UCLA will be ready for USC

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By SCOTT M. REID

LOS ANGELES ? UCLA guard Tyler Lamb insists he and his teammates will have no problem getting up to "host" USC at the Sports Arena on Wednesday night.

After all, Lamb said, "it's a huge game."

UCLA coach Ben Howland has warned his players not to take lightly a USC team that has won just one Pac-12 game this season. "If SC beat us tomorrow it will really be a feather in their cap after everything they've gone through," Howland said.

PAUL RODRIGUEZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Or at least the Bruins (14-11 overall, 7-6 Pac-12) are trying to convince themselves that it is.

As USC (6-20, 1-12) travels a block from campus to an area it called home for parts of five decades, the Trojans bring with them a four-game losing steak and a 0-6 record on the road in conference play. The Trojans just aren't losing, they're losing ugly.

USC hasn't had this much trouble scoring since Paul Hackett was on campus. The Trojans are last in the Pac-12 in seven offensive categories including scoring (53.3 points per game). Take away USC's lone Pac-12 victory, a 62-45 triumph over Utah on Jan. 28, and the Trojans are averaging less than 50 points a game in conference play.

UCLA manhandled the Trojans in every possible way in the teams' first meeting, a 66-47 Bruins romp Jan. 16 at Galen Center.

"I thought we played pretty well the first time around," said Bruins forward Travis Wear, who had 19 points in the first game. "Went over there, we beat them and hopefully we can take that same effort into tomorrow's matchup. I think we'll be all right."

UCLA doesn't exactly have a lot riding tonight either.

The Bruins, essentially out of the Pac-12 regular-season race since the opening weekend of league play, find themselves tied for sixth place in the standings two games out of the fourth spot which carries with it a first-round bye in what has become a must-win Pac-12 Tournament if the UCLA wants to avoid a first-round NIT game at Loyola Marymount.

In other words not exactly Westphal vs. Walton.

Which might be why UCLA coach Ben Howland had to go NC-17 this week in trying to inspire the Bruins.

"Can't say the things that he says," Bruins guard Lazeric Jones said, "but he's really big on what this game means."

In searching for a deeper meaning to a game devoid of big picture ramifications it simply comes down to this:

"You know we don't like them, and they don't like us," UCLA center Joshua Smith said.

And in a season full of moments of low points for a UCLA team, rock bottom would be a loss to the Trojans.

"If SC beat us tomorrow it will really be a feather in their cap after everything they've gone through," Howland said.

And the Bruins have not forgotten that USC embarrassed them only 14 months ago at Galen Center.

"We took a loss last year over at 'SC and it was tough to swallow," Lamb said.

Almost has tough as swallowing the notion that anything about tonight is truly "huge."

Contact the writer: sreid@ocregister.com

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