The most encouraging part of UCLA’s runaway win over Prairie View was Shabazz Muhammad’s best performance of the season.

No, the competition wasn’t top-notch, even if head coach Ben Howland tried to talk up how worried he was about this game. But by both the eye test and the box score, Muhammad looked like a different player than he has most of the season. His 25 points and four assists were both career highs, the latter doubling his season total. (Stunning that Shabazz only had four assists on the season before Saturday. His ability to create was one of his weaknesses coming out of high school, but four?)

“I’m starting to get a lot more confident. … I’m feeling real comfortable with my game,” he said.

On defense, the Bruins man defense worked OK as UCLA allowed just 29.4 percent Continue reading →