Hollins Makes Much Better Use of His Time

PALO ALTO — After going scoreless in 22 minutes against USC on Feb. 19, UCLA senior center Ryan Hollins temporarily lost his starting job.

He took only three shots that day, according to the box score -- two, UCLA Coach Ben Howland said after watching the game film -- and then complained that the guards weren’t getting him the ball.

There were no complaints Saturday after a 75-54 victory over Stanford in which Hollins, in another 22 minutes of playing time, took seven shots, made five, totaled 13 points, pulled down eight rebounds and played solid defense in an aggressive, efficient performance.

“We have much better team chemistry now,” said freshman guard Darren Collison. “Ryan knows we need him and he needs us.”

“I was moving,” Hollins said, “making myself available to my teammates. And they got me the ball.”

*

Guard Jordan Farmar said there was no reason for him and his teammates to break into a wild celebration in their locker room Saturday afternoon after winning the Pacific 10 Conference title outright.

“It’s just a step in the right direction,” he said. “They are not going to put up a banner in our gym saying we won the [school’s 32nd] conference championship. We have bigger goals.”

*

While the Bruins took great delight in seeing Howland get doused with a bucket of water by senior guard Janou Rubin in the locker room after the game, no other player claimed to be involved.

Except senior Cedric Bozeman. Sort of.

“I was the lookout,” Bozeman said, “watching to see when he came in.”