Ben Howland walks through the UCLA campus and by the renovation of Pauley Pavilion every day.
He gets "excited" about the thought of returning to the Bruins' on-campus arena, which is still at least five months away.
He could also be excited about what it will bring when the new Pauley opens – a sense of normalcy. The 2011-12 campaign for UCLA has been anything but normal. Thursday night, they return "home" to a place they haven't played in for over a month – the Sports Arena.
Since their last game at the Sports Arena on Dec. 23, the Bruins played two home games at Honda Center.
He understands the time away from Pauley is only temporary, but you couldn't blame him if he allowed his mind to think about more "what ifs."
What if Pauley was open this season and the Bruins would have a true home-court advantage?
Or what if Tyler Honeycutt and/or Malcolm Lee would have returned to school?
He's thought about it. He's thought about how much better the team would be this season had they not declared for the NBA Draft early.
"That would be true," Howland said. "If we had those, yes, we'd obviously be (better) because they're all-league players and would have been that much better."
The thought is heightened when you consider Honeycutt has spent the majority of his pro career in the D-League since being selected in the second round by the Sacramento Kings. He was recently called back up by the the Kings.
That's just some of the good news received by former Bruins recently.
Last week, Russell Westbrook signed a five-year extension with the Oklahoma City Thunder worth $80 million.
On Wednesday, Kevin Love agreed to a four-year, $60 million extension with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The news on the court hasn't been quite as good for the current Bruins, who are coming off consecutive losses to the Oregon schools.
The Bruins lost to Oregon State after winning the previous 13 meetings. The loss at Oregon came after they blew a 13-point halftime lead. They've yet to win a game against a Division I school outside of Southern California.
They now return home -- kind of.
"To be honest, it's not like you're going home, it's just like you have another game," said Lazeric Jones. "I really haven't looked at things like being road games or home games. It's just been games now. All of our games are on the road."
The Bruins (10-9, 3-4 Pac-12) road show continues Thursday at the Sports Arena when they host Utah (5-14, 2-5) at 7:30 p.m. on Prime Ticket.
Honda Center provided more of a home-court advantage for the Bruins this season than the Sports Arena, but Orange County is a lot farther from campus.
The Sports Arena is nestled right in the middle of enemy territory and the crowds have been sparse. The Den hasn't been nearly as crowded as past years and despite the school offering transportation to and from games, students haven't been able to attend as they would have if the games were on campus.
"People, with their class schedules, they say it's kind of a hassle to get out there from (campus), with traffic but whoever's there we're going to play. Whether it's 10 people or 10,000 people," said Joshua Smith.
Still, because Thursday marks the first conference game at the Sports Arena this season, they are expecting a larger crowd against the Utes, who will be without leading scorer Josh Watkins. He was also leading the team in assists before being dismissed from the team this month.
Utah is coming off of a 21-point win against Arizona State its last time out. They now look to center Jason Washburn (10.7 ppg) to handle the scoring load. He's also the team's leading rebounder (6.5 rpg).
Bruins players had a chance to sleep in their own beds Wednesday night. That's often times considered normal if you have a home game the next day, but for UCLA this season, it's a rarity. They have class on Thursday, so they'll drive to the Sports Arena the day of the game. It's just the second time they've done that all season.
