UCLA (1-1) was down by as many as 11 in the first half and was still down 10 with 3 minutes, 57 seconds left in the first half, before sophomore forward Drew Gordon sparked a 10-0 run to close the half. Gordon had six points and a monstrous block of Cal-State Bakersfield's Stephon Carter that swung the momentum in the Bruins' favor.

The roll continued into the second half, as UCLA outscored the Roadrunners 17-6 in the early going of the second half and maintained a 15-point lead for much of the half by shooting 59.3 percent from the field, after shooting just 31 percent against Cal-State Fullerton.

Gordon led all scorers with 19 points, and all five Bruin starters scored in double figures, with senior guard Michael Roll chipping in 12 points and sophomore point guard Jerime Anderson, sophomore guard Malcolm Lee and senior forward James Keefe each adding 10. Carter and Trent Blakely led Cal-State Bakersfield (1-2) with 15 points each.

After saying he regretted not playing freshman forward Reeves Nelson more in the season-opening loss to Cal-State Fullerton, Howland deployed his freshmen throughout the game, with Nelson and forwards Brendan Lane and Mike Moser rotated throughout the game.

Sorry I was MIA today, had some office work to attend to, and a rather important lunch meeting.

Barring any unforeseen setback, the Inside UCLA podcast will start up on Tuesday for UCLA/USC week with my new cohost...former UCLA starting quarterback Ben Olson.

Ben, who had an injury-plagued career for the Bruins, will provide fantastic insight directly from the mind of a former player, one who is still very connected to the UCLA scene. Ben and I will talk UCLA football and hoops for 30 minutes, with an interview or two sprinkled in. This first show, scheduled to tape on Tuesday, will be available here on the blog, on the LA Daily News Web site, Dailynews.com, and on iTunes. That's right, you can hear my beautiful voice while you run or shop or drive.

The following week, we're going to try to answer your calls live on the air, but either way, we'll provide a call-in number and a specific time to call in.

After working the Q&A and in-game chat into the blog, I'm very excited for this next step.

Thanks, and look forward to hearing from you,
Jon

Tonight,
Rick Neuheisel, Chuck Bullough and Todd Howard are at Taft/Garfield (Tuan Woods, Lucky Radley, Brent Williams, etc.)

Friday,
Neuheisel at St. Francis/Gahr (Dietrich Riley)

Saturday
Todd Hundley at Cerritos/Palomar.

On UCLA's poor offensive performance:
"The biggest thing was offensively we took so many bad shots. We were really hurried. That's the most shots a team of mine has taken since I've been here by 14. Malcolm Lee took 23 shots, the most any player has taken. We were very anxious, very amped up."

On why the team shot so bad:
"The most important thing about offense is shot selection. I think I counted six or seven either airballs or airbanks. I don't remember seeing that many in any time in recent memory. After the game (I realized) I played our starters too many minutes. When you're a shooter, you have to have your legs. We were so quick to shoot, we were on defense more than offense in that 50 minutes."

On what practices have been like:
"Our practice yesterday was geared totally toward us. Our execution of the things that we need to do. We need to focus on ourselves.

On Jerime Anderson:
"Obviously, he didn't have a good game in terms of his shooting. Neither did Nik. Between the two of them, 3-for-25. Jerime really had a setback, and you could see in his first exhibition against Humboldt State, he got really tired. He's still catching up conditioning-wise. What I want out of Jerime is continued improvement in every facet of the game. I look back at how he was playing in January, February and March, and he was playing really well, just behind an NBA point guard. When he gets back to where he was, I think he'll be fine."

On not playing Reeves Nelson more:
Reeves Nelson was really dominant yesterday. The biggest mistake I made Monday night was not playing him more minutes."

First off, a couple people asked about Kevin Craft in practice yesterday. He just got more No. 2 reps than Brehaut, who coaches want to get more pocket awareness. As the season got a whole lot more interesting with a possible bowl bid, I think the Brehaut experiment is on hold.
Secondly, Jill Painter will be covering football practice tonight, so I figured we'd do a midweek chat to talk about Arizona State and Cal State Bakersfield.
Thirdly, I wrote a pretty big story about Prince and Su'a-Filo deciding (or not deciding) on embarking on a Mormon mission. Check it out here: A Higher Calling?

Thanks
JG

Notebook:
UCLA redshirt freshman cornerback Aaron Hester was back in practice on Wednesday afternoon.
He's been practicing for weeks after recovering from a broken leg in Week 1 against San Diego State.
But he was back in practice on Wednesday.

At one point, after locking down a receiver on a go-route during team scrimmage, Hester hooted and hollered, daring the offense to bring it.

"My swagger never went anywhere," Hester said. "It's been here the whole time. Now I'm getting more reps, more of an opportunity to make plays. When I'm in my zone, I'm in my zone. I try to get the receivers going. How else can I do that beside talking and getting loud?"

"I've been showing them this week in practice," Hester said. "I've been flying around making plays, making big hits. It's up to the coaches now. All I can do is play football and all they can do is put me in or not. I was the original starter here; I haven't forgot how to play football."

UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel said redshirt freshman running back Johnathan Franklin was still very much a part of the game plan heading into Saturday's matchup with Arizona State.

Franklin, who has started eight games for the Bruins this year, was replaced by sophomore Derrick Coleman last week as he tries to address ball-control issues.

"I don't think we have to worry about him being that guy, I think he just wants to go out there and play," Neuheisel said. "It has to be instinctive hanging on to the ball rather than thinking about hanging on to the ball. If you're thinking about hanging onto the ball, you're not playing the able to play. It becomes almost a self-fulfilling prophecy."

From UCLA:

UCLA head coach Ben Howland announced today the signing of Tyler Lamb and Josh Smith to National Letters of Intent to attend UCLA in the fall of 2010.

The Bruins' early signing class consists of Lamb, a 6-foot-4-inch, 195-pound guard out of Santa Ana, Calif., and Mater Dei High School and Smith, a 6-foot-10-inch, 280-pound center from Kent, Wash., and Kentwood High School.

Lamb helped the Monarchs to a 31-2 overall record as a junior in 2008-09 for head coach Gary McKnight. Mater Dei won the Trinity League with a 10-0 mark and finished the year ranked No. 3 in the state and No. 12 in the nation.

"I'm really excited about Tyler Lamb joining our basketball program and family," Howland said. "He's very athletic and is going to be an outstanding player that can play multiple positions. He is a very good defensive player and has been a part of one of the best high school programs in the country. He has received excellent coaching, which will help to prepare him in making the transition to high major college basketball. He has an excellent work ethic, comes from a great family, and I think he'll have a great career here at UCLA."

Lamb averaged 14.0 points, 4.6 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 3.3 steals (led the team) and 1.1 blocks per game (led the team) last year. He was a two-year starter at Colony High School (Ontario, Calif.) where he averaged 27.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 5.3 steals and 4.8 assists per game as a sophomore. He is rated as the No. 10 shooting guard and the No. 38 overall recruit in the country by ESPN. He was rated the No. 1 shooting guard in the state, the No. 8 shooting guard in the country and the No. 41 overall recruit by Rivals.com. Lamb was also rated the No. 14 shooting guard and No. 60 overall recruit by Scout.com and finished third in the voting for the Press-Telegram's 31st Best in the West.

Smith averaged 26.8 points and 13.5 rebounds per game (school record) last year at Kentwood High School, leading the Conquerors to a 19-7 record in each of the past two seasons for head coach Michael Angelidis. In 2008-09, Kentwood won the tough SPSL North League Championship.

"I'm absolutely elated to have Josh Smith attending UCLA," Howland said. "He is one of the best big men in the country. This was a three-year process recruiting him and we got to know Josh and his family very well. He's a great player and a great person. He has outstanding hands and catches everything. He is one of the few players that is very effective and comfortable with his back to the basket. He is an outstanding athlete and has good leaping ability and quick feet for his size. He has a very bright future ahead of him and he'll make an immediate impact at UCLA."

Smith also averaged 21.5 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.8 blocks per game as a sophomore while shooting a school-record 74.0 percent from the field. He also averaged 14.4 points per game as a freshman at Kentwood High. He is rated the No. 1 center and No. 10 overall recruit in the country by ESPN. He is also rated the No. 3 center in the country and the No. 19 overall recruit by Rivals.com. Scout.com rated Smith as the No. 4 center and No. 13 overall recruit in the country and he finished second in the voting for the Press-Telegram's 31st Best in the West.

2) Given the number of decent to good freshmen QBs in the Pac-10, will 2012 be a Defensive Coordinators nightmare? - John Amussen
Let's just say it won't be a fun season for them.

3) E J Woods, 2008 recruit, is playing at Eastern Arizona CC. Any idea what happens after this year because I thought at one time the UCLA coaches were interested in him coming back. - Tim Warren
He's been at a couple practices, but I would be very surprised if he ends up back at UCLA. There isn't much news on him out there.

4) Which other recruits are UCLA focusing on the most for the 2010 basketball? Terrence Jones? Trey Zeigler? Ray McCallum? - Nick
McCallum is the most pressing concern, because A) UCLA needs a PG recruit and B) Jones and Zeiglers will be tough gets, seeing as how Zeigler's dad is a head coach and Jones has said he is mainly looking closer to home (Oregon and Washington)

5) Not to belabor the point for the 10,000 time, but is there any drive behind fixing the posting delay? - Reformed Droog
If you're referring to my posts, I sometimes put them scheduled for later times just so things aren't quite so bunched together. If you're referring to the delay of posted comments, no, I don't think it's possible. I've asked, but I think it's just part of the system.

6) Bio-Dome or Thunderdome? - Reformed Droog
I hate Mel Gibson, so that rules out Thunderdome. I also hate Pauly Shore, so that rules out Bio-Dome. Answer: Neither dome.

7) HOW MUCH PLAYING TIME DO YOU THINK BOBO GETS THIS YEAR? A BIG POST PRESENCE WOULD BE A HUGE HELP FOR US IMO. - Keith
All indications are not much. Howland wants his players to be extremely skilled defensively, and it looks like Morgan has a lot of catching up to do.

8) Where do you think Uko, Barr, and Owamagbe Odighuzuwa end up signing? I think we get 2 out of 3 - Bruin44
I think Barr will end up at UCLA if they can convince him to switch to LB. The Weis issue at ND opens things way up for the Bruins. Odighizuwa loved his trip to UCLA, and I wouldn't be surprised if he picked the Bruins after all his officials are through. Uko, I'm not so sure on. He's getting looked at hard by some major schools, and he'll have to choose between almost immediate playing time, and a program with a recent history of success.

9) In your opinion, what do you think the starting defense will look like next year? - Anonymous
D. Jones, I. Tepa, B. Price, D. Carter, A. Ayers, S. Westgate, S. Sloan, A. Hester, S. Price, T. Dye, R. Moore.

10) UCLA has so many young basketball players. Which one or two players need to develop the most over the course of this season to help the team win? - WIUbruinfan
Jerime Anderson is the key to the season. As he progresses, so will UCLA.