Great post, Nestor. I agree with your sentiments. Here are few of my thoughts:

1. Why didn’t DC take it to Dentmon and try to get his fourth (and fifth) foul? JA came in and took it to him right away and drew the foul. DC seems psyched out and has lost faith in his ability to get to the basket. Either that or the opposing coaches have figured out how to stop him. At this point I’d prefer to see him getting called for charging than always pulling the ball back out to half court. And I’d like to see what happens if we have JH or JA run the point and DC move over to the 2 for some stretches.
2. Defense—the one-sided calls didn’t help, but our defensive intensity seems to have significantly dropped off in the 2nd half the last few games. Are we tired? I thought Gordon was playing great—why didn’t he play through his 5th foul? And what about ML—is his knee still bothering him so he cannot be a defensive stopper?—he barely played again.
3. Rebounding—great team effort for most of the game by the Bruins against a very strong Huskies team.
4. Roll—what happened to Roll? He’s gone missing after starting the season very strong.
5. Confidence—I see a lot of the problem here starting with DC, but it seems to have carried over to the rest of the team. Rather than putting fear into our opponents, we seem scared on offense, back on our heels rather than being the aggressor. It seems almost like CBH has also lost some of his mojo.
6. Halftime Adjustments—this is typically one of CBH’s strong points, but in the last few games it seems as if we are being outcoached in the 2nd half. Don’t get me wrong, I think the world of Coach Howland, but I’m curious what has shifted here.

The one benefit of our recent poor play is that my expectations have significantly dropped. I had my eye on another Final Four but now I feel like I will be happier with each win and won’t be as shocked at a loss.

I kept waiting for DC to take it to Dentmon when he came back with 3 fouls. Didn’t really happen.

Having watched every single game last year, I was confident that we will pull off a win when games are close late in the 2nd half. Even if the offense are stagnant, we always lock down on crunch time posessions. CMIIW but our losses this year has been in close games..games that happened all the time last year but we won them by good defense.

I think the game today was the highest tempo game we have played all year. That was not Ben Ball tempo. We took too many quick shots and showed impatience in offense.

Ordinarily I would agree with you, Nestor. I usually think it is chickenshit to blame the referees for any loss. If it is close enough for you to blame the referees for a loss, then you should not be blaming the referees.

Not this time.

The referees’ impact on this game cannot be understated. Every time Isiah Thomas touched the ball in the first half and well into the second, he got a call. Brockman nails Aboya in the head with a forearm shiver and what was the call? Foul on Holiday. Shipp drives the lane and gets hammered by not 1, but 2 huskies. Any call? Of course not. Every time somebody even breathed on Brockman, he got a call. And let’s not forget the worst call of the night. Foul called on Washington, but just to make things “even”, the SPTR’s called a technical on Aboya. A TECHNICAL? REALLY? For walking by and saying something? Aboya could have accused that guy of manning the glory hole in the park restroom down the street from the arena and calling a technical in that situation still would have been inappropriate. It was ridiculous.

The officiating was so bad, UCLA had to adjust to officiating, not the other team. When that happened, the officiating affected the game in an inexcusable manner. That is why I am so f’ing pissed off right now.

Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and a homeless guy in a wheel chair could have done a better job than the three embarrassing losers out there tonight.

Look, we know that UCLA does not have the same dominating team we have had the last couple of years. At least not yet (keep getting the freshmen playing time, and I like our chances come tourney time). But this was a fucking outrage.

This just in: it was a three way tie for players of the game:

Dave Libby
Milt Stowe
Tom Wood

P.S. I apologize if I am the 900th guy on BN tonight to call out the referees, but I just watched the game tape-delayed and jumped in right here to vent.

were more about the Huskies willing to work the ball inside. I agree the refs need to be called out with the big difference in foul shots taken, but this was the 3rd game in a row where we disappeared with 8 minutes to play in the 2nd half. Wasted a great offensive effort by Shipp. Better to focus on how to finish these tough Pac 10 games and forget about the refs.

If it were ONLY this game in a vacuum, I would blame the refs for our loss. It is hard to drive when you get hammered on the inside without any calls. It is hard to defend when any slight touch (and sometimes no touch) gets called. It is absolutely unfair when only one team on the court gets to play physically offensively and defensively.

However, this game was not in a vacuum. For the past 3 games, we have been tentative as a team. This is both in terms of driving and defense. I think that the good 3 point shooting earlier this season masked these two weaknesses … and I am glad that this must be addressed now rather than during the tourney a la Duke. Therefore, it is apparent that we cannot blame the defense and the lack of driving on the refs.

What is the conclusion? UW drove more, so they deserved to have more FTs than us. They did NOT deserve to have 3x more free throws than us, resulting in a 26 pt differential. However, it is the responsibility of our team to make sure that they do not deserve to have more FTs than us in the first place.

1. I felt that Bobo Morgan looked pretty good in his limited minutes. Especially on the offensive end. And, he was also the only big to stay out of foul trouble. Now, I don’t know if this means that his defensive intensity wasn’t good enough which resulted in his lack of fouls.

2. Coach say “Be your best when your best is needed.” To me, JS embodies this. It seems like every big game (particularly the ones we lose) Josh steps up with some big shots. I do wish though, that he would put the ball on the floor and slash to the basket when things aren’t going well.

3. Holiday confuses me. He goes quiet so often. But when he makes big plays, they are always high difficulty, jaw dropping shots or moves that he makes look effortless. I just don’t know why he is hesitant to step up and take over. He very well may still be a one and done. The NBA drafts potential, and he has a ton of it. If he has a good showing in the tourney, I wouldn’t hold my breath. I would love to watch our Fab Five stay in tact as long as possible (could you imagine the thought of all five of them starting as seniors!!), but I am just proceeding with realistic caution.

4. We are going to win the Pac 10. At the end of the first half, I was pleased with Howland’s subbing. ML, JM, DG, and JA all got some playing time and we were hanging tough no matter who was on the floor. This young and inexperienced team is getting older and more experienced. Howland will have them ready down the stretch.

According to the post-game news conference, Aboya got the technical for taunting Overton when he was on the ground. What a load of crap from the refs. IMO, Aboya would be the last person on the team to taunt anybody. He wouldn’t even pound Morris’s ass after the cheap shot last year! That T was a huge turning point in the game, imo, and the refs gave that play to them.

The main difference I see between this years team and last few years is toughness. Since CBH came to Westwood, his teams have been known for playing a “blue collar” style of basketball. We had players like LMR and LRM who sacrificed their bodies every second they were on the court, being physical and punishing anyone who dared to come into the lane. Some may say we just don;‘t have the size to play that way this year, but we’ve never had physically imposing players on the team before. The players we did have just played their hearts out and left everything on the court. We just don’t have that “blue collar” mentality this year. It may be that players are still trying to adjust to each other, and finding their roles on the team. But I think that was a key ingredient that allowed us to make 3 runs to the Final Four. Until we get that toughness back, we will only be a mediocre team.

Is it just me, or is DC not hitting like he did last year? It seemed he couldn’t miss last season, especially when in tight games where we needed every point. This year, and especially the last few games, he has dried up. I never figured DC for a bad spell, the way Josh had last year, but these things happen, I guess. Hopefully, he will snap out of it quickly. But so far he isn’t dazzling me the way he did last year, when he more than held his own against KL and RW for offensive intensity. Even his 3 pointers last year were seemingly guaranteed…not so this year, and he seems to be taking fewer of them (mind you, this is all from memory – I don’t have a stat sheet in front of me). We desperately need him to find his way back to being an offensive juggernaut. I haven’t given up on the team as far as the tournament is concerned, but something amazing needs to happen soon – not just with DC, but with all our other warriors. Fortunately, we now enter into a chunk of games at home. It’s time to deliver.

I’m glad Drew Gordon said some harsh things relating to their play today. The team has been playing way too passive for too long. That second half meltdown against ASU has hurt any mystique the team had as an advantage. Right now teams are not as worried about being locked down defensively in the second half of games as the Bruins in the past 3 games have a tendency to relax their play. This is an important set of games coming up against the Bay Area schools. The players need to step up their game on both ends and make a statement that they’re still the team to beat in the conference.

7 rows up surrounded by husky “donors” and it was frustrating. it was an interesting experience. even when they huskies would make a run, we really reacted pretty well… (up until the last ten minutes. AGAIN.) I was actually pretty pleased with us for most of the game since we were matching their tempo but still dictating pace, and not settling on the long ball every time down the floor. But then our collapse. I don’t know what it is. It’s as if we go into “prevent” mode… I feel as though we have to take the reigns off of the offense a bit. The strength of our freshman is not to D-up and pound all the time. They are athletic and creative, and it seems like when we slow things down, our offense stagnates. I wasn’t entirely surprised by the end result. I knew UW would bring it strong and drive inside. The refs were obviously a joke, but you still gotta play the game. What pissed me off the most was sitting around unintelligent b-ball fans. Even when they were getting EVERY call, these husky fans were whining like little whores. And then the chants of “overrated.” Maybe when they win something – anything – they can start talking it up. But i guess the sports scene up here at UW and Seattle is so dismal, they are ready to blow their collective wad on any glimmer of hope. I can’t wait til we get them back at Pauley. I’m sure we will be in the thick of things at the end. But we do have some problems that need some fixing. I’m still waiting for DC and Shipp to both go off during the same game, by the way.

It’s really easy to blame the loss on the refs or the players. But I’m just not sure that the criticism is correct. Yes, the refs affected the game. Yes, it seems like certain players should be performing better. The problem is that great teams rise above those issues. Here’s the tough truth: we have yet to beat a good team this year. If you don’t believe me, check out the current top 25 and compare it to the RPI top 25. You’ll notice that the lists are very similar, minus two names: UCLA and Texas. Ouch.

So what’s that mean for us? No, the season’s not over, and no, the team isn’t destined to continue this type of play. However, let’s not lie to ourselves. At the level the team’s playing right now, it’s tough to say that we are a “good” team.

Again, I think this can change. We need more Gordon and/or Morgan. I’m not saying CBH needs to play them more, but that they need to develop to the point where they deserve the time. In the best case scenario, if one of them (probably Gordon) is starting by the end of next month, things will look much better, as we’ll have a viable inside option and better rebounding. This isn’t a knock on AA2’s play or effort- we just need more offense inside and more rebounds.

Hopefully this isn’t taken as a “drive by” or an unfair comment. I just think this needed to be said. Oh, and losing to the Huskies at home isn’t shameful. It’s the play against ASU, WSU and USC that worried me.

I kind of pictured that this team (missing 4 key players from last year) would struggle a little. We’d need to grow and even to lose games in order to improve. And I hope that is what is happening. I hope that the losses make the team play with more intensity and urgency on defense, and that they make Howland re-assess what lineups will give us the best chance of winning. Despite the loss, I like a lot of the pieces of the team and think that a mad scientist like Ben Howland, now that he’s no longer the frontrunner in the Pac-10, will start experimenting and find some things that work better. I saw some of that today. He played Gordon more, he played Bobo, he changed the substitution pattern in the 2nd half. Everybody on this team makes good plays, and everyone has limitations. I am particularly interested in watching how Ben tinkers with things so that the individual highlights we saw today begin to translate into major team progress by the end of the season.

What’s SPTR? I get that it’s something about refs, but the actual meaning is beyond me :P

I’ve absolutely loved watching the development of our youngsters. Gordon is energetic on the boards and on defense, and has some post moves as well. If he develops a consistent offense, this guy will be our most athletic post yet.

Morgan has lost a lot of weight it looks like, and has improved a lot defensively. We definitely need his size underneath (a big body to stop smaller guards from driving) as his mere presence (and shot blocking ability) can deny players underneath. If not this year, he will certainly be a force in the next few years.

Anderson his first few games on the team played out of control. Now when I see him on the floor, I see him driving the lane, making good passes to players, and creating shots. He’s proving to be more than a capable backup to Collison.

Holiday has been fairly consistent all year and Lee has shown flashes of brilliance, but the injury has also kept him off the floor a lot.

I can’t wait to see what these guys do as we go on in the year

after Saturday’s game, UCLA is now ranked #1 in adjusted offensive efficiency by Pomeroy, while defensive efficiency has dropped down to #52.

I think the losses came in the appropriate time. Our coaches and players are learning from their mistakes. No doubts the referees favored Washington in some crucial situations and might very well costed our game, but I don’t think we were playing the way we are capable of playing. I like our freshmen are getting more time, and I think we need these guys to win the Pac-10. These guys have better potentials than some of the seniors and juniors whom we know we cannot win the Pac-10 with. I would not give up our chances and I strongly believe our players and coaches will come out winners.