FanPost

Ben Ball Roundup: A Hungover Blowout

Sounds like Ben Ball warriors were more than understanding about how everyone from Bruins Nation ... was ... uhm ... a little hungover since Sunday. Here is the DN report on Ben Ball's 61-38 sleepy dismantling of UCR:

Most of those who came to campus on an already sleepy Sunday afternoon were reveling in the Bruins' football team ending archrival USC's seven-year winning streak a day earlier.

Factor in that top-ranked UCLA was facing extremely outmanned UC Riverside, which added to the lazy atmosphere with a slow-down style, and even the Bruins admitted to a lack of energy inside Pauley Pavilion during their 61-38spanking of the Highlanders.

"During warmups I was looking at the crowd and there were like no people here," said UCLA junior center Lorenzo Mata, who had 10 points and seven rebounds. "Once the game started, more people started to come. There was obviously a hangover from the football team, with its great win over USC."

UCLA, which is 6-0 and No.1 in the Associated Press poll, should move into the top slot in today's coaches poll as well because Ohio State lost to North Carolina last week. But dangling that carrot in a dud matchup wasn't nearly enough to provide incentive.

"It was an emotional day for the whole Bruin family (Saturday), so we kind of expected that," said UCLA junior guard Arron Afflalo, who scored a game-high 13 points. "Top it off with the style of UC Riverside, and it made it even tougher for our fans. Hopefully, they won't be swayed to leave us. We'll come back and get it going again." and from the LA Times: For example, in Sunday's 61-38 victory over the Highlanders at Pauley Pavilion, Riverside was committed to playing as slowly and safely as possible on offense. The score was 26-16 at halftime and the feeling was that half of the 8,397 fans were embracing a post-celebratory nap after UCLA's football upset of USC. So it paid to focus on the small things. I watched about 15-20 mins of the action in first and second halves while doing some of my weekend errands. Honestly my mind was all wrapped up in football. And when I was not clicking on the play buttons on the YouTube videos, I was just replaying Saturday night over and over in my head. But from what I saw from the hoops team:
  • Josh needs to play under more control,
  • Our FT shooting is still atrocious,
  • I liked what I saw from James Keefe (still think he is going to turn out as one of the better frosh in the Pac-10 before this year is over),
  • Mata is looking comfortable on offense (at least looking so much smoother than last year,
  • Luc is Luc.
I am really nitpicking here. I can't really get on the Pauley crowd for being sleepy. All their heads were probably in cloud 9, just like rest of us, here on BN.

GO BRUINS.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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