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DevilsDigest.com, a part of the Scout.com network, reported that Crenshaw High wide receiver Kemonte Bateman -– who had committed to attend UCLA –- made an oral commitment to attend Arizona State after a weekend visit. Bateman was one of five Crenshaw players who visited Tempe, and he and cornerback Clint Floyd both made commitments to the Sun Devils.
Bateman was one of five wide receivers who had committed to UCLA for next year. One of those is Kevin Walker, son of Bruin defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker.
It’s basketball time! The highly ranked Bruin men’s basketball team will start its season this week:
Cross-country:
>> Last week: The Bruin men enjoyed a fourth-place finish in the Pac-10 Conference, UCLA’s best finish in coach Eric Peterson’s eight years. Senior Austin Ramos finished fourth overall, and every one of the 10 Bruin runners had a lifetime best over the 8,000-meter course. The Bruin women, however, finished last in the conference and even lost five points in the Lexus Gauntlet against USC, which finished eighth.
>> Next week: The Bruin men are off and will compete in the NCAA West Regional on Nov. 10 in Eugene, Ore.
Football:
>> Last week: The Bruins were humbled, 27-7, at Washington State and outgained, 546-265. Khalil Bell and Brandon Breazell were injured during the first half and did not return to the game
>> This week: UCLA (5-3, 4-1 in the Pac-10) travels to Tuscon to take on Arizona (3-6, 2-4), which enjoyed a miracle comeback to beat Washington, 48-41, on Saturday in Seattle. The last Bruin trip to Arizona, in 2005, resulted in a 52-14 loss.
Men’s basketball:
>> Last week: The Bruins continued practice and were picked No. 2 in the nation in the first ESPN coaches' poll.
>> This week: UCLA will open its exhibition season Friday with a game at Pauley Pavilion against Azusa Pacific.
Men’s soccer:
>> Last week: No. 24 UCLA (8-5-2, 4-1-1 in the Pac-10) won its fourth straight game with a 2-1 win Friday night over Oregon State at Drake Stadium. David Estrada and Maxwell Griffin scored to give UCLA a 2-0 lead at halftime.
>> This week: The Bruins will play Washington at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Drake Stadium, and then head to the Bay Area to play at Stanford on Friday night and at California next Sunday.
Men’s water polo:
>> This week: No. 3 UCLA (15-5, 2-2 conference) plays No. 1 USC (13-0, 4-0 conference) at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center. The Bruins will have one game this coming week, a nonconference game Saturday at UC San Diego.
Women’s basketball:
>> This week: UCLA will open its 2007-08 season with an exhibition game at 7 p.m. Thursday against Team Concept at Pauley Pavilion. Senior forward Lindsey Pluimer will return along with two other starters and the No. 4-ranked recruiting class in the nation.
Women’s soccer:
>> Last week: The top-ranked Bruins (12-1-2) dispatched ninth-ranked USC, 2-0, on Friday night at Drake Stadium. The game drew a strong crowd of 3,345 for a doubleheader with the men’s and women’s teams, and Lauren Cheney and Kara Lang scored second-half goals to run UCLA’s unbeaten streak to 35 matches at home.
>> This week: The Bruins face Arizona State on Friday night and Arizona on Sunday afternoon, both at Drake Stadium.
Women’s volleyball:
>> Last week: No. 7 UCLA (16-6, 6-5 Pac-10) had a rough weekend, losing to No. 3-ranked Stanford in four games Friday night at Pauley Pavilion, and to No. 9 California in five games Saturday night.
>> This week: The Bruins will play USC on Friday at Galen Center. The Bruins defeated USC, 3-1, at Pauley Pavilion on Oct. 5.
The Bruins are the ultimate holiday party guest: No one gives gifts like UCLA. The Bruins have provided first victories of the season to Utah and Notre Dame, and the first conference win of the season (and first in six weeks) to Washington State today.
Because the Bruins lost, 27-7, to the last-place team in the conference, they have their postseason fate — unbelievably — still in their own hands. If they win out, they would be conference co-champions (8-1) and to go to the Rose Bowl. But:
>> The offense, even with what appeared to be a slowed Pat Cowan at quarterback, did nothing after the three-play, 62-yard, first-series touchdown drive. Down only 10-7 at halftime, UCLA’s second-half possessions resulted in five straight punts, losing the ball on downs at the WSU 14 and then two plays to end the game. In the second half, UCLA ran 32 plays for 90 net yards, a pathetic 2.8 yards a play.
>> Credit Washington State for keeping the pressure on and believing it could win. It’s the third time the Cougars have ended a four-game losing streak by beating UCLA. WSU is now 4-1 against Karl Dorrell. The Cougars exhausted the Bruin defense, piled up 98 plays for 546 yards and held the ball for 37:55 to 22:05. It’s the second-most offensive plays ever run by a Washington State team in the school's history . Another shock: WSU had been outscored 48-17 in the fourth quarter this season, but beat up the Bruins, 14-0, in the final frame.
>> The Bruin defense, although heroic, was beaten up by the Cougar offensive line. Tackles Brigham Harwell and Jess Ward and middle linebacker Christian Taylor were obviously missed. WSU gained 275 yards rushing; the previous high against the Bruins this season was 124. The previous high in total offense allowed was 435 to BYU.
>> Bruin defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker has said many times in many forums that in order for a defense to be effective throughout a game, it needs to get the opposition off the field on third down, but also needs rest. The Bruin defense held WSU to 8-18 on third downs, but, In the second half, the Bruin offense had "drives" of 6-3-4-3-3 plays before a 10-play drive that came with the score 7-20 late in the fourth quarter.
>> Leading individual rushers: WSU — Tardy, 36-212 (career high); McCall 12-54. UCLA — Bell, 4-67; Markey, 15-41.
>> Leading individual passers: WSU — Brink, 28-46, 271 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception; UCLA — P. Cowan, 18-37, 169 yards, 0 touchdowns, 0 interceptions.
>> Leading individual receivers: WSU — Gibson, 7-55; Collins, 6-71. UCLA — J. Cowan, 5-56; Austin, 5-45.
Can it get worse? You bet. Arizona suddenly woke up and scored 22 straight points on the road to beat Washington, 48-41, in Seattle. Karl Dorrell-coached UCLA teams are 3-1 against Arizona, but 1-1 in Tucson, winning, 24-21, in 2003 and losing, 14-52, in 2005.
With the defense on the field almost continuously in the second half, Washington State’s 20-7 lead with half of the fourth quarter to play just about puts the game out of reach. The Bruins seem to have no offense whatsoever. If the score holds, Bruin Coach Karl Dorrell will be 1-4 against the Cougars.
>> UCLA came into the game giving up 79.6 yards a game. Dwight Tardy had 211 yards and his 51-yard touchdown run was the final insult . . . not to the Bruin defense, which was on the field for a sick 98 plays, but to the Bruin offense, which didn’t show up for its last 64 plays.
>> Yards in the quarter: Washington State 192, UCLA 67, with the final tally: WSU 546, UCLA 265.
Final score: Washington State 27, UCLA 7
Washington State has 12 plays to UCLA’s six to start the quarter before WSU’s timeout with 7:53 to go. How long can the defense hold on?
>> The stop of WSU at the Bruin 1 on three downs and Kevin Brown's field-goal block were nothing short of heroic. But will the offense ever score again?
>> Yards in the quarter: Washington State 100, UCLA 23! Plays in the game are 72-46 and TOP is 27:26 to 17:34. Terrible.
End of the quarter: Washington State 13, UCLA 7
The Bruins have run only 16 plays to 36 for Washington State, and although the defense stopped the Cougars on fourth down at the UCLA 33, the defense needs a rest. Where’s the run game?
>> UCLA’s drive after the stop of Washington State on downs is just what the doctor ordered for the defense: 13 plays, 41 yards and 3:34 on the clock, but a missed field goal by Kai Forbath.
>> The defense, well-rested, played well during the remainder of the quarter. Now, can the Bruins find any offense? This looks like the Oregon State game again, against a team that’s not as good as the Beavers, but is playing very well.
>> Yards in the quarter: WSU 119, UCLA 79; so for the half, WSU had 254 yards (!) to 175 for the Bruins. Washington State had 22 plays in the second quarter to UCLA’s 20. But take out Bell’s 50-yard scamper to open the game, the Bruins have 34 plays for 125 yards, a 3.7 average. WSU is averaging 5.3.
End of the half: Washington State 10, UCLA 7
Nice start with Khalil Bell’s 50-yard touchdown run on the first series. That’s news because in the last three games in Pullman, Wash., the Bruins trailed after one quarter by 21-0 (2005), 14-0 (2003) and 10-0 (2001).
But it didn’t last long.
>> Just as always: WSU kicker Romeen Abdollmahammadi has a seasonal best against the Bruins. His previous best was 38 yards; now, a 41-yarder to give the Cougars the lead.
>> Yards in the quarter: WSU 135, UCLA 96; and the Cougars ran 26 plays to UCLA’s 15.
End of the quarter: WSU 10, UCLA 7
If UCLA Coach Ben Howland ever decides to give up basketball, he’d have a promising future as a play-by-play announcer. "In the last five minutes of practice," he said to open a call with reporters tonight, "Kevin Love looks like he was kicked in the [left] shin and it had an immediate bruising, so it’s a pretty serious contusion. He’s getting a precautionary X-ray; the doctor looked at it and didn’t think it was anything, but just to be sure, we X-ray everything.
"Every time one of these guys goes down, my heart ends up in my throat. You just never know. But I’m pretty confident he’s going to be fine. He walked out on his own, he walked up the stairs to the training room, so I think he’s going to be fine."
Howland pointed out that fully half of today’s practice was noncontact, but "it’s a physical game, you see it everywhere around the country."
Asked about whether he’s solidified a plan as to who the starters will be, Howland said "nope."
"I can tell you that Darren Collison will start," he said, laughing. "I think Luc [Richard Mbah A Moute] will start. I think there’s a solid chance that Josh Shipp will start.
"We’re going to have the ability to play a lot of different ways. I am going to play Luc at the 3 [small forward] this year, whether or not he starts there or we start Lorenzo [Mata-Real] or we start Alfred [Aboya], or start Luc at the 4 [power forward] or [Michael] Roll or Russell [Westbrook], all those are options.
"I’ve got to figure this out; we’ve got two weeks. That doesn’t mean it won’t change this year. I’ve got to figure out what team blends best well, what team is going to get us off to good starts. There’s one team that might be the best team offensively, there’s one that might be the best team defensively, but the bottom line is Collison, Shipp, Luc and Lorenzo, along with Roll, Russell, Alfred and Kevin, those guys are all going to get a lot of minutes."
The practices have been a bust, even with so many returning players. "We’re putting in new sets. We’ve got a lot of things to learn, but we still have to get back to our basics on how we play defense and get back in transition. We’ve got a lot to do in terms of press offenses, getting ready for any kind of junk defense early in the season. I mean you never know, we have to be ready for a box-and-one or a triangle-and-two and all the different kinds of things that can be thrown at you in the early part of the season.
"It’s so hard. Today was our 13th practice; we don’t have an out-of-bounds play in yet. We don’t have a zone play in yet. So we’ve got a lot of things to do between now and two weeks from today."
Howland also thought the Bruins would be much improved against zone defenses. "We’re going to be a good team against a zone; we’ve got very good passers. Today, Luc and Kevin were playing together at the 4 and 5 spot, and it was really fun to watch because they’re two very good passers and guys who can really catch and pass. So we’re going to be a good passing team and a very unselfish team, and a team that’s going to have very good balance in scoring. I’m hoping that we could have as many as five guys average in double figures."
Howland said that Mata-Real didn’t practice today and was ready to give the entire team some rest. "We’re going to have one more practice tomorrow and then take two days off and get healed up a little bit, and then start up again on Tuesday."
The Bruin coach was inducted into the Boys & Girls Clubs' Hall of Fame last night at a gala at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. "I was really, really touched by that. It was quite an honor for me and was really special because the Boys Club was where I learned how to play basketball and fell in love with the game of basketball there in Goleta. There were 850 people and we raised $1.4 million for the Boys Clubs and Girls Clubs, and they are so important for the communities. We had about 15 people from Santa Barbara who came down, from Goleta, and they were all really, really touched and excited about what a wonderful evening it was."
Howland’s social calendar is still quite crowded. On Saturday, about 40 former players will watch practice and both the alumni and current team will gather in the afternoon at Howland’s home for a barbecue. It will be Howland's third annual alumni barbecue.
The UCLA football team is 5-2 overall, has a 4-0 mark in Pac-10 play and a seven-game conference win streak heading into Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. game at 2-5 Washington State. The Cougars are 0–4 in conference play and have lost four games overall.
A walk-over, right?
No.
Remember Utah? Notre Dame? How about last year’s game at the Rose Bowl, when the Cougars thrashed the Bruins, 37-15? Or that UCLA has lost five of its last six to Washington State and four of five in Pullman. Or that the last two times that WSU has had a four-game losing streak going into a game with the Bruins, the Cougars won, in 1997 and 2004. And:
>> WSU is 2-5, but 2-1 at home, beating San Diego State, 45-17, and Idaho, 45-28, and then losing a close game to Arizona State, 23-20, on Oct. 6. The Cougars have been pasted on the road, losing all four of its away games by at least 21 points.
>> The Bruins need to keep quarterback Patrick Cowan upright, but the Cougars have 10 sacks in their last two games against Oregon and Arizona State and 23 tackles for loss.
>> In three career games against the Bruins, Washington State quarterback Alex Brink has completed 65.3% of his passes for 759 yards and six touchdowns.
In addition, Pullman is in a rural area of eastern Washington that isn’t easy to get to (the Bruins fly into and stay in Moscow, Idaho) and the bus ride to Martin Stadium is a long one.
Should the Bruins even show up? They will and they should win. The key matchups:
(1) WSU’s defense has not been confused with the Great Wall of China. The Cougars give up an average of 161 yards a game rushing and 287 yards a game passing, as well as 36.9 points per game. Opponents have had 86 drives from scrimmage against the Cougars this season and have scored 41 times (47.7%). The Bruins should be able to move the ball.
(2) Cougar quarterback Brink has been great, completing 62.5% of his passes, but he’s usually been playing from behind. He has 18 touchdowns, but also seven interceptions and has been sacked 15 times. If the Bruins can pressure him, they could cause turnovers.
(3) WSU has been outscored in every quarter: 79-45 in the first, 74-54 in the second, just 57-56 in the third, but has fallen apart in the fourth, scoring just 17 points to 48 for its opponents.
That last note makes Saturday’s game look a bit like the Oregon State game, in which it was tight into the fourth quarter and then the Bruins exploded for a 40-14 win. Oddsmakers have the Bruins as a six-point favorite.
The game will kick off about 3:30 p.m. and will be televised live on Fox Sports West in Los Angeles with Brian Davis on the play-by-play, former WSU and NFL quarterback Mark Rypien as analyst and Michael Eaves on the sidelines. On the radio, Chris Roberts and Matt Stevens will call the game on KLAC-AM (570) and the Bruin Radio Network with Wayne Cook on the sidelines. As with all Bruin road games, we’ll have continuous in-game commentary on this blog.
 Because of the fire situation in San Diego, the men’s soccer match between San Diego State (tied for second in the Pac-10, one point behind UCLA) and Oregon State has been moved to the North Athletic Field at UCLA and will be played at 1 p.m. Sunday.
The UCLA-Washington match will still be held Sunday at Drake Stadium, but will start at 2:30 p.m.
More soccer news:
>> Bruin midfielder Jason Leopoldo (pictured) was named the Pac-10 Men’s Soccer Player of the Week. He’s the third Bruin to be honored this season, along with goalkeeper Brian Perk and forward Maxwell Griffin.
>> UCLA will honor its three-man senior class before Sunday’s match with Washington. Defenders Greg Folk, Brandon Owens and Mike Zaher will be saluted.
Jason Leopoldo photo courtesy of UCLA
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