Going Through The Motions
by Nestor on Jan 3, 2010 7:52 AM PST
in Basketball
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PrintThe day after another humiliating and dispiriting loss, this is what is bothering me the most about our basketball program. There is no passion and intensity in Howland's basketball program:
Two days ago, Arizona was held to 30% shooting by USC (who from what I saw, played man-to-man defense.) Today, that same Arizona team shot 48.3%. You can’t convince me that the roster at USC is that incredibly athletically superior to ours, so I’m led to believe that the difference in defensive effectiveness comes down to effort, teamwork, desire, and coaching. I never thought I’d see the day when a Howland-led team was deficient in all of those areas, but sad to say, that was the reality today. I wish we could write it off as an aberration, but it’s the same thing that we saw in the contests vs Miss St and Long Beach State.
I know people here are clamoring for more zone, but no defense is going to be effective if it’s played at half speed. No defense is going to be effective if players aren’t communicating. No defense is going to be effective if you can’t secure a rebound.
That was from insomniacslounge who also pointed to the other issue of no sense of consistent accountability in the current Howland coached basketball team:
I’m also surprised that people are lauding Dragovic as the player of the game (even if it’s only by default). Yes, he got fouled in the post and made his free throws, but from my vantage point, he set the tone for the lackluster performance today. He missed all of his outside shots once again, was not an effective rebounder, and was constantly torched on defense…again. And once again, he was the only player not held accountable by Coach Howland. If Honeycutt, Anderson, Nelson, Keefe etc. made a bad play, they were given the hook. For Dragovic, there were no repercussions. And he knows it. This was evident by the no-look touch pass he delivered in the last minute of the game when catching the ball and making a layup was the only play to make. Granted, the game was effectively over by then, but it just boggled my mind that he went for a flashy play in that circumstance.
I have written enough about the second point in recent weeks. I don't think I need to expand any more on that for now. So I will try to discuss the first one a little more.
Arizona, Mississippi State, Long Beach State are not the only games during which this UCLA team has played without any sense of passion and urgency. I saw the same during every other game this season. I believe this year we have barely played one game - against New Mexico State - during which we played passionate, tenacious Ben Ball defense for an entire game. Otherwise, in every other game the team gave an incomplete and consistently inconsistent effort of one good half paired up with an awful. In number of instances it looked like - at least in my eyes - bunch of players, who were going through the motions in UCLA basketball uniform and had completely tuned out their head coach. Something is going on here which is not comforting. It is a reality and it's something we can't be in denial over.
I agree with insomniacs that it's just not a matter of playing zone or man-to-man. It's about players believing in what the coaches are teaching and then implementing it with total buy in on the basketball court. In the Lee thread, we also discussed about the total lack of leadership in this basketball team. That brings me back to the point of Dragovic. Dragovic in some possessions looked a little "alive" during the disastrous and deciding first half against Arizona. However, that is not a complement to Dragovic as much as it is an indictment on the rest of the team. For the first time since Howland's first year in Westwood, there is ZERO LEADERSHIP in this basketball team. There is no one in this team who in essence is an extension of Howland on the basketball court.
Since his second year up until now Howland has had at least one (or more) players who were pretty much extensions of himself on the basketball court and fully embraced his philosophy. They were
04-05: AA, JF,
05-06: AA, JF, LRMAM, DC
06-07: AA, LRMAM, DC, RW
07-08: DC, LRMAM, RW
08-09: DC
I didn't include KL in that category (even though I like him a lot) is because KL wasn't here long enough. But you can see the picture. There is no upperclassmen in this basketball team who measures up the leadership skills of above reference Ben Ball warriors. There is no one from class of 2009. Perhaps Malcolm Lee could be that guy but we just haven't seen signs of them yet. I am hopeful about Tyler Honeycutt and Reeves Nelson. However, they don't have the presence AA and JF did their first year. In Honeycutt's case he just hasn't had the time on court.
The problem I am seeing is Howland since his 04-05 year when he gave freshmen lot of room to operate (out of necessity) hasn't afford the same luxury to ensuing freshmen classes (except for players such as Love and Holiday). Our freshmen are often too tentative because they are playing afraid of that quick hook, while guys like Dragovic get to roam around with zero sense of accountability. That results in formation of a core that is passive, unsure and what appears to be uninspired on a consistent basis.
Right now our guys are going through the motions. They know they are not athletic enough to play man-to-man defense. Yet they are playing it and producing half hearted results. Not sure if they are going to be fired up enough when Howland even decides to switch to zone and it showed through the effort yesterday afternoon at Pauley. All of this is being compounded by the fact that there is no leadership whatsoever on the basketball court.
While players should be held accountable for lack of effort and desire on the court, we also need to think hard about Howland's responsibility in all of this. After all he is the caretaker of Coach Wooden's basketball program. And right now it is going through the motions. Not an acceptable picture if you are an alum, student and fan of UCLA basketball.
Don't get me wrong. I still support Coach Howland. He is an exceptional coach. One of the best in game. However, that doesn't mean we have to be quiet when we see something is not quiet right. Something seems to be off and it is healthy to talk out loud about it instead of pretending everything is all right. It is not.
GO BRUINS.
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Some thoughts on quick hooks, accountability, minutes for freshmen under CBH, etc
And once again, he was the only player not held accountable by Coach Howland. If Honeycutt, Anderson, Nelson, Keefe etc. made a bad play, they were given the hook.
This is – at the very least – a huge exaggeration when judging that game. If CBH was ‘giving people the hook’ every time they made ‘a bad play’ then he would have been making changes every 30 seconds.
Malcolm Lee made bad offensive play after bad offensive play in the first 30 minutes of the game, and was in virtually the whole game (and yes, I know he played good D on Wise). No ‘quick hook’ for Lee when he made a bad play = no accountability?
Mike Roll got killed defensively time and time again without providing much of anything offensively in the first 30, but was also in 35 minutes. No ‘quick hook’ for Roll when he made a bad play = no accountability?
If CBH continues the current gametime trend, he will essentially be playing a 7 man core rotation the rest of the way. Last night, MR and ML both had 35 mins, ND 33, RN 27, JA 25, TH 24, JK 13. Within that, it seems clear that JK is only there as an additional big body to spell RN and ND and play within the team defense; when JK comes on for RN or ND we take a step backwards offensively or defensively. Of all the starters, the only one we can apparently afford to give ‘the quick hook’ is JA, as TH is an equally good or better player, and making that change can give us a slightly different look.
I have no problem giving JMM and BL a super short leash, as they are being given the hook in favor of one of our STARTING FIVE. If CBH was regularly bringing on BL and then pulling him for Moser (or whoever) after his first bad play, that would be different.
In previous years we had a couple of luxuries: we had bench players who could bring instant energy, and we had enough talent that we could bench a starter and still have a more talented team on the court than our opponents. That meant that you could use substitutions to make a point to the most talented players, use your bench to pick up your starters and to harrass opposing players. We don’t have that now.
To go back to JF/AA/JS’s freshman year: yes, CBH gave them almost complete freedom to make their mistakes and play their way into form without worrying about being lifted. That says more about our lack of depth than about CBH having a different attitude to those freshmen, and he had no upperclassmen recruited and trained in his system. With Ced injured we didn’t have another scholarship point guard to bring in for JF (so AA even did some ball handling that year), and the bomber Brian Morrison (not a prototypical BenBaller) was our only real guard option off the bench to take any minutes from AA or JS. CBH was able to give Mike Fey, Ryan Hollins and LM(-R) some quick hooks because they were all much of a muchness and we had ‘depth’ in that one position.
Last year we had the a large heralded freshman class again; but why would CBH want to give JA room to make errors when DC is sitting? Why would CBH let DG (or JMM for that matter) wander around pounding his chest for the cameras while PAA is ready to come back in? How much of a leash should ML be on if JS is on the bench? If I were to make a criticism of the roations last year, it would be that CBH could have used ML more, giving JH the hook if he wasn’t performing properly – ML certainly seemed to bring more intensity onto the court when he replaced JH. That is the only case in which I thought CBH was clinging to the hope that our DC/JH backcourt could carry us far in the tournament and keep up the run of tourney success.
As to this year’s freshmen, RN and TH are getting plenty of minutes; BL seems to demonstrate in limited time that he doesn’t deserve any more than limited time; no idea about MM.
I should also add
that your comments on our lack of leadership are absolutely spot on, we don’t have that type of player. JF had it from the start as a team general, and AA developed into it as a leader by example on the defensive end; DC grew into it particularly in his third year after being a bench player in his first year, and second fiddle in his second year to AA.
The problem right now is that DG was clearly the boss of the sophomore class – who should be leading this team – and he was a headcase.
We are getting our rear ends handed with Dragovic on the floor
Newsflash we are horrible basketball team with Dragovic. We are not getting any better with him or going anywhere with him. He is not a Howland type of player and never has been. He compromises the essence of Howland philosophy and wasting minutes on a scrub like him has played a huge role in cracking the foundation of this program.
Lane looks lost there at times because he is tentative. He knows he will get the quick hook. Guess what Farmar also looked lost at times during the very early games of his UCLA career. But Howland stuck with him. The minutes we could have used on developing players like Lane were wasted early this season which ended up being humiliating losses or listless performances featuring the lollygagging of Dragovic.
I have never looked so forward to a “senior” day until this season. I am ready to move on without these guys but its too bad our freshmen this year will not be as prepared as AA/JF/JS/LMR was going into their sophomore season because their minutes were wasted out of Howland’s nonsensical loyalty to someone like Dragovic.
TH and RN are getting their minutes and will continue to do so
It is possible that if BL was getting 30 minutes a night we might be a better team for it next year, but I think we would be a significantly worse team this year; it’s not clear right now that BL is projected as a starter for next year, so I don’t see that there is so much to be gained by handing him minutes that he apparently hasn’t been able to seize through his play in practice.
Comparing the freshman playing time for BL and JF doesn’t seem exactly sensible. Who was CBH going to go to instead of JF? Janou Rubin as our PG? Also, from what I remember reading prior to that season starting, CBH had been impressed with how much JF had wanted it and pushed Ced in practice before Ced’s injury. JF brought a level of intensity to everything he did from the moment he joined the program.
I can understand why you are so negative about ND. I don’t understand why you are so positive about BL. Our two freshmen who obviously project as starters next year are getting their minutes, as are our two sophomores who will likely start if they return.
Actually you are the one
that is bending over backwards to defend Dragovic, who is anything but a Ben Howland type basketball player. Keep defending him though. Go on.
I don't think that's a fair assessment
I think I am defending how CBH is handling his roster and minutes given to players. He clearly is in a mess with his roster – for reasons of his own making, largely – but I think he is largely doing his best with what he has in terms of the minutes people are getting.
You think he should be playing BL more; you think that BL’s problem is lack of extended playing time, and that the poor play he has demonstrated in limited minutes is not a fair indication of his ability, effort or conditioning, and that the team is best served (in a combination of this year and the future) by letting him play more. In that assessment, you are much more generous to BL then I am – but maybe you see something in the way he plays that I don’t. (Or maybe you understand BL’s psychology better than I do, and know that he is paralyzed by fear at the thought of – if I may dare whisper its name – the quick hook)
I think we just disagree about what we should pin our hopes on for future improvement – you hope that CBH is currently mishandling a roster that has some talent, and he could improve things by altering how he handles the roster; I hope that CBH is handling well a roster that he recruited poorly and that he improves our recruiting results in the future. Other people have suggested other things too. I think CBH’s general philosophy, in terms of defense, intensity in practice, efficient-if-ugly offense, and his management of playing time, is sound, but that he hasn’t successfully identified and recruited a consistent roster to fit his system (including managing possible early departures/transfers). Maybe I am bending over backwards to defend CBH a little too much.
Again you are in a tunnel vision
and making this all about Lane. This is not about Lane or Dragovic. This is lot more than that. This is about Howland not being true to the philsophy of what made him a great coach in Westwood. This is about Howland bending over backwards to favor certain players (first it was Shipp now it is blatantly Dragovic) who simply haven’t lived up to the standards of defense first mindset Howland demanded when he came in here. That has had a demoralizing effect on rest of the team and we are seeing it on a day to day basis.
It is clear some here are not comfortable with the criticisms directed towards Ben Howland. If that is the case, then tough. Don’t read BN. As much as we have supported and admired Howland for what he has done, we will not back down for offering due criticisms if we identify issues that we think are hurting our program.
A losing season this year will not be acceptable. PERIOD. That will be on Howland and if we have a losing season this year, he will be under pressure to have tangible success next season that will mean a little more than just scraping to get to 20 wins and flame out in the first weekend of the Big Dance.
wait
so now you are citing 5-year player Josh Shipp as an example of last year’s poster child for not playing defense… but suggesting that we should leave out upperclassmen and train up freshmen, just like we did in keeping Brian Morrison to only 22 minutes per game in 2004-5 while giving 28 minutes per game to… hungry, defense-minded Josh Shipp?
You think he has changed his basic philosophy. I don’t. I think he played the players who gave him the best chance to win games that season, and is playing the players he thinks give him the best chance to win games this season. Maybe that means he got lucky with 3 straight final fours, with rosters turning over with the perfect combination of talent and experience from year to year, and now has got unlucky when he lost most of his talent and experience between the end of last season and the start of conference play this year. As has been documented, he hasn’t stayed anywhere for very long, so maybe he’s not that great at long-term roster management.
We also clearly disagree on whether it is beneficial for a program to write off a year and just start preparing for next year – for reasons we’ve both stated before and don’t need to be repeated – so I won’t waste your time any more on this thread.
We disagree
He is certainly trying out the combination that he thinks gives him the best chance to win. He has always done that. However, last year he went a little too far with Shipp, who he should have benched on certain occasions when he wasn’t playing defense. He did the same with Holiday who he waited too long to bench (until the debacle against Washington State at Pauley) as the starting 2G of the team.
Last two years Howland on number occasions have gone with the points instead of defense. Had Howland benched Shipp or reduced his minutes to establish a sense of accountability in the program, it might have cost us 2-3 wins, but it would have been better for the long term health of this program. Same with Dragovic this season. Howland keeps playing him for the hope of cheap points, while completely compromising his underlying philosophy of committing himself to defensively sound basketball.
Note the Shipp in his freshman season was lot different than the Shipp in his senior season, who was slowed down due to surgeries/hip injuries. As a result Shipp in his senior season wasn’t the same tenacious Shipp we saw in his freshman year outshining Brian Morrison, who was basically this year’s version of Nikola Dragovic.
This year is lost. It is gone. Howland better make this a winning season at the very least. Because if UCLA basketball suffers a losing season this year, it will be absolutely unacceptable and it will put him under pressure to show tangible improvement next season. What does that tangible improvement win, W-L wise, we will determine that after the off-season shakes out.
Last note, if folks are getting uncomfortable with Howland criticism, then they need to get used to it. If people don’t like criticism of Howland, they are more then welcome to search another place in the internets which will always be about homerism and blind loyalty to the head coach.
BN has always been huge fan of Ben Howland. However, BN’s ultimate loyalty is to UCLA (not an individual head coach of any progam). That’s the bottom line.
lol
One of my strongest memories from that 2004-5 season was us clawing our way back into a game, the crowd really getting going; we get a steal, break quickly, and Brian Morrison goes up for a huge (uncontested) tomahawk dunk … and clangs it off the back of the rim. That guy definitely brought more energy than ND ever does… but also seemed to account for 2 out of every 3 shots at times when he was on the court.
I think where we definitely agree is that the culture in the squad this year – and leading back to at least last year – is not what it was during the final four runs. I posted previously about how (it seemed to me) that the current sophomore class didn’t man up and compete with the seniors, and that the combination of JH being handed the 2G spot without much obvious effort, and the others mostly giving up and waiting until they would be handed roles this year, seemed to be a sea change from previous classes, and probably retarded the development of the current freshmen. (see TH’s comments on the DG departure, and CBH, in the aftermath of that, commenting on still having to teach the freshmen what it means to practice (several weeks into the season))
I previously put it down the culture issue mostly to a particularly bad (mentally weak) crop of players recruited by CBH in that class, but I totally accept your suggestion that CBH could have taken actions that would have both helped the team last year over the course of the season, and maintained the culture in the program for this year and the future. The only question I still have is whether the likes of ML and JA last year, and BL and MM this year, have been competing hard enough that benching other players would be seen as just reward for hard work and hustle. Without watching practice, I don’t know. If (say) ML was working his guts out last year and outhustling the starters and CBH stuck with a lackluster JH and JS anyway, then I think that was a mistake on his part. If – say – BL watches ND lollygag around and doesn’t then take it upon himself to outwork him in practice, learn where he is supposed to be on offense and defense, and show CBH he deserves more minutes, then benching ND only solves part of the problem (punishing ND for laziness, but rewarding BL for… not being ND, rather than for BL’s own hard work… in this hypothetical)
CBH definitely needs to recapture that hard-nosed competitive spirit within the club. I may have overemphasized the importance of ‘getting the right people on the bus’, and put too much onus on the players to man up, rather than critically assessing CBH’s management.
You ask a very interesting question
This is a really good question and I think worth discussing in a stand alone post:
The only question I still have is whether the likes of ML and JA last year, and BL and MM this year, have been competing hard enough that benching other players would be seen as just reward for hard work and hustle. Without watching practice, I don’t know. If (say) ML was working his guts out last year and outhustling the starters and CBH stuck with a lackluster JH and JS anyway, then I think that was a mistake on his part
Well if you look back to ASU game last year (the one on the road), ML clearly outshined Holiday during the game. I believe that was the case during the WSU game at Pauley as well. When ML came in defensive intensity went up. It was obvious at least to my eyes. I (this is speculation on my part) got the sense that Howland kept giving Holiday as much room as he could not to piss him off too much. However, he reached the end of the line in the Washington State game. That’s when he benched him and it was never the same again.
I think he should have done that lot earlier like he benched KL in the Texas game the year before. It was an awesome message and I think the players got it. Didn’t see that message being sent last year until it was too late and there was no sense of accountability by then. That carried it into this season and exploded via Gordon.
Now in Dragovic, again Howland might be going with points but he is sacrificing the key cog in his philosophy: defense and all out hustle. Yeah Drago is a marginally better defender than he was as a fresh/soph. But that’s not saying much.
My frustration lies with the fact that perhaps Howland should have give Lane, Moser earlier in the season with extended mins to see what he had.
If not this year, we will need Moser to play a role next year. We are going to need him. I really would have liked to see him get some mins in zone defense. Wish we had seen the zone earlier this year so that we could see what kids like Moser and Lane would have done in that situation. It’s now conference season so they will not see much time again. I guess the frustrating part is now we will never know whether it would have made a difference if we given those guys more time or tried out zone earlier in the year to get them more used to it.
Again I think given your response above we are mostly in agreement. We have disagreement around the edges here but the bottom line for me is for Howland to figure out not only to make the best out of the situation he is now but also to make sure the foundation is not compromised for the long term future. I think he compromised it last year and has done it a bit this year. Again, to me this is more than just about Dragovic/Lane. It’s about getting back to what made Howland so good to begin with.
Another point I forgot to add
My question is that if there is a scenario that ML/JA last year and BL/MM this year are losing their motiviation to compete hard during practices because they saw certain players getting their minutes even though they were clearly not giving it all during the games.
I ask that specifically wrt to ML/Holiday/Shipp situation last year and it’s a key reason I am unsure about dynamics in our frontcourt this year where Dragovic is getting so much time despite consistently screwing it up on defense.
If these guys perceive a situation in which they know it doesn’t matter how hard they practice because they will be subject to a quick hook on their first mistake (or two) while the upperclassmen or certain annointed underclassmen (Holiday) gets all the mins despite lollygagging on defense, then it does lead to potential moral issues.
The team we see on the court right now looks totally demoralized and same was the case in some games last season (except DC/PAA bailed us out few times). I am not feeling comforted with what I am seeing on the court to say the least.
some speculation on my part
[begin highly speculative comments]
From a couple of off-hand comments made to me by one of last year’s seniors early on in the season (~November), I got the impression that the freshmen that year simply did not bring it in practice even early in the season. This surprises me somewhat, insofar as you are right about ML last year providing defensive intensity off the bench.
Re: BL and JMM this year – when DG bailed on the team, that instantly created an additional 30 minutes of playing time for other players (even if prior to that they were discouraged by ND’s minutes…) . If our other bigs didn’t step up and compete then, I am worried about them in the future. When one is worried whether or not JK is going to be able to recover from injury in time for a game to be your #1 bench post player… that says something about what the other bigs on the roster are bringing.
Re. bigs
I don’t have lot of faith on Morgan at this point. I think I have seen enough at this point. It happens. Recruiting evaluations often just don’t work out (even Michael Fey was a pretty highly recruited player out of Northwest).
As for others, just don’t know what to think at this point. It’s all kind of chicken and egg at this point. If players are not giving their best effort during practices then we have to wonder why. On the other hand despite their best effort in practices, they are not good enough to get in we also have to wonder why we are in this situation to begin with. That’s why the answer lies with Howland and why we are questioning/thinking it all loud.
Great discussion thread here bb. A perfect example of how we can think out/analyze despite having different vantage points on common interests (UCLA).
Spot On
Once more, you beat me to a post. (It’s that one hour time zone advantage you have.)
I was going to write another post on one of my favorite themes: the need to judge people on effort not accomplishment.
In the past I’ve written to defend players who, though not as talented as others, played to the full extent of their abilities, all of the time.
This time I was going to pose the question as to whether any of our players are playing all out, with passion, and limited only by their skills, not their hearts.
I think MR comes closest to meeting that standard.
I’m not sure I have seen enough of, or know enough about, RN or TH to make that decision.
As to the soph’s, part of being all you can be is to use all the time available to improve. Other than Bobo, which of the soph’s came back in demonstrably better physical condition? Last year, we all thought that with a summer in the weight room they would come back with RW bodies and enhanced abilities. Did it happen?
Yes, we are a team in search of a leader. But, we each must be our own leader. We must drive ourselves to be the best we can be, lead by example, and, if recognized we might earn the right to be that one guy around that others respect and to whom they turn.
I know some of you think DG was wacko, and I really don’t appreciate what he did, but last year he was sounding the alarm that people were accepting mediocrity and losses too easily. Obviously, we are better off without him. But, that does not make everything he said wrong.
Everything we have seen reinforces Nestor’s post.
Whatever limit our potential, our effort is not allowing us to maximize it.
Yes, even if we play with heart and passion we might find ourselves losing. But, at least we will have the satisfaction of knowing we did our best.
This team needs Kevin Craft. Or, someone like him.
sjh
michael roll?
he’s a “sharpshooter” who shoots less than 75% at the line. i’m sorry that is not maximizing talent on any level. i agree with the sentiment of your post but i can’t believe he gets a pass especially the way he plays D and has been shooting as of late…
Across The Face
not to mention all the turnovers
Across The Face
Roll has actually been pretty good re. Turnovers
Not sure if the TO remark was part of your Roll critique, but has been the best among our starting 5 in not turning the ball over. Roll leads the team in Assist/TO ratio, has far fewer total TO’s than JA/Lee, and only 3 more than Drago despite playing 30% more minutes.
formerly bruinhoo
lack of speed
In the games I have watched, the most glaring deficit on this team is speed. The current players simply don’t have it, and Howland recruited size and not speed. This is a coaching mistake. Not recruiting speed for the college game shows a fundamental misunderstanding of success at the college level. Combining size with speed players is what has led to success for most teams.
I feel sorry for the guys that are out there trying their best, but they just can’t compete. The coach has ill-equipped this team. DG was probably our fastest big guy. ML has some speed. But that’s where it ends. TH may have speed, but he’s not allowed to show it on the court, because he’s never out there.
Howland has made a mistake. I hope he learns from it. There must be speed in every recruiting class. No excuses anymore.
Louisville, KY for UCLA class of '87
"Howland has made a mistake. I hope he learns from it."
We all made a mistake, too, and that was believing all the hype that each of these kids brought with him. I was convinced that each of these kids was a reincarnation of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, with a touch of Gail Goodrich thrown in for good measure. I never saw these kids play in high school, but I have to think that Coach Howland actually watched them play and didn’t just read their press clippings.
So what would (or can) we suggest to Coach Howland to avoid duplicating this problem in the future? That’s a real question, not rhetorical. I don’t know. It doesn’t seem to me that we have anyone from the last couple of classes who has shown the growth of some of our players from a couple of years ago. How did Coach Howland completely strike out with these guys? Again, a real question, not rhetorical. I really don’t know what the answer is. I suspect that no one does, or Coach Howland would have been given the news already.
Change recruiting of course
I coach competitive soccer, and I can tell you it can be easy to get caught up in the politics of the game and specifically recruiting. Certain players come from programs or schools that usually produce winners, certain players have a family pedigree, certain players are associated with other strong players, etc., etc. Instead of recruiting based on pure athleticism, we are recruiting based on the politics or simply to out recruit someone else.
A truly strong coach knows how to build a team, and maintain a team. The pieces of the picture usually require specific athletic abilities. Here’s a simple one: record the speed in the 40, how high can they jump, how much can they bench…
In other words, stop chasing the primadonnas, and look for the basics. Keep in mind the basics required to maintain excellence. Then teach them your system, and demand that it be followed.
Louisville, KY for UCLA class of '87
Disconnect between CBH and ML
I understand your point N, but I really don’t see BL, JMM, JK, or MM bringing anything off the bench. I’d much rather see ND with all his faults and have the possibility of going for 20 than for BL and JMM wander around aimlessly and commit turnovers. Holding players accountable only works when you have players off the bench who can come in and give energy and play that can challenge the starters. This team does not have those types of players on the bench.
I am more concerned about the huge disconnect between CBH and ML. Here is CBH’s view of the game:
Head coach Ben Howland blamed it on shot selection: “We were so sped up that it really hurt us.”
….
“We were taking quick, rushed shots,” Howland said. “We were forcing shots, instead of being patient and letting shots come to us. A number of those shots from the perimeter, the defense sped us up. You have to be able to play slow on offense and read things. … They were in man to man almost the whole game, but they were just hard-hedging. They really came out and aggressively attacked the guy with the ball.”
Now here is what ML thought:
Sophomore guard Malcolm Lee blamed it on the 10 a.m. start: “We weren’t prepared.”
Sounds like ML is passing the blame if you ask me. The biggest culprit on this team for shooting rushed and out of rhythm shots is ML. Even when ND or MR shoot sometimes ill advised shots, they are at least in their own rhythm if not the flow of the offense. ML on the other hand still has not shown the composure to play at a steady pace and gets ahead of himself far too often. I know CBH isn’t Phil Jackson playing games in the media, but its pretty clear who he was talking about in the postgame comments.
Of course, when CBH makes asinine comments like this…
“The worry is that they’re going to hurt you even worse on offensive rebounding,” he said. “That’s why you stay in man.”
…its hard to take him seriously. I wonder how bad he thought his team would get killed on rebounding in a zone since it was a pretty bad massacre in man.
yup
Problem with our bench (to my mind) is the lack of talent/energy/intensity of the players CBH recruited, not the way in which CBH is using them.
Re: offensive boards – hard to imagine how it could be much worse in zone than it was in man, but given their size/athleticism advantage inside (in Williams they have a more athletic version of RN, they had a more serviceable Ukrainian version of Bobo to bring off the bench with a cooler nickname (‘Kyryl’), and the rest of their forwards are significantly more athletic that ND or JK) CBH was presumably hoping that boxing out effectively was the only way to get any defensive boards. But given how easily their guards were blowing past MR and JA, with little help behind, I’m surprised that he didn’t at least mix in some zone for a few plays for a different look.
Totally agree re: ML – a lot of poor offensive plays yesterday, and not obviously any better than JA at running our offense regardless of his superior balling ability on both ends of the court. If ML would actually develop into a decent primary ball handler we could get more TH and less JA.
by britishbruin on Jan 3, 2010 12:37 PM PST up reply actions
well quite
the lack of talent/energy/intensity of the players CBH recruited
the only marginally mitigating factor re: the roster and CBH is that DG’s departure leaves us a player short on the bench; I’m guessing RN would be the first forward off the bench rather than our starting center. Though, of course, CBH is also ultimately responsible for having brought DG to UCLA.
Against Kansas and Notre Dame
we played with intensity. That’s about it. This is truly the mark of a bad team, only getting up for the “upset” win on a national telecast instead of relying on your own pride and self-discipline to motivate a selfless effort no matter what team you are playing.
We call can see it, unfortunately. In the short term, CBH needs to reward players that hustle and punish those that don’t or showboat when we’re getting killed on the scoreboard. It’s called an attitude adjustment and this, more than anything, is what’s needed in the program right now.
I don’t care how great the players are for next year. If CBH allows this cancerous attitude to continue, the program will suffer with more one and dones and selfish “me” players.
I can forgive bad judgments on players when it comes to talent. It happens. What is harder to forgive is coddling babies or not instilling the right attitude.
As for freshmen, I say as long as they make the 100% effort, play them until their legs fall off. It’s the only way they can learn and develop before the season is over Plus with this team it may be the only way we can find 7 who really want to hustle for U-C-L-A.
GO BRUINS!
We didn't play with intensity to start the second half of Notre Dame
That was when Dragovic shot us out of the game with his lazy shots and horrible defense. Kansas game had great moments but the intensity was lost when Nelson got hurt.
Completely agree
The first half of the notre dame game was great. They played like they actually beleived they could. Then the second half they lost a lot
of it. It wasn’t the worst they’d played but within the first two minutes of the half, I knew they were going to lose bc they lost that fire. It’s almost as they expect to lose anymore. They don’t seem to believe in themselves at all. It stems from last year as well bc while we
had our warriors you could see it in their faces that they knew the game was up to them. The sophomores we still have didn’t play often and I’m not at all suggesting that they should have played over dc or js but I feel that with their lack of playing time and losses early in the year they don’t believe in themselves and are ashamed. I just wish that hose four letters would be enough for them to want to be better, to show the world what they really can do.
I know we were all “fooled” by their hype, but they have to have something. I was beyond exicted to see those boys play in games before they came
to ucla. They were fantastic. I keep scratching my head wondering where that went. I think a lot ofthat is defensive pressure.
I feel like they need to be inspired , but if their own pride can’t I don’t know what will. In terms of leadership, if someone doesn’t step up soon I’m afraid it might be awhile until the team gets one
by millikinbruin on Jan 3, 2010 4:11 PM PST up reply actions
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