Sleepless Howland Calls Out The Character Of His Recruits, Issues More Mea Culpa

If anyone lacks character in the blue and gold, the Serbian bricklayer is the leading candidate, and to take a swipe at anyone else turns that swipe into pure hypocrisy. Dragovic has been an embarrassment on the court to the uniform and off the court to the university. So let’s keep things in perspective.

I have no love lost for Jrue Holiday, even as he suffers through a season on my local pro team. But Holiday is a point guard, not a shooter, and as someone pointed out on a thread the other day, perhaps we might have been better served last year with him at point and DC at the 2, a sort of Hazzard-Goodrich pairing. Sure, DC is an all-time Bruin and deserved precedence, but a little creativity with the lineup might have served us better with the talent we had last year.

Mea culpa and dumping on his recruits is sort of like the standard media apology these days—I’m sorry if I offended anyone. What he’s saying is, my bad, I recruited a bunch of losers and didn’t know it until too late. That’s great for team chemistry, no? Not to mention a big lift for incoming recruits.

I’m willing to throw out this season as an anomaly, but like you, N, I’d like to see some shakeup on the bench, with someone to play the Kerry Keating/Jamie Dixon recruiting role. Even without that, let’s see if we can’t put together a solid year next year, with the brilliant TH (who reminds me of Keith Wilkes when he was still Keith Wilkes), RN, BL, and the incoming freshmen. Even with a losing season, we’re miles ahead of where we were when CBH arrived. Now let’s get back to the top.

Just as you said N, I think Howland is the best man for this job next season. However I am wondering how is this team going to get better? I am trying to be optimistic, but if howland has shown a history of playing favorites with the players that don’t deserve merit ( read Brickola ), and has a history of wasting talent on the bench, and let’s not forget a history of poor game management, then how do we get to those benchmarks for next 2 seasons?

…at least he is acknowledging the poor recruiting. He is on the right track (not considering game management, which also has to change, which everyone seems to agree about). I’m disappointed that this article didn’t come after the season was ‘officially’ over (it really is already, but still). In any event, I like how he is calling all of the players out. Believe me, they know who they are – -the ones that have gotten away with sloppy play, stupid mistakes outside of CBH’s scheme, etc. (think Drago-Bricklayer). It seems to make it clear that the instructions in practice he’s giving this team are the same he gave the previous successful teams, and they just aren’t bringing it. So let’s hope for a sea change in the players in terms of attitude and focus on the floor and some seriously good recruiting from here on out.

but I am starting to find comments like this

“I have a strong belief in God,” Howland says. “There’s a reason why this is happening. There’s something good to come out of this. I know it.”

to be potentially concerning. To clarify – there is nothing concerning at all about CBH being a man of strong faith, and I am sure the readers of BN span a spectrum of faith from strong to none. What concerns me is that this is becoming part of his public narrative in times of trouble (I don’t remember so many of these comments coming in times of plenty). It also worries me if his obvious stubborness is accompanied by a fatalistic tendency that everything will work out and that everything has a purpose.

I may be taking too much from a few isolated quotes, but I think a coach needs to put primary faith in his ability to alter his team’s fortunes by adapting to the circumstances, before invoking the idea that it is all part of God’s plan, and before praying for the team to succeed.

Anyone who’s watched the program this year has to be thinking the same thing. We’ve all questioned the tenacity and character of our sophomores. He isn’t saying anything we don’t already know, just acknowledging that he and his staff are to blame. It’s not like he’s naming names — that would be a much different scenario.

With all of our belly-aching about Drag., these comments could go a long way to explaining his persistent presence in the line up. Perhaps the character issues we see, or infer, with him pale in comparison to some of the younger kids (although I can’t imagine Lane as part of that group). I Shudder, because that would mean the character issues are severe. Maybe the talent and character questions troubled Howland so much he decided to stick with the familiar (Drag., Keefe & Roll), even if it wasn’t best. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that our seniors, in addition to being the last connection to those glory years, represent great character. Roll, Keefe and MAH in particular wear those jerseys with pride.

At least he’s publicly acknowledged the issues we’ve seen. Hopefully that will force him back to the blue-collar players that fit his scheme. We’ve all seen his lack of flexibility (his hesitance to go zone and his personnel decisions have been maddening at times). That can change to a degree, but I don’t see Howland making wholesale changes to his philosophy. In order for him and UCLA to succeed, he has to make certain he recruits the right players — not just the best players. His structured program requires the same philosophy that was taken in assembling the current & 1980 U.S. hockey teams (sorry, winter olympics overload). Instead of the best players, he needs great players that compliment each other and will play the way he tells them to. Our #1 recruiting class did not fit that bill. At least it seems that CBH knows what to change in the recruiting game. I just wish Keating & Co. were still around to help.

With all the messages we gave to Coach Howland, the ONLY way he can prove to us is that he will not start ND the last two games, period. I would let him come in only if the other guys are doing bad. That way we might be able to restore our confidence for the younger players. I still have hope for ML and JA. They couldn’t have been rated so high if they were bad in high school. They are definitely not NBA materials now.

His words rarely match his actions, so why listen to his words?

How can he blame the team for having low character when he plays a twice arrested (name one other UCLA scholarship athlete who has been arrested twice while at UCLA. I can’t think of one), low effort, poor defensive player Dragovic 30+ minutes a game. Howland has shown character doesn’t matter to him, nor does effort. His team is simply following his lead.

Howland’s talk of lessons learned after losses are always and things to do differently are always followed the next week with nothing done differently. His players are just following his and not growing, changing, or developing. They are just mouthing the words like he is.

Also, I wouldn’t let the not sleeping thing mean anything. Howland said he never slept when we were winning Pac 10 titles. Guy’s MO is to be joyless and glum. That’s what he is most comfortable with apparently.

Howland needs to examine his own character and figure out if the character problems he is seeing in the team are just reflections of the character problems of the coach.

in an awful season; maybe we will actually be a better team offensively against the zone defense in future seasons given the unfortunate circumstances that forced us to turn to the zone this season. At least we finally had a chance to run our offense against a zone in practice.

This season is over. It doesn’t matter whether we win or lose; however, we like to see how Coach Howland handle the morale situation. He need to build confidence among the coaches and players and players themselves. We want to build a strong positive image for the new recruits. Let us watch how many minutes ND will play. No productions means bench time.

He is a 2-not a 1 and should never be forced into that role.Let him go into his summer workouts knowing that he is a 2 and will only be used at that position which is his only possible way to the next level. As far as Coach Howlands words are concerned, I take them with many grains of salt. Coaches over time tend to resemble used car salesman trying to unload a Yugo as a fine imported performance vehicle. I am not sure it is problems with recruiting but with the coaching they are getting from the assistants and the fact that some are definetly playing out of positions that would be more suitable to their skills it provides a clue to some of our problems. With replacements to his staff and proper utilization of all defensive schemes he can best utilize his players unless he is harboring another Drago.