Buffs Head To Los Angeles For Two This Week

BOULDER — Two years ago, the Colorado Buffaloes headed to Los Angeles shouldering an all-time 0-8 skid on the UCLA Bruins' home floor.

But since then, the Buffs have made Pauley Pavilion their home away from home. The Buffs ended the skid in 2018 with a 68-59 win, the beginning of a four-game win streak over the Bruins that included another win at Pauley last year, an 84-73 victory.

This week, the 20th-ranked Buffs (16-4 overall, 5-2 Pac-12) aim to make it five in a row overall against the Bruins and three straight at Pauley as they head to Los Angeles for a pair of games. Colorado plays at UCLA on Thursday (9 p.m., ESPN2), followed by a Saturday matchup at USC (8:30 p.m., FS1).

Colorado's two wins at Pauley have come thanks in large part to some excellent shooting from 3-point range. Two years ago, George King had 26 points on 6-for-10 shooting from 3-point range in a 68-59 win; last year it was guard Shane Gatling with a career-high 28 points on 7-for-9 shooting from beyond the arc in an 84-73 victory. In CU's last two games at UCLA, the Buffs are 24-for-47 on 3-pointers.

"I just remember they were in a zone, I picked my spots and my teammates kept finding me and I just kept knocking down shots," Gatling said of his first and only game thus far in UCLA's famed arena. "It was just one of those games."

CU coach Tad Boyle isn't banking on a repeat performance this year from any one player, but he does expect his offense to continue its recent efficient, productive ways. The Buffs are averaging 72.7 points per game in conference play — third best in the Pac-12 — while shooting 46.2 percent from the field, second-best in conference play. That includes a respectable 36 percent (49-for-137) from 3-point range.

"I don't know why it's been Pauley, but since the first of the year, we've gotten better offensively," Boyle said. "It's a result of moving the ball, sharing the ball and taking good shots. Guys are here before practice getting shots up, staying afterwards. I always say it's my job to make sure we're taking good shots and we're getting good shots and it's the players' job to make good shots."

Gatling is coming off one of his best games of the year in CU's 76-62 win over Washington on Saturday — but it wasn't a particularly big evening in the points department. The CU senior did shoot an efficient 4-for-5 from the floor, including 1-for-2 from 3-point range, to finish with nine points. But perhaps more importantly, he also had five assists and just one turnover in 24 minutes of play.

"Five assists, one turnover — that's fantastic," Boyle said. "If we can get that out of Shane every night, we're going to be pretty good. We've got some guys that can shoot the ball. We know DShawn (Schwartz) is a good shooter. Maddox Daniels is a good shooter. Shane's a good shooter. Lucas (Siewert) we know can shoot and McKinley (Wright) is shooting the ball well from three. The only way you get an assist is by making those plays and sharing the ball and moving the ball. The key is to put yourself in that position."

The Buffs have indeed done a good job in January of sharing the ball. Colorado leads the Pac-12 in assist-to-turnover ratio in conference games (1.26), with 107 assists in seven games.

"I just have to keep picking my spots," said Gatling, who also had four assists in Colorado's win at UCLA last season. "Sometimes I pass up a good shot for a better shot. I like to make extra passes when I can and get my teammates involved, even if I'm hot. It makes the other team guard all of us."

BEY VS. BRUINS: While Gatling's numbers stole the show a year ago in Pauley, Colorado's Tyler Bey had two excellent games against the Bruins in CU's sweep last season. The CU junior recorded two double-doubles against UCLA, collecting 16 points and 10 rebounds in the win in Los Angeles, then putting up a 27-point, 13-rebound effort in a 93-68 victory in Boulder.

FIRST LOOK UCLA: The Bruins (10-10, 3-4) are having an up-and-down season thus far under new head coach Mick Cronin, who made the move from Cincinnati in the offseason.

UCLA is lead by 6-foot-9 guard Chris Smith, who is averaging 12.2 points and 5.2 rebounds per game this season (14.3 and 6.7 in conference play). The Bruins also have a double-digit scorer in 6-10 forward Jalen Hill, averaging 10.0 points and 7.3 rebounds.

The Bruins started Pac-12 play with a 66-64 win at Washington, but then dropped three in a row before getting wins over Cal and Oregon State. They are coming off a 96-75 loss at Oregon last weekend.

LA SWEEP AGAIN? On last year's trip to Los Angeles, the Buffs swept a pair. It was only Colorado's second road trip sweep in their nine years in the Pac-12, with the first coming against the Oregon schools in 2012-13.

CU has three two-game road trips remaining this season. After this week's trip to Los Angeles, they travel to Oregon for meetings with the Ducks and Oregon State on Feb. 13 and 15; then to the Bay Area for games against Cal (Feb. 27) and Stanford (March 1). CU wraps up the regular season in early March with a trip to Utah.

Colorado has four home games remaining, beginning with next week's contests against Cal (Feb. 6) and Stanford (Feb. 8), followed by a pair against USC (Feb. 20) and UCLA (Feb. 22).

The Buffs wrap up the regular season at Utah on March 7, followed by the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas (March 11-14).

Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu