NCAA-OAKLAND UCLA-Gonzaga matchup will test differing styles

UCLA employs a grind-it-out style, stressing defense, teamwork and balance.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Los Angeles is celebrities, glitz and showtime basketball. Life's a little bit slower in Spokane, Wash.
When second-seeded UCLA faces third-seeded Gonzaga in the third round of the Oakland regional tonight, it will be a showdown for West Coast supremacy between teams with styles and histories as different as their home cities.
UCLA has 11 national championships and has set the standard for success on the West Coast ever since the days of John Wooden. Even though Gonzaga has been to only one regional final ever, the Bulldogs have been the West Coast's most consistent winner the past few years.
Why Gonzaga?
"We don't really buy into the Cinderella thing," junior Sean Mallon said. "This is why we came to Gonzaga, to get in this situation and play these kinds of games. We look at this is where we should be."
The differences between the two programs run much deeper than their histories.
But it's the team from Spokane that has the player with the distinctive look and movie-star following in Adam Morrison. It's Gonzaga (29-3) that wants to run up and down the court with defense seeming almost like an afterthought.
UCLA (29-6) employs the grind-it-out style, stressing stingy defense, teamwork and balance that doesn't seem to fit a team from star-driven L.A.
When asked to describe what his team has been about this season, point guard Jordan Farmar didn't hesitate: "Defense."
"That says it all. The way we play on the defensive end," Farmar said. "If you want to go back to November, it was nonexistent compared to what we do now. We're such a much better team. We're more of a collective unit. We play for each other. We've grown and gotten to know each other throughout the year."
A test for Bruins
Coach Ben Howland's Bruins have won nine straight games, allowing 54 points per game. They will get one of their toughest tests yet with a team that features the nation's leading scorer in Morrison, a dominant low-post threat in J.P. Batista (19.3 ppg, 9.4 rpg) and has won 20 straight games.
Morrison, who averages 28.2 points, is coming off a 5-for-17 shooting performance in the second round win against Indiana when he scored 14 points -- only the sixth time this season he's been held under 20 points.
"He can score from 3, he can score off the bounce, he can score in the post, he rebounds his own shot as well as anybody," Howland said. "He poses a lot of problems. There's only a handful of people that are playing the game in college that would ever be talked about in that same light."