McCoy: Bring on Iowa State’s Cato

UCLA center Jelani McCoy, who has made 13 of his 15 shots in the tournament and averaged 15.5 points, said he relishes the possibility of matching-up against Iowa State shot-blocker Kelvin Cato in Thursday’s Midwest Regional semifinal in San Antonio.

“I would love to just go one-on-one with Cato,” McCoy said Monday of the 6-foot-11 Cato, who led the Big 12 in blocked shots. “He’s a good player, blocks a lot of shots. He’s long, takes up a lot of space. . . .

“But, I don’t think he’s going to bother me, because I’ve played against players like that before. I know I’m going to try to be as aggressive as I’ve been so far.”

In each of the Bruins’ two tournament victories, McCoy--who was only one for three against Princeton in the tournament last season--has started games extremely actively on offense, which seems to have triggered his post partner, J.R. Henderson.

“I just wanted to be more aggressive in the tournament than I was last year,” McCoy said. “I know when I get aggressive, J.R. gets aggressive.”

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Following the pattern of the last two weeks, Coach Steve Lavin had the players only watch film on Monday and did not hold an on-floor practice. “Hey, in ‘95, we probably stopped practicing in January,” point guard Cameron Dollar said.

McCoy credits the extra rest--UCLA hasn’t had a full practice at Pauley Pavilion since March 4--for the Bruins’ firepower.