From: rsmith@strobe.ATC.Olivetti.Com (Russ Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.college
Subject: UCLA wins/loses/wins
Date: 23 Nov 92 16:10:06 GMT

This was one of those game that 3 games within a game. UCLA dominated
the first 5 minutes leading 18-2 with layups, dunks and incredible man
to man defense(not a typo, yes defense). It took UTEP 3 minutes before
they could even get a shot off due to steals by the Bruins. At that
point, the starters (Petruska,O'Bannnon,Butler,Tarverand Edney) hit a
lull for a bit, and UTEP got their feet underneath them. TheN Harrick
went to the bench for Zidek, Zimmerman and Frosh Marquis Burns and 
UTEP took off. Zimmerman looked horrible at power forward, and Burns
was clearly nervous turning it over 3 times in a row. With a 12 point
lead and maybe 5 minutes left in the half, Harrick strangely reinserted
Petruska who already had 2 fouls, of course he got his 3rd. UTEP continued
to dominate the early 2nd half behind Johnny Melvin and Eddie Rivera as 
tehy completely owned the offensive boards. UCLA's defense was fine, they
just couldn't rebound the missed shots against the smaller Miners.


Petruska fouled out late and UCLA trailing by 9 with under 2 minutes left
looked dead in the water. Then they went into a frenzied full court trap
and the combination of steals and some missed UTEP free throws got them
back in the game. Tarver and O'Bannon kept it interesting missing some key
freethrows. Edney made the big plays, down 3 he drove(I thought he clearly
walked but no call was made) and dished to O'Bannon for the layin and the
freethrow tied it. Butler got a steal off a double team, fed Edney who got
fouled and made one free throw for a 73-72 win. Very scary win.

Strengths: man to man defense was good, early it was great, but the starters
clearly tired and the bench is not nearly as good defensively. This is clearly
a less selfish team than they have been the last 3 years with Murray and
MacLean (who FYI made a guest appearance on Baywatch this weekend) fighting 
over the ball. There were very few bad shots taken in the game. Petruska is
legit although he needs to learn to hold the ball up higher when he shoots
inside, he is basically an outside shooter at heart, so he hold the ball
right in front of his face when he shoots and got several blocked by the 
small UTEP players. Tarver looks great, O'Bannon showed no effects from the
knee, ~20 points and 10 boards and 3-4 nice blocks. Edney played well at the
end.

Weaknesses: Bench and outside shooting were a given, Zidek did ok, and even
Zimmerman contributed in the 2nd half when he played center, but Burns did
nothing, and Dempsey and Nwankwo never took their sweats off. Boyle played
a bit and did nothing good or bad.Butler made the only real outside shot of
the entire game for UCLA. Defensive rebounding was atrocious, they got 2-3 
cracks at scoring every time in the 2nd half, both Petruska and O'Bannon 
need to learn to block out instead of just trying to outjump everyone.
Hustle was great at the end , but most of the game they got outhustled.
At least 3 times a UCLA man blocked a shot and then stood and watched the 
UTEP player retrieve the ball and score. Free throw shooting was terrible
and will cost them several games this year if it stays this bad.

Next up is Seton Hall on Wednesday(?) and it looks like a tough game for us.
Hopefully they will play Danny Hurley over Caver, otherwise Edney will have
nobody to match up with(HUrley has outplayed Caver so far). Tarver and Butler
will probably alternated on Dehere. Petruska will need to stay out of foul
trouble and he and O'Bannon must handle Walker and Karnishovas on the glass.





Russ Smith
*******************************************************************************
"I have an office, gold records on the wall. Just leave a message, maybe 
I'll call."
                   "Life's Been Good"--- Joe Walsh
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Xref: sparky rec.sport.basketball.college:16881 rec.sport.basketball.pro:20353