Michael Roll

Michael Roll did all right by trading up in 2005. Roll had committed to UC Santa Barbara early in his senior year at Aliso Niguel. But diverting to UCLA on signing day put him on the road to three Final Fours, two of which he played in, and a national title game. Any regrets about his decision? "No way," Roll said, smiling. Roll, a senior guard for the Bruins, will play his final home games at Pauley Pavilion this week, starting Thursday against Oregon State. His final tour might not be a jaunt through another NCAA tournament, as the 12-14 Bruins are struggling to get to .500, but Roll's impact appears to be on those who are following him into the program.

A checklist for UCLA's first basketball scrimmage could go something like this: See where sophomore center Josh Smith is in his conditioning. Evaluate the battles for the starting spots at shooting guard and small forward. Make sure the Bruins' 11 NCAA championship banners are hung straight inside the Sports Arena. UCLA gets the first taste of its new "home" at 4 p.m. Thursday when it plays host to Cal State Fullerton in a closed scrimmage. The Bruins will play 14 of their 18 home games this season at the Sports Arena while Pauley Pavilion undergoes renovations; their other home games will be played at Honda Center.

There was no doubt in Michael Roll's mind. The clock was ticking down. The ball was ricocheting amid a jumble of players. No problem. That bouncing ball somehow found its way to the UCLA senior, who calmly sank a 15-foot jumper with 1.9 seconds to play in overtime, giving his team an unlikely 76-75 victory over California. "I just turned and shot it," Roll said. "And it went in." The victory was, as Coach Ben Howland called it, "huge" for a Bruins team struggling this season, facing an opponent picked to finish among the top two in the Pacific 10 Conference.

Portland Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy has a torn meniscus in his right knee and his status for the playoffs is uncertain. The three-time All-Star will miss Monday night's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder and Wednesday's regular season finale against Golden State on Wednesday night. He will require surgery and will be out from four to six weeks. But he said he may try to play with the injury in the playoffs because doctors told him it cannot get worse. "I want to play," Roy said.

So far this season, hot-shooting Michael Roll has resisted the temptation to ask for more minutes. "I just don't want to cause any stir amongst the team," he says. But on Saturday, the junior swingman -- getting his first start of the year -- made a fairly loud and convincing argument on the court. With an almost perfect shooting night and a string of baskets at the start of the second half, Roll helped power 14th-ranked UCLA past Mercer, 76-59, at Pauley Pavilion.

After last week's scare against Concordia, UCLA Coach Ben Howland was searching for signs of improvement from his team. On Tuesday night, he got a few. With a healthier Jerime Anderson and Michael Roll in the lineup, a calmer and more organized-looking Bruins team cruised past Humboldt State, 74-57, in the final exhibition before next week's season opener. "A lot of people might be second-guessing us after last week," Roll said. "We wanted to play better." The senior guard led his team with 17 points, one of four Bruins in double figures before a crowd of 6,852 at Pauley Pavilion.

The UCLA basketball team will return to practice this afternoon, back to work after spending a day pondering all that went wrong in the season opener against Cal State Fullerton. There was a lot to think about. The Bruins showed little resemblance to teams that reached the NCAA tournament, not to mention three Final Fours, over the previous five seasons. Instead, the double-overtime loss Monday -- coupled with lackluster performances in two exhibitions -- reinforced a growing suspicion that UCLA is headed for its rockiest season since Coach Ben Howland adopted a fallen program in 2003.

UCLA tonight VS. PORTLAND Time: 8 (approx.). On the air: TV: ESPN2; Radio: 570. Where: Anaheim Convention Center. Records: UCLA 2-1, Portland 3-0. Update: The Bruins will try to continue their upward trend after a 19-point victory over Pepperdine on Monday. Michael Roll has been a standout at guard but has been forced to play too many minutes with UCLA so thin in the backcourt. Portland should be a challenge, led by guards Nik Raivio and T.J. Campbell, both shooting better than 54% from three-point range.

Zone defense has not been a favorite subject around UCLA in recent years. The Bruins hardly ever play the zone. Don't particularly like to play against it. Which makes their Pacific 10 Conference opener against Arizona State on Thursday all the more worrisome -- the Sun Devils feature a tough matchup zone. "They do a good job of creating mini-havoc out there," UCLA guard Michael Roll said. "They're all over the place." As forward Nikola Dragovic put it: "Like they have seven players on the court."

UCLA today VS. DELAWARE STATE When: 1 p.m. Where: Pauley Pavilion. On the air: TV: none; Radio: 570 Records: UCLA 4-7, Delaware State 4-5. Record vs. opponent: 2-0. Update: An unexpectedly tight game against Colorado State last week forced the Bruins to rely heavily on guards Malcolm Lee and Michael Roll, who are averaging almost 35 minutes. Coach Ben Howland would like to give his two leading scorers a little less playing time in this final nonconference warmup.

There was a moment where anything seemed possible for UCLA. California's Jorge Gutierrez went hard to the basket with a minute left in the first half and was called for a charging foul. Everyone leaped off the UCLA bench with the Bruins up by nine points. There was a moment, however, when reality was apparent. During a timeout eight minutes into the second half, with players huddled around him, Bruins Coach Ben Howland slammed his clipboard to the court. The downward arc continued, until the moment where California was headed to the Pacific Life Pacific 10 tournament championship game, after an 85-72 victory at Staples Center, and UCLA was headed home with a 14-18 record.

The reviews were in quickly, even before UCLA players had peeled off their uniforms in their Staples Center locker room. "My dad just called me," UCLA senior forward Nikola Dragovic said. "He asked me how come we don't play like that all the time." Good question. Maybe the Bruins just weren't ready to take a final misstep in a woeful season. Or maybe it was the bounce—along with the elbows—forward Reeves Nelson's provided in his return from an eye injury.

There was a different look to UCLA guard Malcolm Lee's game Saturday. Freed mostly from the chore of being the Bruins' point guard, Lee had a flow to his game. It was reflected in his 18-point performance in a 70-68 loss to Oregon. "I think he scores better from that position because he does not have to worry so much about running the team," Coach Ben Howland said. Lee made eight of 14 shots. He scored 10 of the Bruins' last 12 points of the first half to keep a bad situation from becoming worse.

Michael Roll did all right by trading up in 2005. Roll had committed to UC Santa Barbara early in his senior year at Aliso Niguel. But diverting to UCLA on signing day put him on the road to three Final Fours, two of which he played in, and a national title game. Any regrets about his decision? "No way," Roll said, smiling. Roll, a senior guard for the Bruins, will play his final home games at Pauley Pavilion this week, starting Thursday against Oregon State. His final tour might not be a jaunt through another NCAA tournament, as the 12-14 Bruins are struggling to get to .500, but Roll's impact appears to be on those who are following him into the program.

The nation, for some reason, needed to see this. UCLA has had enough black eyes this season, though that has nothing to do with the shiner forward Reeves Nelson is sporting. The Bruins have been kicked around by the Big West Conference, with losses to Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton, and beaten up by USC. But those were regional missteps. What made a 97-68 loss to Washington at Bank of America Arena on Saturday night even more painful was that it went out to a country that is used to associating "UCLA" with "quality basketball."

Malcolm Lee never heard the pitter-patter of big feet from behind. This was UCLA's first possession Sunday. Lee pushed up through the Trojans' pressure. The next moment, USC forward Marcus Johnson was going the other way with the ball. It was just another step on a tough learning curve for Lee. After last season, Jrue Holiday bolted early for the NBA. Jerime Anderson has been slowed by injury and inconsistency. That has left Lee, a shooting guard by trade, as the team's learn-as-I-go point guard.

For the first time this fall, UCLA's backcourt should be well-stocked against Humboldt State tonight. Guards Jerime Anderson and Michael Roll are expected to play in a 7:30 p.m. exhibition game at Pauley Pavilion, a final warm-up before the season opener against Cal State Fullerton on Nov. 16. The news was not good for freshman Tyler Honeycutt , who has a precursor to a stress fracture in his right tibia. Honeycutt was scheduled to see a doctor on Monday night. Another freshman, Brendan Lane , was recovering from a sprained sprain but fell ill Monday.

There was a different look to UCLA guard Malcolm Lee's game Saturday. Freed mostly from the chore of being the Bruins' point guard, Lee had a flow to his game. It was reflected in his 18-point performance in a 70-68 loss to Oregon. "I think he scores better from that position because he does not have to worry so much about running the team," Coach Ben Howland said. Lee made eight of 14 shots. He scored 10 of the Bruins' last 12 points of the first half to keep a bad situation from becoming worse.

After two weeks, four games, and a lot of wheel spinning, UCLA's basketball team is facing the exact same situation as before. The Bruins play five of their last seven games before the Pacific 10 tournament on the road while trying to remain relevant in the conference race. So reclaiming the conference championship will need to be done away from Pauley Pavilion. That makes the spin easy heading into Sunday's game at USC. "At home, you want to get going, you want to make a shot, you want to hear the roar of the crowd," UCLA Coach Ben Howland said.

The pregame lead-up at Pauley Pavilion includes a video message from Coach Ben Howland, who says, "This is our house." The Bruins' players, in the locker room before home games, always remind each other, "This is the place we've got to protect," forward Nikola Dragovic said. Yet, life under those 11 national championship banners has been anything but business as usual this season. UCLA proved that again Saturday in a 72-58 loss to California that had spectators flying for the exit as if the arena's renovation was to begin at the final buzzer.