Circling The Wagons

Unbelievable. I just don’t see where the idiots in the media get off on criticizing Coach Howland and his methods/style. The dude just wins. Period. Maybe they should sit back and marvel at three consecutive Final Fours the way they used to marvel at Lavin’s amazing Sweet Sixteen performances.

I wouldn’t presume to speak for all of Bruin Nation, but in my book, Coach Howland has already demonstrated that he forgotten more about basketball than all of the moron writers and critics will ever know. So to all of those who want to look for a reason to cut down CBH, just go crawl back up Pete Carroll’s a$$ and enjoy the warmth there.

Thats what theyre good at, taking one negative comment by an upset fan and blowing it up. I don’t doubt and will never doubt CBH’s knowledge of the game. As far as I’m concerned, the only thing that CBH has done since he’s been Westwood is restore a once glorious program back into its old form. These media guys need to get a life. The only reason why they say all this crap is bc they need a paycheck to pay for themselves and their families. Maybe they should find a more noble career.

“You play to win the game.” – Coah Edwards

All CBH has done at UCLA, and throughout his career, is win. Contrary to what these pundits and supposed fans say, CBH is well versed in offense- look at what he did at Northern Arizona. CBH brought toughness and defense to a league full of flashy teams and nobody can argue with the results.

Maybe if CBH had a flashier team, they wouldn’t have lost on Saturday. Maybe. But would they have reached the Final Four three years in a row? Would they know that every game, no matter who they play, they have a chance for a win? The teams win because of the deliberate style, the maddening timeouts, and the physical style of play-not in spite of it. I remember a slick haired dud of a coach that ran a flashy system and didn’t win jack.

I come in peace, but I understand many will not like what I say.

I’ve been a Bruins fan since 1964, when I was ten years old. I’ve been a member here since March ‘06, and I’ve posted 173 times, including five diaries. I come to the site every day I can. Even though I don’t have enough time to post regularly I consider myself to be a lifelong, passionate Bruins fan.

Yet, I was very “concerned” about the ASU game. If that makes me a troll or a bad fan, then I guess I have to be stuck with that label. I could go through all the things that concerned me about the ASU game in particular, and the program in general, but I’m sure you don’t want to read it. I respect that the regular posters here are passionate, knowledgeable and bleed Bruins blue and gold. I think it’s great that posters are loyal fans of our two major sports coaches. There is much to admire about CBN and CRN.

But I must say I am a little disappointed that anything critical is perceived as disloyalty, or worse yet, trolldom.

I suppose growing up in the time of Coach Wooden and ten championships in 12 years has caused me to have higher expectations than others. In my head I know that can never be repeated, but I still have a heart, and I want to believe…

In all the years of watching Coach Wooden’s team, I never saw such a terrible performance on all levels. Since Coach Wooden left, this is certainly not the first time this has happened. What concerns “trolls” such as myself is precisely the fact that it would happen after we had been to the NCAA semi-finals or better the last three years. When it happened under Lavin or his predecessors, I just sighed, and moved on. Under Coach Howland, I found it deeply troubling, because I expected so much more from him and his players, for whom I have great respect and admiration.

At the end of the day, I suppose it’s pretty great that it appears that under Coach Howland almost every year we will field a competitive team that will be top 20, compete for the Pac 10 championship, and will most likely win several games in the tournament, if not better. And we may even pluck off an isolated championship as we did in ’95, one of my favorite teams ever.

However, I felt sadness with the realization that it is a different world today, and acknowledging the fact that there will be only one Coach Wooden.

Anyway, please understand that all my concern arises out of love. I will always bleed Bruins blue and gold. But I will never accept a performance of the type I witnessed against ASU. I know Coach Wooden wouldn’t. And it’s not because we (notice the use of the pronoun I use) lost. It’s the way we lost that was unacceptable.

Go Bruins!!

I have two initial points here. First, I do not think it’s fair to say that Andy Glockner of si.com called us a bubble team. He didn’t. He said we “Should be in”. In other words, as long as we don’t crap the bed the rest of the way, we will make the tournament. Other teams in the “Should be in” category include Louisville, who just beat #1 Pitt, and Texas, who beat us. He lists only 14 teams as “Locks” and only 6 of those teams are not in the Big East or the ACC. With all due respect to the moderators, in keeping with this site’s tradition of being fact-based and above the fray, we should not misquote or misstate others’ articles. We are not a bubble team, and Glockner did not say that we are. Instead, it is early in the season, and we have yet to fully earn our bid. No doubt we will. And if the tournament field were announced today, we would be in and no lower than a 4 or 5 seed.

Second, we could ignore it when sportswriters are trying to make message boards and fan blogs into “news”. It is not news that fans are upset when their team loses. It is not news when a fan second guesses a coach. That a writer like Doh! or someone from the SC Times tries to convert fan comments into a news story is laughable. It is the mark of a hack journalist, which is what we’ve always known these writers to be.

It should also be noted to critics and non-critics alike that not every critical view of our beloved team should be perceived as a slight or trolling.

When a team blows an 11-point lead by not scoring in the final 8 minutes, there will be much to criticize. I took my shot at Howland’s strategy of taking the air out of the ball too early. Criticism by fans is to be expected. It’s a part of the healing process. It’s therapeutic. It’s what fans do.

When a “fan” uses one loss from a team that in 4 years has won 85% of the games it has played and argues that Howland will never succeed at UCLA, never win a championship etc., that person is a troll and needs to get a life. Don’t bring that whine here. We have an excellent program that wins 85% of its games and has a chance each year to win the whole thing. Nothing is broken. Nothing needs to be fixed. Howland merely needs to fine tune a few notes in the symphony. Let’s all relax and enjoy the song the maestro is conducting for us.

is that, as noted in an earlier post, UCLA is currently ranked 5th in the nation in adjusted offensive efficiency. Let me say this again: 5th in the country. After the ASU game. Yes, one may naively look at the final score of our games, see a relatively low score, and conclude that our offense needs “fixing.” But the reality of the matter is we play at a tempo that is 271st in the country, and our offense has been extremely productive this year.

Does anyone remember the Bill Walton led team that lost two games in Oregon, back to back in 1974 and then lost to NC State in the Final Four with an 11-point lead with 3 minutes on the clock? And, I don’t really want to mention the Notre Dame loss which ended the 88 game win streak. We had an 11 point lead with 3 minutes on the clock. We really shouldn’t be so worried about Coach Howland’s coaching.

Ben, I’ve come to notice that your team is really, really good on Pac-10 Thursdays (25-0 over the past 3 plus years), and from Thursday until Saturday afternoon, we’re all feeling good. But then we occasionally lose on Saturday, which leaves us with 5 days between the loss and the next game. The Oregon loss in 2007 was particularly grueling—a whole week passed before we got to beat USC. And the Washington/Cal back-to-back losses that same year were awful for me (ask my wife!), as it resulted in two weeks between Bruin wins and a personal mini-depression. So, Ben, here’s some constructive criticism. If you have to lose one of the two games, make it Thursday not Saturday. That way, it will only ruin the 36 hours between that loss and the next game. Much less stressful for the fans. Much less time for the so-called professional journalists to write about losses. Thank you for your consideration. BR

this article is tagged as football, just thought you might want to fix it.

bandwagon fans come, whatever, bandwagon fans go,whatever.
people, including many poor sportswriters, said and continue saying some silly things about howland, whatever. if they want t take a singular mistake and blow it up into some trend to prove a flawed point, whatever. i’m sure coach howland feels the same. he’s taken the blame for not making substitutions and the offense in the 2nd half in that ONE game; and that, not that it really matters, is fine by me. there was a mistake, he diagnosed it he will correct it, that’s what good coaches do. he plays a cautious style, but that hasn’t limited us in the past. we reached the final 4 three times in a row and lost to really talented teams. now i won’t attack people that made wild comments saturday, emotions make you type all crazy, i can let that go. but those that continue on this tirade to assert howland is limiting his teams leave me to think you either don’t know anything about basketball, are haters, or just lack sense. so again, whatever

David- The Bruins don’t doubt Ben Howland. We may in fact be guilty of hero-worship. I would guess that 95% of us believe that he will deliver multiple national championships to UCLA in the next 10 years. The other 5% would not be competent to testify in court.

It is from that perspective that I have to question your statement “Critics wonder if the 13th-ranked Bruins can win a championship without more attention to scoring.” Who are these critics? I have not seen or heard any. That is, no talking head on tv, no current or former basketball coach or player, and no so-called analyst doubt that Ben Howland is one of the 5 best coaches in college basketball and that he will bring championships to Westwood in due time. The only person I have heard question what Ben Howland has done who is qualified to question Ben Howland is … Ben Howland himself. He is his own biggest critic, and he has continuously responded to his criticism by becoming a better coach.

I challenge you to cite to critics of Ben Howland who wonder if the Bruins can win a championship without more attention to scoring. Oh, and people who post to fan blogs don’t count. They aren’t critics, those are fans. They get emotional.

Unless you can respond to this question with a legitimate source, you should retract the false statements (and false implications) in your article. You are attempting to generate controversy where there is none. That is not journalism, it’s sensationalism. Ben Howland is awesome. Go Bruins!

if they could make one Final Four in three years. They would be

if they could make one Final Four in three years. They would be