This is always a difficult game, and I don’t care about the margin of victory or whatever, its always a brawl and those guys play like its the biggest game of their season.

Howland’s decisions again were great
- starting dragovic – people need to start giving him some credit, he didn’t have a great percentage, but other players were having difficulty getting shots off. And that’s two big 3s he hit on the road down the stretch in pac10 games (oregon being the other)
- calling timeouts to keep his team focused on the details didn’t hurt us down the stretch

No disrespect to DC, who was rock solid as always but JH started things off early offensively. That gave us the cushion we needed when we started sleepwalking toward the end of the first half and beginning of the second half. And his D was absolutely on tonight, especially at the end of the game. He had only one foul and arguably that was a bad call by the SPTR. He showed poise and intensity and despite DeRozan’s good offensive game, Holiday was the better overall freshman player tonight.

Again it goes to CBH. Sometimes I wonder about those early timeouts but tonight it paid off handsomely, quieting to crowd, setting up our D, and just using that time to outcoach the opposing teams raving lunatic.

Free throws: USC 9/16 and UCLA 14/19. Based on the entire season, our FT% are very similar normally—USC 68, UCLA 67. We were outshot percentage-wise and outrebounded.

Of course, in the end a win is a win. But, to state the obvious, we are still just beginning to mesh as a team, and we can’t afford mental lapses against better teams.

dirty or not they played pretty good defense, had some players have great games, and we still won. Think this game does show that we will have problems facing teams with big inside presence but the reality is with the shooters we have on the team now we can beat anyone too. The three was a big part of this game, as we throttled them on defense, it seemed like we were down by five and suddenly we were winning.

We’re winning and there’s still a lot of upside. Great character-building game. What I like about this team is the scoring versatility. JH is getting better and better. Agree that he was very solid tonight, particularly defensively.

Had a buddy watching the game with me and I’m trying to convert him into a Bruin fan. :) Tonight’s performance helped BIG TIME.

Regarding the game. I don’t think their is a player in America that makes a coach sleep better at night than DC. He is as cool as can be while he scans the defense with the shot clock running down. Love the way DC plays. So smart and collected at all times.

Jrue is coming along but Drago was HUGE tonight. He played decent defense and even got some clutch rebounds besides the critical 3’s he hit.

The young guys are learning to win in hostile environments and this team will get better as well. 3 wins in the Pac and all on the road. Just beautiful. Especially when we put it to all the sucsters in their house.

A shut-out for the Women’s Bball team who started the great day with a win against the Trojans at Pauley. It was my first Women’s Basketball team and Paule was ROCKING.

I’m still worried about our defense – we clearly lacked interior defense for much of the game (until the last 5-10 mins where our guards got more involved inside, esp. JH) and saw a lot of USC players get nearly uncontested dunks and layups.

Also, giving up 49% FG to USC (and almost as high against Oregon) isn’t going to work – we need to contest shots better as well, as those numbers will not hold up well if they stay that way all year

While recent history tells us USC will drop a minimum of 2 to 3 conference games a year they should probably win to poor performances, they always seem to give our guys their best shot. They come in prepared and play energetic tough defense, and this year, in contrast to seasons past, they didn’t give away a ton of possessions and/or points by losing their poise (with the notable exception of Taj Gibson’s fourth foul). So I was really encouraged by several aspects of the game tonight, including:

Only one offensive rebound allowed in the second half, because of a strong collective rebounding performance, which the Bruins are probably going to need every time out due to their lack of a physically dominant post player.

Jrue Holliday’s best performance yet in a competitive game. Especially his confidence on the offensive end. Hopefully that high bank over Gibson in the second half will inspire him to be more assertive on the drive because I think teams are really starting to overplay their defense against our jump shooters.

And, aside from cratering his FT% to under 94%, Darren Collison continues to be brilliant. I think it’s hard for people to realize how well he’s playing because of the deliberate pace UCLA plays at, but I think he’s every bit as effective and important offensively for the Bruins as Stephen Curry is for Davidson. If he keeps it up, he belongs in the conversation for Pac-10 and National Player of the Year.

Demar Derozan really looked good too. Which is nice I think, because this game probably opens and closes his home career against UCLA, and Trojan fans just aren’t going to be able to get tickets for his final shot at UCLA in a few weeks.

I was at the game and noted the following:

1) It as great entertainment throughout, and particularly throughout the second half when the game was in doubt every second. There’s nothing like beating the Trojans.
2) We had a chance to blow the game open with a 9 point lead, but our discipline dissappeared for about ten minutes when every player tried to do it individually, instead of sticking to the offense.
3) Our defense gives up a few easy baskets a game, because we double team the low post every time, which requires players to scramble. This is a cost benefit issue – do we get many more stops and turnovers with this strategy as compared to easy baskets. The Lakers have the same issue.
4) I am not a Dragovic fan, but his threes built the early lead and his last three was a huge dagger – a key to victory. His defense is much better and his scoring potential apparently gave him an edge over Keefe, who is more my kind of player.
5) JS was okay, as opposed to terrible. I no longer expect a great game from JS, which is too bad.
6) JH is always good, but the Bruins will not really be top ten team until JH becomes a bigger offensive threat. His bank shot at the end of the game was hopefully a glimpse of what he’s going to be like.
7) DC is the difference maker on this team and separates us from the rest of the PAC 10. JS should stand out as a top quality player who has 4/5 years of college experience, but I don’t think we can count on it.
8) DG is coming on. We’ll need him to improve (hopefully the way KL improved) as the season goes on to go deep in NCAA’s.
9) AA reverted to his form for the past three years in this game, regarding catching passes under the basket. He wants to shoot before he catches it, and dropped several passes for easy dunks. AA is the most improved player from last year, but the Taj Gibson factor had him antsy, and produced a below average performance. I expect him to play better against other Pac 10 teams.

I was at the game and noted the following:

1) It as great entertainment throughout, and particularly throughout the second half when the game was in doubt every second. There’s nothing like beating the Trojans.
2) We had a chance to blow the game open with a 9 point lead, but our discipline dissappeared for about ten minutes when every player tried to do it individually, instead of sticking to the offense.
3) Our defense gives up a few easy baskets a game, because we double team the low post every time, which requires players to scramble. This is a cost benefit issue – do we get many more stops and turnovers with this strategy as compared to easy baskets. The Lakers have the same issue.
4) I am not a Dragovic fan, but his threes built the early lead and his last three was a huge dagger – a key to victory. His defense is much better and his scoring potential apparently gave him an edge over Keefe, who is more my kind of player.
5) JS was okay, as opposed to terrible. I no longer expect a great game from JS, which is too bad.
6) JH is always good, but the Bruins will not really be top ten team until JH becomes a bigger offensive threat. His bank shot at the end of the game was hopefully a glimpse of what he’s going to be like.
7) DC is the difference maker on this team and separates us from the rest of the PAC 10. JS should stand out as a top quality player who has 4/5 years of college experience, but I don’t think we can count on it.
8) DG is coming on. We’ll need him to improve (hopefully the way KL improved) as the season goes on to go deep in NCAA’s.
9) AA reverted to his form for the past three years in this game, regarding catching passes under the basket. He wants to shoot before he catches it, and dropped several passes for easy dunks. AA is the most improved player from last year, but the Taj Gibson factor had him antsy, and produced a below average performance. I expect him to play better against other Pac 10 teams.