Practice Gets Intense

UCLA practice went nearly an hour longer than scheduled, and there wasn’t much standing around.

Coaches took the scout team aside beforehand and urged the players to push the regulars. They did, and eventually the regulars pushed back.

“The guys on the bench caught us off-step,” forward T.J. Cummings said. “They are trying to prepare us for the game and they came out with this incredible energy.”

USC, the Bruins’ opponent Thursday, mixes up its defenses and plays aggressively.

“At this point, we aren’t very good at reading defenses and getting quality shots,” guard Jason Kapono said. “So the scout team came out and changed up defenses on us like the Trojans do.”

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UCLA and USC are tied for first in the Pacific 10 Conference by virtue of beating Washington and Washington State twice. But Cummings believes USC pointedly beat iboth worse than the Bruins did.

“Any dummy can figure out they killed the Washington schools to show us they mean business,” he said.

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Guard Rico Hines suffered a mild concussion at practice when he was knocked to the floor and hit his head chasing a loose ball. He is expected to play Thursday.

Hines, who has started the last nine games--all UCLA victories--also got a cut over his left eye during the fall and will be evaluated by trainers today.

“He’ll be back for ‘SC,” Kapono said. “There’s no way he’d miss that game.”