Bruins Put Up A Fight But Notre Dame Holds Serve In South Bend

but like you said, Nestor, there are bright spots. I think this will be a very interesting season and will be more fun than I thought. I love seeing players develop and emerge and playmakers. Seeing Lee today gives me a lot of hope. GO BRUINS!!

we’re a football school now.

but NOT leaving DRAGO to stink it up the majority of the time, and NOT with CBH trying to play slowdown, power basketball with a bigger, stronger team in the second half.

Lee and Roll were on fire the whole game, but CBH did not adjust to their strengths in the second half. We needed to play quicker on offense, setting up the threes for Lee or Roll, then quickly going down to Nelson if they were not open. Message to CBH: we are NOT a good half-court team, period.

Lee and Roll scored despite CBH’s offensive sets. We need to play up tempo, transition basketball and score more. We do not have the defensive stoppers to win low scoring games.

Great effort by the team. Tremendous hustle. More Honeycutt please.

Anderson is a spot player only, unfortunately. Use Hamid more with Lee as point guard mostly. He is proving to be a warrior.

it’s definitely our defense. we need to dominate on D. we need to hold lesser teams to 30 points. and play D for 40 minutes from tip off to final buzzer with no let down!

JA, ND and MR can’t guard anyone straight up. I am all for playing ND and JA spot minutes at best. At the same time I am not sure anyone off the bench other than TH will be able to guard man-2-man adequately by the end of the year. MR has to play because he is necessary on offense. The reality is for me is that we can’t play man-2-man all game against any team with decent penetrating guards and wing players. Maybe even below decent. I can understand CBH’s reluctance to play zone and force his players to get it if only for next season. But I can’t buy into this argument when ND is out there 30+ minutes. Typically zone gives up more open 3’s, but given our ability to stay in front of guards it’s hard for me to imagine giving up more open shots than we have playing our man.

It would also have been nice in some of our blowouts to get some work in with a press of some kind. Today in a game we could have made a run in we clearly have no idea how to press. I bring up the ND allowing Harongody to catch a long pass over the top then failing completely to foul him. We can’t get into games when we are behind if we can’t lock down anyone on defense in a straight up man.

but u$c’s basketball attendance is just unbelievable. They are playing TN so I thought maybe there would be more. Embarassing.

It’s equivalent to the QB position on offense and the Free Safety on defense. JA is not getting it done on either side of the ball and, IMO, has been given ample opportunity to prove himself. If there was any sign of improvement, or even if he was giving his max effort out on the floor, I might be inclined to bite my lip and try to be more patient, but quite frankly, I’m just not seeing it with JA. Granted, we could be getting more production out of ND’s spot, but blaming him for all of our woes ignores the fact that we are a rudderless ship without a competent floor leader at the point.

I mentioned this earlier in the year on the BN blog, that UCLA will only go as far as Jerime Anderson will take us. He is a virtual non-threat on offense, and the opponents recognize this. He drives the lane without any purpose, in comparison, the Irish’s PG created shots for others and hit his outside shots.

I don’t know if it is JA’s lack of raw athletic ability, basketball IQ, or mental makeup that is holding him back. Jordan Farmar, DC, and Russell Westbrook all took huge leaps from their freshman to sophomore years. I haven’t seen any improvement from JA. I know he was injured for the preseason, but that shouldn’t be an excuse for his mental approach to the game.

I think Mustafa can run the team better, what he lacks in athletic ability is compensated in experience and basketball IQ.

But only if he realizes that this team doesn’t need him to launch the 3 ball. He should stick to playing down low and taking his shot selection from only inside the arc. He can actually be effective offensively when he is going toward the hoop.

Defensively I really think there is no hope for him.

N, I know you have a special place in your heart for ND, but you cant blame everything that goes wrong on him. He did as good of job as could be expected against a 2 time all american and rebounded very well. I would like to see him much more on the post where he can use his size and touch much more effectively than he is shooting 3s right now. Besides, you really cant give his minutes to BL or JMM at this point who have yet to show that they can do anything with it.

That said, The main thing holding this team back is 1) solid offensive play, and 2) rebounding.

The wonderful thing is that the solution for both is the same: start TH in place of JA. ML goes for 29, MR goes for 19, and what does JA have, 1 point on 0-2 (including an airball by five feet) and 1-2 free throws. Hmm, which one doesn’t belong. Conversely, TH is a prototypical small forward who is a great rebounder. Remember, he played center in high school which shows with his craftiness around the rim. TH is also the perfect compliment to RN in that as much of a workhorse RN is, he is undersized. But with TH playing in the frontcourt alongside RN and ND, we suddenly become much longer and athletic. Plus, this will help out MR so he won’t be guarding someone much larger than him.

The other major issue is that our weakside rotations are awful. Sure MR is going to get beat off the dribble, but everyone does. The problem is that the rotations after someone penetrates are either too slow or non-existent leading to easy layups. This was the one thing that JK did bring to the table and without him there it is very noticeable. RN is getting better at this and got screwed on a couple of charge/block calls today. I really don’t know what to say about JMM. He is pathetically weak at rebounding and has a one track mind on offense. However, he does provide some of that weakside defense, so he has value. But until he learns to boxout, he is much more harm than he is good right now.

1) Legal stuff
2) Ball movement, specifically piss-poor PG play

Jerime Anderson is the main reason we’re failing. The sooner this is realized, the sooner we can fix the problem.

behind 5th year senior, double-transfer, Mike Gerrity at PG. He wasn’t supposed to be eligible until the start of the 2nd semester, but he was just granted a waiver by the NCAA due to “progress towards a degree.” 40-24 Trojies, 15:58 remaining in the 2nd half.

If you pull ND where do you get his rebounds? He tied RN with 8, today. He is banging inside. Agree on his shooting and some about his D. But, he’s not the only guy who consistently gets beat on the dribble.

I see no dilemma with JA. I’d start ML, MR, TH and RN. If we had JK, I’d start him and that would be 5. But, we don’t. So, the 5th seems to be ND.

Lane really hasn’t done much — he really needs to gain some weight before he will be effective. As much as I love Bobo, he needs work, too. Today, it was noticeable how slow he is going from one end of the floor to the other. I remember that he grew up with severe leg problems. I wonder if this is a remnant of that time. He clearly wants to play well and did some good things on D. But, surprisingly, he didn’t grab a rebound.

I think it’s hard to blame our inside guys, including ND when he is inside, for playing bad D. We have guys getting beat badly on the drive and guys like Bobo have to move over to pick them up, leaving their men open — or us vulnerable for passes back out for open 3’s.

We are really slow. It hurts.

I didn’t get into the discussion of speeding up the offense upthread — Ty and others handled it well, and I’m so sick of it. Our O is keyed to our D and rebounding. So is the O of most teams. Want to get out and run, you need the ball to do that. Hard to run in a half court game created when the only time we get the ball is when it is handed to us after they score. All of you who want up tempo running, explain how you will do it in a half court game.

Those of you who want to focus all the failure on ND — tell me who you will play in his stead that will consistently lead our team in rebounds. We are so weak there, already that taking him out in favor of lane or Bobo will really not help.

And, we need to make FT’s. 52% won’t do it.

when he transferred from UNC? He is the type of big man we need.

a wild play to go ahead 73-72 with .3 left

It was beneficial because I was able to fast forward to the end after watching Drago personally blow 5, yes 5, offensive possessions in a row during the early minutes of the second half. Did he blow more? I don’t know. The fact that he wasn’t out of the game after his third poor shot, in 3 offensive possessions in a row is amazing to me. How does he help this team? How? I would love for someone to explain why he is getting ANY minutes, let alone the 18-20 that people think he somehow deserves. Why is this kid taking shots, when he cant hit a 10 foot jumper. Let alone, 5 in a row. Basically, what does Howland see in this young man?

  However, his worst play of the game came when he slapped Notre Dame’s Neanderthal Center on the arm expecting a foul to be called. The Neanderthal was cherry picking and Drago pursued, arm slapped then threw his hand up in the air as the Neanderthal dunked. Drago just gave up on the play and watched the dunk, whining about a no call on his foul. He literally deserves no minutes for that effort. Yes we were down by 8,but that was before the malcom lee 5 point fiasco with about 45 seconds remainiing. That would have put us within 3.

Sorry, I have just had enough of this guy. He clearly does not deserve to be on the floor!

I understand that he gets rebounds… its just my opinion that if you put someone else in there…theyd get the rebounds too.. i mean he literally takes them from nelson half of the time… I just cant handle his bad defense and his horrible passes. He didnt bother me as much last year.. but he doesnt have his shot. I cringe when someone makes a three bc in the back of my mind i just see him chucking up one “because someone else did” well drago thats probably bc they look at the rim and not the ball… I just cant handle him chewing up minutes bc even when hes not screwing up hes not doing anything good

On JA, I dont hate him but hes not a PG. He has no vision of what is actually happening on the court…. IE when he passed to TH (if you can call it that) and left him hanging. I think he knows its going bad and he has even less confidence. I just cant handle this after so many years with the wonder DC is 90+% freethrow shooting and his last second tear drop shots. We need a leader and we dont have one in JA

I thought the Bruins fought hard, exhibited some composure, executed their offense and played a solid game in defeat. I understand there are no moral victories accepted in Westwood, but there was nothing wrong with their effort. UCLA just missed some point blank looks, had some issues keeping ND off the offensive glass and, most glaringly, showed some huge lapses on the defensive end.

As much as the posters want to talk about the inefficiencies of JA, ND, etc the issue that has reared its ugly head this year and for the majority of last year is the defense. Perhaps we in BN got spoiled by the tenacity and hyper-athleticism of LRMAM and RW and fooled into thinking their success was due in large part to CBH scheme, when it now appears it was the other way around.

The team has some good players. The overall talent level might be down from the past couple seasons, but it’s extremely hard to expect an unproven crop of players to gel and all reach their potential at the same time. Everyone expect growing pains this year. The losses to Portland and to the Cal States were unexpected, but, seriously, not too many rational folks thought this team was a national contender or even a viable threat to win the conference. UCLA is what it is this year. I think the team is playing to it’s ability right now. The Bruins have a high ceiling, but the inconsitencies they show on a regular basis will keep them from reeling off a long winning streak. Hope the team cang hang tough, win these next four at home, get to 7-7, 2-0 in conference, exhale and then allow the rest of the year to play out.

Although we should not expect to make the final four or win the championship every year, a winning season is another story. No reason, short of the entire team dying in a plane crash, should excuse our program from winning more than we lose. Enough excuses coach. Get it done. We bball fanatics for life can see the obvious deficiencies of this squad, and so should you. Now make the changes!!!