA is out to prove Pauley Pavilion is
their home.
