No Doubt About It, Bruins Got Message

The early-January comments by Oregon State guard Josh Steinthal--”Honestly, I thought USC was a lot better [than UCLA]”--had stayed with most Bruins anyway. But there were reminders Sunday before the rematch, just in case.

A longer version of the quote. Type-set. Enlarged. Next to a photo of Steinthal. Laminated.

The use of graphics might have replaced the old-fashioned bulletin board, but the result was the same.

After finding the placards in their lockers, the Bruins avenged the Jan. 7 loss in Corvallis, beating the Beavers at Pauley Pavilion, 85-67.

“We definitely wanted to come out and prove ourselves,” swingman Ray Young said. “We read when we left there that the ‘SC win was sweeter for them than beating us.

“It wasn’t so much what they said. It was what we needed to accomplish. There was a bigger goal in mind. That just gave us more fire.”

Said forward Matt Barnes, “This really was a big win. We know we struggled at Oregon State when our shots weren’t falling. But we came out [Sunday] and showed them who we are. We had some stuff to prove to them.”

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Baron Davis is one of 10 finalists for the Oscar Robertson Trophy, given to the player of the year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Assn. The others: Elton Brand of Duke, Mateen Cleaves of Michigan State, Evan Eschmeyer of Northwestern, Steve Francis of Maryland, Richard Hamilton of Connecticut, Trajan Langdon of Duke, Andre Miller of Utah, Lee Nailon of TCU and Wally Szczerbiak of Miami of Ohio.

The winner will be announced March 28.

Coming up: Thursday at Stanford, Saturday at California.