UCLA has been a Jekyll and Hyde team all season.  When they play well, they can play extremely well and beat or even dominate good teams.  When they play poorly, they can play horrendously, make some of the dumbest decisions of all time and lose to anybody.

It’s only fitting that in the NCAA tournament, we saw both Jekyll and Hyde in the same game.  Only this time, both of them were amped up to their most extreme.  UCLA literally played better than they have played all season, and worse than they have ever played all season, in the same exact game.

Somehow, neither “the kind-hearted Dr. Jekyll” nor “the sinister Mr. Hyde” seem like extreme enough personalities to describe the Bruins’ dichotomy and performance.  No, this was more along the lines of Gandhi taking a potion that periodically transformed him back and forth into Jeffrey Dahmer.

The good: UCLA got out to its biggest halftime lead of the season (other than one or two early creampuff teams, but an even bigger lead than in some of those games), 42-24.  They got out to a 23 point lead with 8 minutes left.  Tyler Honeycutt looked unstoppable at times.  Joshua Smith looked like a complete beast in the low post at times.  They absolutely shut down Kalin Lucas and MSU’s perimeter offense.  This was the big dance, baby, and UCLA was playing its best game of the season.  At times.

The bad: Idiotic unforced turnovers.  Missed free throws.  Not just a few.  For stretches, it seemed like these things occurred in every possession.  Horrendous defensive rebounding that led to multiple second chance points for the Spartans, which more often than not they capitalized on.  Terrible perimeter defense.  There were times when the Bruins displayed less basketball IQ than the Washington Generals.  This was the big dance, and UCLA was playing its worst basketball of the season and was about to become a laughingstock.

The ugly: Every single player on Utah State.  Wait, sorry, I turned to wrong game for a second.

You know, I was somewhat preparing for UCLA to lose to Michigan State.  Although UCLA was the higher seed, MSU was favored in Vegas and UCLA had to travel much further, so I went in expecting a loss to some degree.  It’s not UCLA has a chance at the Final Four or anything anyway, so although a tourney win would be nice, I thought a loss wouldn’t be terribly important or memorable in the grand scheme of college basketball history.

Well, the way the game played out changed all that.

UCLA almost committed one of the biggest choke jobs in the history of college basketball.

UCLA had a 23 point lead on MSU with 8 minutes left.  They had a 10 point lead with one minute left.  And they almost blew it.

The Bruins were THIS close to becoming the laughingstock of the tournament.  I came in not expecting much from this young team’s tournament appearance, but to become the team that committed one of the biggest (if not the biggest) March Madness chokejobs in recent history, that would be unbearable.  If MSU came all the way back to win it on a last second shot, that shot would be repeated forever and ever in March Madness highlights and commercials for decades to come (sort of like UCLA/Gonzaga in 2006, which UCLA was on the other end of.  The stakes were higher for UCLA/Gonzaga since that was in the Sweet 16, but MSU’s comeback was by more points and started later in the game)

The last 40 seconds of this game seemed like they took hours.  A three by Michigan State.  A Bruin gets fouled and misses both free throws.  Another shot by Michigan State.  Rinse, repeat.  Complete agony to watch.

Thankfully, that crisis was averted.  Barely.  UCLA played good defense for two out of MSU’s final three possessions to finally win 78-76.  They advanced.  Still, the fact remains that the other team came back from a 23 point lead to only be down one and only lose by two.

You would think that avoiding such an epically and historically embarassing loss would result in a huge feeling of relief at the end.  I suppose Bruin fans do feel that, to some degree.  Had the game been a close back and forth contest with the Bruins prevailing in the end, it would have been a situation for relief and joy.  But even though the game resulted in an NCAA tournament victory, there’s just so much embarrassment and shame at the way it all played out that it’s impossible to feel elated.

Of course, all of these woes would be healed 100% and no one would even remember what happened in this game if UCLA somehow manages to conjure up enough consistency to pull an upset victory over Florida.  (Which might even start to heal some wounds from 2006 and 2007…slightly.)

UCLA has received a 7-seed in the Southeast bracket.  They will travel to Tampa to face the 10 seed Michigan State Spartans in the first round, and if they advance will take on 2-seed Florida.

All things considered, this is a pretty generous assignment.  The Bruins knew they were going to be between a 7 and a 10 seed, so getting a 7-seed was pretty much the best possible option.  In addition, they knew since they were in the 7-through-10 range they were going to have to face a 1-seed or a 2-seed in the Round of 32 if they wanted to advance….and they were put in the bracket with the worst 2-seed (many people didn’t think Florida didn’t deserve to be seeded that high, especially coming off a 16 point loss to Kentucky in the SEC championship).  In addition, 10-seed Michigan State was a bubble team that was far from a lock to make the tournament.

Whether the Bruins can take advantage of these favorable circumstances, however, is an entirely different story.  As we’ve seen throughout the season, UCLA can beat the best teams they face (BYU, Arizona, St. Johns) or lose to the worst ones (Montana, getting blown out by Oregon).  Some analysts are predicting the Bruins to beat Florida and move to the Sweet 16 (Kenny Smith even has UCLA moving on to the Elite 8, although in all fairness it doesn’t really seem like he follows college ball that much and no one was sure why he and Charles Barkley were analysts on the selection show) but it’s also highly possible that UCLA will lay an egg against MSU and get beat by 15 in the first round.

Although MSU was considered a bubble team, it will be anything but a walk in the park for the Bruins in the first round.  After all, the Spartans made the Final Four last year and had a pre-season ranking of number 2 in the nation before struggling, so they have the talent to play above their heads.  They have one elite player –guard Kalin Lucas, who most of their offense flows around.  In fact, many analysts have described this MSU team as “Kalin Lucas and some other dudes.”  Malcolm Lee will most likely be given the defensive assignment on Lucas for most of the game, and his defense will likely be the key factor in the game for the bruins.  In terms of common opponents, MSU beat Washington earlier this year, who UCLA lost to twice. (although in all fairness, at that point MSU still had guard Korie Lucious, who was suspended and then transferred partway through the season).  One good thing about the matchup, however, is that the Bruins seem to play better against big name schools.  Even though MSU was a bubble team, they are still a high profile and historic major conference team, so UCLA probably won’t overlook them like they did Montana and Oregon.  Had UCLA been matched up against a mid-major like Richmond or Old Dominion they may have rested on their laurels and underestimated their opponent.

One advantage that UCLA was likely counting on is the fact that the frontcourt play of Reeves Nelson and Joshua Smith is such a matchup nightmare for many teams.  Pac-10 teams eventually figured out how to deal with them as the season went on, but most teams have huge problems dealing with that frontcourt when they encounter it (which is part of why UCLA was able to surprise out-of-conference teams like BYU and St. Johns).  While MSU’s frontcourt play is not fantastic, this advantage is still likely mitigated by the fact that Tom Izzo is one of the best coaches in the nation and will have more than enough time to figure out how to deal with it even though his team is somewhat lacking overall talent.  Had UCLA been matched up against a 10-seed that had a mediocre coach, the frontcourt advantage would have likely been enough to push the Bruins through.

The biggest disadvantage, however, is the time zone change.  UCLA wasn’t exactly fantastic on the road, with all of their major victories came in the friendly confines of southern California and losing both games in New York City during the preseason NIT.  Their one-point loss to eventual one-seed Kansas was the only decent game the Bruins have played all year outside the Pacific timezone.   Michigan State will be staying in the Eastern Timezone, and I feel like that will likely be enough to propel them to a victory.

All things considered, my prediction is that UCLA will likely fall to MSU in the first round.  As strange as this sounds, however, if they are able to get past the Spartans, I like their chances against Florida in round two.  (I know it sounds bizarre that I’m more confident in their chances against a 2-seed than a 10-seed, but its consistent with UCLA’s performance this season).

Well, that was embarrassing.

The UCLA Bruins, coming off a second place finish in the Pac-10 and looking to start a streak to head into the postseason, got bounced out of the first round of the Pac-10 tournament.  By a bad team.  By 17 points.

The loss is somewhat reminiscent of UCLA’s loss in the first round of the conference tournament to Cal in 2007 – difference being, the 2007 loss bumped UCLA from a 1-seed in the NCAA tournament down to a 2-seed, and this one presumably bumped UCLA from a possible 5 or 6 seed (had they continued to win) down to an 8, 9 or 10 seed.  Oh yeah, and this one was a total decimation.

The Bruins only scored 24 points in the first half and finished the half down 38-24.  But UCLA had plenty of experience coming back from early double digit deficits in Pac-10 play (including twice against this same Oregon team), so there wasn’t much to worry about, right?

Not so fast.  The Ducks had seen this story twice before, and they weren’t about to blow a double-digit lead to the Bruins a third time.  The Ducks continued to put their feet on the pedal and didn’t let up in the second half, even extending the lead to 22 at one point, and UCLA never got close.

Tyler Honeycutt said, after the game: “They had the mentality that they didn’t have anything to lose,” Honeycutt said. “We came in here with a ‘too cool’ attitude.”

Game notes:

• Other than the Montana loss, this was probably UCLA’s worst game of the season.  They lost by their largest margin of defeat of the entire year, and they shot their worst percentage of the year since the Montana game.
• Tyler Honeycutt was the only person who seemed to show up in this game, and the only Bruin to score in double figures with 19.  Still, he got those numbers while shooting 5-for-13 and only 1-for-5 from beyond the arc.
• Jerime Anderson somehow turned into Ben Wallace at the free throw line, shooting only 1-of-6.  It didn’t really matter since the game was never close, but not a very good sign going forward.
• Joshua Smith probably had his worst game as a Bruin, scoring only one field goal in six attempts.  His problem wasn’t even foul trouble this time, as he only ended up with 3 fouls.  If he’s on his game, Smith is the best weapon UCLA has, and an outing like this is unacceptable.  Smith is a potential matchup nightmare and is the best chance UCLA has of upsetting some teams in the NCAA tournament, so hopefully he will step up his game for the Big Dance.
• Malcolm Lee is usually UCLA’s most consistent player, at least defensively, and even he broke down this game.  He is playing through a recent injury, and maybe that was the reason he didn’t look too aggressive out there and only attempted 3 field goals and played poor defense for arguably the first time this season.  Hopefully he’ll get better during the long time off period.
• UCLA allowed E.J. Singler to absolutely dominate this game, as he scored a career-high 24 points (after setting his previous career high, 22, in the game against ASU the night before.)  There’s a chance UCLA might be facing Duke in the second round of the NCAA tournament, and if so, let’s hope they won’t allow E.J.’s older brother Kyle to have the same sort of success.

The first silver lining of the loss is that UCLA gets plenty of rest as they prepare to take on their opponent in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The other silver lining is that if UCLA ended up winning the Pac-10 tournament and getting a 5-seed or 6-seed, they would probably put no effort into facing the 11/12 seed and would be the victim of an embarrassing upset in the first round.  They might put on a better show against one of the top teams in the country if they end up facing a 1 or 2-seed in the second round.

Right now, the worst case scenario for the Bruins is a 10-seed.  Their record and major victories definitely say they deserve better than that, but sometimes the NCAA  puts a bit too much emphasis on the conference tournaments since they want to promote their importance (since the conference tournaments bring in lots of extra money).  More than a few times, the selection committee has punished teams who don’t take the conference tournaments seriously or flame out early.  Don’t be shocked if a few other bubble teams make a run in their own respective conference tournaments and the committee punishes UCLA by pushing them all the way down to a 10-seed in order to make a statement.  (Ironically, this wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world – while the first round matchup against a 7-seed is tougher, they would get a 2-seed in the second round instead of a 1-seed.  Although if the Bruins had beaten the Ducks they could have gotten a 7-seed and gotten the best of both worlds, but bygones are bygones)

Right now, the Bruins have plenty of time to rest up, try to put this loss behind them, and see where the committee sends them on Sunday night.

No team in the Pac-10 is more of a one-man show than Washington State.  Klay Thompson is basically all of the Cougars’ offense, averaging 21.4 points a game (the highest in the Pac-10) while the next highest Cougar only averages 12 ppg.  He’s one of only three players in the country to average 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists a game.

Oh, and on Saturday, he was suspended against UCLA for marijuana possession.  (which caused every sports writer and sports talk radio guy in the nation to think they were the first person to make the remark “Looks like Washington State’s chances really went UP IN SMOKE!”)

UCLA has beaten the Cougars in Pullman 17 straight years, so beating them without the guy who is the alpha and omega of the offense should be an easy task, right?

Not so fast.  The Bruins shot horrendously in the first half, going only 7 for 25.  Shots were just not falling, and the Bruins fell into a horrendous 32-19 hole at the break.

The Bruins have fell into several halftime deficits that they were able to crawl back from this season, however, and this game was no exception.  They started the second half on an 18-3 run, and finally a Tyler Honeycutt three tied the game up 35-35.  A few minutes later, Honeycutt also had a putback to put the Bruins up 39-27 (their first lead since 2-0.)  The lead then went back and forth several times for the rest of the game.  UCLA took a four point lead, but then the Cougars responded with an 8-0 scoring run over the next four minutes.

With 50 seconds left and Bruins down 47-43, Honeycutt hit a huge three to bring the team within one.  With 14 seconds left, Faisal Aden took a tough fallaway baseline shot for WSU which had no chance of going in, but got bailey out with a foul.  He hit one of his two FTs to put the Bruins down two.

With fourteen seconds left, Malcolm Lee drove into the WSU front court and was sent to the line.  Faced with the pressure of having to knock down the two free throws to give UCLA a chance at overtime, Lee calmed his nerves and sank both before having to head out due to injury.  Aden missed a bad shot on the other end, and the game was headed to OT.

At the start of OT, Reeves Nelson continued his beastly game and scored the first two buckets for the team.  When it looked like UCLA had the game more or less in hand, Aden hit a big three to tie the game at 54 with 1:17 left, and then UCLA committed a horrible shot clock violation on the other hand and it looked like momentum had shifted to the Cougars.

In the end, though, the Bruins won the day thanks to some clutch steals and the clutch free throw shooting of Malcolm Lee.  A Honeycutt steal lead to Lee being sent to the line once again, (immediately after re-entering the game after he sat out the first four minutes of OT with a strain) where once again he calmly sunk two shots with the game on the line to give UCLA a two-point lead.  Going to the line twice in one game with the game on the line is one thing, but how about going three times?  A Jerime Anderson steal sent Lee back to the line once again with 8 seconds left to finally ice it, and Lee hit both FTs yet again to seal the victory.  The Bruins won 58-54, and Klay Thompson watched from the sidelines as his team’s tournament chances likely went up in smoke. (Isn’t that a clever and original joke?  Har har har.)

Game notes:

• Arguably the main reason the Bruins won this game was because of free throw shooting, and not just the late ones from Lee.  They shot an excellent 14 of 15, compared to WSU who only shot 8-of-14.  If they can continue to shoot from the line this efficiently it will solve a lot of UCLA’s problems.
• Considering the late game heroics of Lee, it’s easy to forget that Reeves Nelson had the best game out of anyone with 23 and 8.  He dominated the WSU frontcourt and shot an amazing 10-13 from the field.  Nelson singlehandedly kept UCLA in it for most of the game while the rest of his team was missing threes and jumpers.
• Speaking of missing threes, boy did the Bruins do that a lot.  They only went 2-for-17, and many of the guards often jacked up ill advised threes when Nelson and/or Smith were waiting for entry passes.
• Probably the most disappointing thing about this game for the Bruins was the subpar play of their point guards.  Jerime Anderson had a clutch steal at the end but finished with 0 points (only two shot attempts) and 1 assist in 29 minutes.  Lazeric Jones was worse, however, and even though Jones had 6 assists he shot the ball horrendously (1-9 overall, 0-5 from three) and turned the ball over four times.  Probably his worst shooting game as a Bruin, and time will tell if this was a hiccup in the road or if his wrist injury is bothering him again.
• With Thompson out, the Cougars played surprisingly well, but it seemed like Faisal Aden bit off a little more than he could chew when he decided that this was his chance to show what he could do as the alpha-dog of the team.  He shot way more times than anyone else in the game, but only ended up shooting 4-of-17.  He did hit one clutch three at the end of OT, but for the most part Lee’s defense shut him down.  You can’t blame Aden for wanting to finally get his chance to shine as he’s been operating under Thompson’s shadow this whole season, but perhaps if he realized that his shot wasn’t falling and played a little more team-oriented ball the Cougars could have pulled it out.
• At the moment, Washington State is 19-11 and is almost certainly not in the NCAA tournament unless they somehow make it to the Pac-10 tournament championship game.  Obviously they’re in if they win the automatic berth, and if they make it to the tournament championship and lose they’ll probably be looked at as an iffy bubble team.
• It’s good UCLA won this game and clinched the second seed in the Pac-10 tournament.  With a loss, Bruin fans would have had to do the unthinkable and root for USC to beat Washington to maintain their second place standing in the conference.

Thus, UCLA finishes the regular season at 22-9 and second in the conference.  Thanks to an Arizona victory, UCLA will finish the season in second place in the Pac-10 and will take on the winner of the Oregon/Arizona State play-in game in the Staples Center.  A loss in the opening game would probably drop UCLA to a 10-seed in the NCAA tournament, winning the entire Pac-10 tourney would probably bump the Bruins up to a 6-seed, and anything in between would likely result in a 7- or 8-seed (the most likely scenario).

Considering that UCLA hasn’t beaten Washington in Seattle since 2003, a loss this year was more or less expected as well.

Things were mostly close in the first half.  UCLA had a 25-24 lead going into the locker room thanks to some pretty good defense which limited the Huskies to 21% shooting.

In the second half, though, with the rest of the team struggling, the Huskies found their offensive through one man: CJ Wilcox.  Wilcox, who was scoreless at halftime, ended up with a career-high 24 points, including 4-7 from three-point-land.

The Bruins, led by Jerime Anderson, kept things close in a back and forth game despite Wilcox’s prowess.  In the final three minutes, though, the Huskies pulled away and ended up with a 7 point win.

Game notes:

-After a few games where it seemed like the Bruins had cured their turnover problems, the TO monster reared its ugly head again tonight – a gaudy 18 turnovers for the Bruins, compared to UW’s 13.

-Joshua Smith ended up with 12 points and 16 rebounds, with 8 of those rebounds being offensive.  This sounds impressive, but in reality he had some very real struggles at the rim (as reflected by the fact that he shot only 5-for-11).  Many of those offensive rebounds were him grabbing his own miss as he couldn’t seem to finish at the rim very well at all.

-Jerime Anderson perhaps had his best game in a Bruin uniform:  16 points (4-6 from beyond the arc) with 2 assists and 3 steals.  It seems like a different player steps up every night for the Bruins, and this was Anderson’s long overdue time to shine.  His three point shooting helped keep UCLA in the game.

-Ben Howland ran out of timeouts early in this game…using his final timeout with 12:57 left in the second half.  These timeouts were used to stem UW runs, and to that degree they were effective.  That being said, having no timeouts left for the final 12 minutes is a real problem.

-One thing that’s getting somewhat frustrating whenever the Bruins play on national TV is that the announcers seem to think that Tyler Honeycutt is the absolute unquestioned star of the team.  Several times on Thursday night, the announcers referred to Honeycutt as UCLA’s best player and number one option, and criticized him for “not showing up on the big national stage like star players are supposed to do.”  This is a giant misconception and is getting somewhat frustrating.   There is no “best player/number one option” on the team as currently constructed – different players show up on different games.  Sure, there have been a couple games where Honeycutt was feeling it, but there have been just as many games where Honeycutt played poorly and Smith/Nelson/Lee/whoever stepped up to be the key offensive player.  This misconception is largely caused by the fact that Honeycutt had his best game of the year on a high profile national TV game (33 points versus Kansas, which he hasn’t come close to doing before or since) and the fact that he is projected as a first rounder in the NBA draft (which is more because of his raw athleticism and potential than anything he’s actually done on the court.)

-Brandon Davies’s “honor code violation” at BYU has been getting a lot of publicity recently.  Since BYU is far and away UCLA’s signature win, having the Cougars be crippled hurts UCLA’s seeding chances.  One would think that the committee would say “Well, UCLA beat BYU back when they had Davies and were playing like a one-seed, so they should get credit for beating a one-seed,” but unfortunately it doesn’t work exactly like that.  If Davies continued to play and BYU ended up with a one-seed, it would sure make UCLA look more impressive than the path the Cougars currently seem to be on (losing their last few games, probably ending up as a weak 3-seed).

UCLA is going to need to go deep into the Pac-10 tournament to have a shot at a decent seed.  They could probably get a 7 seed with a win over Washington State and then a championship, but could fall as far down as a 12-seed.  One thing is for certain, though…a win on Saturday against Washington State is absolutely critical, especially with the breaking news that WSU’s best player Klay Thompson has been suspended for the game.

For the past few months, UCLA has been committing tons of mistakes, but escaping with victories.  On Sunday against Cal, their luck finally ran out.

In the wild, beavers build dams in order to block rivers.  Well, if those rivers ever decided they wanted to give those furry woodland creatures a taste of their own medicine, they apparently need to call in Tyler Honeycutt.

Honeycutt had 8 of UCLA’s 16 blocks against the Oregon State Beavers on Saturday, as the Bruins prevailed 69-61.  No matter where OSU seemed to want to shoot from the floor, it seemed like only a matter of time before a hand in a white jersey rose to stuff it.

The block party was necessary to counter to the fact that the Bruins committed 26 turnovers to OSU’s 14.  Oregon State leads the nation in steals (yes, I said nation – not just conference) so this was somewhat expected.  However, many of UCLA’s turnovers were unforced mistakes, which have become somewhat of an issue recently.  (If UCLA wants to make some noise in the postseason, Ben Howland is going to have to run some intense practices enforcing ball security measures, which has been an Achilles’ heel of the team so far despite their winning streak.)

Despite the turnovers, UCLA played 3/4s of a good game: they got up big in the first ten minutes of the game, then faltered for the rest of the first half and allowed OSU to cut a 19 point lead to just 5 at halftime.  The second half, however, was dominated by the Bruins, not only because of their 16-1 advantage in blocks but also by shooting 49% from the field and allowing the Beavers only 32.9%.

The final margin of victory (eight points) is misleadingly low, thanks to a bizarre sequence of events in the final minute after the game had been decided.  With 57 seconds left and a 15 point margin of victory, Howland decided to put in his walk-ons to give them a taste of Pac-10 play.  Apparently Craig Robinson didn’t take too kindly to Howland’s decision to put these “victory cigars” into the game, as the OSU starters utilized a full court press on the poor unsuspecting Bruin walk-ons and stole the ball on back to back possessions for 4 easy points.  After just 15 seconds, the agitated Howland told his starters that they had to take off their icepacks and come back in to finish the game.

Other game notes:

-Honeycutt’s 8 blocks were undoubtedly the main story of the game.  He got some of them while playing at the 4-spot, but a majority of them while playing at the 3: the two post players (usually Joshua Smith and Reeves Nelson) would use a double team to trap the OSU ballcarrier under the basket, then Honeycutt would fly in from the wing to swat the shot when the ballcarrier would attempt to force the ball up into the basket.  Honeycutt came into UCLA being praised for his shooting and scoring ability, but other than his 33-point outing in Lawrence, his scoring has been relatively subpar.  However, that’s been okay for the team so far – the other assets of his game have been improving rapidly and he’s been filling up the stat sheet in every other area.  His passing has been great – he made several excellent passes against the Beavers, including some fantastic looking touch passes to Joshua Smith on the baseline.  His rebounding has taken a step up as well.  His game and statlines have evolved away from the Carmelo Anthony method of playing small forward (e.g “score a lot”) and more into the Andrei Kirilenko/Shawn Marion meld (e.g. “do everything else and fill up every category”).  He had a very “Matrix”-esque line against Oregon State with 9 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds, and of course the 8 stuffs.

-From looking at the box score, it would seem that the other major black eye on the Bruins besides the turnovers was the fact that they gave up 16 offensive rebounds.  This is definitely too high, but is somewhat mitigated by the fact that many of OSU’s offensive rebounds were the result of a block.

-He might not have made a field goal on Saturday, but Jerime Anderson has appeared to be much more comfortable running the offense in the past few months than he has been during his first 2 and a half years wearing blue and gold.  This is especially key considering that Lazeric Jones is currently playing while hurt.

-Joshua Smith rebounded from his foul-plagued night on Thursday and reasserted his dominance in the paint, scoring 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 blocks.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: when the Bruins start to play more talented teams, Smith’s foul situation will perhaps be the single most important factor in whether they can stay competitive.

-UCLA shot 27/37 (73%) from the charity stripe.  This is a huge improvement from earlier in the season, and free throw percentage will be a major key to their continued success, especially from Joshua Smith (7-8 this game) and Reeves Nelson (5-8, which isn’t great but is respectable compared to earlier in the season when it seemed like “Hack-A-Reeves” was a legitimate strategy for opposing teams.)

-Malcolm Lee found himself as the Bruins’ leading scorer for the second straight game.  An excellent scoring weekend for Lee, who shot 16-28 for 44 points against the two Oregon schools and will likely win “Pac-10 Player of the Week” honors.

The Road Ahead: The easy part of UCLA’s schedule is now over, with a tough trip to the Bay Area next weekend looming.  This weekend is key, as a split of Stanford and Cal would still have the Bruins on pace to make the NCAA tournament, and a sweep of the two would likely propel them to their first trip to the AP top 25 rankings and give them near-lock status.  A loss to both, however, would suddenly make the chances of UCLA playing in March a great deal murkier.