The Bruins have been one of the best teams in the country all season, the Beavers one of the worst. Do the math and that means UCLA will come in as a heavy favorite on Saturday night. That means Oregon State is in for another loss, or a huge upset.
The Bruins are led by former Lake Oswego star Kevin Love. Love wasn't on the Bruins roster last season when UCLA beat the Beavers twice for a combined score of 153-91. The February 2, 2007 edition of the game had a final score of 82-35, which is pretty dang sad if you ask me.
But the outlook doesn't look any better this year for the Beavers. The Beavers are on the verge of being on their first ten game losing streak in nearly 90 years, and they haven't beat UCLA in their last five tries. The last time Oregon State beat UCLA was in the first round of the Pac-10 tournament in 2005. UCLA has won 37 of 56 since 1980.
Kevin Love is averaging 17.3 points in his 19 games. He leads the team in field goal percentage, three point field goal percentage, and is a monster on the glass. He averages over ten boards a game, a stat that has him ranked in the top ten nationally. He won't get quite the treatment he got on Thursday from the Pit Crew at Gill Coliseum. The Pit Crew (Oregon's Student Section) was described with words such as "vile", "disgusting" and "inappropriate" by UCLA coach Ben Howland. He probably won't have that to say about the Beaver Dam after this game, but you never know. With what students can do on Facebook these days, Gill Coliseum could be packed to the rafters tonight.
Okay, probably not.
AP Photo/ Rick Bowmer via StatSheet.com
Behind Love, the Bruins are led by Josh Shipp, Darren Collison, Russel Westbrook, and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute. They also get support from Alfred Aboya and Lorenzo Mata-Real. That's pretty much their whole roster.
So could UCLA's bench beat Oregon State's starters? That's debatable. But the Bruins are deep, and can hurt you in more ways than one.
The game will be televised at 8:00 by FSN.
GO BEAVERS!
--JB--