More Bay Area Trip Notes: Monty's Candid Observations On Bruin "D" & "The Overlooked Factor"
by Nestor on Jan 6, 2010 1:35 PM PST
in Basketball
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PrintIt is still unbelievable to me that the Bruins are 15 point underdogs tonight against California Bears. Remember the Bears are playing without their dependable and solid backup pg Jorge Gutierrez, and yet they are still favored by that much over Howland's Bruins. Understandably the press up in the Bay Area are having a field day over our misery.
Jon Wilner threw in the term 'powder blue carcass' while the SF Chronicle dusted out the good ole (and original) "Bruins in Ruins" headline (also fanshotted below). Both of those pieces included couple of tidbits that I think are worth highlighting here on the frontpage. Specifically the Chronicle piece had a revealing comment from Cal head Mike Montgomery concerning the Bruin's "man-to-man defense" while Wilner pointed out an "overlooked factor" that we have just started talking about this week. I expand on them after the jump.
First, I will start with the SF Chronicle piece which included the following comments from Coach Montgomery on Bruin's defense this season:
Cal coach Mike Montgomery, whose Bears (9-4) host the Bruins (6-8) tonight, had to pause the game tape when he watched it (Bruin "defense" - BN Ed.).
"Yeah, I was surprised," Montgomery said. "His M.O. has been physical, aggressive man-to-man defense. That's been his trademark, but he hasn't been getting the level of physicality he's wanted, so ..."
Coach Montgomery is a very classy guy. He is not the kind of person who will disrespect the opponent. However, his comments are pretty poignant because he is essentially expressing his shock on how soft the Bruins are defensively this season. That is an indictment just against the current guys who have formed the core of this basketball team, but on the entire staff (and the ultimate responsibility falls here on Ben Howland) for not being able to put together a team that has the requisite talent and ability (both mental and physical) to play this kind of defense.
This brings up to the second point (which Achilles already hinted at earlier this week). Wilner points out in his piece today an "overlooked factor" in current state of UCLA basketball (emphasis added):
An overlooked factor in UCLA's backslide is the three-year-old departure of former assistant Kerry Keating.Now the head coach at Santa Clara, Keating was a superb recruiter for the Bruins — he pushed for them to sign Darren Collison and Russell Westbrook, who became first-round draft picks — and played a key role in player-coach relations
Well "player-coach relations" is certainly an issue now on BN. It's something we are going to have to keep an eye on rest of this season. I have a feeling this issue is only going to intensify if the season turns out to be long death-march ending in an unacceptable record in the win-loss column.
GO BRUINS.
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Moty's on point. .
Our current players don’t have the eye of the tiger. If only they can get that passion bucket full for 40 mins a game!
by westwood12003 on Jan 6, 2010 2:01 PM PST via mobile reply actions
re: Keating
has anyone seen “The Damned United”? The story of how one of the legendary coaches of English soccer – who achieved some things no manager has ever achieved – couldn’t get by without his assistant who handled a) scouting potential platers and b) being the ‘good cop’ to the team.
After divergent career ambitions led him and his assistant to part ways, he was trying to make a bunch of ‘entitled’ players fit his system, and brought in some less talented players who didn’t gel, and ended up getting run out of a job for failing to live up to the legend of a previous coach at the club who retained a mystique that could never be matched.
Suitably chastened, he was then reunited with his assistant, and they went on to win not only the top English soccer division, but also the European Championship in back-to-back seasons.
fwiw
Bill Simmons was a big fan… for better or worse…
Good movie
and a good book too, although you must keep in mind that it is very loosely based on the true story.
Formerly ryebreadraz
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Jan 6, 2010 3:04 PM PST up reply actions
yup
though, despite controversy over some of the insider details, at least a lot of the main events are indisputably historically accurate.
As a Classics major, I was distressed to watch “Troy” (the Brad Pitt version) and find that a number of figures who have subsequent roles in Greek tragedy were killed off before the end of that movie…
Do u think...
if Coach Keating was here last year things with JH would have been different. CK was a huge reason for getting him.
by iwas5... on Jan 6, 2010 5:06 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
How could Keating have been a factor in JH?
He was hired by Santa Clara in April of 2007. This was before Holiday signed with UCLA, which for the record, was 11-14-07. Keating may have recruited him while Holiday was a Jr. and Sr. in high school but Keating was also well entrenched in Santa Clara well before Holiday made his final decision.
by 84 on Jan 6, 2010 7:11 PM PST up reply actions
Meant to see it
Think I missed it when it hit the (indy/arty) theaters around here. Guessing that I will have to wait a few months for it to be released on DVD now.
formerly bruinhoo
or fly to the UK
you can get it on DVD there – my brother got it for my Dad for Christmas, and we watched it that evening…
Keating? and other notes
Haven’t heard about Keating previously. Interesting. Not sure how I missed him getting the job at Santa Clara. Oh well.
I’m very curious to see how this TH starting lineup thing goes. CBH seems a bit too wound up and Captain Queeg these days, for me at least, as the previous communication post shows. The Monty quote, for me, is about Dragovic and CBH starting such an obvious defensive sore thumb. Monty also must know that Roll has been playing out of position at the 2 rather than the 3, another defensive liability.
I really hope that CBH isn’t too eager to get JA into the game and get him minutes, and that he treats him like a true backup. The whole thing is funky, and the punishment part of it is a headscratcher. A punishment is fine, but JA was long overdue to be demoted anyway, and the coincidence just confuses the issue, even before the strange communication elements.
The goal for the struggling Bruins is not to win the game, although that would be nice, but to change their on-floor chemistry and effort. Honeycutt is a superior player who should be in the starting lineup at SF regardless. JA will make a nice backup to a strong backcourt of ML and MR.
If this problem gets solved, maybe CBH can move on to the next, and get ND out of the starting lineup and figure out a viable rotation for RN-JK-BL-ND-JM. As Monty suggests, the best defense/rebounding approach is the way to go.
will be heading to the game tonight
since i live somewhat close and am very hopeful that TH gets a chance to show off some skills and not be taken out as soon as he misses a shot or a single defensive misstep. Will also be interesting to see how the turn out for ucla fans is going to be considering it has felt like we have taken over that arena in four of the last five years
Go Bruins
Wish I could make it tonight
The Bruins turnout @ Haas has been great over the last few years, and I hope the alums continue regardless of this year’s struggles. I am a little too under the weather to make it out tonight, but I will be at Maples on Saturday.
formerly bruinhoo
I've got high hopes for TH in the lineup.
I’m hoping he brings the balance at both ends we so desperately need.
M
"In this program your passion bucket must be full to play SC." -- CRN, to Dan Patrick, 1/2008
I think this is Howland's preferred lineup
I mentioned this in my post about our first exhibition this year. With 8 minutes left in the game, Howland thought something need to change: no more experimenting and changing lineups. He went with his best lineup to insure a victory. That lineup was 3 seniors, Lee and TH.
I think CBH believed TH was one a starter before TH got hurt again.
I would also point out that we have not been able to field that line up in the vast majority of games this season.
by Bruin Dad and Grad on Jan 6, 2010 5:48 PM PST up reply actions
Since we're playing on Wednesday Night
instead of the normal Thursday night, does this mean we’re playing another nationally televised game on a non-Fox-affiliated channel?
Currently on Fox Sports
Cameron Dollar’s Seattle U is absolutely destroying Oregon State (currently 60-29 w/ 12:47 remaining); and that is with Seattle’s star player on the bench all day w/ foul trouble.
by insomniacslounge on Jan 6, 2010 6:49 PM PST up reply actions
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