UCLA vs. Arizona St

2/12/09

The Bruins are on a roll now! It seems like every week the UCLA Bruins just get higher and higher in the Top 25 rankings as now they sit at number six in the country after their very convincing win over the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.

The Arizona State Sun Devils are only team this season to get the best of the Bruins at home. They may have struggled throughout the year, but that one win has been the highlight of their season thus far and might be enough to give them another victory at home when the Bruins come to Arizona.

The Pac-10 conference may not be as talented or as competitive as the Big East or ACC this season, but from time to time there are some pretty good match ups out West.

Back on January 19th the Bruins and the Arizona State Sun Devils went head to head in a Pac-10 battle which ended with a thrilling three point victory for the Sun Devils in overtime at Pauley Pavilion. The victory was huge for Arizona State and devastating to UCLA who were looking to go undefeated at home this season.

As we are headed closer and closer to March there are only a handful of teams in contention in the Pac-10, three teams to be exact, Washington, Arizona State and of course UCLA. Even though the Pac-10 has not been as entertaining or filled with talent like in years past, these three teams tend to put on a show regardless.

In the end it will probably come down to just Washington and UCLA, but there is a good chance that Arizona State could be in the mix as well after they showed they can beat the Bruins at Pauley Pavilion.
 

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Although the statistics don’t really show it, the Bruins are a pretty tough defensive team. They proved that in their win over Notre Dame recently. Not only is UCLA good on the defensive end of the floor, but they can also put up some numbers. They aren’t the best free throw shooting team though with the squad just shooting a little over 70%, but they are shooting a great percentage from the floor as they are ranked second in the nation with a field goal percentage of 50.4%. The Bruins can also shoot the lights out from deep being the 12th best three point shooting team in the nation at 39.5% from beyond the arc.

The Bruins are playing great basketball right now winning four straight against conference opponents, but the same can’t be said for the Sun Devils as they come into this match up winning only two of their last four games.

This should be another great game that comes down to the wire, but I believe that the Bruins have learned from their mistakes back in January and will be looking to beat the Sun Devils on their home floor in Arizona.

The key for the Bruins will be containing Sun Devils guard James Harden like they did to Notre Dame’s leading scorer Luke Harangody. If they can have a defensive performance like they did against the Irish they should come away with the win in this one.