Bruins settle for second

The hobble in Darren Collison's walk did not look good. Neither did the ice pack strapped around his backside.

But the faintest of grins on his face told a different story.

"The good thing about the X-rays," he explained, "they say nothing is broken."

It was that sort of day for UCLA, a good news-bad news deal.

The 20th-ranked Bruins began Saturday by racing past woeful Oregon, 94-68, in their regular-season finale at Pauley Pavilion. Then they played a waiting game, the focus shifting to Seattle, where Washington played Washington State.

A Washington loss would have created a tie for the Pacific 10 Conference title, UCLA's fourth straight title, but no such luck, the Bruins settling for second place after the Huskies' 67-60 victory.

"I'm not worried about that," Coach Ben Howland said. "Whatever happens, happens."

At least Collison, their point guard and floor leader who took a hard fall in the second half, emerged later in the afternoon with a reassuring test result to go with his sore tailbone.

"I'm going to be all right," he said, looking toward the start of the Pac-10 tournament at Staples Center in a few days. "I'm going to play Thursday."

As the second-seeded team, UCLA (24-7, 13-5) is scheduled for the late game that day, an 8:30 p.m. start against the winner of Wednesday's matchup between No. 7 Washington State and No. 10 Oregon.

The Bruins' success -- or lack thereof -- could have a big say in their seeding for the NCAA tournament, and Howland knows it: "The bottom line is, we have to perform well here in this next week."

First, however, UCLA needed to take care of business against the last-place Ducks, who, while falling short of expectations this season, arrived in Westwood having won two of their last three.

Earlier in the week, Howland talked about the emergence of Oregon freshman Drew Wiley as a shooting threat. Apparently, his team wasn't listening.

Time and again, UCLA and forward Nikola Dragovic, in particular, left Wiley by himself away from the ball with predictable results.

Catch. Score. Repeat.

Wiley's three-pointers -- he made six of 10, finishing with a team-high 18 points -- staked the Ducks to a lead through much of the first half, with only Collison, Dragovic and center Alfred Aboya generating enough offense to keep the score close.