TONIGHT / MEN

By Steve Henson

Dec. 8, 2002 12 AM PT

UCLA vs. Long Beach State

1 p.m., Fox Sports West 2

Site--Pauley Pavilion.

Radio--KXTA (1150).

Records--UCLA 0-2, Long Beach State 1-2

Update--This is the first of three consecutive home games against teams that even this struggling Bruin squad should beat. Point guard Ryan Walcott returns after missing the losses to San Diego and Duke because he played in an exhibition before his redshirt season in 2000. Although he is not a starter, Walcott is expected to play about 20 minutes and his quickness should enable UCLA to press early in the game for the first time this season. Long Beach, which defeated Cal State Monterey Bay and lost to UC Irvine and Pepperdine, has no starter taller than 6 feet 8. Guard Tony Darden is a prolific scorer.

-- Steve Henson

UCLA Sports

Steve Henson

Steve Henson is a reporter with the Fast Break sports team at the Los Angeles Times. He previously served as an assistant editor and reporter in the Sports department. Henson was a leader in digital-only newsrooms from 2007-19 as a senior editor and columnist at Yahoo Sports and as senior editor at the USA Today Sports Media Group. This is his second stint at The Times, having covered the Dodgers and UCLA as well as doing enterprise, investigative and features writing from 1985-2007. Henson was awarded first place in sports features in 2021 by the L.A. Press Club and has been honored several times by the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) and also by the California News Publishers Assn., the Football Writers Assn. of America and U.S. Basketball Writers Assn.

TONIGHT / MEN

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