BP's John Gasaway gives a little respect
About time I've seen a well written, fact-based article written about this year's Bruins out there on the web - other than everything at BruinsNation of course. I especially like how UCLA seems to score efficiently at any pace - that certainly bodes well for the tournament.
about 3 years ago
zinlinez
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Good read
and I agree with just about everything. We haven’t been misjudged as a #5 or #4 seed because that where we deserve to be based on SOS, RPI, who we beat, which is what the selection committee looks at. What’s important to remember though is that there’s a reason the selection committee doesn’t decide until mid-March and as long as we win the Pac 10 and have a good conference tournament we’ll be a #2 or #3 seed and staying out west.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Feb 9, 2009 12:23 PM PST reply actions
Just saw this article, agree with Rye & zinlinez - Great Read
There’s nothing to disagree with really. I agree with those who put us as a # 4 or # 5 seed last week, and actually, even though we won two games handily, I would still probably have us as roughly a # 4 today. On the other hand, we are playing tremendous basketball, and there is a real possibility that we can improve our seeding over the rest of the year. But just as it looks as though we are a little underrated right now, the truth is we have two tough games this weekend which will test us more than the recent games probably.
Anyway, the joy right now is watching our team ripping on all cylinders. To be honest, I don’t remember 4 blowouts like this since the 2006 team during the Pac-10 tournament. Even though we had great teams the last two years, they didn’t really put together four blowouts like this during the middle part of the season.
Go Bruins.
And yet once again this week...
Lunardi proves himself to be an absolute dumba**…Check out his bracket here. Now I really don’t have too much of a problem with a 4 seed at the moment, but here’s a question….how on EARTH are we not “rising”??? Apparently winning 4 straight games over potential tournament teams by 20+ points isn’t impressive enough for ESPN
Rising/falling
is determined by whether or not the team has moved up or down a seed from the prior bracket and Lunardi had us up to a 4 in his prior bracket (last Friday.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Feb 9, 2009 4:13 PM PST up reply actions
really?
wow don’t know why i didn’t know that I’ve been looking at his brackets for years. But i thought we were a 5 in the last one…..
by bucknellbruin on Feb 9, 2009 4:42 PM PST up reply actions
The Bruins on paper are not the same team on the court
You cannot argue against the Bruins low RPI and SOS. They’ve lost to the best teams they’ve played this season (ASU, Washington, Texas).
The ratings are more of a reflection of the Pac-10 than the Bruins as a team. The Bruins are coming together as a team right now and appear to have ironed out their problems during the mini slump a couple weeks ago.
They look as good as any of the three previous FF teams and are arguably better offensively. This is the best shooting, passing and ball-handling team I’ve seen at UCLA in quite some time.
No. 1 seed or No. 5, it doesn’t matter. The Bruins I’ve seen on the court the past couple weeks can beat anybody.
richramus
great article
We’ve been given a few bad points that the MSM likes to pick up:
1) The Pac-10 is down. Sure, but we’ve also seen Arizona beat Gonzaga and Kansas, both who are tournament teams. So who’s to say that the rest of the teams weren’t just jelling and getting used to new coaches and players after tremendous talent loss?
2) We lost our early non-conference big games. Sure, but what we did in the past is not what matters to how we play now.
3) We’re bad at offense. Okay, so we played at very low tempos that made it look like we couldn’t score, but we we’re among the top 3 in offensive efficiency. Now that we’ve played at a higher pace, we’re suddenly magically good again? We’ve always been good, we’re just making it obvious for the pundits to see.
How’s this – over the last 4 games, we’ve brought teams down to an adjusted defensive effienciency of 88.6 points per 100 possessions. Good enough to be in the top 10-15 in defensive efficiency nationally. Couple that with the #3 offensive efficiency, and we’re looking at a no-doubt-about-it top 10 team.
The Pac-10 being down
I know this is the common perception but Lundardi has 6 teams getting into the NCAA tournament as of today, which is the same amount of teams that got in last year when the general perception was that the Pac-10 was the best conference in the country. All these factors show what we all know, that the Pac-10 isn’t as “down” as everyone thinks.
its true
The Pac-10 is starting to get more respect, and Lundari placing us as a 4th is based on statistics like RPI – but it took a very long time to get us to see even 4 bids for the Pac-10 when now 5 seems increasingly likely. It’s the fact that all the media ‘expertise’ has suddenly been exposed as we see conferences like the Big East fail to live up to the hype. Those bids have to go elsewhere
Smiling
I just have to say that, aside from the eventual seeding in the tournament depending on rankings…I honestly would rather be underrated than overrated year after year, like (dare I say it?) Duke.
It’s so great to have a coach and a team that let the play do their talking for them.
Love My Bruins
Enjoy reading BP
Such a refreshing change to read some well-informed commentary, as opposed to the idiotic guesses usually posed by blowhards like Digger Phelps, Dukie V., and Bob Knight on WWL.
by gradstudentbruin on Feb 9, 2009 6:43 PM PST reply actions
basketball statistics
Basketball statistics are still in its infancy, compared to baseball, where advanced sabermetrics and statistical analysis have made the analysis of ‘traditional’ baseball writers largely a thing of the past. Basketball is harder to analyze quantitatively, but hopefully this will phase out the talking heads that ESPN loves to promote…
A bit off topic but
the fact that the RPI is still seriously considered says a lot about how far the world of basketball analysis still needs to come.
by gradstudentbruin on Feb 10, 2009 6:43 AM PST up reply actions
Bad article... with great points
Bad article in the fact that he’s blowing our cover! I hardly post in here, but this time I had to. This is a perfect year to bury us in obscurity and remove all pressure from any expectations. Getting into the tourney as a 5 seed would be awesome. Underdogs the whole way! I understand the whole lack of respect/hurt feelings issue… GET OVER IT!!!! This is the West Coast, we’ll NEVER get respect! NEVER. Use it to our advantage is all I’m saying. This isn’t a BCS popularity show. Everyone has the same chance, who cares where we play in the tourney, if it ain’t at Pauley, it doesn’t matter. This bookworm is exposing us for the good/dangerous team we are. Somebody shut him up!!!!
Bruin-4-Life!!!
the problem is
as a 5 seed, we wouldn’t be guarenteed a spot in the west. I’m all for under the radar, but we want at least a 4 seed. The top 4 seeds are almost always given regional priority, and since there won’t be 4 west coast teams better than us, we’ll get the 4 seed in the West.
And location DOES matter. I’d rather play in San Jose than in Connecticut, personally. Even if we don’t travel well, it’s the travel time for the team that really matters.
by bucknellbruin on Feb 11, 2009 6:06 PM PST up reply actions
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