UCLA Experiences A Little Bliss By Sinking An NIT Caliber Washington At The Buzzer

Pretty sure you mean buzzer beater, N.

As a Den student who watched from the second row of the middle section, I believe that the group of that students that tried to rush the floor did because it was Mustafa who made the shot, as opposed to someone else. I sure hope I’m right on this.

Can someone put together the last 18 seconds of that and post.
I had a tough time watching it on the stream and them when time hit 0:00 the thing stopped and I didn’t get to see the reaction.
Thanks, would really appreciate it.

I almost didn’t go today, but then felt guilty and decided to waste two plus hours at Pauley. Boy am I glad I did. That was the most emotion this team has played with in the last two years. Even most of the grayhairs were into it.

The most encourgaing sign (besides the obvious fact that MAH is far better than JA) is that CBH stuck with the zone the whole game. I was worried when Pondexter (who is an easy first round pick) was going off in the first half that CBH would panic and go back to a zone and lead to a disastrous game. Finally CBH proved me wrong.

As for the rushing the court, I don’t have a problem with it. The students havent had much to cheer about this year and for the first time this season, this was a UCLA team that embraced the UCLA community. The players were encourgaing the crowd, the students were in full force, and as mentioned even most of the season ticket holders were good today.

I dont want to get too far ahead of myself, but this could be a turning point game. It definitely felt different than the other “encouraging wins” this year.

We need to get momentum going and win a few in a row. More effort from now on, please!

Unlike those other wins, we honestly truly played a great game throughout the 40 minutes (with maybe an exception of playing man-D). We never trailed by 15, never allowed Drago to fire up 800 threes, never relied on lucky plays to carry us. This was ‘gulp’ a well-played team game. I’m proud of them and I hope…no, I pray they will carry this over for saturday’s game.

WOW! That was really FUN! I’m happy for Mustafa and the team needed this. GO BRUINS!!!

Good night for all of us. We get a huge commit and a fun win at Pauley. I will take it.

A few thoughts before I go to bed, which I should have done long ago. I was excited to see BL come in early…and enjoyed watching his 30 seconds for the game. Nothing new there. I was pleasantly surprised at our play today. For the first time in a long time, it looked like our players wanted to play. More importantly, and I don’t think I saw this too much in my brief scan of the comments in this thread, we weren’t content just to pass it around the perimeter for 25-30 seconds like we’ve been doing all season. There was an obvious, concerted effort to pass the ball into the paint – and it worked. At one point we led them in points in the paint something like 18-4. I don’t think we’ve had 18 points in the paint in our prior games combined. It was a definite coaching adjustment, and it paid off.

Agree with comments above about Mustafa’s solid play even prior to the last few seconds. I fully second the idea of having him be our #2 PG.

Ok, so I’m a freshman and I’ve only been a UCLA fan for a year now. However, after having watched UCLA basketball not play the way I’ve seen them play in the past few years, and having finally gone to the game instead of watching it on tv (since I couldn’t get Den tickets this year), I was just excited to experience what happened in the game. Watching the student section erupt and witnessing everyone in the Pauley on their feet and cheering, I just wanted to celebrate. Ok, so I didn’t know that UCLA students don’t rush the court, I’m sorry. But like UclaBruin47 said, this site has been bashing the students all season for not showing the team support. Then tonight, Mustafa, who probably wouldn’t have even been in if JA wasn’t hurt, hits the buzzer beater. How can you, as a student who’s had to watch what’s been an extremely disappointing season, not want to celebrate with the team after a win like tonight’s?

Ok, it’s tradition and we’re too good to rush the court. But this year’s team clearly isn’t what UCLA teams have been in the past and as a true supporter of UCLA, you need to support them when you can. Maybe you guys are just so used to complaining at the end of games that you forgot how to just enjoy the moment for once.

He was outside the ladies’ 3pt line though, I think.

the miraculous buzzer beater by Hamid and the overall gritty effort of our team, I have no problem with the happy students rushing the court. Do they have to wait until we are Final Four ready before they can celebrate? I don’t think so.

As for the game itself, after SUC crushed us this was my suggestion: “… Find seven guys with pride, if you can, and play them. Hamid should be point. Use a zone…” I think some of that played a part tonight. Nice to see it worked out.

I know Hamid only played so much because JA was injured. Hopefully his play tonight will get him more playing time on his own merits. He is solid, if not spectacular, plays with confidence and is a shooter as shown before tonight as well. He is the closest thing we have to a real D1 guard. From what I learned on the board tonight about him turning down a Harvard scholie to walk on here, that says mountains to me about his character.

Yes, he did not stop his man from scoring with 3.8 seconds left, but he was on that guy like a fly. The W guy made a helluva of a play, too.

I agree with others our offense is still weak. It did show signs of life tonight, especially with TH stepping up.

Yes, Washington is most likely only an NIT team, but let’s congratulate our team on a good, hard fought win. The played with pride tonight. Good for them.

GO BRUINS

1. For once CBH didn’t burn all his timeouts early in both halfs. The flow of the game was more "urgent’ and it allowed him to use some near the end to set a play and the defense.

2. The talk about how our players didn’t just toss the ball around the perimeter like usual. I think that is a direct result of UW’s intense man to man. As Marques said during the telecast, the UW guys were in our comfort zone. That forces players to think dribble drive or pick. That picked up the pace of the game and was probably what Romar wanted. It just didn’t pay off for him. Guys like MAH and TH showed alot of poise and patience with that UW intensity. It also prevented ND from hoisting up ill advised 3’s. Again, why is he considered a 3 point specialist.

3. I thought CBH made a crucial mistake at the timeout when Roll was shooting one more with 7.6sec. left. Knowing if Roll misses we are tied. If he makes we are up by one. He could have subbed JK or BL in for ND for defensive purposes. Surely even CBH knows ND is a defensive liability. Instead he puts in MAH for MR after the made free throw (good move) for D. Backfires and pays off at the same time.

1) Rushing the court on a back and forth buzzer beater by a walk on is fine.

2) This team has no player that can dribble penetrate, which kills out offense and allows the opponent to overplay every player on defense.

3) They really played hard and crashed the boards.

4) This team lacks fundamentals – timing on setting screens, making breaks to the ball and stopping the dribble before being ready to pass.

5) TH looks like a star of the future.

6) RN gets to the rim but then misses too often.

7) Free throws, ugh.

8) CBH doesn’t throw in the towel. He continues to coach, looks for combinations, and looks to motivate his squad.

9) With RN, TH, and ML, the program has players to build on.

10) I love my team. I love my coach. GO Bruins!