A Total Team Victory For Ben Ball Warriors

"There was a moment, about nine minutes before game's end, when it occurred to the sellout crowd at Maples Pavilion that Stanford could beat UCLA. It came after a flurry of missed follow shots, and finally a short left-side runner from Mitch Johnson, and the crowd erupted with the kind of noise a UCLA-Stanford game should always have.

And then it died - swiftly, surely, and irrevocably. The Cardinal, a prime-time team for much of the last 15 years, found out that there's prime, and then there's prime.

UCLA re-established its place at the top of the contentious Pacific 10 Conference food chain with a 76-67 win that actually looked like feeding time for the family boa constrictor. The Bruins consumed the Cardinal with their typical remorselessness, first exhausting and then out-executing Stanford down the long and seemingly tedious stretch..."

"...In other words, there was nothing egregious about Stanford's performance. It was just what happens with UCLA because the Bruins have Shipp, and Alfred Aboya, and Luc-Richard Mbah a Moute and Darren Collison - the nucleus of the team that has gone to successive Final Fours. Indeed, the highly touted freshman Kevin Love (15 points, 7 rebounds) all but disappeared into the many basket-level scrums with the Lopez twins, to be replaced on the list of UCLA players you will remember from this game by scandalously overlooked sophomore Russell Westbrook (15 points, 6 assists in 35 minutes)."

Collison still seems bothered by injury, but played explosively when needed.  Should shoot more threes IMO.  Maybe waiting to be 100%.

Westbrook as good as DC right now, stronger, nothing but up for him.  The two of them [RW and DC] together is one of the best combos in the country easily. A thing of beauty at times.

Love fouled out the Twin towers, played within himself, owned the middle on offense, played solid D, stepped up the 2d half by going to the free throw line much more with aggressive moves.  Still seems tired.  Truly believe he will be Number 1 pick IF he stays another year and bulks up.  Great team player.  [I know I'm dreaming.]

Luc.  Love his effort and defense.  His shooting is much, much better.  A real shooting option now IMO.

Aboya.  Made a three and monster dunk, I think against the zone.  Still a lightning rod for fouls, I think often unfairly.  Just a stud.  Will be a strong role player in the NBA.

Mata.  Just a stud.  Love every minute he plays.

Stanford is a great team and they played great tonight at home.  Really.  They did not lose.  They did not choke.  They got beat by a better team, period, that plays unbelievable defense  and fights for every board.

When they played up tempo on offense tonight, the Bruins were almost a ballet at times, scoring threes easily in rhythm.  I know Coach primarily likes them to slow down and set up for good shots, but I think he's leaning towards letting these guys step on the gas more to get a nice cushion once and a while.  This team can shoot, baby.

What a team.  What a coach.

I was interested to see how Love would fair and he more than held his own. He is clearly not 6-10 and maybe even shorter than 6-9 (does anyone else think he looks smaller than Mata?) but he went toe-to-toe with two significantly bigger players and outplayed both.

Love's strength and smarts more than make up for his physical shortcomings and his presence inside is what will put the Bruins over the hump this year. I hope so because IMO he's gone after this year no matter if he's a lottery pick or not.