A Clinic At Pauley

by Nestor on Feb 1, 2008 4:39 AM PST in Basketball

Well I think we have officially come out of the rough patch we hit at Pauley last Saturday (knocking on wood). Ben Ball warriors were clicking on all cylinders last night both on offense and defense as they put together their most complete performance of the season yet.

The most encouraging part of last night’s performance was how we shredded ASU’s 3-2 zone. Remember we didn’t have an easy time with Sendek’s defensive scheme last year. And till yesterday we were still working our way through against zone defenses. Well hopefully what we saw last night will be norm for rest of the season. Because according to Coach Howland that was our best performance in terms of attacking the zone in his five years at UCLA. From Dohn in the Daily News:

UCLA coach Ben Howland went with a smaller lineup, starting Westbrook in the backcourt, moving Shipp to small forward and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute to power forward so he could bring Alfred Aboya off the bench.

Westbrook was central in attacking Arizona State's zone, and he finished with 10 points and seven assists, and did not turn over the ball.

"I wanted to attack the zone early in this game with efficiency, and that's our best five players in attacking the zone," Howland said. "We did a good job being patient. We did a good job penetrating, jump-stopping, making passes to other players. ... That's the best we've attacked the zone in five years since I've been at UCLA by far."

Well it helped that DC is back to his old self and RW came out of his funk. According to Howland they were exceptional last night:

"Russell Westbrook and Darren were exceptional tonight. They combined for 16 assists against only one turnover. Darren was perfect from the line and from the field and also added a season-high nine assists.

"Russell penetrated very well and made a lot of good plays on jump stops, pump-fakes and passes.

I think one thing that was obvious from the get go was how sharp and crisp our ball movement was. Players were getting rid of the ball quick, just whipping passes inside and outside. They were attacking the middle with abandon and finding team-mates for open threes or dumping it off down low. It was beautiful to watch and it was also very efficient:

Howland pointed to the fact that against a defense where the first open shot is often a long distance shot, the Bruins took only 12 three-pointers and made eight of them.

"That's a lot of efficiency," Howland said. "To only take 12 threes against a zone is a good sign."

Certain that they could break down Arizona State by going inside (Luc Richard Mbah a Moute started UCLA's initial run with a layup) and then outside (Josh Shipp made consecutive open three pointers in the middle of it), the Bruins were able to be aggressive and creative.

Well let’s hope we can continue that effort against the zone. DC emphasized the need for consistency in Dohn’s report (linked above):

"If we can continue to be consistent against the zone, and consistency is the key, it's going to be real hard to beat us," Collison said. "I never liked playing against the zone, but the way we did (Thursday), zones are so much easier to play against. There's so many open looks. Nobody is really guarding you. It's about you making shots and being patient."

Junior wing Josh Shipp busted out of his shooting slump and scored 21 points, freshman center Love added 20 points and 10 rebounds and Collison scored 14 points and had nine assists against one turnover.

Besides our efficient performance on offense our defense was back to being its old self. And no doubt it had a lot to do with Luc’s return to the line up. We once again played our prototype inside-the-jersey on ball defense and then there were those lethal double teams in the post which we hadn’t seen since the Washington State game. The guys did an amazing job holding Harden (9) and Pendegraph (6) to single digits in the scoring column.

There were two key plays to note from last night. First after falling behind big by 17 points in the first half the Devils made a mini run to close the gap to 10 and were looking to cut it to single digits. Well then this happened. Take a look (thanks to grok451):

And then there was this moment which even though is becoming regularity this season is still just … uhm … just SICK:

He is just amazing. Once again I was just taking in every moment of Love. So cool to see this kid develop in his 21 college games. The way he uses the glass to knock down his shots, the way he fights, scraps for boards and his points down low even though when he is being guarded by three guys in the pain. Just breathtaking. Donnie Mac also made a pretty money observation about Love last night saying he is now much quicker in his decision making down low. When he catches the ball now he doesn’t hesitate. He either puts it up or kicks it out to his team-mates. Just so much more efficient than the Love we saw against Texas and other game earlier in the season.

The question going into this weekend is Mata-Real’s wrist. Hopefully he is all right. He also had a very efficient game off the bench last night.

Well we are going to need the same efficient performance from our Ben Ball warriors in what is shaping up to be a huge game against the Standard on Saturday night. A resurgent Zona team who will come out to avenge the losses from last two years. And we can’t get distracted with all the attention this game is going to get because of WWL’s crew appearance and national TV exposure. We will continue need to build on the clinic we put on last night to keep the separation from rest of the Pac-10. We will need to stay steady and patient.

GO BRUINS.

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It was a great TEAM effort

What a great game! The whole team (even though AK had his troubles, I'd really like to see CBH put him in with big leads a little earlier and often) I have a feeling Saturday will be a little tougher contest. Sure nice to watch a game for once and not have to get nervous, just sit back and watch the machine work. Good to see the Shipp sailing again too!

Go UCLA!

by madmaxucla on Feb 1, 2008 6:16 AM PST reply actions

Arizona Better Without Lute?

I think so.

Stuck without TV coverage of our game, I watched the end of the sc/AZ game while reading our game thread.

AZ has started playing D this year.

Remember Lute's "observation" that no one would want to play at UCLA because of the "type of game" (meaning we play D) Howland coaches? That was before we handled them.

So, Lute takes a leave and now AZ is playing some D.

This will be a tough game, they are playing well.

But, so are we, and we are the STANDARD.

sjh

by Class of 66 on Feb 1, 2008 6:36 AM PST reply actions

We shot lights out

It was our best shooting night in a long time, that I can recall. Not only were we getting open looks, we knocked them down consistently. Luc was a non-factor on offense but his defensive intensity was amazing. He got some early fouls that kept him out too.

Can anyone tell me why DC wears a bandage on his left arm. It has been on most of the season. Is it a cut of some sort?

Saturday will be a serious test, but if we play anything near the way we played last night, we should cruise again.

Go Bruins!!

by Bald Eagle on Feb 1, 2008 8:13 AM PST reply actions

I must admit, though, I am concerned...

... about keeping our starters in for extended minutes.

I am as big a BH disciple as anybody here, but we must have a certain amount of caution in blowouts.

Forgive me, but DC played 35 mintues last night. Granted, with the stress reaction in Abdul-Hamid's foot earlier this month, he may not be 100%, but come on.

And yes, LMR IS our backup C, and he might have a little rust from last week. Still, wouldn't it have been all right for AA2 or Keefe to man the C spot last night while LMR is on the mend?

I realize any team can come back in any game on any given night. Shoot, we PROVED that WE can do it under CBH with a young team back with Gonzaga.

Still, it might have been nice to see a Robinson/ Lee/ Keefe/ Drago/ Chace team on the court with more than 1:00 left in the game.

CBH has certainly done well in developing younger players in the past, like Keefe last year, who eventually becamse a solid bench contributor in the Tournament, and, well, EVERYBODY in our injury-plagued 2005 year.

I see the first steps being taken by Nikola this month; I just hope Stanback can earn the PT, whether in garbage time or otherwise, a little sooner than the 2:00-remaining point.

"In this program your passion bucket must be full to play SC." -- CRN, to Dan Patrick, 1/2008

by Meriones on Feb 1, 2008 9:27 AM PST reply actions

Mustafa Abdul-Hamid

Was in street clothes yesterday. And this was after playing the final minute in the blowout in Corvallis. Mata-Real hurt his wrist taking a charge in the final minute. It would have been nice if he wasn't in the game that late. He and Aboya know only one pace to go at - they were both trying to take charges in the final 5 minutes of a blowout!

by Raisin on Feb 1, 2008 9:56 AM PST up reply actions

Jellin'

Injuries suck but like in previous years, it has helped our team to build some depth. I too would like to see Drago & Chance get some more PT just in case they are thrust into a crucial situation in a game due to injury or foul trouble. However, I'll leave that up to the man that has taken us to B2B FF's.

We are now seeing the DC that we were all expecting. He is on a tear and is very efficient doing so. I like the aggressiveness he is showing on the floor. There will be times when we need a bucket come Tourney time and DC will have to make a play. I think he'll be ready.

I think the team is starting to realize what they are capable offensively by utlilizing Love. Love has improved his decision making and in turn, this has given confidence to the other players. The type of passing last night is a nightmare for opponents to try and defense. Our guys will see this and will only improve on it.

by BlueReign on Feb 1, 2008 9:57 AM PST reply actions

i disagree

i thought they pulled people out at the right time. i'm glad mata stayed in, coming off his concussion he needed to get some game rep and i think the same for luc. keefe and drago were in spelling people throughout the game. i do think they should've worked in stanback a little earlier, but no big.
i'm pumped that dc is back, was totally perfect yesterday, 100% from the field and the stripe.
concussions are bad, but maybe the knock on the melon was needed for luc to realize he shouldn't be launching them from downtown. he has a great intermediate range jump shot and was showing it yesterday, that's where he can be sick- saw a bit of that yesterday.
and i'd be happy if aboya never takes a jump shot outside of 10 ft ever again. aaaaaargh!

Across The Face

by rb bruin on Feb 1, 2008 10:16 AM PST reply actions

RB-Spot on

We managed the game well last night. I was calling for the removal of DC and KLove with about 8 minutes left but Howland got them out with around 5 minutes left. Luc needs to keep shooting from within his range which is about 10-15 feet and AA2 needs to stick to put-backs, dunks and other short stuff. Seeing AA2 shoot from the outside is as painful as watching Mata shoot free throws.

by Bald Eagle on Feb 1, 2008 11:15 AM PST up reply actions