Ben Howland Squandering Away A Vast Reserve Of Goodwill At UCLA

Not sure if I would rank his off the ball skills that high, but he does look horrible out there. I’m sure covering for players like Rago can’t help anyone either. Even as a point guard, other players need to hit their shots and actually get open to make him look better, our offense still looks stagnant, execution isn’t there to help Lee out.

That post was the best summation of the season i have seen. I couldn’t agree more. It starts with recruiting evaluation errors, from promoting WAC level players into the program to recruiting players who are, while maybe good potential, misfits in the BH style.

His reluctance to be flexible reminds me of a line that applies here, “Important principles may and must be flexible”. I am sure John Wooden understood that as well as any other college coach who is successful. BH demonstrates other behavior and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there were transfers at the end out of the program, again. The problem with transfers is that the AD knows how expensive it is to recruit players and when they transfer, all that $$ goes for naught and then the coach has to spend more $$ replacing the players who should be around for more years.

Bill

I have to admit, I am very disappointed by the inconsistent effort this year. While I still watch, my expectations have dropped considerably. Week after week we continue to show that we are not a top-notch team. A better effort is needed at all levels. However, here is where I stop. Realistically, who would you suggest replace CBH? I do not think there is truly a better fit in the long-term. For now, I am just resigned to bite the bullet and support the effort.
’81 Bruin

Ben, it’s reality check time. Even if we win out the regular season we’re not getting an at-large bid to the NCAAs. We’re not going to win the Pac-10 Tournament (we’re just not, okay?). It’s time to cut your losses, start playing the young guys and at least get SOMETHING positive out of the 2009-2010 season. Are you aware, Ben, that the last time Mike Moser played over one minute in a game was December 15th? And the last time Brendan Lane played double-digit minutes in a game was December 27th? THESE GUYS are the future of UCLA basketball, not Rago or Roll or Keefe. Yeah, except for Rago they were gutsy players who gave it their all for four years and nearly won us a few titles, so they deserve some respect (i.e., playing time). But they shouldn’t be playing 35 minutes a game while the young guys play 1 or 2 (at most); that’s not how you do a “rebuilding year,” which unfortunately is the best-case scenario for this season now. If you just keep stubbornly playing the seniors to try and crack .500 or something, though, it’ll just be a “lost year.” Ben, please; let it become the former, not the latter.

should focus on building for the future. That does not mean benching the seniors, but increasing rotations to spread out playing time and experiment. I noticed at the end of yesterday’s game that our full court press caused Cal to turn the ball over 3 of 4 times, yet we failed to convert any of those opportunities. I remain optimistic that adding Lamb, Smith and Jones to our current underclassmen will be an exciting and competitive team. I was hoping for 9-9 this season (now at risk) but still enjoy our student-athletes. Bottom line, agree with ucla139 who types faster than me.

Malcolm Lee would not be succeeding in a good UCLA basketball team because he has no outside shot, and can’t make free throws. He might succeed in a team that gambles on defense and scores most of its points on the fast break, but not in a CBH style offense. You can sag off him and dare him to shoot from the outside and you can foul him when he gets closer to the hoop without worrying about him hitting his foul shots.

In the CBH era we have had guards who can score/create multiple ways. JF/AA both had decent outside shots, a mid range game and the ability to penetrate and/or get fouled when someone needed to get a bucket. DC the same, with a great outside shot, speed to the hoop and an exceptional FT %. Russell Westbrook is probably the least complete of the four, but crazy athletic, and not having to play the role of go-to guy very often. Malcolm Less is currently no Russell Westbrook.

Without getting leadership from our guards, we cannot manufacture consistent points against good defenses. Mike Roll is a great complementary player, high IQ, sweet shot, but if you take away the 3 he isn’t much of a threat (though he actually has developed more of a game this year). He needs to be playing off a point guard who can penetrate or a big man who can pass out of the double team. Currently we have neither.

As for the rest of the team – James Keefe is not a scoring threat anywhere except under the basket, and setting screens is fairly unproductive when your guards can’t penetrate and your shooters aren’t quick enough to get into position off the screen and take a shot before the defender gets around. Reeves Nelson has a high motor and a low IQ, doesn’t play good defense, doesn’t recognize double teams (or is unwilling to give it up), doesn’t have much game away from the basket and is shaky at the charity stripe; but he will be much better next year and hopefully be playing his natural position, and you have to love his hustle.

Tyler Honeycutt is a high skill player, and will cut down on mistakes once he matures and gets a little more patient; and will look better when his teammates are on his wavelength. Far and away our brightest spot in a depressing season.

Anderson is a poor man’s Michael Lee. MAH is a nice story, tries hard and has a good long range shot, but is small, slow and not a D-I athlete.

Dragovic shows flashes of offensive ability and demands attention from opposing defenders. Unfortunately he also plays the worst defense on a team full of mediocre defenders and his defense is more consistently bad than his offense is good. Also gets the lifetime ‘lack of achievement’ award for the player who has consistently done least with the amount of time he plays.

When Bobo is really healthy I’d like to see him get more minutes. I think he is ready to contribute, and offers a different challenge than RN/JK. If we are trying to win games this season, I don’t care whether we see MM and BL – minutes for MM presumably take away from MR or TH, which I don’t care for; minutes for BL are presumably as a straight swap for ND, but I would personally rather see a reduction in ND’s minutes come from spells of Bobo at the 5 and RN at the 4, or a small quick(ish) pressuring lineup with TH at the 4.

The idea of redshirting three scholarship players from the start of the season seems misguided. Going back and saying CBH should have redshirted them BL and MM in addition to AS is great in hindsight, but I assume CBH thought they both had the opportunity to develop and earn playing time over the course of the season. I would also add that over the course of the season, CBH has made significant changes from his plan at the start of the season: giving RN starter minutes at center backed up by JK, playing ML at point, and going to a zone defensively. It is not surprising to me that focusing on getting those things working – and also reintegrating TH into the team – take precedence over finding minutes for BL and MM, particularly when we don’t seem to have any ‘leaders’ on the team to take pressure off other guys on the court.

Beyond the ever hot topic of ND, I do not see that CBH is currently mismanaging the resources he has (and for which he is largely responsible for assembling). But the fiery reaction ND apparently causes appears to have burned up the capital CBH earned in previous years. I hope that the wealthy (and influential) alumni with DanG’s ear do not have such a visceral reaction to ND’s continued playing time.

Scoring avg., 11.5 ppg, (3rd); total rebounds, 101, (2nd); FG %, .379 (next to last); 3-pt %, .305 (4th); FT %, .775 (1st); TO 44, (4th); blocks, 9 (tied for 5th); steals, 15 (6th); defensive lapses, many, though no stat is kept ( 1st, I suppose). Whether all this justifies 670 minutes (3rd) has to be answered in the context of viable alternatives. I would have played BL and MM a bit more, even though there is little evidence supporting the idea, and I would give MAH some more time at point so ML could play his position. I am not sure that our record would be much different if we did these things, but there are reasons for doing it. A .500 season, though not much fun, seems realistic, but I never cease to hope. Note: Tyler Lamb is doing extremely well.

saw my reference to stats as justifying anything. They are just stats. Since I am not feeble-minded, I certainly would not waste time trying to affect anybody’s judgment of ND in any way.

He is a good coach who for many reason’s is having a bad year. There should be not even a whisper of a hot seat. we right this wreck of a season off and await with restrained enthusiasm next year. At least we know we have good incomming players and hopefully will make immediate contributions in returning Bruins to the post season

Almost exactly what I’ve been thinking, but expressed 10 times better than I could’ve. Thank you for posting it, and thank you for moving it.

As a geezer, I viewed the near perfection of Coach’s teams, have long ago given up the idea of ever achieving that again, and simply want to see a well-coached, well-conditined team giving maximum effort every minute of every game. We are not seeing that. Ultimately, the coach is responsible for the team on the floor. I like Coach Howland personally. I know he understands and respects the legacy he has inherited. I hope he is able to build on the promise he showed until the last two seasons. I don’t think any true Bruin would not be concerned about what they’ve seen this year.

As far as I’m concerned, Coach Howland has earned my respect and admiration and I can absorb this pretty awful year. Three final fours will do that. Down years happen. NBA defections happen. Player transfers happen. Recruits (and recruiting classes) don’t always develop as they could (or should). But after all that Howland has accomplished in his UCLA career so far, I’m willing to wait and let him work his way out of this. I feel that he’s earned this. I still wear my Howland Is My Homeboy t-shirt with pride.