Team needs to turn its focus to Villanova

  CHRIS BACKLEY/Daily Bruin Freshman point guard
Cedric Bozeman will have to push his way through
against what he expects will be a physical Villanova team.

By Greg Schain
Daily Bruin Reporter

It’s going be a happy plane ride to Villanova.

But once UCLA gets there, it will have to put its amazing
last-second win over USC behind and focus on the Wildcats, whom
they will play Saturday in a non-conference matchup.

Although Villanova is just 11th in the Big East with a 4-6
conference record, they are 8-2 outside their conference, including
7-1 at their 6,500-seat arena.

The Bruins’ main focus is to not dig themselves a hole
early, because it might be too difficult to have to come back in a
hostile environment.

“I guess that’s our style,” Bruin guard Billy
Knight said. “We have to come out harder. Hopefully we can do
that on our trip to the East Coast.

The Bruins (16-6, 8-4 Pac-10) look to do something they
haven’t done in a while: win two games in a week.
They’ve split games in each of the past four weeks. In fact,
the last time they swept a weekend was against the Washington
schools back on Jan. 4 and 6.

“At this stage of the season, you want to be able to win
on Wednesday or Thursday and then win again on Saturday,”
UCLA head coach Steve Lavin said.

The Bruins shouldn’t be fooled by Villanova’s
sub-par record. The Wildcats are an aggressive rebounding team,
averaging a plus-7.3 rebounding margin over their opponents.

And they will likely run a lot of high pick and rolls ““
something UCLA has had trouble dealing with this season.

“I hear Villanova is going to be completely different than
what I’m used to,” freshman point guard Cedric Bozeman
said. “I heard the Big East style of play is very
physical.”

The Bruins will have to adjust not only to a physical style of
play, but also to a three-hour time difference. Will the Bruins be
able to adjust before taking to the court?

“We’re young,” senior guard Rico Hines said.
“We aren’t concerned about the travel or anything like
that. We just want to go play basketball.”

For UCLA’s sake, the travel better not affect them,
because their performance against Villanova could have implications
extending into the NCAA Tournament. Many members of the bid
selection committee live on the East Coast and don’t have the
opportunity to see many UCLA games. But this game will be
nationally televised on CBS, meaning everyone will be watching.

Therefore, the Bruins’ play against Villanova could affect
their seeding, especially with tournament bids only a month
away.

Nationally televised games such as this one also can sway
potential recruits to come play for the Bruins. The national
exposure also helps UCLA’s RPI and strength of schedule
components, which are crucial to obtaining a high seed if the
Bruins fail to win the Pac-10.

“But we want to win the Pac-10,” said Knight, hoping
that the team won’t have to worry about non-conference games
affecting its seeding. “And whoever gets hot during this last
stretch is going to win it.”