Dragovic Leads UCLA: Box Score of the Day

CHN now features a live scoreboard, stats, standings, etc.. here. Occasionally, we'll be featuring a box score of the day, with some commentary on why the box score is interesting. It might be involve a huge upset, a big personal effort, some odd statistical occurrences, or other intriguing tidbit.

Box Score of the Day:

Today's pick is.. UCLA's 2 point win over Washington State.

This is a good case of the how being more interesting than the what. UCLA beating WSU isn't terribly interesting.. the Bruins are considered Final Four contenders after all. But who would have guessed before the season that there would be a game when Nikola Dragovic would score 33% of his team's points, and finish with more than double than any other Bruin? Coming into the season, there were many questions about UCLA's frontline following the departure of Kevin Love. Most of the answers involved a stud recruit like Drew Gordon or J'Mison Morgan, or veteran junior James Keefe. But out of nowhere, it is Dragovic, a native of Belgrade, who has tuned into one of the Bruin's most consistent contributors. The 20 he scored last night is just the latest in a string of five quality games that began with Oregon on January 4th. In these five games, Dragovic is averaging 14 points and 5 boards, not bad for a guy who never even averaged 10 mpg his first two years on campus.