Just Another Bruin Implosion: UCLA's Regular Season Ends With A Whimper Against Arizona State
by Nestor on Mar 6, 2010 3:23 PM PST
in Basketball
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PrintWell ladies and gentleman the regular season is finally over. The outcome of this afternoon's game was never in doubt even though the Bruins showed some faint signs of life late in first half and at points during the second half. The Bruin implosion took place early as Arizona State Sun Devils came out smoking the Bruins with a 13-0 run. Thanks to the efforts of Bobo Morgan (yeah him), Brendan Lane, Malcolm Lee and Tyler Honeycutt we did make somewhat of a run in the first half to close the game just a bit and make it manageable heading towards the half, but it didn't matter.
The Bruins as usual imploded down the stretch. The familiar game management issues (don't feel like repeating them) cropped up all over again as ASU closed the half with an 11 point lead and never looked back. Yes, we made the game a little close during second half thanks to the usual meaningless threes from you know, but it didn't matter all that much. The final score was 46-56. Here is the box score if you care to dabble through through it.
If you want to stick with the positives, Tyler Honeycutt had some issues with turning the ball over, but he did everything he could to keep the Bruins in the game with 10 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and a block. Malcolm Lee gave a scrappy effort with 15 points and 8 rebounds. Those two guys along with Michael Roll and Brendan Lane (along with Bobo) gave a solid effort but they were ultimately undermined by you know who.
It is really worth noting the effort we got from Bobo Morgan after he came back from a one game suspension. The kid came out to play giving the Bruins a boost with a bucket and taking a charge to give the Bruins some signs of life. He was rewarded by immediately getting pulled and 5 total minutes in the first half. He ended up playing 22 minutes and with not spectacular couple of points and 2 rebounds. He was burned couple of times on D but considering the effort he gave overall, he should be proud of it. Hopefully he keeps at it rest of this season and set up for a good off-season or whatever team he ends up playing with next.
Otherwise, there is really not much to say. I don't feel like providing any observations concerning Nikola Dragovic, Jerime Anderson and the minutes they got today despite giving their "usual effort" on the basketball court. Yeah, Dragovic showed little signs of life with 2 back to back 3s in the second half, but by that point it was somewhat moot given his overall body of work (on both ends of the court) for the entire game (and rest of this season).
As for other positives tonight consider the following (thanks for all the suggestions!):
- Our football team has an awesome recruiting class coming in
- No more late nights (at least for regular season) for the BNers in Eastern/Central/Moutain Time Zone
- We can be thankful for the wonderful effort we got from Michael Roll all season
- Spring football gets started in less than 30 days
- Women's basketball team won their eighth game in a row, beating Arizona this afternoon at Pauley by a score of 70-61.
- Men's baseball team ... well ... they are on FIRE! They have a great chance this afternoon to set a RECORD for the BEST START EVER in program's history. The Bruins are up by a score of 4-1 in top of the 7th. Here is the ongoing game thread and I am sure Rye will have the details.
But wait, there is MORE! Look at all the Saturday night excitement on BN:
- Class of 66 is setting up my photo stuff at Jen's Band's dance and taking pictures of the kids. Freebird Burrito for dinner.
- LongtimeBru is heading for dinner out with friends and getting some pizza
- Sideout11 is getting ready for Dinner for 12 Strangers
- BruinTrouble is getting caught up with last two episodes of Lost
- inhowlandwetrust goin out in San Francisco
- uclafans11 is heading out for dinner at a local jazz restaurant in Knoxville. Filet mignon and gouda rice. Yum.
Even BamaBruin's plan of grading mid-term papers sounds lot more fun than watching the "defensive effort" of you know who.
So ladies and gents it's not all so bad. Right? We probably just have one more game to go in this basketball season and we can then start thinking about football, baseball, and of course keeping an eye on how Ben Howland manages this off-season heading into this Fall and beyond.
Otherwise, we don't really have much basketball thoughts to offer tonight. We will leave you guys with this (HT inhowlandwetrust):
This too shall pass. Right?
GO BRUINS.
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On Bobo
I thought he did a good job of diverting penetrating guards and dissuading shots without committing too many fouls on smaller players. Against Boateng he either played perfect defense or got burned – perhaps due to his lack of speed, he had to anticipate each move and get there first: when he was in position he looked like an absolute wall, when he guessed wrong Boateng had an easy two.
Perfect summation of Bobo
I would add, when Boateng made a power move against Bobo, Bobo did okay/good. When Boateng made a spin move or a dribble move, he destroyed Bobo. It could mean either Bobo will always have problems against a quicker guy or that Bobo needs to learn but really probably both.
Maybe if he'd gotten some minutes all season
he’d have some of the skills we all want to see him develop.
If he’s staying, I’d love to see him get in on the KL seminars. Kevin knows how to put his big butt in the way of opposing rebounders. If he’s not, I wish him luck wherever he ends up.
BTW I went out for kebabs, so I can dd that to N’s list of good things.
Right On ! I was going to say
what you just did. There has got to be some good about this highly touted center propspect from Texas. Again, it is Howland’s mistake not to have developed him more with actual playing time.
KLove will do well in working with Josh Smith and Morgan in the summer, if the latter is not disenchanted enough to leave yet.
Bobo did improve but
he was still not our top 3 Centers. Last year, he was overweight and he said he only played zone in high school. He could only play facing the basket
This year he looked comfortable with his back to the basket (even able to pass some as in the WSU game), okay in M2M defense and as a shot blocker intimidator in the zone and lost weight.
However, he does not rebound well at all as he waits for the ball to come to him and in zone never finds his man to box out when the shot goes up. ML should not be a better rebounder than a big 6’10" guy.
I think it helped him this year to play RN in practice. This summer he needs to watch and learn (maybe from KL) how to rebound. Rebounding is the hardest thing to do in some ways because it is all technique and hustle with no guarantee of payoff (you can never rebound a make.)
If he can learn to rebound, he will play more. Also M2M will help him as he does not have to find someone to block out just block out his man. But it was hard to justify giving him a lot of minutes until Gordon left, JK and RN got hurt. Even then, BL is better in some games as a 5.
If you want to blame CBH for something blame him for making ND a 5. There is no way he should have played 5 today and he should have went to Bobo and BL more when it came down to our 4th center.
Bobo simply has slow feet
Great summary of Bobo BB. His problem is that he simply has slow feet. You almost want to get him with the football team working on fast feet drills, but I just don’t think he will ever be very quick or have good footwork. His best bet is to become a pure power player this off season and put on some muscle so that he can continue to be good at position defense and not have to worry as much at getting beat off the dribble.
See 6'9" incoming Frosh Josh Smith's championship game t tonight.
Since coming off an injury (argh, that sounds familiar) that caused him to miss something like 10 games, Josh has been playing very well. Of course, he’s bigger than most he’s played against so they toss the lob to him a lot, but it looks like he’s got some nice moves, too.
We need more inside strength and if Bobo transfers, we’ll need Smith even more. It’s kind of fun seeing the incoming talent before they hit Division 1 ball.
2010 WIAA Boys 4A Championship
http://www.cybersportsusa.com/tourney.asp?tc_id=2279
7 pm tonight
Sorry if I’ve over posted it, but most people had already left the game thread when I posted it there.
Is Bobo planning on transferring for real?
I’ve seen some internet message board rumors but nothing more; are there any facts to back that up?
No hard facts
However, it is a very reasonable speculation based on the available hard facts on how his PT was managed this season.
KLove will be such a good mentor
Back in the early nineties, when Shaquille O’Neal played at LSU under Dale Brown, the latter, a good friend of Bill Walton then, paired up his giant , young center with the redhead for a series of training sessions the summer after Shaq’s freshman year.
Bear in mind that the fledgling cable TV networks carried much fewer games then. So I only saw Shaq played once on CBS at that time. He played basically an aggressive game based on brute strength, nothing finesse nor athletically skilled. Walton evidently uncorked Shaq’s tremendous potentials by vastly improving the latter’s footwork, rebounding and scoring skills within the paint without persistently relying on dunking the ball.
We all know how well Shaq played in his prime.
Now KLove is no Bill Walton, not by any means. But what he can teach Smith & Morgan is more than they can ever learn from anyone at this stage. So I am just cautiously optimistic something good can be dealt Smith & Morgan, especially if they are willing and ready.
During the Kal-ferd game
They just showed MAH’s game winning shot against UW and the folks rushing the court :(
Geezer in training.
even the positives
are tinged with negatives
I've got folks coming over for dinner tonight
The shopping etc caused me to miss today’s game (well, after following the game thread in the 1st half, I wasn’t in much of a hurry to get home for the finish).
formerly bruinhoo
That video was the most entertaining thing I've seen all year that's connected to UCLA basketball.
Well, almost. There’s those dancers.
My 8 yr old son made me replay it 3 times
the video, not the dancers. But the latter will probably come sooner than I’ll be ready for.
greg in denver - UCLA guy for life
Great video
I particularly loved when everything just collapsed near the end and, of course, the sledge hammer through the tv. I am so glad I missed this game. Was at the woman’s game and it was great to watch. Afterwards, in her on court interview, Coach Nikki Caldwell was asked about being in "usc"’s bracket…to which she replied, no they’re in our bracket. She’s a great coach and a joy to watch and listen to, and I so wish their tournament wasn’t at suc… I can’t stand going there but so much want to support these team (especially if they play suc). CNC has the rivalry in her and knows what a$$holes suc is, thanks in great part to “coach” cooper. Thanks for all these threads and posts and for giving us all a place to cope with this season. I’m guessing I won’t be watching my tivo’d game!
Oh yah, if anyone wants some great seats to 1st and 2nd rounds in San Jose, I’ve got them!
Go Bruins!
I did want to add..
While I love Mythbusters, one of the “2nd gen”; Grant is a trogie.
Geezer in training.
Future hoop hopes
Bobo stays as does Lee and even Jermine if he works his tail off. Adding these to what we have comming in and the thankful deprture of Dragdownavitch we might have a chance for a good team next year-not great but at least not an embarassment. Now we can root for the womens team full time-better team players, better effort and better coaching.- Go Bruins
Kind of interesting that Spencer Soo came in for Roll at the end.
CBH left Rag-Ole’ in till the end. Sparing Roll the humility of the last minute? Or maybe CBH just doesn’t have it in him to pull Rag-Ole in the last minute.
I think it was more about letting Soo play
Soo is graduating this year and is unlikely to play in the Pac 10 tournament, so I think CBH was just trying to let Soo get a few minutes at the tailend of his UCLA career.
Yeah, the Soo part is obvious.
But why for Roll instead of Rags or someone else? Is that a jesture of respect to Roll somehow and not Rags?
by 84 on Mar 6, 2010 10:22 PM PST up reply actions
Love that video
I kept hearing awesome things about it, but they couldn’t release it because of studio/band arguing over distribution. It finally got out and it was awesome. I’m not a huge OK Go fan, but they are the music video champions of the world.
For everything UCLA baseball, visit my UCLA baseball twitter.
At least they didn't quit
I know this is sounds like a border line “moral victory” argument and is a sad expression of where the program is at right now, but I was encourage that the team didn’t complete give up after being down 0-11 to start the game. They could have easily folded and packed it in for the season which would have left a very very very bad taste in everyone’s mouth for the entire off season. Sure there were the normal rotation, effort, and fundamentals (i.e. zero boxing out) issues that plagued the team all season, but at least they didn’t completely quit on CBH. Like I said, its not a good sign that this is even an issue, but at least this game was just another ho-hum loss as opposed to a program defining loss.
I agree
Everybody put out an effort today. In the Lavin coached losing season everyone had given up at the end. This team was out manned and the other issues you mentioned regarding rotation and blocking out.
A losing season is not acceptable, but it would be worse if the team and players quit. They did not.
More good news
Since we’re the 5 seed, we play at noon on Thursday.
Meaning: Those of us who work on Thursday don’t have to watch them lose again!
Good News Bad News
We play Arizona first. I think we can beat them which means we may have two more games which depending on how you feel about this team/season could be either good news or bad news.
Hey, I was going to say that!
At least the game will be over with early on Thursday, allowing for inhowlandwetrust (?)’s farewell drinking to Drago to fall into Happy hour!
formerly bruinhoo
We can beat Arizona
After BL and Bobo getting some valuable time plus RN returning, we should be a better team. It is up to Coach Howland to show us he can coach and motivate our guys. He can give us some confidence going into next season with a win over Arizona. One thing scares me to death. Next season without MR and ND, our free throw % is going to be about 50% (please somebody do the math), the absolute lowest % in PAC-10 history, let alone UCLA’s history.
Next season without ND shouldn't scare anyone
And I agree we can definately beat Arizona. The free throw shooting will be fine. ML, TH and BL are all good shooters and will improve. Not so sure about RN.
by 84 on Mar 6, 2010 10:24 PM PST up reply actions
Freethrow shooting will not be fine without a huge effort...
…once again it will be an albatross for them, unless they bring in a shooting guru and get serious. Even Shaq can hit free throws now – -and it wasn’t just taking more shots in practice that got his shooting improved. Plus, they need to get the fire in the belly – -that helps too. W/o both of those things, hello cellar like NNL said…
JA found a great way to avoid missing shots...
just don’t take any. (Sorry for the late thoughts; just suffered through the game on DVR.) I’d almost rather scream at a brick or two than actually yell at him to take a freakin’ shot every once in a while.
I’ll go with Nestor’s bit of happiness…no more (hapless) late nights here in Central Time.
FSN reporting that Oregon has fired Ernie Kent
Specifically, that the university terminated him on the 22nd of last month, but allowed him to stay on for the remainder of the season. Haven’t looked for a link as of yet for this.
formerly bruinhoo
I had expected him to be let go after last season
Yeah, surprised that he stayed on this long.
formerly bruinhoo
Cue Nike Inserting That Douche From Duke
Steve Wojciechowski
They'll go after Mark Few first
The job is his if he wants it.
For everything UCLA baseball, visit my UCLA baseball twitter.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Mar 6, 2010 11:17 PM PST up reply actions
That was what I expected two years ago
New facility — a program with a lot of money, and a great place to live.
Few can still be “outdoorsy”.
sjh
Some consider it a step down for Few if he chooses to go.
But with all that Phil Knight money and the new facilities it has to be a little tempting. Too bad Ernie Kent won’t get to use the new court.
by 84 on Mar 7, 2010 9:04 AM PST up reply actions
Few also grew up in Oregon
and graduated from Oregon. Right now Gonzaga is a better job, but I think Oregon has the higher ceiling.
For everything UCLA baseball, visit my UCLA baseball twitter.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Mar 7, 2010 9:52 AM PST up reply actions
Important facts yes.
But wife Marcy from Gonzaga. Am told by Zag insiders she likes it in Spokane. Has security in a contract through 2018. Not sure I believe the ceiling is higher at Oregon. He spurned offers from big names before, and Oregon certainly isn’t UCLA or Indiana when it comes to basketball. A move to Oregon from Gonzaga, in terms of basketball, is a lateral move in my opinion. Neither up nor down.
by 84 on Mar 7, 2010 1:15 PM PST up reply actions
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