Nestor-

Thanks for setting a great tone. I am glad that you got to see your (and my) Bruins in person for the NCAA’s. I hope that next year to do the same, you will be purchasing a ticket to San Jose or Spokane and Salt Lake.

As was mentioned in the post-game thread, it will come down to defense. The offense was certainly final-4 caliber in terms of stats- the defense is where the rebuilding team came up short.

Again, thanks, and hope to see you need to reset your watch for next year’s NCAA games.

Next season may be Howland’s most balanced team in terms of the number of guards and forwards/centers that he can utilize. This year’s team certainly wasn’t as balanced, and not as deep as in years past. Next season a lot of players can see playing time, which will result in much fresher players come tournament time for a nice, deep run. The only problem right now is the unknown. We have no idea who is going to step up, but at least there will be fierce competition for all the starter positions.

I was in philly too. Not in the ucla section, but two sections over. I was so surprised and happy we had so many fans. I think UCLA got better overall representation than UCONN or Texas AM. Even many of the nova fans were just locals cheering for the local team. No one gave me any personal attitude really, so all was good on that front.

I walked by a few bruin fans who said next year, and I agreed. I know we lose a lot with shipp, collison, and aboya (and hopefully not holiday). But I think we have a lot to look forward to in this program. By the looks we have more players coming in next year, maybe some of the freshmen will be of the farmar, mbah a moute, afflalo mold where they are ready to start from day one. Regardless no final four, I think 26 wins and a tournament win is good. Ideally this team had the potential to win a couple more games in the regular season get a better seed, and make sweet 16 or elite 8. We were not physically the type of defensive team that made three straight runs. Losing mbah a moute might have been more key than many people thought. I’m excited to see reeves nelson, honeycutt, moser, stover and lane. I think the first three might contribute quickest.

Nestor, to me the only disappointment for the season is that we did not win the PAC10. I am not a fan of judging a season exclusively on how you do in the tournament. A few wins in a row (3 gets you into the Elite 8) does not a quality season make IMHO. If we had taken care of business in a couple of winnable games we would have won the PAC10. But that is a quibble. As many have noted: 26 wins is great for a rebuilding year.

The seniors deserve Congratulations and Thanks for everything they have done for the Program.

Can someone on BN set up a poll: which player will have the most improvement over the forthcoming offseason? The reason for my faith in CBH (despite differences here and there) is the amazing growth of players in the program from one year to the next. Think PAA, ND, RW, DC just over the last few years. These guys had HUGE improvements from one season to the next. My guess is that it will be DG next season but that is one of the most exciting things about the early games: seeing who blossomed over the off-season.

for the excellent reporting and fine analysis. While I found the margin and manner of our defeat upsetting, I blame no one, and it seems clear that CBH got the most from this combination of players.
     Here’s the thing: Bruin fans can say “wait til next year” and know in their hearts that it’s not just an empty, wistful hope. For Bruin basketball, next year can’t get here soon enough.
     As for JH, he will certainly benefit from another year under Coach Howland. I hope he and his advisors are smart enough to realize that.

…to attend but I certainly agree with the general tone near the end of the game. It wasn’t all gloom and despair – probably due to lack of expectations, I felt much better about this loss than in the past few years. In any case, I’m truly excited about next year. For me, that’s the toughest part – no more basketball for 7-8 months! Let’s go CRN and co!

And thanks for the shout out for Philly – as some of you may or may not know, I moved out here for work from California a little over a year ago and have been absolutely pleasantly surprised. It gets a bad wrap but it’s a unique city with an absolutely underrated art museum and a great bar/night scene. Here’s to hoping I don’t get to see my Bruins in Philly anytime soon though – I’d much rather they have some home cookin’ for the tournament.

Let me be clear: I remain a big Ben Howland fan, and I appreciate our departing seniors as exemplary represenatitives of our school and our basketball program. But I regard this season as a disappointment, based on the UCLA Basketball standard of excellence that is best defined by the fact that we don’t put up Final Four banners, we only put up championship banners (a standard that has been embraced by CBH since his first day on the job.)

We did not win the PAC 10 regular season title; we did not win the PAC 10 tournament title (nor did we make the semis; our record against ranked teams was lousy; and our road record was lousy. Additionally, we did not survive the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. By the standards of most schools in America, we had a successful season. By UCLA standards, it was a disappoinment — and primarily so because of the particular games we lost, and the way we lost them.

My above case for success based on UCLA standards is open to debate. And I acccept that. What ultimately soured me most on this season was THE WAY in which we lost many games. How many times did we hear our players concede they were out hustled? That the other team played like it wanted the game more than we did? Too many for my taste. I can accept getting beat in the NCAA tournament by a better team — even an inferior team. Hey, it happens. What I don’t accept is a lack of effort. Beyond the wins and losses, what has made me happiest about Howland’s teams are that they (before this season) played hard and with extreme effort, night in and night out. Our shots might not have fallen; we might have made mistakes that cost us the game; but we always brought our best effort — the most energy we had to give.

Ultimately, I think the fact that things were different this year falls on both the players and the coach. Talent isn’t everything. If it was, the NCAA tournament would not feature so many upsets and/or near-upsets. Emotion, effort — these things matter. I expect more from Ben Howland-coached teams because that is the standard he has set. And based on that standard, I am not happy with this year’s results, even though I remain a big backer of the coach and appreciative of our seniors. The fact that I had to read from our own players that ‘Nova played hard than we did was particularly unacceptable to me. In my opinion, I should be reading that we lost because of poor shooting; because we turned the ball over too many times; because we couldn’t contain their best offensive player. But not because we were outmatched on the effort front.

I will leave my thoughts on this year’s frosh and next year’s incoming class for a future thread. But I want to close by saying what probably impressed me the most this year and gave me what little pleasure I was able to glean from this season, and that is Alfred Aboya. In my opinion, Alfred Aboya played himself into the NBA draft with his play this season. He showed talent that I never guessed he had. That is a credit to both himself and the coach.

but I think not enough has been said about the impact of that hard foul on DC during the oregon game. (i wish one of our guys would have at least gotten into the face of whatever punk put him down) After that hit, DC wasn’t the same in terms of extending on his free throws and 3-pointers.

Now i don’t think that would have changed the outcome of the nova game too much (they played very inspired bball) but i think it does highlight something that i am hoping for as we look forward to next year… a little bit of bunker mentality, us against the world attitude…cliche as sounds, I noticed a lot of times this season when our guys were on the ground after a foul or loose ball, there weren’t alot of teammates rushing over to help them up. I think our team this year had many great pieces and parts but they just didn’t learn to coalesce as a whole (not game in and game out anyways).

I think also we must be reminded that the only time that our team has “out-talented” other teams on the court during the Howland era was last year with KL, RW and LRMAM… the previous final four teams did not have pluses on their side in terms of positional match-ups. we did not have traditional post presences that most “experts” say we need. but they made it work because everybody understood their role and fought hard together.

Perhaps its a freshmen thing but i hope that we don’t fall into thinking that because we’re UCLA we deserve to have everyone get out the way and give us the PAC-10 championship and a berth to the final four every year just based on recruiting classes. hopefully this experience will humble our athletes and even us as fans, to work harder and cheer each other on to a return to excellence earned not entitled.

I wish that UCLA administration would allow Final 4 banners to be hung in today’s competitive college basketball climate. I think it’s cool that we can say that we only hang championship banners – but I also think that it denigrates what the previous three Final 4 classes have accomplished. To have no banners to commemorate their incredible – unparalleled (in contemporary times) – achievement – seems short sighted. I also think it places undue pressure on CBH and his players.

Don’t get me wrong – I appreciate and value what CJRW accomplished here at UCLA. My heart beats proudly when I think about the legacy that he established for all future UCLA athletes and students. I try and live my professional and personal life with the same principles that JRW espoused. However, it is a totally different basketball climate today – and the fact that fans of UCLA continue to hold that standard against today’s teams proves that it needs to be let go. With the one and done climate – the fact that CBH could get to three straight FF’s – while adjusting his personnel – is amazing. The fact that he lost three players that are now starting in the NBA – and still won 26 games – is incredible.

Of course – that’s just my opinion though.

why not at least the wooden center or morgan center or the weight room

Thanks for the thorough and fair summary of this season. Nice to get some closure on this season while looking forward to next season. I personally think that next season could be a rebuilding season as well if JH decides not to come back – thereby making 2010-11 a very special season. However, if JH does come back (which I’m not expecting him to) – then I believe that this season could be special as well. Nonetheless, I am incredibly excited about the improvements that we can look forward to in some of our BenBall Warriors next season. Specifically DG and ML – as I believe that DG can be an enforcer (perhaps a more skilled PAA) and ML can be a lock down defender – with some real offensive upside.

I know I addressed this briefly in a previous post – but I think what CBH has accomplished in this contemporary college basketball landscape – is nothing short of amazing. The day of basketball dynasties is over – as it is incredibly difficult to maintain any type of consistency in a one and done climate. Yet, we have won at least 26 games in each of the last 4 seasons – went to three consecutive FF’s – and have been put in the position to be competitive in each and every season (including next season). I can understand why people had high expectations for this team (with DC, JS, and PAA coming back) – but this team was obviously very different from the previous BenBall Warrior teams. Even the seniors that stayed were different in either disposition or skill set than AA, JF, KL, LRMR, LRMM, RW, etc. However, this team competed well despite their limitations. It may have been an up and down year – but I bet that CBH is already at work developing next year’s team (and probably the year after that – as he is a relentless worker).

Finally, I want to thank the seniors and CBH for a very enjoyable last 5 years. Nobody takes UCLA losing harder than the players and CBH. So as much anguish as I experience with each UCLA loss – I take solace in knowing that we have players and coaches that have tremendous character and pride – and represent UCLA exceptionally well.

This was truly a great 4 year run:
-Our 14 tournament wins in those 4 years currently ranks #1 overall. Memphis will tie us with one more win in this tourney. Kansas could get to 15 if it wins the championship, and UNC would tie us if they win the championship.
-We are one of only 6 teams to post at least 1 win in each of the last 4 tournaments (the others are Memphis, Texas, Texas A&M, UNC and Pitt).
-Our 124 wins ranks 2nd behind Memphis.
-We did this despite losing 5 players (and 9 seasons) early to the NBA draft. That’s 5 out of 14 players who signed letters of intent and enrolled. None of the other top programs came close to that. (When people argue that Howland has not done well with recruiting, keep in mind that guys like JH and ND may have excelled as role players on this year’s team had Luc or RW not left early.)
-We did this despite having posted only 39 wins in the 3 years leading up to this run. The seniors who graduated 4 years ago experienced only 1 20-win season (and it was exactly 20 wins) and 59 wins total in 4 years. This year’s senior class more than doubled the win total of that class.
Next year should be an exciting year. I am already amped to see who of Lane, Nelson, Honeycutt, Moser and Stover is able to step into the line up from day one and constribute. Who will be a pleasant surprise like Luc or RW? Who will develop over the 4 years like LMR or AA2? Who will be a warrior like AA?

but I have to add some Pac 10 comments. First, Arizona making the sweet sixteen is not just a fluke of their seeding and region. Lute really hurt these guys with his “I’m back, no I’m not” decision. Pennel has done a good job of getting the big 3 to play well after such a long losing streak. Good luck! and I have to congratulate the hated Trojans – they hung in there with NO HELP from the old man (I mean Taj) and really came close to the upset. When I was a student, ‘SC had great bball teams and it made our victories all the more sweet! I fear they will start a down trend now (if Hackett, Derozan, Taj leave). Finally, I disagree that our team didn’t have heart and I don’t believe Josh did any less than give 100%. DC belongs in the class of elite Bruin bballers. And I am sorry Pac 10 coaches, but there is no question that PAA was the most improved player of the year. Now for next season: 3 seniors, 5 sophomores (tourney tested) and 5 classy freshman? Wow,the other 9 coaches cannot be happy. Go Bruins.

I do agree with almost everything said here by everyone. But, I must say that when the refs are calling you for ticky tack fouls, it is very hard to be aggressive in your defense. Villanova played a heck of a game and deserved to win but we didn’t stand a chance with those refs. They took us out of our defense because, I believe, that our players were afraid to do anything that might be construed as a foul. The refs have the power to control the game and the outcome of the game if they are not calling it the same for both teams.The refs were bad in all the Pac-10 games. Washington’s Brockman was hammered by two guys and there was no call. Even an sc alum agreed that all the Pac-10 games were not called fairly. It sounds like sour grapes, but if you are afraid to foul – you can’t play good defense.

In the Orange County Register today, Youngman had nothing but bad things to say about UCLA “not showing up for their game like sc had”. He also commented that Guerrero next year will probably try to get all UCLA’s NCAA games at Pauley. He and many of the announcers and newspaper sports reporters STINK!!!! We need to get Nestor to be a reporter and tell it like it really is. GO BRUINS!!!!!!!

… and I can’t wait to see what we’ll become.

M

Meriones is great with his facts. As I said before, we can sound like we are blaming the refs
but their calls or lack of calls can really take you out of your game. It is hard to play good, tough defense if you think that you are going to be called for any little thing. I do believe that it is a combination of things – but the refs seem to keep the Pac-10 schools out of the tournament. I know others feel the same way. I couldn’t believe what I saw Villanova and other schools getting away with and our Pac-10 guys were getting into foul trouble. It doesn’t seem fair for this to happen and Meriones’s facts seem to point out that something is wrong -very wrong

and, while I am not sure I have a good answer, I think it has something to do with tempo on offense. If we are not able get stops against the other team, we are bound to struggle to keep up because we customarily use a lot of time during each offensive possession. We play a system based on tough D on one end and a grind-it-out, move the ball, make the extra pass approach on the other. Normally, this works to our advantage, but when we meet a team that is very efficient on the offense, because of great shooting, offensive rebounds or whatever, this self-limiting approach may not work. Also, I think that many coaches are now stressing better defense and we have had trouble with that as well.