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Reeves Nelson

Reeves Nelson led UCLA to a 86-79 victory in the John R. Wooden Classic over a previously unbeaten team from the Mountain West Conference. UCLA knocked off their first ranked opponent of the season in large part due to the play of Nelson. He connected on 8 of 15 of his shots from the floor for 23 points while grabbing four rebounds and dishing out two assists. The Bruins took a 43-37 lead into the break, but Tyler Honeycutt, Lazeric Jones and Joshua Smith all proceeded to pick up quick fouls early in the second half. With Honeycutt, Jones and Smith on the bench Nelson led the way with productive off ball movement culminating in driving cuts to the basket. Nelson has recorded four double-double performances this season and has scored over twenty points in four times.

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The Pac-10 Conference has a record of 53-13 against teams with a RPI ranking between 101 and 345. If USC and Oregon State are excluded the combined record improves to 44-3. USC’s situation likely resolved itself with the addition of Jio Fontan, so that leaves Oregon State to worry about. The Beavers are huge disappointments again this season and honestly deserve to be in the “Cold” portion of this blog every week. Ultimately, the Pac-10 Conference has won the games they were expected to win with only a few exceptions. USC and Washington State are in position to close out non-conference play on a high note and California and Stanford could give the conference a huge boost with upsets this week. Incidentally, the Pac-10 is 7-0 against schools with hyphenated names and are 5-0 against directional schools.