Tradition-rich Bruins ready for tourney run

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Mar 14, 2007 | by Jared Eborn Deseret Morning News

OGDEN -- No one was expecting an easy game, but UCLA? The 2006 national runner-up team? The Bruins, which hold the best RPI in college basketball and have a gazillion national championships already?

Yes, those Bruins.

And Weber State, if it hopes to be the bracket-busting darlings it has gotten used to being, will need to play the best game in its history.

"We'll be outmatched pretty much everywhere," WSU coach Randy Rahe said. "UCLA is UCLA for a reason. It might take the perfect game to beat them."

The Bruins lost to Florida in the NCAA title game last season and return many of the players that got them there. 6-foot-5 swingman Aaron Afflalo averages 16.7 points per game and is the Pac-10 player of the year. Darren Collison averages 12.6 points and 5.0 assists per game and "might be the best point guard in the country," Rahe said.

Throw in players like 6-5 Josh Shipp, 6-9 Lorenzo Mata and 6-8 Luc Richard Mbaha Moute and the Bruins are as deep and talented as any team the Wildcats have seen at least since they faced North Carolina in 1999.

That game, as Weber State fans are quick to remember, was a victory for the underdog Wildcats.

Beating UCLA's tough defense, however, will take precision on offense and few, if any, wasted opportunities. Looking back at what got them to the title game a year ago, Collison said the Bruins will tighten up their defense.

"We have to go back to our roots, go back to our defense," Collison told the Los Angeles Daily News. "We've been allowing teams a little over 45 percent from the field. That's not our game. We like to hold teams under 35 percent. We have to bring back that mind set, and I think we have. This team is capable of doing that. We just can't get away from that."

Weber State was among the best shooting teams in the Big Sky at 49.3 percent. In the conference title game, WSU shot nearly 70 percent in the first half before 'cooling off' with a 55-percent effort the final 20 minutes.

That will be difficult to replicate against the athletic Bruins.

Perhaps fortunately the Wildcats are running into a UCLA team which has lost two straight and slipped out of a presumed No. 1 seed. The Bruins may have had their confidence shaken a little bit, but might also be hungry to prove doubters wrong.

"It would've been nice to be a No. 1 (seed), but in a sense it's really irrelevant," Afflalo said. "We're still going to our same region, where we'll have our support system."

For Howland, who played for two seasons at Weber State under coach Neil McCarthy from 1978-80, the NCAA tournament is beginning to resemble a trip down memory lane.

First, he gets to play his old school -- the one where he was named the team's defensive MVP twice, won two Big Sky championships and led the Wildcats to two of their 14 NCAA tournament appearances. It's also where he met a cheerleader, Kim, who became his wife.

Then, if the Bruins beat WSU, Howland will coach, possibly, against Gonzaga -- the school where he got his first coaching job and earned a master's degree.

In the third round, if the stars align and the higher seeds win, UCLA will face Pittsburgh in the Sweet 16. Howland coached the Panthers before moving on to UCLA.

First, though, is Weber State.

E-mail: jeborn@desnews.com