Finding A Way ...

by Nestor on Mar 23, 2008 5:17 PM PDT in Basketball

So much for our Ben Ball warriors having an "easy" bracket.

Before yesterday's game we kept imploring folks here on BN (many who weren't here with us in last three years) to latch on the cliché of "one game at a time," and not look beyond our next opponent. Not sure how much more we need to say to reemphasize that point after last night's game. Ben Ball warriors escaped with a win in an expected street fight against the toughest of the 8th and 9th seeds in this tournament (A&M was ranked number 16 according to Kenpom.com). There was nothing easy about yesterday.

First, let's take a look at some of the key numbers from yesterdays' game courtesy of Richard Perelman over at What's Bruin:

>> Kevin Love, Darren Collison and Russell Westbrook scored all but two of UCLA's 27 second-half points. Josh Shipp was scoreless (0-4 from the field) for the first time this season and only the third time in his UCLA career. He had two scoreless games as a freshman in the 2004-05 season.

>> Collison hit 5-8 from three-point land to equal his career high set at Arizona State and against Cal in the Pac-10 Tournament.

>> Love had a career-high seven blocked shots tonight as well as his 21st double-double of the season, with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

>> Defense: The Bruins held Texas A&M to just 32% shooting in the second half at 8-25 after a 14-26 (53.8%) first half; for the game, the Aggies shot 39.2% at 22-51.

>> Offense: After a dreadful, 9-23 first half (39.1%), the Bruins shot 11-22 in the second half and 20-45 for the game (44.4%).

>> UCLA got down by 10 points during the game, but now has a remarkable 5-2 record in games in which it is down by 10 or more. The Bruins also are 8-2 this season in games in which they have trailed at halftime.

Once again our boys got it done. And it was our defense that jump started our offense. The game was basically a replay of last year's contest in Anaheim during which our guys forced turnovers to eek out a 3 point win. More defensive superlative numbers from Perelman:

>> Texas A&M had 11 turnovers tonight; that gives UCLA a streak of 17 straight games in which its opponent has 10 or more turnovers.

>> This was the 20th game this season in which UCLA held its opponent to less than 60 points; the Bruins are 20-0 in those games. In the Ben Howland era (fifth season), UCLA is 62-2 in such games and has won 59 in a row.

And before moving on here is Perelman on significance of last night's 33rd win:

>> The Bruins set a school record tonight with their 33rd win of the season; UCLA is now 33-3, surpassing the win total of the 1995 and 2005 teams. The Bruins can't have more than four losses this season, so this season's overall record will be the best since the 1995 championship squad (32-1).

>> The Bruins are 8-0 so far this March, and have a March record of 22-3 over the last three seasons. Howland has a March record of 24-8 in his five season as UCLA's head coach. He also has a 15-6 NCAA Tournament record as a head coach and 11-3 at UCLA

Obviously there will be some who will find something to get upset over last night's close win. People are going to worry about how no one besides KL and DC really stepped up. People are going to worry about how Shipp went scoreless for the first time since his freshman year on a day when Plaschke decided to call him out personally in the Trojan Times.

But really is all that worrying really worth it? Why not just appreciate the fact that got it done against a very talented A&M team, which has a deep and extremely athletic frontline and a very good coach, who drilled his team into one of better defensive oriented in squads in America. Why not just appreciate the fact that once again our boys got it done when two of our key offensive weapons (RW and JS) were well contained by the Aggies and another one still working on his way back from a tough ankle injury. I am not sure how many other elite teams in America would have held their composure, work through the adversity, maintain their poise in the clutch to just get it done.

Well two of the reasons we keep pulling off these wins ala number 16 are our nos. 2 and 42. From SI.com:

Kevin Love and Darren Collison came of age on Saturday. In a slow-paced game against Texas A&M, UCLA's 10-point second-half deficit felt more like 18. But this UCLA team never, ever panics, and Love (seven blocks, 19 points, 11 boards) and Collison (21 points, five treys) showed as much poise as John Wooden's greatest teams always had down the stretch for the Bruins. Make no mistake: Love and Collison are the emotional center of a UCLA team that sometimes struggles to put away its opponents but always seems to perform when it counts. Did you ever think the Bruins would lose this game? Me neither. (But who knew the ground-bound Love would turn into a shot-swatting monster?)

Well may be not many were expecting Love turn into shot blocking "monster," but for those of us in BN who have been following his move ever since he committed to bleed blue and gold, last night's clutch performance was not a surprise. That was the same kid who carried us to a win in Oregon in circumstances as tough as a college basketball team will ever find itself in. And that was the same kid who time and again stepped up throughout the conference season establishing himself as the best in the premiere league in America. From Dilbeck in the Daily News:

He seemed to understand the moment again beyond his years, from taking control to urging on the crowd.

"I just wanted to get the crowd on our side," Love said. "I wanted to get the momentum going for us.

"Basketball's an emotional game, whether you like to show it or not. I was very much into it. I think I flexed so much my muscles kind of hurt after this."

For now, he'll settle for putting a hurt on the NCAA Tournament. Two games in, and he is making his mark.

Well the kid who made his mark was breathing a sigh of relief after yesterday's heart palpitating action:

"I'd be lying to you if I told you there was a big sigh of relief. We got it done today, that's all that counts, we got the `W' up on the scoreboard."

>> Asked about being down most of the game, Love said, "I just had to grind it out myself. Darren [Collison] didn't get disoriented at all and really our team didn't. We were a little quiet at halftime coming into the locker room, but Coach Howland picked us back up, and, [in] the last 10 minutes of the game, I really felt like we set up our defense and we ground out that win.

"I don't know if it was doubt [in our minds]. We just had to get ourselves believing in ourselves again. We had a couple guys who were going O-fer from the three-point line. We need to set that up as well. Darren shot great throughout the whole game and we really executed in the second half, especially on defense. We had to get out on their ball screens; we had to out-tough them. I thought we did that."

>> On the end-of-the-game stretch in which he and Collison gave the Bruins the lead: "Great players step up in clutch situations, and the ball just happened to be in our hands down the stretch. If it was somebody else on our team, I think they could have stepped up as well. We were just in the right place at the right time. Darren took it in on two good layups in the lane and I set some good screens for him ... He came off steamrolling down the middle, and I hit some fade-aways that aren't usually my go-to moves inside, but I just happened to hit them.

The `steam roller' stayed focused, was in total control, and "knew we were going to win":

"There's still a ballgame to be played. Once that buzzer goes zero-zero or the time clock goes zero-zero, then that's when we'll stop playing. I mean, we've been through that all season. We've been through adversity ever since I've been here, especially in the tournament. There's no quit in us. We had some games coming into the tournament where we've been down early, but we stay focused. We knew what we had to do. We knew we were going to win. Like Coach Howland said, we just had to do the right things to win the game.

>> On the final plays of the game and whether he was looking for himself or Love, he noted, "The plays are designed for us, so we had to create, whether it was me on the ball screens, creating for myself or my teammates or Kevin getting it down low. We just took advantage of it."

And then you go. With that our Ben Ball warriors get to move and prepare for the Hilltoppers on Thursday night.

Again I am not going to waste any space in this post talking about JS. I think everyone has said enough. We get the fact people are concerned. But I am not sure we have to spell if there is anyone who is most determined to break out of this slip and help the team its none other than Shipp. And the person that is most determined to help JS through his slum is none other than Coach Howland. So while Plaschkes of the world take their cheap shots, I'd appreciate if people here lay off him, and let his coach, his team-mates, help him work through his game. Meanwhile, the kid is doing everything he can while his shot is not falling to help us win the game. And guess what he is doing what he can to get it done:

AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian (via ESPN)

For more on the game here is coverage from the Daily News, the OC Register, and the LA Times:

"The thing I love about our team is that they know in their heart they're always going to win the game," Howland said. "They're going to find a way."

Again we will go through the same drill on Thursday. And when it comes to Ben Ball everyone here on BN should think about nothing else except for how we are going to "find a way" again WKU on Thursday night.

GO BRUINS.

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PS

SeattleBruin91 it was awesome to meet you and your friend at Fox Sports Grill (and thanks bg83 for the recommendation). That was certainly good karma for our first trip (ok my first trip) to the Emerald City and a great sign if we want to come back here for good.

Shoot me a note if you are in DC and there is a game to watch.

GO BRUINS.

by Nestor on Mar 23, 2008 5:58 PM PDT reply actions

Fox Sports

It was nice to see the roughly half-dozen Bruins fans at Fox Sports Seattle last night and the impromptu 8-clap after RW's game-ending dunk! I don't know how many Bruins in Seattle read BruinsNation (I count at least 3), but we should organize some watching parties for the upcoming games. I will be at Fox Sports again this Thursday for the WKU game (tip at approx 6:40pm). If people show up right before the game, seats should open up, because Wazzu plays UNC right before us (tip 4:27pm).

Nestor, it was a pleasure meeting you and your wife last night... and I agree that it was a definite success from the karma standpoint. Hope you enjoyed Tavolata... love that place.

by SeattleBruin91 on Mar 23, 2008 9:30 PM PDT up reply actions

I will be up on Pill Hill this Thursday

My wife's c-section (boy) scheduled at Swedish for Thursday morning (game day).

This means that it is once again time for a championship.
#1
The last time we won the NC was the week I got my admission letter to UCLA. I'm pretty sure that was Karma
#2
Lavin was fired within 3 months of my marriage
#3
Quit Microsoft two months ago after 10.5 years
#4
Baby this Thursday

Great things happen for the Bruins when I experience major life changing events. #3 and #4 put together should be enough juice to fuel banner #12

by bruinofthenorth on Mar 23, 2008 10:51 PM PDT up reply actions

oh, and another one

two years ago (Jan 2006) my daughter was born. and we went to the Final Four for the first time since 95.

by bruinofthenorth on Mar 23, 2008 11:04 PM PDT up reply actions

seattle bruins

another seattle bruin here. i'm actually finishing off my residency up here in the emerald city. i was in vegas this weekend for the usual 1st round festivities. we were watching the game at the huge theater in Vegas with a bunch of fellow Bruins my fellow MSU alumns who i've converted into at least part-time bruins fans ... and the plays was going crazy. I'll be at the sweet 16 this weekend after a week of R&R and surfing in so cal, but we should organize a final four viewing for those that will be in Seattle then... Go Bruins!

by bruinthug98 on Mar 24, 2008 4:53 PM PDT up reply actions

Nestor,

I'm really glad you enjoyed my old home town so much.

Love My Bruins

by Bruingirl83 on Mar 24, 2008 10:01 AM PDT up reply actions

Love the blocks

I still cannot get over Love and his clutch blocks in the second half. I bet some scouts were drooling over those.

by bhbruin on Mar 23, 2008 6:01 PM PDT reply actions

Team Play

Love's postgame quote is great, in which he says " the ball just happened to be in our (he and DC) hands down the stretch. If it was somebody else on our team, I think they could have stepped up as well."

First, it was no accident that the ball was in their hands. This is the result of coaching and execution.

Second, this attitude of respect for and faith in each teammate is what separates us from the cross-town "team". The one for all and all for me attitude which prevails at Galen would never fly with Coach Howland.

Hats off to a true team.

by islandbruin on Mar 23, 2008 6:53 PM PDT reply actions

It won't get easier

I know the veterns here in BN (even though I'm recent addition) will realize WKU is the real deal. They beat a good UConn team. And violating the one game at a time convention either Xavier or UWV (who always plays us tough) is going to be a challenge. If kenpom.com is anywhere near accurate that would make TexasA&M a 2 or 3 seed. The West Region isn't that weak.
We need the Whole Team to step up next weekend. We got lucky on getting past A&M on mostly just Love and Collison, we can't keep up like that.

P.S. My nickname for Love is "Beast" he fills up space and uses his basketball sense to dominate inside. Those blocks were awesome, too bad he missed a triple double. I hope he is enjoying college enough to hang around for one more year.

by bruinblue85 on Mar 23, 2008 7:02 PM PDT reply actions

4 or 5 Seed

Sorry, 16 divided by 4 is 4, and if Ken is being optimistic then 5.

by bruinblue85 on Mar 23, 2008 7:11 PM PDT up reply actions

San Diego

beat UCONN. Western Kentucky upset a very good Drake team.

Didn't record a real impressive win during the regular season-beat Michigan by 4, lost to Gonzaga by 3 (in Spokane), lost to Tennessee at home by 6, lost a couple of close ones to South Alabama and blew out a bunch of nobodies in between.

"I just think, at the end of the day, UCLA is not a great job." Brian D'Oh!n, 12/07

by godblesstyus95 on Mar 23, 2008 8:37 PM PDT up reply actions

Thanks for the correction

I looked at the bracket too quick.

by bruinblue85 on Mar 23, 2008 8:52 PM PDT up reply actions

Western Kentucky

I agree that every opponent we face the rest of the way will be a quality team (as the Bruins are), playing with the intensity which we should expect with the season on the line (as the Bruins will).

However, from what I saw in the Western Kentucky games, the matchups may work out a little more favorably than they did against the nightmare size which A&M presented. What Western Kentucy does possess in great abundance is senior leadership.

We should not expect them to lose their cool, and they could be very dangerous if their 3's drop, but they won't be a better version of A&M's size (thank goodness).

by islandbruin on Mar 23, 2008 7:16 PM PDT reply actions

A little sidetrack

I've been looking a little bit at what our Pac-10 brothers have in store for themselves this week: WSU against North Carolina, and Stanford against Texas. If you look at some of the computers, both games look to be prospectively very close.

I was kind of surprised to see this, but in the latest pomeroy ratings (taking into account today's games), UNC is ranked #5, while WSU has moved up to #6. Pomeroy's projection is for a 2-point UNC win, with WSU having a 45% chance of beating the Tarheals. (Sagarin has the margin closer to 6 points in UNC's favor)

Stanford/Texas looks to be even closer: Pomeroy has Texas ranked #10 and Stanford #11, while Sagarin puts Stanford at #8, and Texas at #9. Pomeroy projects a 1-point Texas win, but gives Stanford a greater than 49.50% chance of winning. Under the Sagarin system, the game is a tossup, with Stanford favored by a fraction of a point.

Another notable point: Records against the rest of the Sweet-16 participants. UCLA has played the most games against the 16 than anyone else: 8, with a 7-1 record. Stanford has played 6, with a 3-3 record (swept WSU, were swept by UCLA), and WSU has played 5 (0-5, swept by Stanford and UCLA). UNC has actually only played one game against a final-16 team, a 72-68 win at Davidson in the season opener. Texas has the same 3-3 record as Stanford, while Wisconsin and Louisville are the only teams undefeated against the 16 (3-0, and 2-0 respectively).

by bruinhoo on Mar 23, 2008 8:28 PM PDT reply actions

Comparative Schedules

Your comment re UNC playing their only sweet-16 game against Davidson got me wondering about another aspect of these records- namely, when these teams played other sweet-16 teams.

UCLA went 3-0 against sweet-16 teams in February and March, the most recent on March 15. Stanford went 3-2 against sweet-16 teams in February and March, the most recent again on March 15. Wash St went 0-3 against sweet-16 teams in February and March, the most recent on March 14.

As you point out, UNC's only game against a sweet-16 team took place at home on Nov 14. Texas went 1-1 against sweet-16 teams in February and March, splitting vs Kansas, the most recent on March 16.

Wisconsin is 2-0 against sweet-16 teams in February and March, beating Mich St twice, the most recent on March 15. Louisville is 1-0 against sweet-16 teams in February and March, beating Villanova on March 2.

A couple of potential takeaways- first, most of the BN posters hated the Pac-10 tourney, because we risked (and were hit by) injuries and did not rest our starters. However, we did have more opportunity to play tough competition at the end of the season, and to have to adjust to different styles from night to night (albeit styles which had been seen during the regular season).

The Pac-10 teams remaining in the tourney played at least 3 games against other sweet-16 teams in the late season, and played two other sweet-16 teams during that time. None of the other teams played more than 2 games against other sweet-16 teams during that stretch, and none played more than one other team in the sweet 16.

Understandably, once the conference schedule starts in full force, the toughness of the schedule will be dictated in large part by how tough the conference itself is. The Pac-10 teams had a clear advantage in this regard.

Nevertheless, I would take a tough conference regular and tourney schedule in February and March (as experienced by UCLA, Stanford and Wash St) over a schedule whose degree of difficulty is largely determined by a tough non-conference schedule in November and December.

Go Bruins.

by islandbruin on Mar 23, 2008 9:52 PM PDT reply actions

Might want to change the picture

Because from the way it looks there, Sloan is getting fouled on two fronts by both Luc and Josh and that is not the way we want to remember the game.

Also, really good info on the Sweet 16 opponents. Where are all the pundits now talking about how "soft" our schedule this year was?

by turs12 on Mar 23, 2008 10:40 PM PDT reply actions

Nope

Luc's hand is between the elbows not on an elbow, and Josh had all ball, no skin. Look at it again from the end-court view.

I can see a foul when it happens (such as Michael Strachan's sack of Collison), but this one was not a foul. There is nothing to be apologetic about, Bruins.

by Fox 71 on Mar 24, 2008 4:41 AM PDT up reply actions

disagree, not that it matters.

by rfirpo on Mar 24, 2008 9:16 AM PDT up reply actions

Foul

Looks like a foul on Shipp! I'll agree that Luc's hand might not be touching but it's a foul on Shipp.

Before I saw that picture, I thought it was a good block.

by mizzou on Mar 24, 2008 9:24 AM PDT up reply actions

Looks that way to me as well,

from that angle, at least.

Considering the way that we got jobbed by the refs earlier in the game, I figure we were owed that if nothing else.

by bruinhoo on Mar 24, 2008 10:04 AM PDT up reply actions

It was an obvious foul....

but it was just one of many poor calls. Also, the guy is a poor free-throw shooter, so while the non-call may have "inked" the victory for UCLA, it's doubtful that having called a foul would have changed the outcome.

Also, here is another angle that clearly confirms Josh fouled him. Lastly, Collison is the guy on the left, and IMO his hand looks much more likely to be on the shooter's elbow, than between the elbows. His fingers look straight in the picture from BRO (taken a split second earlier), then (in the picture above) they look more bent and conforming to the shooter's elbow.

http://forums.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=12#s=12&f=1737&t=2246591

by bornagainbruin on Mar 24, 2008 12:41 PM PDT up reply actions

Not Obvious

Whether or not it was a foul, it was anything but "obvious." These events happen in real-time and referees don't have the benefit of close-up, stop-action photography and multiple viewing angles to make their split-second decisions. They've got to call what they see and if it happens too quickly or a sightline is obstructed, that's just part of the game.

by snorkeldorf on Mar 24, 2008 1:12 PM PDT up reply actions

Different points

I merely said it was an obvious foul based on the pictures we can see in hindsight.

You are saying that a foul call was not an obvious call to make, and I agree with you.

by bornagainbruin on Mar 24, 2008 1:39 PM PDT up reply actions

Inconsistent

Did anyone notice how inconsistent the refs called that game? At first they let so much contact go, then they started calling ticky-tack in the post, then they flipped again. In the end it worked out in our favor so I'm not complaining.

Also, I like Josh Shipp. He reminds me of Rick Fox when he played for the Lakers. At times Fox would light it up from outside or drive the lane. But mostly, Fox was the solid defender, giving good energy and balancing the team.

Go Bruins!

by Romo785 on Mar 24, 2008 7:45 AM PDT reply actions

We played a tough

opponent in Texas A&M. And it was a good victory. But I can't give JS a hall pass. He needs to step up, and I haven't heard any unfair criticism of him. I love the guy, but that's major college athletics.

I agree, however, that Tourney Time is about getting wins any way possible. And credit our team with a gutty effort on Saturday. Let's not forget that our 6th best player, and our best shooter, is out for the year. That makes our run even more impressive.