Bruins Start The "New Season" On A Good Note: Beat Arizona To Advance To The Final-4 (!)
by Nestor on Mar 11, 2010 2:49 PM PST
in Basketball
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PrintWell that was better than losing to Cal State Fullerton. The "new season" is off to a better start than the old one for Ben Howland's UCLA as the Bruins hold on to beat Arizona Wildcats by a score of 75 to 69. Here is the boxscore. Bruins got a huge boost from the return of forward Reeves Nelson who along with rest of the team did a pretty good job styming Wildcats forward Derrick Williams most of the game.
Nelson finished the game with 19 points, 11 rebounds (4 offensive), 3 assists, and a steal making 8 out of his 9 field goals. Although he made number of freshmen mistakes and made only 50 percent of his FT shots, he served as emotional center of this team through the whole game. Nelson came through for his "mentor" Bruin senior Michael Roll, who himself had a great game with 19 points and 4 steals.
As hard we have been on you know all season, Rag contributed somewhat with 18 points which included 10 out of 12 makes from the FT line. Don't get too carried away though. Rag still had a horrible shooting night with 9 bricks (3 out of 12) and as usual was below average on the defensive side. His team-mates had to cover up his mistakes and for the decent scoring game he had today, it means he will take his game down whole another notch tomorrow night.
So the Bruins extend their season by getting into the "Final-4." Yeah, print out those t-shirts now. Before anyone gets too excited we are going to take on either Oregon or Cal. We don't matchup well against any of those teams because both of them have athletic and speedy backcourts. We can't also count on our guys to come back with 40 minutes of effort and defense because we got what we were going to get this afternoon at Staples.
Anyway, look at the bright said as pointed out by britishbruin: we are now "guaranteed no worse than a .500 record in the New Season!" It would be interesting if Nelson and co. can continue to play inspired and extend the season for at least another game. Yet it is not going to happen.
We got our win on a Thursday. You know what happens to a Ben Howland team when the weekend comes around. Not going to hold my breath.
GO BRUINS.
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Not even weekend
Game is tomorrow isn’t it? That’s even less time for Howland. He should be prepping right now
I really hate to say this
I watched the game on hd, and BOB was actually pretty good on D this afternoon.
Geezer in training.
Umm, no
All I had to do was turn on the game in between classes and I saw numerous defensive breakdowns by Rag. Just because they were less awful than usual doesn’t mean he played anything remotely approximating ‘good D’.
I agree
He had 2 or 3 blocks and he was actually trying to hustle. I can’t say whether his defense was good, or that the bar has been set so low for him. He was a total bricklayer in the second half, plus bad shot selection and then he hit a big three. MR was “the man”, and his outside touch returned. RN was a beast and TH was his usual self, except for taking a bad fifth foul. JA actually had a couple of good plays, finished well, but still dribbles right in front, and gives it away. He wasn’t terrible. ML hit an outside shot, which was a prayer answered. BL was pretty invisible, in limited minutes. Has Bobo transfered?
Everything looks better after a win.
Go Bruins!
We’ve already beaten Cal once this season and both games against the Ducks were close so I’m not counting us out by any means. I’m having fun cheering for this team as it’s not often we get to be the underdog.
Missed the game today . . .
Hectic day at the office (still working E.S.T.). Glad to see the Bruins prevail and happy that RN is back in the lineup.
I am not going to watch any more games this season. I am convinced the Bruins lose when I am paying attention, whether watching on TV or following threads on BN.
I the last 4 times I have watched, or payed close attention (ASU, Arizona @ Tuscon, Oregon at home, UW at UW), the Bruins have lost and the last 3 times I have not watched or payed attention, the Bruins have won (Arizona today, OSU at home, and WSU at Pullman).
Its the butterfly effect all the way from Florida!
I see I am not the only one that thinks they personnally impact the game
For me it is wearing UCLA logo wear. Cant win when I wear it — football or basketball. I wear my blue but not logo wear….then we win.
by Bruin Dad and Grad on Mar 11, 2010 5:16 PM PST up reply actions
Glad we won today.
MR and RN had monster days today. JA made some boneheaded plays, but for the most part did not stink up the joint. Drago seemed restrained with that itchy trigger finger of his. But the best part was watching us actually playing Man defense.
I don’t know if we’ll get another win tomorrow, but if we hustle like we did today it will be a small comfort.
The best thing you can do for your children is to love their mother. John Wooden
Get some bbq sauce, it might mask some of crappy taste.
That’s a pretty funny and bold approach… although I also want the BRUINS to beat Cal, my hopes are crushed every single time I watch them play…yes even the few times they have won. On offense Ben has them playing nothing more than rec ball, and who ever has the ball after a few passes shoots the ball (usually a 3). The only player that consistently plays to win is Reeves.
On defense, Ben must be giving them instructions to let the other team score as many times as they can that way they will be too tired to continue to game.
We don’t have the caliber of players that we had in recent years, but Ben WTF, have them play like they have heart, I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t see it.
You just might......
We have nothing more to lose, really.
Tournament play is a funny thing sometimes. Remember how SC blew post everyone last year ? Of course, they had more horses than we do now.
Hope springs eternal. No matter the outcome, I really hope they come out with their guns blazing. Michael Roll deserves something better to end his collegiate career.
So prepare now, that crow, as we speak, is now marinated at Spago’s. Tomorrow evening, a courier might hand deliver you an invite for dinner to be served, 10pm local time.
I would be happy if we come close either way
If we don’t contain Randle, we are done. This is one game I think we can play man to man with someone staying close to Randle. I actually believe we can win. For Nestor’s sake, ND will come out on fire, like 5 for 5 at the 3’s. Go Bruins.
Listen, ND will be ND
even if Belgrade, and for that matter Serbia reunited with other republics to become Yugoslavia again.
It’s way past time to predict what he might or might not, would or would not have done etc. so long as Howland keeps him in there. This is high noon. For Michael Roll’s sake, let’s throw everything we have at our opponents tomorrow evening. If we go down, we go down fighting with guns blazing.
I am a movie fan. Some of you certainly can recall the last scene in Buch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid. They were cornered, outguned. So they just reloaded, dashed outside with guns firing from both hands. This is UCLA. We don’t bend and we certainly don’t yield.
When assessing performance,
you have to consider the exchange rate: 1 Serbian brick = 2.86 U.S. bricks.
As for Butch and Sundance, that made for a memorable final scene, with emphasis on final. When it comes to valor, I’d rather that Bruins be associated with Gen. Patton’s credo: the goal isn’t to die for your country; the goal is to get the other guy to die for his country.
LOL on the exchange rate
I was really surprised when visiting the Huntington, that Gen Patton was from San Marino.
Geezer in training.
Yes, Patton hailed from San Marino
He was buried in nearby the Presbyterian cemetery in San Gabriel. I saw his gravesite too. A colleague of mine’s husband was interred there. That;s how I know. Of course, few people cared that he was buried there.. It’s so different than Jim Morrison’s gravesite at Paris’ Pere Lachais cemetery. Holy Mackerel. Even to this day, people still left cigarettes, flowers, all sorts of stuffs there. On that day when I went, it was swarmed with people still.
Better yet. I like Robert De Nero's army general
in Apocalyse Now.
Remember that memorable helicopter gunships sequence when waves and waves of them swept into that North Vietnamese hamlet from the ocean, firing rockets, machine guns, etc at everything down below. On top of the mayhems, you have the helicopters’ loudspeakers blaring that stirring, thunderous music of The Ride of The Valkyries.
Now, politics aside ( let’s not even touch it here ) that’s the type of gung ho fighting spirits I want our Bruins to embrace when hitting the floor tomorrow. We shall throw everything we have at them. Win or lose, we let them know W-E A-R-E U-C-L-A. Never say die !.
Exactly
At least he should be forbidden or yanked every time he shoots more than a foot from three point line. He shoots inside he draw fouls (he fouled out Horne), he shoots outside he gives us nothing. So I am for forbidden and moreover want to know why CBH does not agree more with you.
ND did play defense okay today, he made some mistakes but he also made some nice hustle plays. Of course the question is why didn’t he do this every game.
And against CAL, it seems likely that he will “rest on D” and on O he will be content with the 26 footer. Here’s hoping CBH yanks if ND does either but more importantly here’s hoping that this is not happening with anyone next year.
Reeves Nelson going to the basket at the end
Inspired play today but going to the basket twice at the end…when burning clock was more important…could have lost the game. The first attempted dunk was missed and he was fouled…I think he was 1 for 5 free-throws at that point. With the clock stopped he made both. Confident but major error in time management.
Not as bad as it would be for other teams
In general, going to the basket like RN did would be bad strategy, but given this team’s free throw struggles, 2 for sure points on a dunk are much more valuable than ticking off another two or three seconds and making maybe 1 of 2 free throws. If he was shooting a contested jumper that would be a different story, but when you can get a dunk and your team cant shoot free throws, you go for it.
yup
when they are looking to foul RN anyway and he has the ball, might as well give himself a chance of making the bucket (and, I don’t know whether they were in the double bonus or not, but that’s also a reason you might want to make sure you’re getting a shooting foul rather than getting a one-and-one). He was also way ahead of his teammates on the first one, so there was no easy pass to a better FT shooter.
Much bigger time management issue was ND shooting from behind the arc with 15 seconds on the shot clock, several times.
by britishbruin on Mar 11, 2010 6:43 PM PST up reply actions
RN actually gave the ball up more than has in past
I thought he did a good job of not always taking it up no matter how surrounded he was.
Obviously, he was impressive in all aspects.
Wonder if watching a few games gave him a perspective that he does not have to go up every time he touches the ball inside.
sjh
+ 1
I thought his willingness to give it up from time to time made it harder for people to double him, which helped our team offense and helped him be more effective personally.
Also – I wonder if having the eye injury and enforced time off let the rest of his body heal up – he looked more energetic than he has for a while.
by britishbruin on Mar 11, 2010 6:51 PM PST up reply actions
Most unlikely play of the season
So I just got done watching my DVR of the game (its killer having to stay away from anything where you might accidentally see the score). Although the ND missed dunk was probably the funniest moment of the game (or JA getting away with a blatant travel on his pass to MR in the second half), the most unlikely play of the season had to have been the following sequence:
1. ND hustles to get back on defense
2. ND somehow blocks a fast break defense
3. ND comes up with the loose ball
4. JA comes down in transition without losing the ball
5. JA makes a layup and gets fouled
6. JA makes a free throw
If you were to tell me that any 2 of those things happened in the same half at any point in the season I wouldn’t believe you. For all six of those things to happen in one play is beyond belief. If that can happen, maybe another two wins and an NCAA berth isn’t that far fetched.
As for the actual game, CBH’s move to man-to-man made no sense to me as UA isn’t the best outside shooting team and was killing us on drives because (surprise!) we couldn’t stay in front of anyone. JA particularly struggled on D. ND’s shot selection continues to perplex, but thank god he is around to shoot free throws.
They really looked like a different team today. Maybe the whole “new season” attitude has given them some confidence as everyone (save TH forcing a few bad passes and silly fouls and the aforementioned ND bad shots) played with poise. If Cal gets hot tomorrow we won’t have much chance, but for some reason—maybe the ND/JA play—I actually feel at peace with this team after today.
Enjoyed that sequence
but for me JA’s good play then still didn’t counter JA’s inability to hold onto the basketball – only one TO per the SBNation box score, but still just frustrating. Great to see RN ready to kick some ass. Now if TH can stay in, we might (gasp) have a chance tomorrow.
How’s this for a laugh: in the aforementioned SBNation box score, Drew Gordon is listed as “DNP.” I guess it is true…
During the game thread someone said of that play
“if you give a million mokeys a million typewriters…” I almost literally rolled on the floor laughing my ass off.
in the post-game
CBH talked about how we have been playing too much zone; and that it was ok to use it for a bit today, to throw them off, but that our rebounding suffered in the zone. For whatever that is worth, it was his comment on our defensive choices.
by britishbruin on Mar 11, 2010 6:47 PM PST up reply actions
And, for most of the game
we had a large lead in rebounds — especially the first half, we dominated.
sjh
it may not have made sense to play Man today
but if he wants to play man on Friday, he will have needed today’s game to ‘break’ the guys in. Iiked it because they actually played man defense. I don’t know what they brought against CSULB, but it was neither Man nor Defense
The best thing you can do for your children is to love their mother. John Wooden
Good points
But I can’t agree with the conclusion. If we give up against CAL like we did against UW or we play like we have in other Saturday games, the good feeling for the PAC 10 Tourney won’t even last.
ND/JA did play better today which for ND begs the question why didn’t he hustle like that all year on D? JA looked better on offense but still not sure what that means. (Better because he only tripped once for a jump?) So one win is not enough for peace for me and I am not sure it will be for you if we don’t play well tomorrow.
Very true
If the season ended today, I would be okay. But as you point out, we have to do it again tomorrow and the fact of the matter is this season is going to end at a loss at some point in the near future. That loss will probably leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouths so as for today, I’ll take whatever tasty treat I can get. I think if we beat Cal tomorrow I would be okay with a loss in the championship. Let’s hope everyone keeps trying to win one for Roll and keeps playing well.
I can't believe it has taken this long for
“why didn’t Drago huslte like that all year on D.” On the very first possession, I noticed Drago playing hard on D. My thought at that very moment was that Bruins Nation would be all over Drago for not playing hard like that the whole season. It took awhile, but DC Bruins nailed it.
It was a fun win. Let’s do it again. Go Bruins.
No DCBruins, WE DON'T EVER GIVE UP
The moment is at hand. Let’s put up a good, good fight for Michael’s sake. He deserves something better if it would indeed be his very last collegiate game.
Oh I Agree we don't give up
And that is my worry. Can ND play D two games in a row like today? I hope so. Will we let down and look lost as we have in other second of two game series? I hope not.
But I will be here yelling and rooting on our Bruins. As 75 says “It was a fun win. Let’s do it again. Go bruins.”
A player everyone forgets today is ML
ML hit the big three in the game and was +8 in the +/- for the game. He played well, if not spectacularly like MR and RN, but without him on the court we don’t win.
Improvement for sure
man to man defense, 75 points, minimum turnovers, inside presense, clutch free throws, we were definitely the better “Team”. Have to give CBH credit he deserves. We’ll all be here to rip him tomorrow if it all falls apart.
15 turnovers are too many
but Arizona only shot 40% and we outrebounded them 31-25, which made the difference. RN and TH were monsters on the boards.
From courtside...
As others said, they were really working hard. Setting hard screens, really trapping well on d. Wise has a mean crossover, and our guys did okay against him. It was great to see them playing so hard. The thing I really liked was that $anction u isn’t in this tournament (although some of their idiots still showed up with the classy fucla shirts). I like the Pac 9 a lot. I have no bitter feelings against the other schools…can’t we just trade suc to another conference or just drop them and bring in Colorado. It’s so nice having all that ugliness around.
Go Bruins!
A couple of other "bubble" teams lost as well
but I still say no. Not after a not-so-close loss to a crappy conference’s #7 team.
Mission impossible
What if we beat Cal and then the winner of the lower bracket to win the Pac-10 title. ASU is on the bubble and might not go to the tournament. So Cal and us would be the only teams going to NCAA tournament. Isn’t that sweet? All of a sudden I am interested in BB again. Go Bruins.
Sanctions Await
i hear Seantrell Henderson is going to sign his LOI at halftime of the SC game. Oh, wait a minute!
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