Darren Collison News

UCLA's season started badly with a loss to Cal State Fullerton, got worse at the 76 Classic with losses to Portland, Butler and Long Beach State, then got even worse Tuesday with the transfer of Drew Gordon, and it'll get even worse Sunday when the Bruins play No.

How quickly things have changed for Darren Collison. When the New Orleans rookie point guard visited Staples Center last month, he was buried so far down the bench that he admitted his six minutes of playing time came as a total surprise.

There was a day in the not-too-distant past when the Lakers and New Orleans Hornets were equals.

Long Beach St.'s T.J. Robinson operates in traffic versus UCLA's Michael Roll and Nikola Dragovich.

West Virginia will play surprising Portland in the finals of the 76 Classic Sunday night in Anaheim.

UCLA suffered its biggest loss of the Coach Ben Howland era with a 79-47 thumping by the Portland Pilots in the first round of the 76 Classic in Anaheim.

The Orange won the 2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer. Jim Boeheim's squad beat a pair of ranked teams at Madison Square Garden -- California and North Carolina .

During practices and games, injured New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul has been in rookie Darren Collison's ear, giving him pointers on the finer things about playing the position in the NBA.

HE IS ALL of 19 years old, the youngest player in the NBA. He is making an ungodly amount of money for someone his age - $1,514,280 - yet he is still required to stop and pick up doughnuts for his teammates.

They say the UCLAs have the McDonald's All-Americans, and the Cal State Fullertons have the burger-flippers. On Monday night UCLA wore a bull's-eye, and Cal State Fullerton closed in, spurred by a guy who, just last year, spent his weeknights working at Target.

At least for one game, the New Orleans Hornets survived without Chris Paul. Darren Collison's poise and Peja Stojakovic's sharp shooting provided the 1-2 punch the suddenly surging Hornets needed to pull out a surprising 110-103 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Thursday night.

Cal State Fullerton outplayed UCLA for the better part of 50 minutes, exposing the Bruins as the young and inexperienced team they are.

Talk to the young man about pressure and he smiles. "What's life without pressure?" he says.

With the Bruins playing their opener against Cal State Fullerton at Pauley Pavilion tonight, Ed O'Bannon sees positives and negatives to the coming season.

Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 3:19 p.m. LOS ANGELES - Ben Howland has gone back to basics at UCLA.

According to various reports, 2010 big man Josh Smith has decided to play his college ball at UCLA.

His voice carries above the squeak of sneakers, the chatter of players, echoing into the corners of a mostly empty Pauley Pavilion.

In the wake of UCLA's close call against Concordia -- a 62-61 victory at Pauley Pavilion Wednesday -- Coach Ben Howland and his team had some thoughts about backcourt play, perhaps the most troubling aspect of a bumpy night.

Some of the finest players in college basketball gathered near Dallas this August for a five-day camp sponsored by adidas, and many in attendance agreed that the best guard in that group may have been UCLA sophomore and former Riverside North star Malcolm Lee.

'Others receiving votes' in Thursday's release of the preseason Associated Press basketball poll ... UCLA.