SO MUCH FOR INTRIGUE IN THE RACE FOR PAC-10 SUPREMACY THIS SEASON.Byline: RAMONA SHELBURNE Ramona Shelburne is an American sports journalist currently writing for the Los Angeles Daily News. Shelburne was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She attended El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California where she was a class valedictorian. Oregon's record was big and glossy. Every time you saw it in print, it was followed with a loud proclamation that this was their best start since 1926. Their best player was being touted as the early favorite for Pacific-10 Conference The Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10) is a college athletic conference which operates in the western United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I. Membership Full members Player of the Year. All five of their starters were averaging double figures. And just last month, the Ducks ended UCLA's dreams of an unbeaten season. So you figured this was the team UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX had to worry about this year. The team they'd always be checking the out-of-town scoreboard on and privately hoping some other team would steal a game off of. Riiiight. That would've made for an exciting second half of the Pac-10 season. But after the 69-57 thrashing thrashing: see threshing. Excessive paging in a virtual memory computer. If programs are not written to run in a virtual memory environment, the operating system may spend excessive amounts of time swapping program pages in and out of the disk. UCLA put on the Ducks on Thursday night at Pauley Pavilion Edwin W. Pauley Pavilion, informally and commonly known as Pauley Pavilion, is an indoor arena located on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles, California. It is home to the UCLA Bruins men's and women's basketball teams. The men's and women's volleyball teams also play here. , don't expect much intrigue in Westwood for a while. No, just a smooth run to the NCAA Tournament NCAA Tournament can mean: Men's Sports
UCLA is the class of the Pac-10. Again. As usual. The race conference title begins here every year and UCLA just about ended it here Thursday night. The Bruins didn't just beat the Ducks, they embarrassed them. Paid them back for that loss in Eugene and then some. ``They gave us our first loss of the season so we had that feeling in our guts,'' UCLA forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (born 9 September 1986 in Yaounde, Cameroon) is a 6' 8" Cameroonian basketball player who plays for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Bruins in the Pacific Ten Conference of the NCAA. said. The numbers for Oregon were ugly. The Ducks shot just 37percent from the field. Had just seven assists. Trailed by 19 points at one point. Put up a season-low 57 points. If it wasn't for their proficiency behind the 3-point line (8 for 20), it could've been really ugly. Sometimes it's fun to think about what you would've written had the game gone the other way. Had Oregon beat UCLA, it would have opened up a two-game lead in the conference standings and put UCLA behind the eight ball. The Ducks would have been hailed as a heavyweight, Aaron Brooks' name would have jumped onto national player of the year lists while the Bruins would've been assailed by the local media, crucified on talk radio and looking at a cross-country flight for the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Instead, order has been restored. UCLA on top of the Pac-10, everyone else looking up and throwing stones. The Bruins are used to this role. It's why you come to UCLA. They all but outfit you with a target on your back at the same time you choose your uniform number. Wins are expected here. Pac-10 titles are put in the back of the trophy case. Only Final Four runs really get the blood pumping. ``We were definitely going to do whatever it took to win tonight,'' said UCLA guard Arron Afflalo Arron Agustin Afflalo (born October 15, 1985) is an American professional basketball player, currently with the Detroit Pistons. He recently completed a three-year career at University of California, Los Angeles in the Pacific Ten Conference of the NCAA as the starting shooting , who led the Bruins with 17 points on Thursday night. ``We expect to win every game. We don't get the same amount of joy when we win as we do anguish when we lose. ``So when you have a chance to make history and another team takes it away from you, it hurts. Especially if you take the game seriously like I do.'' In other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke" put differently , Afflalo wasn't really thinking about UCLA's win Thursday night. He wasn't celebrating like the Bruins had just taken a huge step toward sewing up another Pac-10 title. He wasn't even interested in having some fun talking about the two-handed dunk he threw down in the second half. ``Two points,'' he said. ``That's what that was.'' UCLA won, took control of the Pac-10, avenged a·venge tr.v. a·venged, a·veng·ing, a·veng·es 1. To inflict a punishment or penalty in return for; revenge: avenge a murder. 2. its earlier loss and shoved the Ducks back toward ``upstart'' status. Everyone else can go back to throwing stones. ramona.shelburne@dailynews.com (818) 713-3617 |
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