January 25, 2007

UCLA takes on Cal

With Luc Richard Mbah a Moute expected to play on Thursday evening at Haas Pavilion, Ben Howland will have his full compliment of players ready to go as the Bruins embark upon a crucial road trip to close out the first half of the conference schedule.

UCLA has won 29 of its last 31 including 13 of 14 against Pac-10 competition. The sophomore class (excluding Josh Shipp) has compiled a 49-8 record in their Bruin careers and are an impressive 23-5 against the league, 9-3 on the road against conference opponents.

The Bruins beat Berkeley twice in three tries a season ago, including the win in the championship game of the Pacific Life Pac-10 Tournament. Of course, last years Bear squad included the overpowering frontline of Leon Powe and DeVon Hardin, neither of whom will be in the line-up on Thursday.

Ben Braun has had to adjust his offense with the departure of Powe early to the NBA and the injury which has benched Hardin. Braun now throws what amounts to a four guard line-up with freshman sensation Ryan Anderson as the only true interior player.

In spite of the fact that Anderson is now used as the starting center, the 6-foot-9, 250 pound rookie is your prototypical face-up four man, but that's about the only thing about Anderson's game which can be classified as normal.

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