M. Basketball. The Road to Las Vegas February 15, 2012
SAN BRUNO, Calif. – This week on “The Road to Las Vegas,” we profile Pepperdine seniors Lauren Bell and Jazmine Jackson, who have been playing basketball together since the fifth grade. We also head down to San Diego to meet Toreros’ freshmen Johnny Dee and Christopher Anderson.
New episodes of “The Road to Las Vegas” can be seen on WCCsports.com and on our YouTube channel every Wednesday leading up to the tournament in Las Vegas.
Texas has physical play, UCLA has Reeves Nelson, Joshua Smith
Reeves Nelson, UCLA’s leading scorer and rebounder a year ago, didn’t play a minute in the second half and Joshua Smith, the Bruins’ third-leading rebounder and fourth-leading scorer a year ago, played four of the final 20.
It is perhaps less noteworthy that UCLA lost to Texas, 69-59, Saturday at the Sports Arena than that junior forward Nelson spent most of the game on the bench laughing and pointing at people in the season-high crowd of 6,177 who were chanting his name or that sophomore center Smith didn’t make it all the way up the court on more than one play as he would try to catch his breath.
Howland pointed to a missed defensive assignment in the first half and two bad practices leading into the game as reasons why Nelson didn’t leave the bench in the second half and the continuing issue of Smith’s lack of conditioning for his sit-down time.
“Reeves, it’s up to him, to his mental part,” Howland said. Get more…
Ultra Accolade
24 January 2012
Lizzy Hawker (GBR) and Italian ultra runner Giorgio Calcaterra have been annoucned as IAU Athletes of the Year for 2011. Both have had oustanding years. Calcaterra won the 100km World and European Championships in a time of 6:27:32. Hawker won the 24 Hour Commonwealth Championships in a World´s Best Performance of 247.06km.
Clemson’s Late Surge Falls Short Against Blue Devils
CLEMSON, SC – Andre Dawkins knocked down five three-pointers, including a pair in the final five minutes, and finished with 24 points in 27 minutes to pace the Duke Blue Devils to a 73-66 victory over the Clemson Tigers in front of a sellout crowd at Littlejohn Coliseum on Sunday night. The win improved Duke to 15-2 on the season and 3-0 in the ACC, while the Tigers fell to 9-8 overall and 1-2 in conference play.
Milton Jennings led the Tigers with 16 points in the game. Devin Booker registered a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Andre Young also poured in 12 points, and Tanner Smith scored 11 points and grabbed seven boards.
W. Basketball. WCC Top Play Tuesday January 10
SAN BRUNO, Calif. – With the second week of conference play in the books, check out this installment of the WCC Top Play Tuesday.