From David Wharton of the LA Times:

The Pacific 10 has approved several changes to UCLA's 2009-10 men's basketball season, starting with the conference's opening weekend.

The Arizona/Arizona State at UCLA/USC series has been switched so that Arizona State visits Pauley Pavilion on Dec. 31, Arizona on Jan. 2.

With the Bowl Championship Series title game scheduled for the Rose Bowl on Thursday, Jan. 7, the following week has been changed to a Wednesday-Saturday series. UCLA will travel to California on Jan. 6 and Stanford on Jan 9.

The Bruins will play host to Stanford on Feb. 4 and to Cal on Feb 6. The following week, the UCLA at USC game has been moved to Feb. 14.

Finally, in the 10th week of Pac-10 play, UCLA will visit Arizona on March 4 and go to Arizona State on March 6.

You can see the revised schedule here.

Not sure if these schedules changes will really help our young team next season. I wonder what kind of home crowd we are going to get against a well coached ASU team on December 31st (even though they are going to be without Harden this coming season). Sure hope some of the Den members come back to Westwood a little early from the Holidays.

Also, I am sure Howland is not all that thrilled to lose a day to prepare for probably two of the toughest road games this upcoming season against Cal. Either way, it is going to be a roller coaster season next year. As long as the young pups are coming along with steady improvement in Howland defense and play with the trademark Howland intensity and passion for the game, these changes are not going to matter all that much.

GO BRUINS.