-Bumped. BN Eds.

I know this is my first post in a long time and the womens basketball team is already well on it's way into conference play. I had decided a while ago to step away from posting for various reasons (the biggest being I have moved from Los Angeles to New Orleans for grad school), but as I have continued to both watch the womens team and read on BN, I have thought about putting together a post on my thoughts of the status of the womens team. This may be a little free flowing or long, so bear with me.

On Nikki Caldwell leaving:

I think the last time I posted it was my thoughts of Nikki leaving. I understand why there was such outrage that we could let her go, and I have no idea what happened behind the scenes or what (if anything) DG tried to do to keep her. That being said, there are 3 major reasons why the move neither surprises me nor makes me too mad, at either UCLA or Nikki

1) Money. Someone on the BRO other message boards brought up a great point. Everyone loved Nikki, and the womens basketball team was starting to generate some interest online. But the fact remains without a consistent fan turnout or TV contracts, the team was non-revenue just like every other olympic sport. LSU offered i believe 800,000 a year, way beyond what we pay our non-revenue coaches. The same BRO poster pointed out that as much as we love Nikki, she never advanced beyond the 2nd round of the tournament. Imagine if we gave her a significant pay raise, all the other olympic coaches who have won numerous conference crowns and national championships lining up demanding their increase as well.

2) Location. Location both in region and school I think had an effect here. Regionally, LSU is in the SEC and I think Nikki always wanted to return home (heck, i'm in New Orleans and I think about opportunities to try and get back to the west coast, it happens). Coaching at LSU puts her in closer proximity to the Tennessee job that may need filling soon. And in terms of schools, LSU is more of a womens basketball school. Living in New Orleans, I made the 2 hour drive out to Baton Rouge to see our team take on the lady tigers this year. The fan support is noticeably bigger at LSU, and when I was looking around on the rafters, I noticed LSU made 5 straight final 4s in the mid 2000s, meaning that LSU is a big step up in terms of prestige in the womens basketball world.

3) Business sense. I think Nikki could sense the same things fans were sensing: she was coming off 2 great years full of improvement and many school records and looked like an amazing commodity, but the next year was going to be a step back. UCLA returned a very talented front court, and had an incoming recruiting class to add some size to that front court. However, guard play was about to suffer big time. Leading scorer Darxia Morris and important PG Doreena Cambell were graduating, our 1 guard coming in was an unranked recruit, and all that was left was Mariah Williams and Thea Lemberger, neither of whom really had shown much of anything to that point. It was easy to predict a backward step this year for UCLA and I think Nikki could sense that so made a play while she was at her best, and I can't really fault her for that. This ties me into the team now.

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Bumped. Huge thanks to truebluebruin24 for his fantastic blogging on UCLA women's basketball all season. His effort was just as spectacular as Coach Nikki Caldwell's basketball program. - BN

Photo: b d

Well, what was a spectacular season for Nikki Caldwell's UCLA basketball team came to a disappointed end in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament.  Focusing on the Gonzaga game can easily make one feel down about the season, and upset about what happened with UCLA.  I want to address my opinions of having to play true road games in the tournament.  I think the problem is that the women's tournament takes a middle road to the men's NCAA and NIT tournament that doesn't work.  Either it should be like the NCAA tournament where teams can't host tournament games, or like the NIT where the higher seed gets home court until the final four.

Part of the problem with the current system is that in the men's tournament, there are only 8 first and second round sites, where as in the women's tournament there are 16.  What seems most rational is let the top 4 seeds in each region host the first and second round, then have pre-determined sweet 16, elite 8, and final four sites.  Alas, UCLA ran into the buzz saw of playing a vastly under seeded Gonzaga team (#19 in the nation yet an 11 seed) on their home court where in 2 years they have lost only 1 game.  Does that excuse UCLA from allowing Gonzaga to shoot over 60% in the second half?  Not at all.  But Gonzaga is a speed and finesse team, and UCLA plays a more physical, punishing style of basketball, yet the ref calls did not reflect what was going on.  I hate to talk about refs after a UCLA loss, but it's hard not to think that Gonzaga was getting the benefit of foul calls on the Bruins while lack of calls on their own team.  UCLA had 4 players pick up 2 fouls in the first half, causing Jasmine Dixon and Darxia Morris to spend large portions of the first half on the bench, while Gonzaga picked up 2 team fouls the entire half.

While the NCAA tournament was disappointing, the season could be described as anything but.  UCLA finished with a record of 28-5, 3 of those losses coming to Stanford.  In the 3 match ups against Stanford, UCLA improved each time, going from disaster at Maples, to equal first half at Pauley, to 36 minutes of leading in the Pac-10 tournament, despite plenty of mismatches in terms of size and player rankings.  UCLA once again finished 2nd in the conference but improved their conference mark by sweeping all non Stanford teams.  Other accomplishments include sweeping USC, getting the first win at the USC in the regular season since the early 90s, an elite road win at Notre Dame.  Nikki Caldwell and UCLA broke numerous records, including best start to a season, most regular season wins, most conference wins, most road game wins, and most conference road game wins.  Perhaps most importantly, Nikki Caldwell has taken UCLA from a languishing team to national relevance, as UCLA was ranked all season long, and spent most of the season in or just out of the top 10.  Just as the nation is starting to pay more attention to UCLA, so too are recruits, as Nikki Caldwell as brought in the #3 rated recruiting class in the nation for next season.

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Bumped. - BN

From 20110129WBB vs. AZ

The UCLA flag is still flying in the tournament, as the #3 seeded Bruins take on the #11 seed Gonzaga tonight in the round of 32.

A lot has been made of this match-up and many in the national media feel that everything is there for an upset: Gonzaga is playing on their home court where they have lost just one game this season, which for their first round game against Iowa they sold out the 6000+ seat arena.  Their star player, PG Courtney Vandersloot may be able to neutralize the Bruin press that has been so instrumental to their success all season long.  Gonzaga last year knocked out the 2 seeded Texas A&M Aggies, so Gonzaga is not new to pulling off big upsets in the tournament in the early rounds.

Still, Gonzaga's schedule has featured weak teams, and if UCLA took Stanford out of it's schedule, UCLA's winning streak would match that of Gonzaga's yet still with a stronger schedule.  The key tonight that is being talked about is Gonzaga's offense vs. UCLA's defense.  Gonzaga leads the nation in scoring, averaging over 86 points per game, while UCLA has one of the best defenses in the nation.  It will be interesting to see how tonight's game plays out, though UCLA at least has had experience in this type of match up by playing Oregon the last 2 years, so UCLA can hopefully draw on that.

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Nikki Caldwell's crew is about to tip off on ESPN2 at 3:30pm.  They will be taking on the #14 seed Montana Grizzles for a chance to take on #11 seed Gonzaga monday night, who were a 92-86 winner over the #6 seeded Iowa Hawkeyes not so long ago.

Hopefully UCLA comes out focused and makes quick work of the Grizzlies so as to give the starters plenty of rest in preparation for a tough 2nd round game monday night.

Please discuss the game here.  GO BRUINS!!

After a very successful season, UCLA enters into post season play with a 27-4 record and a 3 seed in the West.  When UCLA entered the tournament last year, no player had any NCAA tournament experience on the roster and UCLA was faced with a daunting 8 seed.  Now, every player who plays significant minutes has had tournament experience which should help UCLA player calmer and looser, as they’ve "been here" before.  There is some debate whether or not UCLA deserves a 2 seed.  The argument comes down to did UCLA do enough to earn the 2 seed over Notre Dame.  UCLA’s argument features the fact that UCLA won the head to head match up AT Notre Dame, while Notre Dame boasts the better strength of schedule, playing in the big east, with more big profile victories.  However you feel about UCLA’s seeding, the bigger concern is WHERE the Bruins are playing.  UCLA has been sent to Spokane, Washington for the first 4 rounds of the tournament, but a potential 2nd round match up looms against underseeded 11 seed Gonzaga on their own home court.  I’ll get to that game and the rest of UCLA’s bracket, but first a preview of UCLA’s first round opponent, Montana.

While UCLA was handed a very tough road in the tournament starting in the 2nd round, UCLA’s first round match up should be a laugher.  Montana comes into the tournament with a 18-14 record out of the Big Sky conference.  Montana finished 3rd place in their conference but made the tournament due to winning their conference tournament.  UCLA may actually have one of the most favorable first round matchups, as Montana was looking to be a shoo-in for a 16 seed.  What jumps out when you look at their resume is that they went 0-4 against RPI top 100 teams, while at the same time suffered 7 losses to teams with RPIs between 100-199, and 3 losses to teams with sub 200 RPIs.  The toughest team Montana faced all season was, surprisingly, Gonzaga, whom they lost to by 18 points at home.

 

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UCLA played their first ever game in Staples Center today, as the 2 seeded Bruins took on the 6 seeded Golden Bears.  While the UCLA crowd was small in the large Staples Center, the crowd and band created a virtual home game as it seemed that everyone in the building for the afternoon games came to support either UCLA or Stanford.

From 20110311Womens Pac10 Day 1 (Cal)

From the get-go, UCLA jumped all over Cal with a smothering defense that pressured and harassed a Cal team that must have been tired from 2 straight days of games.  UCLA took a 8-0 lead in the first 3 minutes, which turned into an 11-1 lead minutes later.  When UCLA took a 17-7 lead with 12 minutes remaining in the half, UCLA would never relinquish a double digit lead for the remainder of the game.  UCLA's lead in the first half got as large as 37-18, before going into the locker room up 39-23 at halftime.

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Consider this an open thread for the only Bruin hoops squad that consistently plays like a "team." - BN

I know there is a lot of disappointment around BruinsNation right now (and rightfully so) about how the mens team performed against the ducks.  However, while the pac-10 tournament is over for the men, Nikki Caldwell's team is just about to start.  Stanford and UCLA enjoyed a double bye the last two days as benefits of being top seeds.

On wednesday the top seeds held serve at the Galen Center with USC, Arizona, Cal, and ASU advancing.  Today in the quarterfinals, 4 seeded Arizona took down the host 5 seed USC trojans to set up a semifinal at noon today against 1 seed Stanford.  In the other quarterfinal matchup, 6 seed Cal upset 3 seed ASU, to create a Cal-UCLA semi-final match up at 2:30pm.

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Bumped. Congrats to the best basketball program in Westwood, which has played together as a team, making the four letters throughout the entire season. -BN

#9 UCLA played their final game of the season, final home game of the season, and final game in the Old Pauley Pavilion today against Pac-10 cellar dwellers Washington St.  Before the game began, the four seniors were recognized in a ceremony, where players were presented with flowers and a framed photo of themselves by Nikki Caldwell as she posed for pictures with the players and their family.  It was a touching tribute for the final home game for Nina Earl, Christina Nzekwe, Doreena Campbell, and Darxia Morris, 4 Bruins who have played hard for Coach Caldwell and have been an instrumental part in changing the culture of the program.  For the game, the four seniors started in addition to Jasmine Dixon.

From 20110305_WBB vs WSU

Within 30 seconds, it was clear that WSU was completely overmatched in terms of talent and skill against the Bruins.  UCLA scored the first 13 points of the game, holding WSU scoreless for almost 8 minutes, and by the 7 minute mark of the first half, UCLA was cruising to a 25-4 lead. 

The UCLA press, which has worked to varying degrees of success recently, made Washington St look like a middle school team, as they turned the ball over time and again, and when they didn't, used close to half the shot clock just to get across half court, making their half-court offense have to speed up.  Washington St had committed 12 turnovers by the time they put 4 points on the board, which led to great amusement from those of us there.  UCLA started clearing the bench in the middle of the first half, allowing WSU to get some breathing room against UCLA's pressure, and by halftime, the score became 33-14. 

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#9 UCLA entered the home stretch of the Pac-10 season in what is probably the easiest homestand weekend for any school: the Washington schools.  I had no doubt that UCLA would come away winners tonight, but what I was curious about was would the intensity and focus be there?  UCLA has locked itself into the 2 seed for the pac-10 tournament (with the double bye it affords), the Washington schools won't improve UCLA's tournament seeding at all, and the Bruins might just generally overlook the Huskies.  Thankfully, UCLA came out with 40 minutes of focus on the defensive end, and despite a few offensive lapses, were in control of the game from start to finish.  Also appearing in Pauley Pavilion tonight was Regina Rogers, the former Bruin who transferred to Washington who would have been a senior on this year's team.

From 20110303WBB vs UW

With UCLA holding onto a 6-5 lead with 16:44 left, UCLA went on a 14-0 run to jump out to a 20-5 lead with 9 minutes remaining in the half.  Washington's next 4 points came from the free throw line.  After making a 3 at the 16:44 mark, Washington's next basket came from Regina Rogers, a full 12 minutes later at the 4:47 mark, and by that time UCLA's lead was 28-11.  Regina's basket was also the first points for the huskies from a player not named Sarah Morton, as for the first 15+ minutes of the game, Morton was the ONLY husky to score. 

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Bumped. -BN

On Saturday the womens basketball team concluded their final road trip of the season when they took on the third place Arizona St. Sun Devils.  The desert trip had potential for a trap game, as both of the Arizona schools have been playing well, and both schools coming into the weekend had only suffered 2 losses at home all season, one of which came at the hands of Stanford.  UCLA had to fight it's way to a 74-70 victory over Arizona on Thursday while ASU crushed USC, leading to what in my opinion would be UCLA's toughest pac-10 road game this season to a team not named Stanford. To add to the potential for a trap game, UCLA was playing ASU on senior night which would surely fire up the ASU team.

The game was close in the first half before the Bruins managed to pull away from the Sun Devils in the 2nd half.  A common theme with this Bruin team when they are struggling is that they are shooting well, rebounding well, but turning the ball over too much.  The score was only 24-21 at halftime, because while UCLA had a 22-13 rebounding advantage and were outshooting ASU 42% to 32%, UCLA turnovers were keeping ASU in the game.

While UCLA continued to have some problems with turnovers in the second half, UCLA's defense would recover and not allow ASU to convert our mistakes into points.  With the game tied at 28, a 17-0 Bruin run that lasted just under 5 minutes sealed ASU's fate as UCLA jumped out to a 45-28 lead with 12 minutes left, and from there UCLA cruised to a 61-45 victory.  UCLA shot an improved 45% in the second half to a limited 29% for the Sun Devils.

Looking at the box score there are 3 things that jump out at you as positive and negative. 

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Today was a perfect day at Pauley Pavilion, but the day of basketball is not over.  Due to the success Nikki Caldwell's club has been experiencing, FSN has picked up tonight's game at ASU which is tipping off right now.  Thanks to the Pacific-UCI game going to overtime, our game will be slightly delayed, but for those of you watching, here is your gameday thread.  ASU is a tough team that has lost only 2 games at home all season long and is in 3rd place in conference behind us.

 

GO BRUINS

Over 6000 fans poured into Pauley Pavilion this afternoon to watch the much anticipated rematch between #3 Stanford and #9 UCLA.  It was a great crowd that was rocking, especially in the first half as UCLA went toe to toe with the Cardinal.  In previous games, Stanford's obvious advantage in size and height led to domination of the boards, freethrows, and blowouts.  UCLA was able to fight against that through sheer will and desire, though poor shooting would doom UCLA.

In earlier meetings, Stanford would punch UCLA in the mouth early and seem to knock UCLA out of the game from the start.  This time, UCLA was not only absorbing the punches, but giving them out just as well.  The first half was a back and forth affair.  Though Stanford led for the majority of it, UCLA never allowed the Cardinal lead to grow bigger than 5 points, and on several occasions tied the game or took a 1 or 2 point lead.  If anything, it felt like UCLA could have built a 5-7 point lead with how aggressive their rebounding, drawing fouls, and press was leading to disrupting the Cardinal, but the bugaboo that would haunt UCLA all game was poor shooting, especially in the paint.  Throughout the game, UCLA would get the ball to Jasmine Dixon inside only for her to be swarmed by 2 or 3 Cardinal vastly taller than her causing terrible shots, blocks, or turnovers. 

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From 11282010WBB vs. Temple

For the folks unable to catch this game on TV, you can follow along with Gametracker, or listen to the online feed here. We will have a separate gamethread for the 1pm Baseball game vs. San Francisco, for those trying to keep up with both games. This is your Women's Basketball Gamethread. - P

It's the big day for UCLA womens basketball today, the rematch against the Stanford Cardinal.  Stanford enters the game as #3 in the nation and undefeated in Pac-10 play, and haven't lost a Pac-10 game since the 2008-2009 season.  Nikki Caldwell has done amazing things since she has arrived to UCLA, but there is still one thing she has yet to accomplish: beating Stanford.

Stanford has shown how big the talent gap is between them and the rest of the pac-10 recently, and the last 3 meetings between UCLA and Stanford weren't even close.  However, 2 of those meetings were up at Stanford and one at the pac-10 tournament.  The last time Stanford came to Pauley?  UCLA gave Stanford the scare of it's life, as UCLA had the opportunity to tie or win the game with the last shot, before being blocked and falling by 4 points.

The game today is at 12pm and will be televised on FSN, but if you're in the area, GO TO PAULEY!!!  Make the place loud as UCLA has easily the biggest home-match of the season. 

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Bumped. -BN

#9 UCLA hosts the Bay Area schools this weekend at Pauley Pavilion.  UCLA opened up with 14-10 Cal, a team that UCLA had won 4 in a row against, but always creates a defensive, grind it out style type of game.  The game tonight was UCLA's annual "Pink Zone" game in honor of raising breast cancer awareness, as the team wore pink jerseys and shoes, and recent alumni Allison Taka and Erica Tukiainen handed out pink shirts to the fans in Pauley.  Darxia Morris was also honored for passing the career 1,000 point mark during the Oregon trip by being presented with the gameball from the game it happened, much like Doreena Campbell earlier this season after the Notre Dame game.  Despite the rain, a fairly supportive crowd of 1750 showed up, with hopefully sunday's match gaining a larger crowd.  Unfortunately B D has other commitments this weekend and will not be able to provide pictures of the games.

The game opened up ugly for the Bruins, as UCLA committed 4 turnovers on their first 5 possessions.  Turnovers plagued the Bruins in the first half, though UCLA played under better control in the 2nd.  With the score tied at 2 at the first media timeout, Caldwell decided to put her bench in early to mix things up and see better offensive execution than the starters were showing.  After blowing the big lead at OSU, Nikki Caldwell had talked all week about the bench needing to step up and know their role and give the team the support they need, and step up they did.  Coming out of the timeout, UCLA went on a 9-1 run over the next minute and a half to get an 11-3 lead.  UCLA's lead in the first half got as large as 10 at 19-9, but then UCLA's offense went stagnant for 3 minutes as Cal cut the lead to 19-17 with 7 minutes left in the first half.  Rebekah Gardner and Nina Earl off the bench helped keep the bruins in the lead, and a basket by Christina Nzekwe at the buzzer gave UCLA a 29-21 halftime lead, as the bench outscored the starters 16-13 in the first half.  For the half, UCLA shot 40% to 33% for the Bears.

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Bumped. -BN

With UCLA's 58-48 victory over Oregon State yesterday, Nikki Caldwell has made history as the head coach of the UCLA women's basketball team.  With a record of 21-2, 11-1, Coach Caldwell simultaneously broke the UCLA record for best overall start to a season and best start to conference season:

Photo Credit: B D

The previous 20-2 record to start a season went back 34 years, while the previous 10-1 record to start conference play was performed in the late 90s.  Granted the Pac-10 appears to be not as competitive this year as last year, but the fact that in just 3 seasons Nikki Caldwell has taken a UCLA team languishing in mediocrity to national recognition (#9 in both polls) and breaking UCLA records left and right, is nothing short of amazing.

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Bumped. -BN

#9 UCLA headed up to Oregon this week to face off against two of the bottom half teams in the conference.  While Oregon has been reeling with a string of losses, they still remain the #1 scoring team in conference averaging about 80 points per game.  However, Oregon would be without pac-10 leading scorer Nia Jackson who averages 17 points a game.  Last year it took a heroic 31 point, 20 rebound performance from Jasmine Dixon to overcome a 16 point 2nd half deficit, but with Jackson out of the game, UCLA needed no heroics as they dominated the Ducks this time around.  With the game not being televised and no play by play available, this recap will be pretty short.

UCLA fell behind early 11-6 in the opening minutes, but after that UCLA blew the ducks out of the water.  An 18-2 run by the Bruins gave the team a 24-13 lead and UCLA cruised from there with their lead continually growing.  Oregon managed to get as close as 9 points with 6 minutes remaining in the half, but UCLA closed out the half on a 12-0 run to take a 44-23 lead into the locker room.  UCLA shot 43% for the half to 26% for the ducks, and went 11-13 from the line in the half to Oregon attempting just 1 free throw.

In the second half UCLA's shooting cooled off a bit but the defense stayed just as strong.  UCLA shot just 34% in the half though Oregon shot an even worse 24% while both teams went 11-15 from the line in the half.  With UCLA's defense not letting up, the UCLA lead got up as high as 29 at 73-44 holding Oregon to one basket in the final 10 minutes before closing out to a 75-48 victory. 

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Bumped. -BN

#9/10 UCLA kicked off the start of the second half of Pac-10 play this afternoon by traveling to the Galen Center to take on USC and their lovable "coach" Cooper.  UCLA flat out dominated USC at Pauley, but UCLA had never won at the Galen center during the regular season, and though I'm having trouble checking this fact, may have never won @ USC during the regular season since the 90s.  Despite the game taking place at the Galen Center, today we turned it into Pauley Pavilion East.  In a crowd of slightly over 2000, the crowd looked about 50/50 Bruins and Trojans, but in terms of volume and creating a home court atmosphere, it was a virtual UCLA home game.  I along with 90 other UCLA students and recent alumni from the band and spirit squad formed the student section with shirts provided by the womens basketball team to create that sea of blue you saw on tv.  It was great getting to the game over an hour early to get our preferred seats and go through all of our traditions like roll call and frisbee cheer, and endless 8-claps.  When the game started, it was nice to see not only Mariah Williams back from injury, but Thea Lemberger finally suited up to play, as she's sat out over 10 games, since before UCLA's trip to Hawaii back in December.

From 20110206WBB @ Galen

UCLA would not go on any game clinching runs in this game as the game was close throughout, never getting to a double digit lead.  USC struck first blood with their tall line up having early success inside, getting a layup for Christina Marinacci.  UCLA struck back taking a 6-3 lead.  Ashley Corral tied the game up with a 3 just for Doreena Campbell to hit one on the other end.  With 10 minutes left in the game, USC had gone on a small run to take their biggest lead of the game at 14-11.  A 3 by Darxia tied the game back up as part of an 8-0 run to give the Bruins the lead for the remainder of the game at 19-14.  On several occasions USC cut UCLA's lead to 1 point as the teams would trade baskets.  UCLA managed to get their lead as high as 8 in the first half at 37-29 with a minute left, but USC scored the last 4 points of the half to cut the lead to 37-33 at halftime.  Near the end of the first half Jasmine Dixon went down with what appeared to be a shoulder injury (i thought maybe it was dislocated) and she was taken out of the game, but returned for the last minute of the half and scored after coming in, so it was so impressive to see her play through the pain. 

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Bumped. We will also have a separate Super Bowl thread which will go up at 3 pm PST. -BN

It certainly has been a great week of sports hasn't it?  Howland's team swept this week when many were hoping for a split at best and this afternoon one of America's favorite events, the Super Bowl takes place.  Still, there is one very important game to be played before this can be the perfect week: It's time for UCLA-U$C basketball:

Photo Credit: b d (from truebluebruin24 post on UCLA's crushing of $C).

Nikki Caldwell leads her Bruins into the Galen Center today for a 1 p.m. PST showdown with Cooper's Clowns from SC.  The game will be televised on FSN for those of you wanting something to watch before the Super Bowl begins around 3:30, and for those of you in the area who want to see the team in action, the game is free and no tickets required, just walk right in! I'll be doing so with a group of about 90 die-hard fans, hoping to turn the Galen Center into Pauley Pavilion East.

The match up this year is much different from last year when both teams came in with identical records and fighting for the 2nd place spot behind Stanford.  UCLA is riding high with a 18-2, 8-1 record while USC comes in with a 13-7, 5-4 record.  Still, UCLA has never won at the Galen Center during the regular season and USC will come out fired up hoping to end UCLA's 3 game winning streak, while UCLA returns to the scene where Cooper first uttered his classless "F*** UCLA" comment hoping to humiliate the clown once again. 

GO BRUINS!

#10/11 UCLA entered Pauley today to close off the first half of the Pac-10 season by facing the 13-6, 4-4 Arizona Wildcats. If the score looks familiar, it is because just two days ago, UCLA defeated ASU by the same score of 70-60.  When the Bruins took the court, it was a case of good news bad news, as the good news was it seemed whatever limp Markel Walker had at the end of the game on Thursday was gone, but the bad was Mariah Williams wasn't even suited up for the game, which will be interesting to find out the reason for and duration of her not suiting up.

From 20110129WBB vs. AZ

The game actually started off pretty poorly for the Bruins, at least for a few minutes.  UCLA was shooting coldly, as on their first possession saw the bruins miss 3 shots, get the offensive rebound all 3 times, draw a foul, before finally turning the ball over.  Arizona had some hot shooting early on including two made 3-pointers as Arizona jumped out to a 6 point lead at 12-6, then 15-9 with 13:48 remaining.  At that point, UCLA's offense and defense came alive as the Bruins rattled off the next 12 points as part of a 25-4 run caped by a 3-pointer from Darxia Morris to open up a 34-19 Bruin lead with under 4 minutes in the half remaining.  The Bruins closed out the half with a 38-24 lead going into the lockerroom.  Arizona actually outshot the Bruins 45% to 43% in the first half, but the Bruins took 15 more shots in the half thanks to 16 offensive rebounds which led to 17 second chance points.

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Last night #10/11 UCLA took on a scrappy 12-5 ASU team that was tied for 3rd place in the conference.  ASU had been a long standing pac-10 power, usually being the #2 team behind stanford and until last season had won 7 straight against the Bruins.  However, ASU remains the same scrappy, defense oriented team without the level of talent they had for most of the 2000s. 

From 20110127WBB vs. ASU

The game started off slowly offensively for both teams, with the two teams playing to a 7-7 tie in the first 6+ minutes.  From this point on, UCLA took over the game and was never really in danger the rest of the way.  UCLA pulled away with a 10-0 run in which 4 different Bruins contributed baskets.  ASU cut the lead to 21-15 with 4 minutes left in the first half, though UCLA closed out the half on a 9-3 spurt to go into the lockerroom up 30-18, out-shooting the Sun Devils 54% to an 25% for the lady Devils.

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Bumped. Big win for Coach Caldwell's Bruins. -BN

After a disappointing performance against Stanford on Thursday where UCLA showed just how far the gap remains between Stanford and the rest of the Pac-10, it was crucial that UCLA quickly put that game behind them as a dangerous Cal team loomed today that has given UCLA several ugly, difficult, grind it out games of late.  Last year in the Bay Area, the teams played to a 12-8 halftime score in an ugly, defensive battle that the Bruins came out on top of.  Interestingly in this game Nikki played essentially only 7 players (Christina Nzekwe played just 1 minute so i'm not counting that), which is odd to see as Nikki often likes to go to her bench, and the fact that Mariah Williams and Nina Earl especially never played is very surprising.

Putting last year's offensive woes behind them, UCLA jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead in the first two minutes of the game.  UCLA maintained a 7-10 point lead for the half, with the lead getting as high as 32-19, before a lapse in the last 15 seconds of the half allowed Cal to close to 32-23 at half.  Despite UCLA turning the ball over 12 times in the first half, UCLA was shooting 55% in the half to 39% for Cal.  Neither team shot many freethrows in the first half, as UCLA attempted just 1 to 4 for Cal.  Darxia Morris led the Bruins at halftime with 11 points. 

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#8 UCLA traveled up to #4 Stanford tonight for their toughest game of the season that would not only determine who would be atop the pac-10 standings, but also to tell if UCLA has made the leap yet from the league of good/great teams to the top, elite echelon.  Unfortunately, the answer tonight was a "not yet" as Stanford steamrolled over the Bruins.  Stanford led from start to finish.  UCLA kept the game competitively close for the first 15 minutes, but a 10-2 run by Stanford to close the first half led to a 32-15 lead, that was extended by a 14-2 run to open the second half.  Stanford's lead got as high as 30 points as the Bruin offense struggled to score.  In the first half Jasmine had 7 points and no other Bruin had more than 2, while midway through the second half, only one Bruin besides Jasmine had scored more than 2 points, meaning that UCLA's normal balanced offense disappeared as the offense just bogged down.

Besides the difference in talent in the two teams, the difference in size is staggering.  UCLA has faced individual players bigger than their own, but Stanford had size advantages across the board.  UCLA's starting 5 run 5-8, 5-10, 5-11, 6-0, and 6-1.  Compare that to Stanford which runs 5-8, 6-0, 6-2, 6-3, and 6-4.  UCLA was giving up 2+ inches at 4 positions, and the effects were felt all over the court.  UCLA which prides its defense on trapping and creating turnovers, which then fuels the offense, forced only 15 turnovers on 10 steals, as Stanford was able to pass over the trap time and again, and Stanford dominated the boards 44-27, which lead to a 12-2 advantage on second chance points.  UCLA which normally dominates the paint, was outscored in the paint 32-12, and shot a woeful 29% for the game.  Much like last year, Stanford took their size advantage towards a huge freethrow discrepancy, going 20-24 compared to 6-12 for the Bruins.

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After a somewhat lack-luster effort on Thursday night against the Beavers, Nikki Caldwell was hoping that the #10 Bruins would came back out to Pauley today and put together another 40 minute effort on national television just like they did a week ago against the Trojans on TV.  What transpired was UCLA absolutely embarrassing the Ducks on national television in a game that was over way before halftime.  Interestingly to start the game Nina Earl started in place of Markel Walker, perhaps to take some pressure off of Markel or to return to when Markel was a scoring spark off of the bench earlier in the season.  The strategy would pay off today.  Also, Rebekah Gardner did not play, and was wearing a walking boot on her right leg, so hopefully she makes a quick recovery, especially with a trip to the Bay Area coming up.

From 20110115WBB vs. UO

UCLA started off strong and never looked back, leading the game from start to finish.  UCLA jumped out to a quick 9-2 run thanks to some strong jumpshots from the UCLA guards.  UCLA went into the first media timeout with an 11-6 lead.  By just after the last media timeout of the half, a 26-7 UCLA run, which featured an 18-0 run blew the game open at 37-13, as the high scoring ducks went over 6 and a half minutes without making a basket.  UCLA closed out the first half strong, going into the locker room up 45-18.

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UCLA entered a game where the focus of the team would surely be in question.  After an intense and emotional full 40 minute victory over USC, it would be interesting to see how UCLA got up for a game against a lower team in Oregon St.  After the game, Nikki lamented that the same level of effort wasn't there, but the Bruins were never seriously in danger, more so never put OSU away for a truly dominating victory.

From 20110113WBB vs OSU

The Bruins jumped out to a 22-7 lead to start the game in the first 13 minutes of the half.  UCLA was forcing turnovers left and right (16 beaver turnovers in the first half).  Yet, near the end of the half UCLA picked up fouls in droves, as over the last 6 plus minutes there were 8 fouls called on the Bruins to just 1 on the Beavers.  The Beavers used a 7-8 performance at the line to get the game back close, and UCLA seemed to be committing both silly fouls and getting a few calls against them (I swear, Jasmine Dixon in particular gets called for at least 1 questionable charge/block per game).  With OSU closing the first half on a 16-8 run, UCLA went into halftime up 30-23.  Darxia Morris paced the Bruins with 12 points in the first half, while Jasmine Dixon had only 3 and Markel Walker 0.

From 20110113WBB vs OSU

UCLA came out of the lockerroom focused and quickly used an 11-0 run over the first five and a half minutes, with 4 different Bruins being  a part of the scoring.  With the biggest lead of the game at 41-23, the Bruins got sloppy on the offensive end and timely 3 point shooting allowed OSU to make a 12-2 run to cut the lead to 8, and OSU would get as close as 7, but the Bruins clamped down defensively, holding the Beavers scoreless over the last 2:20 of the game to get out of Pauley with a 58-46 victory.  In the second half, UCLA (read: Jasmine Dixon) did a much better job getting the ball inside and drawing fouls to get themselves to the line, going 9-16 after just 1-2 from the line in the first half.  Photos of the game as always by the amazing B D.

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Bumped - GO BRUINS!

Today was not just a meeting between UCLA and USC, which alone would be enough to make the meeting exciting and important.  However, both teams were coming in on fire.  UCLA is off to their best start since 1976-1977, while USC came in on a 6 game winning streak and their best start since 1993-1994, with both teams being in the RPI top 20.  Nikki brought in Tyus Edney as an honorary coach for the game, and had him talk to the team about the rivalry.  It certainly seems the team listened.

From 20110108WBB vs USC

The first half was a low scoring, defensive affair.  USC grabbed their largest, and last lead of the game at 5-4.  USC kept the game close early with poor shooting but hitting a few early 3s by Jacki Gemelos, USC's player who at least came in with the reputation as having clear WNBA potential.  With the score tied at 8, USC went scoreless for 10 minutes, until Ashley Corral hit a 3 with 5:23 remaining to cut the UCLA lead to 16-11.  As good as UCLA's defense was in the first half, they too were struggling to score from the field during that stretch.  Over the last 5 minutes of the half, UCLA closed out on a 10-2 run to take at 26-13 lead into halftime.  At that point, Jasmine Dixon was carrying the scoring load for the Bruins as I believe no other Bruin had more than 4 points.  UCLA shot 36% in the half to a woeful 22.7% (5-22) performance from the Trojans.  For the half the refs really swallowed their whistles, as UCLA attempted just 4 freethrows to zero for the Trojans.  USC's leading scorer on the season, Briana Gilbreath had 0 points.

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