Inconsistent Bruins Beat Montana State 75-59
by Tydides on Dec 21, 2010 9:51 PM PST
in Basketball
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PrintIf you were to catch only five minutes of this game, your impression of the Bruins would depend heavily on which five minutes you saw. UCLA jumped out to an 8-0 run on its first four possessions, getting baskets from four different players, and a picture perfect start forced a timeout from Montana State. What occurred after that was possibly the sloppiest 20-25 minutes the Bruins have played this season. UCLA played decent defense throughout that stretch whenever the ball was in front of them. For whatever reason, as soon as the ball went up in the air, the effort stopped, and the result was rebounds and loose balls galore for the Bobcats. As it turns out, this didn't burn the Bruins in the first half. A hot start from Malcolm Lee and Reeves Nelson helped offset Tyler Honeycutt's turnover plagued half and UCLA went into the break with a 36-29 halftime lead. Not bad, but certainly much closer than it should have been.
All the Bruins would need to do is come out of the locker room focused on playing defense until the end of the possession and they would pull away and win this one easily. So of course they did none of those things, and then made things worse by losing track of their men on the perimeter, opening up wide open looks for Montana St.'s shooters that they were more than happy to knock down. Before you knew it, the Bruins were down by 3 with 14 minutes remaining and it looked like UCLA was in danger of going 0-fer against the state of Montana. It was then that Honeycutt decided to show up to the game and hit 3 of the Bruins' next 4 shots to retake the lead. That appeared to be the spark the team needed as they finally started to secure the ball on defense, and the Bruin lead opened up again down the stretch.
Unfortunately all those things our team was saying earlier about not playing down to our competition turned out to be a bit of a fib. As DCBruins noted: we have to not only "say the right thing, but do the right thing". To be fair, the source of that quote, Malcolm Lee, appeared to do all he could to bring the necessary effort. The same could be said of Brendan Lane, and Joshua Smith was solid. The rest of the team, however, especially the Toolbox, need to show that same urgency. The solid efforts of three players drew us even with Montana St. tonight. It's up to players like TH and Nelson, who clearly have the talent, to take this team over the top. TH was able to summon that up tonight, but it wouldn't have been needed if he had shown that in the first half.
The Bruins have one more game, against UCI, to show that they can bring the effort and execution they brought to BYU and Kansas before conference play begins. Too many stretches like the middle 20 minutes tonight will give Bruin fans nightmares of last year's team.
(According to Jon Gold, TH will have an MRI tomorrow on the shoulder he dinged up late in the second half tonight. Hope he's okay, because this team won't go far without him)
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Really a roller coaster.
I was SO pleased to see our intensity at the start of the game.
Then I was horrified at the sloppy play and ball handling leading to falling behing Montana f’n State!
Fortunately, we recovered our composure and won going away, but we won’t be able to get away with those lapses in conference so easily.
Overall, I’d like to say it was a good win, but can you really call it that when you look at the whole game?
tough game
I agree that the intensity at the beginning was awesome to see. It was very disheartening to see them let Montana State back in the game with the lack of focus and intensity from the team. I say team because it needs to be made clear that only as playing as team, can they reach their goals. Like said in this post, their was consistent effort from a few players for 40 mins. But other’s seemed to get lost at times and take a possession off here and their. That said, it’s good to get a win coming off the BYU victory. I expect to see a well rounded effort against UCD before pac 10 play starts. Go Bruins!
by westwood12003 on Dec 21, 2010 10:52 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
Box score must be misleading
I missed the game in its entirety unfortunately so take this for what it’s worth (not much) but the box score sure looks like we dominated. 7 steals and 8 blocks. Only 2 turnovers from Zeke and Jerime combined. A perfect shooting night with only 1 turnover from Lamb. We also took 30 free throws (to Montana State’s 13). Looks like our 3 point shooting (2 for 13) is the only reason this game wasn’t the blowout we all hoped for.
Interesting to compare the numbers to the sentiment here.
by DoubleTroubleBruin on Dec 21, 2010 11:10 PM PST reply actions
if anything, I think we got a few lucky calls from the refs
home team bias?? anyway, the score tells nothing of how the game actually went.
One especially telling moment was Reeves getting upset at refs about not calling fouls, when he should have been getting up and running back to play defense.
Actually, just poor defense all around, left so many open 3 point shooters, we even got dunked on once when Stover was in play (it’s clear why Smith has so many minutes in comparison)
Home biased?
The Bobcats could not compete with UCLA talent wise so they resorted to beating on the Bruins as much as possible. For the most part, the refs let the Bobcats get away with it. By the end of the game, every Bruin was pretty dinged up. Still not a excuse for the Bruins allowing Montana St to stay in the game, but I would not call the officiating home biased.
by Gen2Bruin1987 on Dec 22, 2010 12:56 AM PST up reply actions
And how many
fouls were called “in the act of shooting” when they were MILES away from the basket? It was disgusting. At least 3 calls were ruled continuation when they were nothing of the sort.
Agreed
I was behind the basket at the band end of Pauley. I you could easily see them pushing (with 2 hands) on rebounds and grabbing our players when they were driving. Also fouls were called on Zeke and others where no contact was made. On the other end when JA (I think) drove to the basket, there was no one in the lane. He makes the shot but gets called for charging? No one could have gotten there in time for a charge. From our end, we saw how open the lane was. Many horrific calls. Might have been the worst called game I’ve ever seen.
Go Bruins!
One more thing about the refs.
The bobcats were constantly getting away with setting really clear picks to get their shooters open. I couldn’t believe the refs weren’t calling them. I think we should find out how many of them (and their children) got rejected from ucla and are still holding a grudge.
Go Bruins!
yep
The ref’s were bad throughout going both ways. RN was definitely fouled on that play I believe you are referring to, but either way, I agree. The players need to keep playing at 100% throughout. Hopefully TH will be ok. Gold reported that Howland said he is doubtful for Thursdays game. Guys are going to need to step it up another notch.
by westwood12003 on Dec 21, 2010 11:59 PM PST via mobile reply actions
don't think it was as horrible as you may think
for ex, we’d make a hard fought defensive stop and honeycutt would sail a pass 15 ft over our guys head on a break for a turnover,
or we’d make a good defensive stop, have something like a 3 on 2 fast break and tyler lamb dribbles into a defender for a turnover,
or we’d block 2 consecutie shots under the basket, defending hard, but the ball ends up in a MontSt guy’s hands and he’d battle it up for 2
—
then to start the second half, 2 early possessions they ran a really nice weave play that ended up inexplicably with only 2 bruin guarding 2 outside shooters – wham, bam, 2 3pters drilled right in our faces to cut the halftime lead to 1
So, yeah, we as a team didn’t play hard 100% of the time, and a the usual bugs in our game showed (like TH turnovers, or Reeves not hustling back on defense). But I saw 100% effeort continually from Lane, Jones, Smith, Lamb, Malcolm and Jerime. TH had a BAD FALL in the 1st half that may have affected his game and Reeves was his usual, a beast on offense (except 2 criminal 3pt attempts) and inconsistent on defense.
That’s my view from section 213A, first game in Pauley in a long, long time!
TL's turnover was his only bad moment, on the other hand TH?
Which brings me to my observation of weirdness. What was up with TH? Sometimes he looks like there are bees in his brain. I felt badly for him. He kept making really bad turnovers. The box score says 3, but they all came during our draught and let the bobcats back in. I think he probably accounted for more. Then he shot the worst air ball ever. Something was not right with him yesterday, mentally or physically. And, his man kept getting open for those 3’s that got them back in the game.
RN on the other hand, and everyone else played with passion in the beginning and when we went down. I was afraid it was going to become one of those downward spirals, you could almost feel it in the air, but they righted the ship with some amazingly intense defense.
Go Bruins!
I am not sure TH got hurt late
1. He took a nasty spill in the first half which may have been where he got hurt. Officially he got hurt running into a player.
2. TH was trying to be showtime too much. The thing is his dangerous passes work to Nelson or Lee, everyone else no. Against better teams he plays more under control. Last night he was trying not just to make the good pass but to make the great pass.
Honeycutt had a pretty bad spill around the middle of the first half
… that might have affected his play all evening. But several of his turnovers were typical for him. One was on a dribble. If a froncourt player must dribble, I’d prefer Nelson who just has a better handle now. Then there were a couple of bad passes.
Honeycutt shot well in spots, including the key run to reclaim the lead in the second half. But he seemed a bit out of sorts all night.
correct, just one turnover
I only brought up TL’s play on that fastbreak to give an example of a frustrating end to a play where we played HARD on defense, pointing out that it wasn’t always lack of effort last night that let us down.
Tyler had a great night. I think it was another board where I posted on a number of real positives from last night. And he was clearly one example – great game for the freshman with so much promise and ability.
So again, I wasn’t slamming Tyler Lamb for making just 1 mistake in about 20 minutes of play. That’s darn good minute/mistake ratio for any player, let along a Fr.
I missed the game tonight (previous engagement).
Thanks Ty for the overview.
It certainly seems like we have the talent, but we are not consistently motivated.
How do you get the kids up for Montana St, after BYU? CBH certainly needs to find a way.
Saw the score first...
…then I saw all the write-ups about the disappointment of the game.
Ty, you and DC called it out right with regards to the ‘do the right thing’ mantra. Looks like we nearly fell into the trap game again, and Howland could sense it coming too…
From Gold:
“I thought we were way too loosy-goosy yesterday,” Howland said. “Part of is, we had a great game Saturday. It’s how to handle success. That game is over, win or lose. I didn’t think we had one of our better practices yesterday. Last time we had a practice like that was against Montana.”
Also disconcerting to hear that it sounds like Reeves, at least, still didn’t seem to take the wake-up call to heart either. Also from Gold:
UCLA sophomore forward Reeves Nelson sat at the post-game table, stumbling over his words when asked if the Bruins are the kind of team who could take other teams lightly.
He grinned, shook his head, but no words came out.
He only said “No” after prompting from Lee and Smith. I hope CBH can convince him a little further that the Bruins need to keep focus, no matter who the opponent and what the score is. Perhaps a little bench time, or at least some more clipboard throwing, will give Reeves or others a little more to think about.
I’m ecstatic to hear that Lee and especially Lamb had good games, especially since they are also our best defenders. And Lane off the bench as well!
Wish I could have seen, or at least dvr’d it. Anyone know if the UCI game will be on tv?
Looking at the official site,
the schedule says it will be on Prime Ticket in SoCal. My cable listings here in Kansas show it will be on Fox College Sports Pacific – that’s why I pay extra for the sports package. Considering that it’s on TV (as are the rest of our games from here on out), I’d say there’s a pretty good chance there will be a stream of it online somewhere for fellow Bruin ‘expats’ without the FCS channels.
Roses are red, violets are blue...f*** $C.
I don't think RN took the game lightly.
I think there might have been another or others that did. Maybe that’s why he stumbled…how do you answer for a team that might have had that going on with some.
Go Bruins!
Playing Down?
I find it rather presumptuous and pompous for a team that has played as inconsistently and poorly as we have to demean opponents by saying "We play down … ".
The way we play is the way we play.
And I’ll bet if we added up the minutes of brilliance they would not outnumber the minutes of poor play.
We are the way we play. For every good moment from the Kansas game, there have been equally bad moments — as evidenced in our play against the state of Montana.
We need to stop assuming we are good and that our poor play is an aberration.
Until we play consistently at the high level we’ve seen in spurts and moments, we cannot say we are “playing down” — we are simply playing at the level at which we play, and it is not all that great.
sjh
Judging from the gametracker...
it seemed like there were a lot of missed layups once again in this game…particularly by Nelson. Was this caused by shots being contested well under the rim or just plain misses?
I don't think we missed a lot of cripples under the basket.
TH and Reeves might have had a couple, but Montana State was competing hard all night and the play under the basket was pretty fierce most of the time.
I do recall one cripple that Lee missed where it seemed he fell prey to his tendancy to make a play more difficult than it needed to be.
I don’t see a lot of games live with good seats, but when I do (like last night) I’m always impressed by how difficult it is to play the game at this level.
Reeves kept complaining he was fouled
and he may have been but he also needs to make more. This is an area of concern because MSU is just not that good.
Montana had three good players that if they were on UCLA would play in our top 8 rotation. MSU had no one even close. Reeves should dominate more.
Their strategy
going into the second half was to frustrate reeves. They were all over them, and on at least two instances driving to the hoop, he was clearly fouled. The refs supposedly were letting the kids play, but some of those fouls were very bad. Couple that with the two continuation baskets awarded to MSU that were nothing even close to continuation, and you have a recipe for a poorly officiated game.
Fustrating Reeves and the Refs
But from the MSU point that may not be a bad strategy. Bait the hot head. Reeves better be ready for it because someone else is going to try it this year as well
Honeycutt got thrown to the floor once without a foul but we got some calls too. Anderson probably charged or traveled and they gave him two FTs on one play. It seemed like the refs were saying anything goes inside but anything on guards is a shooting foul.
Bait the Hot Head
Slightly OT, but the other day, I was watching the 30 on 30 special on our man Reggie Miller vs. the Knicks. If anyone was thinking about seeing it and hasn’t (the series is on sale in stores now), its definitely worth watching. Its kinda hilarious to see Reggie baiting the hot head of Starks back in the day. It worked!
Reggie was in a league of his own at trash talk
He once got Jordan so mad he punched him. Of course, the Jordan-rules NBA initially ejected Miller for Jordan’s punch but later suspended Jordan for a game.
On the other side Reggie thrived on being yelled at. In his PAC 10 teams, Cal fans put on big ears and all the teams chanted Cheryl at him for his sister, but Reggie liked it. He is probably the only player I have ever met that liked the jeers on the road more than the Cheers at home.
Couple of other thoughts
The tide in the first half turned when 2 Bruins got their second foul and sat for the rest of the half:
Lee with 9:32 with the score 22-11
Smith with 7:00 left with the score 26-14.
Lee was the hero last night. When he was in the game he was active and playing intelligently. He kept us going in the second half when many were drifting.
There were a lot of missed under the basket shots. Reeves seems better moving with the ball than just getting a rebound and putting it up again.
The best part though, was the team fought back through adversity. That is something the team would not have done last year. It showed in the BYU game as well. Teams will have runs. You need to respond. They did.
by Bruin Dad and Grad on Dec 22, 2010 8:57 AM PST reply actions
That's nice
But you need to put teams away or else sometimes they come back and beat you.
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