…last week CBH said we were playing ball with the best of them. The way we played this week, we shouldn’t even be in the top 25. We need a miracle, baby.

I am disappointed that Howland & Co. didn’t find a way to motivate the players more.

2006 – Farmar
2007 – Afflalo
2008 – Love
2009 – ?

Nobody can really take over a game and manufacture some offense for us when we’re in these tough situations. DC did it today, but it was probably too late

We have better days ahead.

we can’t just sugar coat our losses anymore saying that we’re a developing team and we gotta trust that they’ll find their way. They need a wake up call after this road trip. There is a serious lack of heart on this team. No one wants to step up besdies collison when the game is on the line and our backs are against the wall. JH needs to find his offense and JS needs to play like a senior! This season I have tried to ignore the fact that we have allowed a much higher FG% and rebonds than previous year. I hate to be affected by 1 (in this case 2 games)—-but it just may be that we don’t have it in this roster—-and gatorade player of the year is just overrrated.

Too inconsistent and not one quality win

I will come back later when the rational regulars are still here.

When you’re out of it, it looks like this. If you take pride in every defensive possession and you’re out of it on offense, the game is always close.

We better damn well work harder on defense because we’re not good enough to rely on sheer athleticism.

I’m not concerned about having the extra losses on our record or the rankings on monday. I’m convinced the rest of nation only looks at the box score anyways. The ASU lost was heartbreaking but I knew it was a tall order on the road. This game was different. I think N said it best:

"Right now this team should not consume itself with the thoughts of defending the Pac-10 championship or what seed it is going to get in the tournament.

This team needs to dig deep, look itself in the mirror, and decide whether it will fight back and show character like the Ben Ball warriors we saw in last three seasons."

I’m not going to care what rank/seed we hope to be, but I want to be able to say that we look like a CBH team. We may not be as talented in our roster or as developed but they need the tough, blue collar characteristics that shaped our previous years.

Showing heart isn’t about how we rallied to pull within 10 the last 3 minutes of the game. It should have shown in our intensity after coming off of the ASU lost. We already looked beat in the first half of this game.

Losing that many players to the NBA and graduation is gonna have a deleterious effect on the team. With so much reliance on freshmen, who are just learning the college game, I expected the season to pretty much be a see-saw affair. However, I expected players to play with more consistency at this late stage of the season, but perhaps what we saw the previous couple of weeks was fool’s gold, especially since the games were all at home. This team has had a much tougher time winning on the road compared to Pauley. Although the team has 3 seniors, none of them have yet to really take the mantle as the unquestioned leader of the team vocally and on the floor. Plus, losing a glue player like Luc Richard has exposed some of this team’s weaknesses, as ND and JK have not been able to fill the void by his departure. All of that said, the team has now hit their rock-bottom, and we have seen how quickly they can ascend form the previous weeks’ performances. Hopefully Darren can address the team and tell them that he did not come back just to be a middle-of-the-pack team, that this is UCLA and they need to play up to their standards. I want to see this lowlight of a week to be the turning point, where the team now stops fooling around and start stepping up.

We’re not getting into the paint and kicking it out for the 3 quick enough. There is way too much perimeter dribbling and passing with no inside play. We also hesitated on many of the 3 point opportunities we had. Zona came out with energy and purpose. We were just going through the motions and not protecting our possessions. Way too sloppy and way too many turnovers.

Russ Pennell has done a really good job in a difficult interim situation. He’s gonna get some offers at the end of the season. Interesting how Zona takes care of the house that Lute built. The want a premium coach with a big name and are willing to wait a year to find that coach even though Pennell is good enough. Unlike what Pete Dalis did by accepting LAVIN who destroyed the Cathedral of BB built by Coach.

DG, ML, JA showed urgency, defiance, swagger and that theyplayed for the four letters on the front of their jerseys. I like their potential. JH showed great recognition in the second half has he tried to reduce his role as a playmaker when he was playing so poorly in the first half. Shows a lot of unselfishness. Personally, I think we should develop our freshmen more before the tourney. We go deep if our freshmen can provide quality ball play down the stretch.

Personally, I would not have played MR and JS as much as they did since they showed they were a liability on defense and had poor ball handling and passing throughout the game. I would have loved to see a DG and AA tandem in the first half when Jordan Hill went beast on us and we couldn’t grab a rebound for the life of us. I also think ND is a first half player. I think we should have tried to get him going early. He didn’t get that many looks as I would like. I really liked the squad when we were making our comeback before the 3-4minute mark with AA, DC, ML, JH. Personally, I would have played them to end of the game.

Arizona brought a tourney-like intensity level today that you don’t often see in the regular season. So we have got to recognize that we’re going to see this level of play from opposing teams from here on out, especially come tourney time. It’s time to re-group and focus what got us here in the first place. Trust in CBH and buy into defense. With the exception of DC, seniors really need to act like seniors and freshmen need to play more to develop and progress faster.

Just a thought, I think I would like to see DG, JH, JA, ML on the floor at the same time once in awhile.

Go Bruins!

Guess what happens when you practice defense 80% of the time? That’s right folks, no offense. When other teams study our defense and pick us apart we dig ourselves into 25pt holes. With the talent we have had on our roster we should be doing more. True we’ve been to the final four the last 3 seasons, but unless I’m mistaken, we don’t hang final four banners at Pauley Pavilion.

Looks like there will be at least two more Bruins in the stands at Staples. Just talked my wife into it. Let’s not have more Devil or Cat fans there next month, huh?

Go Bruins!

I am much more ashamed, embarrassed, and humiliated by some of the so-called fan’s comments here than I could ever be by our team’s performance. Where are these guys when we win? Why is it only adversity draws them out? Why can’t other teams get some credit for playing an inspired game against us?

The kids are playing hard, never giving up, and doing their best to represent UCLA. They don’t have to “better damn well” do anything more than that.

I also disagree that our kids or CBH have anything to be ashamed of. Shame should be reserved for bigger “sins” than losing a basketball game. Embarrassed, maybe, disappointed, sure, but they’ve got absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.