CHICAGO — One team wants to change the narrative that it can’t win outside the West Coast.
The other wants to change the narrative that it simply can’t win.
For theUCLA and USC men’s basketball teams, the Big Ten Tournament offers a chance at altering perceptions — and maybe their seasons.
Even thoughthe Bruins (21-10) are surging, with four wins in five games, the one loss during that stretch continued a troublesome trend. UCLA’s setback against Minnesota came outside the Pacific Time Zone, dropping the Bruins to 1-6 in such games this season.
Before the loss to the Golden Gophers, there were ones against Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Iowa. The Central and Eastern time zones might as well have been the Twilight Zone to the Bruins.
That makesthe Big Ten Tournamenta welcome shot at redemption, especially given the likelihood that UCLA will open the NCAA Tournament east of the Rocky Mountains.
The sixth-seeded Bruins’ first game at the United Center will come Thursday night against the winner of a preliminary round game between 11th-seeded Minnesota and 14th-seeded Rutgers. If UCLA faces the Gophers, it will offer an opportunity for another kind of vindication.
The Bruins’ defensehas been horrendous away from Pauley Pavilion, their recent lockdown efforts against USC notwithstanding. Why, it seemed as if UCLA was trying to spawn the Legend of Bobby Durkin after allowing the Minnesota forward to make seven 3-pointers against the Bruins in their last meeting in Minneapolis.
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“If we were to play Minnesota,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin told reporters Tuesday, “that would eliminate me having to motivate my team, right? That would wake them up pretty quick.”
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
