Random Thoughts on the UW Game

by Class of 66 on Jan 25, 2009 11:17 AM PST Comment 15 comments

Bumped. I have already made my thoughts on SPTRs clear last night. That said, I do believe 66 and others have some great points on what went down yesterday. As usual great (and not so random) thoughts from 66. GO BRUINS. -N

1. It's really difficult to determine the total impact the SPTR's had on this game. It's easy to see the discrepancy in points at the line -- they gained 26 points on us with FT's.

But, I think the difference runs much deeper. We were taken out of our defensive game by some very questionable calls that both put fouls on our starters AND forced us to step back a bit.

I've rolled back the DVR on several calls and they were terrible. And, it may be that I'm a Bruin but I don't think the game was called consistently on both ends of the floor. If they came inside, they almost always got a foul call. When we did, we didn't. Watch the replays -- and decide for yourselves.

The T on Aboya?

And, the timing of the fouls was critical. They were in the bonus way too early.

2. We have to expect this type of officiating and find a way to win -- even if we are playing 5 against 8. One thing we must do is make the FT's they allow us to take. We could have stayed a bit closer if we had not shot so poorly from the line -- when it counted.

3. Talk about when it counted -- we were given our FT's after the game was out of hand. It may be the conspiracy theorist in me, but I think the ref's went to work trying to narrow the gap -- but they just couldn't.

4. But, I think the thing that really hurt us was that they were just much faster than we were. Several times they brought the ball up and straight to the hoop -- Tyus style -- and scored.

And, as we expected, we had trouble with Brockman -- though we did hold his scoring down, he had 8 rebounds.

5. I wish we could merge JK and ND together. JK's toughness, rebounding, banging and ND's scoring. They are not fungible, now. We lose O with Keefe in the game and D with ND. And, I think the drop off is clear.

6. To me, the best part of this game is the fact that the youngsters got a lot of playing time in a very tough game in a very tough venue and played very well. We will see the benefit of this experience at the end of the season.

I remain very impressed with DG who, when he adds 20 lbs of muscle, will be unstoppable. Bobo played very well; in a marked difference from how he played at the beginning of the year, he was getting back on D quickly. JA gives us very valuable minutes, plays aggressively but under control and makes smart decisions. He is essential to getting DC some rest and that's important now, and even more so later.

7. Where will our points come from? That is the big question in all of our games. We need more consistency from ND, AA2, and DC. And we need more from JH. I still have the feeling he could take over the game a bit more. We started this game with JH and DC going inside and we pulled ahead. I'd like to see more of that. We've had some games with very balanced scoring -- but this was not one of them. JS had 25, DC 12, AA2 4, ND 8 and JH 8.

8. Unlike Bruin teams of the past, we are getting beat in the second half. I don't think it's coaching or that there are that many adjustments we can make. We play man D and run our same O. We just drop off. And, I'm not sure it's fatigue -- CBH played the bench a lot to give our starters first half rest.

But, I do think some of that drop off in this game was the fact that the ref's called 10 fouls on us within the first few minutes of the second half.

9. Is it just me -- does anyone else agree that we don't use our offense in a way to take advantage of the fouls on our opponents. When their guys get in early foul trouble, we seldom go at them. Game after game, guys with 3 on them early in the first half somehow are able to last for the entire game.

10. Final point: Splitting on the road may well get it done IF we hold firm on our home court. We cannot lose any more home games and will have to steal at least one more on the road.

I still like where we sit. I like our team and talent and I'm still optimistic that we will win the conference.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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DG comments

Couldn’t agree with you more. I was just looking at the boxscore and clicked over the read the AP story on the game to see if they handled the foul discrepency (FWI they didn’t mention it at all) and came across a rather troubling remark from DG after the game:

“Right now, we just don’t have enough heart, basically,” freshman forward Drew Gordon said after scoring five points and getting a bruised knee from the face of the relentless, diving Brockman. “At the end of the day, the other team wants it more.
"I think this game was a good wake-up call. Hopefully, we’ll get hungrier.”

First, I don’t know why the reporters were interviewing DG as he did have a solid game today, but seems like a peculiar choice to go to for a postgame quote seeing who he is a freshman who averages less than 10 minutes a game. Second, I really don’t know how to feel about DG saying this. Part of me is happy that he says they need to be hungrier, but then the bigger part of me worries about comments like this messing up team chemistry. DG probably just said this in a moment of frustration after a tough game, but to have a freshman bench player question the team’s heart and hunger seems out of place to me. DG is a good player (and will likely be great in a few years), but he is way out of line to say something like this about his teammates IMHO.

by bruinponcho on Jan 24, 2009 4:56 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Whoops

Here is the article if you want to read the whole thing.

by bruinponcho on Jan 24, 2009 4:57 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

hmmmm

yeah, i really wonder how the team will react to this.

I wouldn’t be surprised to hear CBH mention this as well, because if DG is saying these kind of things to reporters as a frosh, it may be that playing with more heart is one of the things CBH is instilling and reinforcing

by Dante on Jan 24, 2009 5:21 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

It might just be who they make available to the media

I remember when Collison was a freshman he was always one of main people quoted in the newspapers.

by SuperBruinMan on Jan 25, 2009 3:05 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

There were some normal SPTR calls

and there were certainly some things to call into question wrt to officiating, but one that I think it’s tough to criticize the refs for is the T. It’s clear AA2 leaned in and said something to the UW player, which he shouldn’t be doing in the first place. That alone normally wouldn’t be worthy of a T, but we don’t know what AA2 said to the player. Unless AA2, Howland or someone else tells us what AA2 said, I’m going to let the T slide because it’s possible he said something worthy of it. Maybe he didn’t deserve it, but he shouldn’t be putting himself in that situation in the first place.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Jan 24, 2009 5:11 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Right

Because saying something to a player is clearly a more objectionable offense than say… throwing the ball off the opponent’s face.

A good official would’ve just given a warning.

by UCLA4Life on Jan 24, 2009 10:19 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

One thing has nothing to do with another

There are a number of things AA2 could have said to deserve the T. I don’t know what he said and I wouldn’t think AA2 would say anything worthy of a T, but I’m not going to go out and say it was a bad call without any information.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Jan 25, 2009 3:26 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

As my momma taught me

Sticks and stones
may break my bones
but words will never harm me.

If throwing a ball of AA2’s face, in a critical part of the game, is not a T, I can think of few words, at a critical point of the game, that should be.

And, remember this is AA2 — one of the classiest players on the court.

sjh

by Class of 66 on Jan 25, 2009 3:36 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I'm not trying to argue that Morris shouldn't have gotten a T last year

That has nothing to do with this. My comments were specifically about AA2’s T and all I’m saying is that you can’t really come out with an opinion that he deserved it or didn’t deserve it because it was clearly an issue of words and none of us know what he said. I don’t know if it was a good call. I don’t know if it was a bad call. Unless we know what he said, nobody really does.

by Ryan Rosenblatt on Jan 25, 2009 4:58 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

My point is that

if you don’t call blatant physical fouls you have no business calling “word” fouls. I don’t care what he said. A T has to have meaning. It was demeaned last year and really did not belong in this game.

BTW — a really cheap T was called against sc in the UW game. A really bad call. A player held onto the rim in order to avoid coming down on 2 UW players. When they cleared he let go. T.

So UW gets two T’s at critical times.

I wonder when was the last time they were T’d at home. I’ll bet it doesn’t happen often.

sjh

by Class of 66 on Jan 25, 2009 5:48 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Thanks, 66

I enjoy reading your post-game thoughts. I didn’t back up the DVR (too painful to watch again), but in real time, it seemed like a Huskies’ shot from anywhere in the lane resulted in a foul being called. On UCLA’s shots from within the lane, fouls were called but not quite at the same rate. With the Huskies having more of a dribble-drive offense and low post scorer than we did, the “tight” officiating favored the Huskies in a big way. And the slight home-court favoritism that is a part of basketball was exaggerated by the two teams’ styles.

One other thing I noticed—there were an unusual number of “and-1” 3-point plays in this game. I haven’t seen that many in a long, long time. The shots on “fouls” were dropping in as if no one was impeding the shooter, which of course appeared to be the case and further supports the idea that the refs were calling ticky-tack or no-touch fouls.

With foul trouble comes tentative defense, and I do think that afflicted us in the last 15 minutes.

It appears to me that we never seem to attack players who are in foul trouble, so it’s not just you. I’d like to look back at actual results to see if the stats support what my eyes see.

I have no problem with Drew Gordon calling out his teammates to play harder. From what I have read, he is the leader among the freshmen and known for his competitive spirit. If the senior leadership is lacking, let the freshman say what needs to be said.

by BruinsRule on Jan 25, 2009 12:42 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Someone has to say it.

While I don’t think the senior leadership is lacking, the leadership style of DC is typically pretty calm and collected. So when the team needs someone to fire them up I don’t see any of the seniors as having that outspoken, fiery personality that is sometimes needed at the end of the game. If Drew is comfortable enough to speak up and try and get the team to dig deep I’m all for it, so long as it’s done with respect for the seniors. Perhaps the dynamic needed is one in which the seniors continue to keep the team from panicking and instill confidence in tough moments and then have someone like Drew to stoke the fires and keep the energy level high.

While I spent just as much time as anyone yelling at the SPTRs, in the end my first diagnosis of the reason for the loss was we didn’t have the necessary desire to finish the game once again. While many other issues surfaced in the game that contributed to the loss, under CBH I have faith those can all be addressed well before the end of the conference season. What concerns me is not having seen the players pounding the floor when they come back on defense needing a big stop or taking it personally when a player blows by for an easy layup. I know that spirit is in these players. Perhaps a freshman can prod it out with a few choice words.

by TrueBlueBlood on Jan 25, 2009 5:30 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

RW was the guy to get us fired up last year

I think your analysis is spot on. Leadership has to instill calm under pressure and instigate passion when needed. Sometimes, the same person can’t do both and, I too, do not frown on DG trying to bring out the passion. Only the players know whether he is sufficiently respected to be seen as a leader and not a punk.

If anyone were to ask me, I’d say that DC is the inspirational leader of this team; he has the ball when things have to get done; when they get done, he gives credit to others; when they don’t, he takes the blame; that’s true leadership. Interestingly, JS and JH lead with their success; but it is a very quiet leadership. JS does it with his confident smile — sort of “Everything is going to be OK leadership”. I don’t know if JH has more spark in him; he can really do amazing things, things that would light up the crowd and his team mates — but he plays with an efficient, but quiet reserve; I really am waiting for him to blast off and take over a game — firing up his team and all of us the way RW did. AA2 leads with his work ethic; no one on the team gets more out of his talent than AA2.

We have depth at the “leadership” position and that’s why in a rebuilding year with a roster full of players on which only 2 have extensive experience from last year — we are in the fight for the Pac 10 championship.

sjh

by Class of 66 on Jan 25, 2009 5:45 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Dead On...

Westbrook was key last season, just like the season before AA was the man, and prior to him Farmar carried this team. What this team is lacking is that go-to guy that can piece the win together at the end. We have three guys on this team that can definitely step into that roll, but it appears that they each tend to defer all at the same time. JS is probably the one best suited to do it right now because of his ability to score down low and on the outside. When the other team recognizes who’s doing the damage, one of the two other guys has to step in and take over. I really hope they get it together sooner rather than later. All and all, I still enjoy watching my Bruins even if I am screaming a little more this season…

by RScal on Jan 27, 2009 9:28 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

WA loss reinforces a couple of trends

I have great belief and faith in the Bruins. I am sure CBH will get as much as possible out of them and the team will continue to grow.

But there are 2 trends that seem to be evidenced in this loss:
1) Our defense is too dependent on speed advantages at the guard position. DC and JH are great but depend on their speed advantage to drive their defense. In Seattle they faced 2 guards that were about as fast (though not as skilled). So DC and JH had trouble shutting them down….speed alone was not enough.
2) The PAC is catching up. What I mean by that is they have obviously spent time figuring out how to play against CBH’s offense and defense. ASU, WSU and UW have all made adjustments to play more effectively against our style. We may have to add a little more variety to our offense and defense just to mix things up more. Took a number of years and not all of the PAC 10 is there, but our opponents are getting better at focusing on us.

I look forward to seeing how CBH and the Bruins adjust to these changes.

by Bruin Dad and Grad on Jan 26, 2009 10:22 AM PST reply actions 0 recs