Tale of Two Teams: Which UCLA Team Will Show Up at PAC-10 Tournament?

UCLA played their last regular season game of the season on Saturday afternoon, and the victory against the Washington State Cougars was a microcosm of the season for the Bruins.

Trailing by 13 points at halftime (32-19), UCLA looked betwixt and befuddled against a Cougar team playing without its top two stars, Klay Thompson, suspended by Washington State after his arrest for marijuana possession on Thursday night, and point guard Reggie Moore, nursing a sore ankle.

Despite playing against a shorthanded squad, the Bruins came out listless and looked out of sync for the first twenty minutes.

UCLA's Ben Howland implored his troops at halftime, telling them that they needed to treat this game as if they must get this victory in order to reach the NCAA Tournament.

Whatever Howland said, it seemed to work, as UCLA came out in the second half and wiped out the Cougars’ halftime lead and eventually pulled away in overtime for the 58-54 victory.

However, much of the season has been a tale of two teams for UCLA, and with the Pacific Life PAC-10 Tournament now just days away, the Bruins will need to figure out which team they want to be.

The Bruins, who started the season at 3-4 and were looking suspiciously like the ’09-’10 team that went 14-18, were able to right the ship, but not without some bumps along the way.

UCLA was guilty many times of being unable to finish, allowing softer teams to play their way back into games in the second half. Despite a stingy defense that only allowed PAC-10 opponents to shoot 41 percent against them, all too often the Bruins got sloppy with the basketball, committing turnovers at inopportune times and giving opponents far too many second chances.

The Bruins will play will the winner of the Oregon St.-Stanford game on Thursday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, it is unclear if guard Malcolm Lee will be available for UCLA. Lee suffered a left knee injury during the win over Washington State, and an MRI was scheduled for Sunday afternoon.

Still, the ’10-’11 UCLA squad has proven that they are capable of playing with anyone, as witnessed by big victories over Top 25 teams such as Arizona, St. John’s and BYU. But, that was the good UCLA. If the bad UCLA shows up, it could lead to early disappointment for Bruins’ fans once again.

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