More Thoughts On Howland's Faltering UCLA Program

When I read the quotes you pulled from his interview, I was stunned. He sounded like a fan with no power, rather than the coach who should know what to do. No inside game? Not true, both Lane and Lee (with great passes by Tyler) had really good inside games. It would have been nice to give them some help rebounding from the tallest member of the team!

Listening to some pre-Laker game chat on radio and the announcer said "we’ll find out today if Afflalo is really the Kobe stopper he’s been made out to be. Sorry, don’t know who it was, but it was fun to hear.

But Nestor has been right all along. I went to the game. BL played very well, with the exception of having the ball stripped one time. He worked hard on defense, and had a very nice little hook shot in the lane. He was 4-4 from the field. He has shown the improvement that comes from being on the court with regularity. If he had been played more during the season, he would have advanced further in his game.

Drago played his usual horrible self. 3-9 from the field, 1-6 from 3 pt. land. Drago has 1 rebound in 34 minutes played. BL had 5 in 23 mins. It was astounding to me that Drago played so lethargically in front of his mother. It is even more noticeable in person. I was surprised when BL was removed in the last 5 minutes of the game. Perhaps CBH didn’t want to insult him on seniors day, but I am afraid that he inserted Drago to win the game, which would have been the wrong decision even considering Drago’s free throw skill.

BL is the better player NOW and should start in place of ND. BL gives the team the better chance to win and will improve with more play.

I had the feeling that Bobo didn’t play much because Oregon plays a small lineup, and has no real post moves to take advantage at the offensive end.

ML actually had a very good offensive game. He was 8 -14 and made extremely acrobatic reverse layups, some under extreme duress. This is obviously his strength. No guard played well defensively, as Porter torched us.

The team had no answer to Porter, who scored outside and penetrated and dished inside. I would have liked to have seen more man on man defense, so Porter could be overplayed not to get the ball, and help defense could have tried to slow him. Screens at the top of the zone created openings for him to shoot. I’ve seen him shoot them out of games before, but he had the hot hand at Pauley. He was 7-9 from 3pt, which will sink any team.

JA didn’t play that poorly, except in the clutch. He made a great driving layup, and was fouled, that tied the game. He played with more confidence. Then he threw two no look passes out of bounds in what Magic Johnson calls “winning time”. After all the travel ball games JA has played, it is hard to believe that he doesn’t play with more poise in the clutch. Hopefully, as a junior he will play with more confidence. Except for the meltdown, I think he’s improving, and I agree that its to early to give up on him. I hope he will have more quickness after all his injuries heal. I thought he was decent in the few minutes he got as a freshman.

Even with foul trouble throughout, TH played great. He had 13 rebounds in 28 mins, and 3 steals. He is such a quick high leaper that he gets every board where he has a chance to get it. He is so valuable that he has to learn not to get cheap fouls.

MR missed so many easy shots in the first half, that I was astounded that he ended up shooting 9-16 for the game and 6-12 from 3pt. I am glad that he was able to play so well in front of his family.

In looking at next year, and wondering who would need to step up to the plate and display some leadership (TH comes to mind), I was coming up blank as to who would be a senior next year, so I looked at the roster. The only “seniors” (this year’s juniors) were listed MAH (redshirt) and Spencer Soo, both of whom were honored on Senior Day (and SS hardly played, anyway). How do we get to a point where we have no seniors? This is a rhetorical question, but I think it means that we will need two years to rebuild, one for this year’s freshmen to mature and assume some responsibility, and another for next year’s freshmen to develop. I realize that the NBA’s lure is tempting, but no seniors?

Frustrates me to know that not giving minutes to Lane, Moser and Bobo to gain valuable experience during this disaster of a season is going to hurt us next year as well. I doubt we get any of the big targets like you noted. If I’m a Blue Chip recruit, why the hell would I want to play for CBH who has no offensive creativity and does not play FR. When a FR makes a mistake, he gets yanked while a SR is allowed to play like garbage and never face any repercussion.

Not to keep beating the same drum, but the problem yesterday wasn’t that BL wasn’t getting playing time in place of ND, it was that he wasn’t getting playing time in place of JA. With a poor rebounding and defensive team, you have to play as much size as possible. BL also wasn’t very effective when he was in with only TH on the frontcourt. The best lineup by far was when BL was in with TH and ND. Now on a macro level, yes BL should have been getting more minutes in place of ND over the season. But on a micro level on why we lost yesterday, it was because CBH played a three guard lineup for a majority of the game.

As for every clamoring for more minutes for MM, he just is not ready to play D1 basketball. I have been watching him very closely the last few pregames and he is just very awkward right now. His mechanics on his jump shot are just brutal and he just doesn’t look like someone who is confident or comfortable with himself yet. His limited playing time this season has been a pretty accurate reflection IMHO of where he is at as a player.

but I think CBH went with the 3 guard lineup to try to match some speed to slow down Porter and force others to beat us. Clearly JA didn’t get it done on either end of the court. So maybe in retrospect more length and height would not have hurt in defending Porter.

I tend to agree with you on the MM comment as well, but if he did see more minutes earlier in the year, who knows. Just two weeks ago BL was really an unknown entitiy and those arguing against him playing were using similar arguments that you have used to describe MM. Now I think that most agree that BL deserves more minutes even with a healthy RN.

DC with the SICK crossover and 1! They are losing but DC is balling!

the anti-Gene Hackman? In the movie, “Hoosiers,” there was a scene when Hackman’s star player was ignoring his 3-passes rule (or was it 5?) before a shot. So, he sat him down. You don’t play the way I want you to play, you don’t play. So, Hackman’s character inserts the last man on the bench for the star.

A few minutes later, one of the 5 players on the court gets hurt or fouls out or something. The star, the only remaining player, gets off the bench, takes off his warm-up jersey, and gets ready to enter the game. Hackman looks at him, and says “Where’re you going? Sit down.” The star can’t believe it. The team has only four players on the court. He HAS to go in. Hackman repeats, “Sit down.”

Then, Hackman turns to the referee, gestures to the 4 players on the court, and says “That’s my team.” Playing 4 on 5, the team goes on to lose. But, Hackman had enforced the notion of team basketball over selfish play, no matter how talented the star. Furthermore, he had established to himself and to his team (although not to most players’ parents and team fans) that the harming of the team was done by the selfish player, not by the coach.

It took guts to sacrifice a game to make a point, but his team was worlds better off for having done so. CBH’s handling of JA and, particularly, ND is the antithesis of Hackman’s handling of his star. Whereas Hackman’s move was, in the long run, inspirational and helpful, CBH’s allocations of PT minutes seems to me to have the opposite effect. He rewards selfish play with minutes. He punishes mistakes when they are made by other players, but his chosen players escape responsibility for mistakes.

This can’t help but have a downright de-inspirational effect on the bench players. Not to mention, their lack of development. Not to mention, the non-improving nature of his team. It’s so obviously self-destructive, I just really don’t get it.

How about ucla nba players challenge unc nbaers to a championship game? Both schools have 14 in the nba, so the numbers work and it would give both school’s alumni something to enjoy. My guess is the unc folk are following their nbaers the same as we are and could use a good game to watch. What do you think? And at least we wouldn’t have to go against Rose again!