UCLA rises to No. 5 in both polls  

By Diane Pucin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
1:20 PM PST, December 24, 2007
After UCLA moved to 11-1 last Saturday with its 69-54 victory over Michigan, Coach Ben Howland said he was not satisfied with how this season has progressed.

"I'd rather be 12-0," Howland said. "I'd rather we never would have had the injuries to Michael Roll and Darren Collison but the fact is, 11-1 is not all bad. We could have lost to Davidson, we could have won that Texas game."

That 11-1 record was good enough to move the Bruins to fifth in both the Associated Press poll and the ESPN/USA Today's coaches' poll from eighth in both polls last week.

In fact both major polls had the same top 10 with North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas, Washington State and UCLA the top five and Pitt, Michigan State, Georgetown, Texas and Duke next.

USC moved from 25th to 24th in the AP poll and remained unranked in the coaches' poll.

UCLA had been ranked as high as No. 1 in the coaches' poll and No. 2 in AP before losing at home in the final seconds to Texas. After UCLA won Saturday, Howland said he would pay close attention to Saturday evening's game between Texas and Michigan State. UCLA beat the Spartans to win the CBE Classic last month. "It will be an interesting game," Howland said. "I guess I'm rooting for MSU tonight. Go Spartans." And the Spartans did win.

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