UCLA Back to Full Strength to Face Arizona
Feb. 16, 2007
TUCSON, AZ -
DATE: Feb. 17, 2007
SITE: McKale Center (14,545)
TIP-OFF: 10:07 a.m. PST
TALENT: Dick Enberg (play-by-play), Bill Raftery (analyst)
RADIO: AM 570
TALENT: Chris Roberts (play-by-play), Don MacLean (analyst)
SIRIUS RADIO: Channel 147
SERIES: UCLA leads 42-31
#5 UCLA vs. #19 ARIZONA
This is the 74th meeting between UCLA and Arizona with the Bruins leading the series 42-31, including winning the last four games. After losing four consecutive games to the Wildcats in 2004 and 2005, the Bruins swept Arizona last year, including winning a semifinal matchup in the Pacific-10 Tournament 71-59. In that game Darren Collison led the Bruins with 15 points. In last year's 84-73 home win over Arizona (Feb. 4), the Bruins were led by Arron Afflalo's career-high 27 points. Afflalo also had 22 points in UCLA's 85-79 win at Arizona on Jan. 5, 2006. Earlier this year, UCLA defeated the Wildcats 73-69 in Pauley Pavilion on Jan. 20. UCLA was led by Afflalo's 22 points while Collison chipped in 14 and Michael Roll came off the bench to score 13 points. Arizona was led by Ivan Radenovic's 20 points. Mustafa Shakur added 12 while Marcus Williams had 11 points and 11 boards. Bruin head coach Ben Howland sports an overall record of 4-5 against Arizona. Lute Olson is in his 24th season as the head coach at Arizona.
UCLA is currently ranked fifth in the Associated Press poll and seventh in the ESPN/USA Today poll. Earlier this year, UCLA spent six weeks (Nov. 27-Jan. 1) ranked first in the AP poll and five weeks (Dec. 4-Jan. 1) atop the Coaches poll. UCLA has spent more time (134 weeks) at number one in the history of the AP poll than any other program.
HOWLAND REACHES MILESTONE VICTORY
UCLA Head Coach Ben Howland won his 250th game this week with the 70-65 home win over 19th-ranked USC at home on Feb. 7, 2007. Howland, now in his 13th season as a Division I head coach, is averaging 19.2 wins per season with still more games to play in 2006-07. Equally impressive is the fact that he won his 200th victory just last year on Nov. 19 in a 56-37 home win over Delaware State.
RISE AND SHINE ... YOU'RE BURNIN' DAYLIGHT
The Bruins are no strangers to early morning wake-up calls. UCLA is 3-2 this season in games that tip-off prior to noon. The Bruins handed then sixth-ranked Texas A&M a 65-62 loss in an 11:30 a.m. tip-off at Honda Center in the John R. Wooden Classic on Dec. 9. UCLA later crushed Michigan 92-55 with an 11:00 a.m. tip in Pauley Pavilion on Dec. 23. Then the Bruins lost an 11:00 a.m. game 68-66 at 16th-ranked Oregon on Jan. 6. UCLA won a morning game, 65-64 at USC, in an 11:30 a.m. tip-off at Galen Center on Jan. 13. The Bruins lost their last early morning game, a 70-65 setback at West Virginia on CBS (Feb. 10). The Arizona game (Feb. 17) is the last early morning game of the regular season, slated for a 10:07 a.m. (PST) tip-off.
HOME SWEET HOME
UCLA has won the last 18 games at home, including the last 12 Pacific-10 Conference games. The last Pac-10 team to beat the Bruins in Pauley Pavilion was 13th-ranked Washington, which defeated the 11th-ranked Bruins 69-65 on Jan. 14, 2005. The last team to beat UCLA at home was 12th-ranked West Virginia, which posted a 60-56 victory over the 18th-ranked Bruins on Jan. 21, 2006.
AFFLALO LEADS PAC-10 IN DOUBLE-FIGURE SCORING STREAK
UCLA junior Arron Afflalo has scored in double figures in 24 straight games, the longest streak of his career, on the team and in the Pacific-10 Conference. Sophomore Darren Collison saw his streak (12 games) come to an end with only four points in the win at Cal (Jan. 25). Sophomore Josh Shipp also saw a 12-game streak get snapped when he scored nine points in the win over Arizona (Jan. 20).
JOHN R. WOODEN AWARD ANNOUNCES MIDSEASON TOP 30 CANDIDATES
UCLA junior Arron Afflalo has been named to the John R. Wooden Award Midseason All-American team. Composed of the top 30 players who will compete for this season's player of the year award, the midseason list is based on individual player performance and team records during the first half of the season.
COLLISON NAMED AS A BOB COUSY AWARD FINALIST
Sophomore point guard Darren Collison is one of 17 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award, as announced by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in conjunction with The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., on Feb. 1, 2007. The Bob Cousy Award is an honor presented annually to the nation's top collegiate point guard. Nominees for the Bob Cousy Award presented by The Hartford were solicited through the College Sports Information Directors of America (COSIDA) and the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). A committee comprised of CoSIDA members narrowed the field to 17 student athletes from all three divisions of men's NCAA college basketball. The group of 17 will be reviewed and a winner chosen by a Blue Ribbon selection committee comprised of Hall of Famers, Mr. Cousy, college coaches, media members, and a vote representing the top vote getter in the on-line poll at www.cousyaward.com. The committee is comprised of Hall of Famers including Bob Cousy, Lute Olson and Jim Calhoun, college coaches from Divisions I, II and III, members of the media and additional college basketball experts and celebrities. The 2007 Bob Cousy Award presented by The Hartford winner will be announced at the NCAA Men's Final Four in Atlanta on April 2. Previous winners of the award include Dee Brown of Illinois (2006), Raymond Felton from North Carolina (2005) and Jameer Nelson from St. Joseph's University (2004).
UCLA TO HONOR 1967 CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM
UCLA will celebrate the 40th anniversary of its 1967 NCAA Championship team on Saturday, Feb. 24, when the Bruins host Stanford. The team will have a pregame reception and be honored at halftime. Led by legendary Bruin head coach John Wooden, the '67 National Champions were 30-0 overall (the second time in school history UCLA recorded a perfect 30-0 record, matching the Bruins' first NCAA title team in 1964) and it was the Bruins' third NCAA title under Wooden (1964-65-67) in four years. UCLA was led by sophomore center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor), who earned All-American honors. He averaged 29.0 points a game, set an NCAA record by shooting .667 from the field and set the school single-game scoring record with 61 points in a 100-78 victory over Washington State on Feb. 25, 1967 in Pauley Pavilion. He also recorded UCLA's second-best (56) and third-best (45) single-game scoring marks that season. Joining Abdul-Jabbar in the starting lineup were - at guards, junior captain Michael Warren (12.7 ppg) and sophomore All-Conference Lucius Allen (15.5 ppg), and at the forwards, sophomores, Ken Heitz (6.1 ppg) and Lynn Shackelford (11.4 ppg). Also on the coaching staff were varsity assistant Jerry Norman, head freshman coach Gary Cunningham and the trainer was Bruin Hall of Famer Ducky Drake. Like this year's Bruin squad, there was not a senior on the 1966-67 roster.