Bruins take a more relaxed approach

TUCSON -- The last time UCLA played a Thursday-Sunday Pacific 10 Conference road trip, the Bruins were outplayed, outhustled and upset by Washington, 71-61, in Seattle. This time Coach Ben Howland is changing the schedule.

Fourth-ranked UCLA (25-3, 13-2) will play Arizona (17-11, 7-8) at the McKale Center on Sunday after its 70-49 win over Arizona State on Thursday in Tempe.

Howland gave his players the day off Friday, allowing them to visit a Scottsdale mall before taking the bus trip to Tucson. Howland said the Bruins would practice today. “We won’t go long,” Howland said, “but we will go hard.”

Last month after UCLA beat Washington State in Pullman, the Bruins had a charter flight to Seattle immediately after the Thursday night game, had a practice Friday and a less strenuous one on Saturday. Several players said they were flat in the Washington loss.

Howland said he doesn’t know if he prefers the normal Thursday-Saturday game schedule to the occasional Thursday-Sunday schedule. “I’m torn,” he said.

He does know he’d prefer what he used to have when he coached at Pittsburgh in the Big East. “They play Wednesday-Saturday or Tuesday-Friday,” he said. “I like that.”

When UCLA beat Arizona State, 84-51, last month, the Bruins got 13 points from the bench. In Thursday’s win, the Bruins got two points, a basket from backup center Lorenzo Mata-Real.

The two bench points have been more the norm compared to 13. The Bruins had eight points from the bench in last Saturday’s win over Oregon, only four against USC at the Galen Center, only two in the loss to Washington, nine in the last Washington State win and four in a blowout win over Arizona.

“We’re playing who we’re playing and I’m pleased with the guys coming off the bench with everything they’re giving us,” Howland said.

He was less pleased with how often freshman center Kevin Love touched the ball against Arizona State’s zone defense.

Love had 18 points on six-for-11 shooting and 12 rebounds and expressed no displeasure about the frequency of his touches.

But Howland said he saw Love open several times when the ball wasn’t passed inside.

“ASU doesn’t double the post in their zone,” Howland said. “Once Kevin got the ball he got it one-on-one.

“Kevin worked as hard as he has all year against a zone to get position in there. Last night we missed a number of opportunities to get it to him. But guys are also wary of turnovers.”

The Bruins had 14 turnovers against the Sun Devils -- only one more than their season average.

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diane.pucin@latimes.com