Bruins Honor Coach's Memory: Bully BYU for 86-79 Victory
by Tydides on Dec 18, 2010 5:21 PM PST
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One year after an ugly and embarrassing performance in front of Coach, the Bruins redeemed themselves and picked up a much needed victory against the #16 ranked and previously unbeaten BYU Cougars 86-79 in the John R. Wooden Classic (box score). With the win, UCLA notches its first "good" win of the year, and brings the Pac 10 conference a much needed victory. The Bruins move to 6-4 on the year.
The first half started poorly, as CBH, who had stressed the need to play great transition defense, could only stand and watch as his team surrendered transition baskets en route to an early 10 point deficit. In what would become a trend, Joshua Smith picked up his first foul under a minute into the game, and for Bruin fans, the sight was all too familiar. Whether it was CBH's timeout, or if it was Coach lending some inspiration, the Bruins picked their defense up from that point, and the rest of the half would be marked by BYU turnovers and a relatively balanced Bruin attack led by Reeves Nelson, Tyler Honeycutt, and Lazeric Jones.
At this point in the season, it can be said that the Bruins really only put together two good halves in the same game once; against Kansas. That game was a loss, but if UCLA was to pick up its first good win of the season, the second complete game of the year would have to come today. The Bruins came out of the locker room looking inspired, and extended the lead to 13, before a parade of whistles forced Smith to the bench for extended periods of time. Joining him on the bench for a while for the same reason was Honeycutt and Jones, and the game not surprisingly got tight with the Bruins nursing a 2 point lead. BYU, who had been riding their star point guard Jimmer Fredette in the first half, turned to forward Brandon Davies to carry them, and the Bruins found themselves in a desperate situation. CBH brought Smith back in with 10 minutes to play and the big freshman along with Nelson put the beatdown on BYU inside, and even found a way to pick Fredette clean at the end of the game to cap things off.
We've talked at length about the need to make the tournament this year, and why this game in particular was so important to achieving that goal. The Bruins not only pulled out a victory, and not only showed a lot of improvement in team play and smart decisions and effort, but they were able to do Coach proud in the game that bears his namesake.
Usually at this point, I'd go down the list and point at the stats for each player that stood out, but I don't think that's necessary tonight. The takeaway here is that the Bruins played as, and won as, a team. They picked each other up when key players had to go to the bench with foul trouble, and locked down and dialed in when faced with adversity. They were able to "perform at their best when their best was required", and you know Coach was smiling about that.
Next game is against Montana St. on Tuesday.
We miss you Coach.
GO BRUINS!!
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Monster win for Coach Howland and our Bruins
Howland and all of BN needed this badly.
And what Ty said … We miss you Coach.
GO BRUINS.
by Nestor on Dec 18, 2010 5:33 PM PST via mobile reply actions
Great Win
Thanks Ty for the quick writeup and thanks to whomever it was that posted the Justin TV link. Missed most of the first half but got in all the rest. I think it says alot that our two best games have been against the two best opponents. Reeves was a monster. Josh begins to look like a one and done (just kidding, but OMG what if). Playing with 4 fouls in a pressure situation and doing what he did means his maturity is coming along fast. I’m still optimistic about 8-4 preseason and no worse than 12-6, but very possibly 13-5 in conference and a definite tournament spot.
It does say a lot
But what would say even more is if Montana was truly an aberration and we continue to fight for 40 minutes each and every game. I understand this team is insanely young and raw. I accept that there will be periods of brain-farts and lapses in play. I know we’ll lose a number of games this year, some of which might be frustrating because we’re the better team. But if we can avoid giving up on games like we did against Montana and did so many times last year, I’ll be satisfied and proud to have the boys wearing those four letters.
Good to hear from you Nestor.
Hope all is well.
A team win
RN gets the headline with a career high 23 pts, but every player made a positive contribution. TH had 17, 8 reb.s and 3 assists; JS was a beast again, scoring 15, including 7-9 from the line, with 8 rebs. Zeke had an unbelievable game, shooting 5-7 with two threes, and looking really confident at the offensive end. ML hawked Jimmer and had 7 assists. JA hit a key basket to keep BYU from closing the gap, and had no turnovers in 18 mins of play, with Zeke in foul trouble for part of the game. TLamb had two assists in 15 minutes of play, and was able to give starters a needed blow for that time without hurting the team. The Bruins forced BYU into 19 turnovers with some frenetic defense. There were lots of mistakes and room for improvement, but when we get solid games from all of our starters, we are going to win the great majority of our games. There is no reason we can’t play at this level. I still have reservations about this team, but I am going to enjoy this great win for a while, and close my eyes to the deficiencies.
A matter of perspective
How funny to read a post game comment from Salt Lake City:
Keep in mind this is the same UCLA team that lost AT HOME to Montana. This will show as a bad loss come March.
Its sad to think there is anyone around who thinks losing to UCLA is a “bad loss,” but ….F em.
It's about time that...
our team shows what they are capable of doing. Despite some lapses, we came out focused, intense and surprised BYU.
Some of the interior passings would have delighted COACH. Brendan Lane’s few quick moves under the basket impressed me. He is making strides in his game as we speak. This is James Keefe with energy and substance.
Nelson ignited today at Honda Center.
His maniacal desires to not just compete but ultimately prevail, and win it at any way he can were at full throttle, on awesome display for anybody watching the game. Even his primal screams evoked memories of Westbrook, another fearsome, big hearted competitor we all recall with fondness.
I know what COACH would say. Who is that an interesting dude with the tattooed arm.
Tyler Honeycutt’s style reminds me increasingly of Miles Simon, a hybrid of small forward / guard players that sometimes do amazing things, when they are at their best.
Simon led the Wildcats to a championship. Presumably, we can always keep our fingers crossed.
All in all, COACH smiled today. We did, with happy tears too..
You really think Coach would have found the tats interesting?
Or just the Dude?
Putting this out there
I think we should officially give RN the nickname of “The HULK”. He is either on or off, and you do NOT want to see him angry!
Go Bruins
I want to see him angry!
But maybe you mean “they don’t want to see him angry!”. When his fire gets going he’s amazing. I thought he played so well last year because he had all of those black eyes. I was kind of thinking for a while he might need one. But tonight he proved he didn’t. I like the HULK!
Go Bruins!
How about "FRANKENSTEIN?"
Frankenstein was a Monster, and Reeves kind of looks & plays… like a Monster. For short, we could just call him Frankie Nelson?
FIRE RICK NEUHEISEL!!! NO MERCY!!!
First of all . . .
The first rule of " " is we don’t discuss " ". Secondly, until Stan Lee finally unfurls the mortal coil, and likely thereafter, there are too many legal concerns with the Hulk. :)
Good win
Boy, I really wish we had that Kansas game back. Hope this isn’t our only RPI builder this year.
The best thing you can do for your children is to love their mother. John Wooden
If Montana wins the Big Sky
(Pomeroy has them as the favorite) it could inch toward the not-too-embarrassing loss category, at least as far as tournament selection goes. Unfortunately as far as RPI goes, all losses are the same. I think a win at Kansas would’ve done a lot for our tournament resume.
by SuperBruinMan on Dec 18, 2010 7:11 PM PST up reply actions
I was thinking the same thing.
The best thing you can do for your children is to love their mother. John Wooden
the Washington schools
should be RPI builders…Arizona might be one too (important game for them tomorrow at NC State)
Pac-10 RPI's
Cal – 33
UW – 46
UA – 54
ASU – 98
WSU – 112
Oregon – 119
USC – 121
UCLA – 184
Stanford – 198
Oregon State – 322
These will change with today’s games, with UCLA jumping up, Oregon State dropping, and USC/Stanford probably rising with games against much higher rated teams. And obviously slight changes won’t make them any less laughable. Unless one team dominates the conference, nobody is going to have a particularly good RPI.
by SuperBruinMan on Dec 18, 2010 7:33 PM PST up reply actions
Good day all around
Hoops puts together an impressive team win, $c loses, and Bullough is out. Couldn’t have scripted that much better!
Roses are red, violets are blue...f*** $C.
The team is a team!
We were up from the Bruin bench and it was so great to watch how this team talks with each other, supports each other, takes responsibility, all of that. They really are a team. And although they will have ups and downs (they are a new team), it is wonderful to see how good they are to each other. Coach would have loved that! Malcolm was amazing on d to begin the game. They all were eventually. They’re starting to get it I think. I loved that CBH put the players back in, even with 4 fouls. It was to win. Joshua played really smart with those fouls, as did all of our guys. At one point I looked up at the scoreboard and there were 4 "4"s in the foul column. Good for CBH for going for the knockout and not letting them come all the way back. Our players all fought, showed quick hands. I think this is becoming a group of Ben Ball Warriors before our eyes.
Go Bruins!
+1000000
on both:
1. This group of kids coming together as a true team
2. CBH playing to win the game, understanding that the entire thing was on the line with 10 minutes to go and arguably your 3 most important players in major foul trouble. Kudos to Coach Howland on that one.
Team Identity
This is a quality win going towards tournament time, but more important, our young team is growing! BYU is a good team, and our guys know it. They weren’t going to beat Villanova Back East early in the year, but maybe by now they wouldn’t lose to Montana. Unfortunately, doing just that is part of the process for this team. But can they play? Can CBH coach? Oh, yes.
The crowd!
Our team finally got to hear how it sounds when they excite a crowd. That place has better acoustics than Pauley and when we roared it was loud, when they were playing with intensity, it got loud. I’m glad they got to hear, feel, the excitement and noise they could create. I think it will be in their memory banks and will hopefully ignite them to experience that again.
Go Bruins!
Glad it was loud
as on TV it looked as embarrassingly half-full as Pauley has lately.
Roses are red, violets are blue...f*** $C.
The Crowd
Although it WAS pretty empty (I’d say less than 50% full) and I think there probably were slightly more BYU fans than Bruin fans, Bruin fans were able to make some noise to match the Cougar fans. It helped to have some monster plays at the end (including Reeves roaring after the dunk) to help bring the fans into the game. Definitely fun!
I'd say the upper level was pretty empty.
However, the lower level was much more filled in than Pauley has been (it’s seemed empty to me). The emptier areas down below had been filled with St Mary fans who I guess left. There were quite a lot of them. There were a lot of cougars, but I would disagree about there being more than there were Bruins.
Go Bruins!
Must have been my perspective
I was up on the upper level where it was more empty…
Looking up the numbers, there were about 12,500 fans in attendance, which would have almost filled Pauley. At the Honda Center, where the basketball capacity is somewhere around 17,000, it was about 70% full. So, I guess you were right.
Anyways, a good crowd and I hope we get more at Pauley now too! (esp after the student come back from break)
I think that the wooden classic has typically been scheduled before finals or the day after finals end
however, this game was scheduled a whole week after finals had ended. Attendance is going to be low. In fact I can check this against our archived schedules
The key to the game: turnovers
Looking at Pomeroy’s stats, going into the game BYU was 2nd in the country in turnover percentage on offense, while UCLA was 209th (out of 345). BYU was 95th in turnover percentage defensively, while UCLA was 256th.
BYU ended up with 19 turnovers to UCLA’s 10. If you flip that, as would’ve been expected going in, BYU probably wins by 10+.
play of the game
was JS taking that charge on fredette. If the refs called a block he would’ve fouled out but that was the fourth on fredette and he had to sit and JS dragged us thru that lull in the middle of the second half.
so glad we won~!
No, play of the game, or the one that sealed BYU's fate
went to that electrifying dunk by Nelson along the baseline, assisted by Honeycutt.
It looked even more spectacular on TV replay. That vertical leap, all 6’7" of Nelson, arm stretched to the limit, totally pulverized BYU defenders on his way to the basket.
He is human canon ball on that play.
we're lucky our key players did not foul out
I don’t know how long that luck will last in conference. The depth of our team looks more shallow with every game and foul.
Let me preface my comment
by saying i didnt get the chance to watch the game, so maybe those of you that did can correct me if im wrong or give an explanation.
17 assists for the night as a team…our LJ and JA, our 2 point guards didnt have 1. That can’t be a good thing going down the road, you need the PGs to facilitate in the offense, but then again ML made up with it with 7 of his own
They usually were the assist before the assist.
I thought the ball was moving around well and a lot.
Go Bruins!
That stat is a byproduct of BYU's 2-3 zone
Against the 2-3 the PG isn’t going to get many assists unless the wings are knocking down threes. Since our advantage in this game was our athleticism and size on the interior, we were making an effort to get the ball into the post or the middle of the lane and that pass generally comes from the wing. Notice that our shooting guards (ML and TL) had 9 of our 17 assists. That’s called taking what they give you.
Wish T Trapani could have made a showing
Would have been rather fitting that the team played well enough to have allowed Tyler to enter the game at the end.
Still looking for him to drain a tre.
Maybe agin SC (smirk)!
Can someone explain to me what the Wooden Classic really is?
I know I’m showing utter ignorance, but at my age I’m willing to do that from time to time. I totally understand the meaning of the Classic as it pertains to honoring Coach, the greatest of all time and an inspiration to so many. What I don’t get is stuff like who gets invited (there have been years where UCLA has not even been in it) and who gets the trophy. I watched our guys hoist a nice sized jug yesterday (and thought to myself that this was the first significant trophy many of them have taken home in their UCLA careers) and it was great to see. But wasn’t there a St. Marys v. ?? game earlier. What does the winner of that game get? Wiki tells me it isn’t considered a tournament and I can see that. No championship game. Why not? Why not 4 teams and two rounds? Was it ever that way?
Never a tourney. Always 4 teams,
two games, two winners.
The organizers set up that way with the approval from Coach Wooden and his family.
It was set up for charity.
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