"Bruin For Life" - JF - Talks Up Howland & The UCLA Bond w Other Bruin NBA Guards
by Nestor on Apr 21, 2010 11:48 AM PDT
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PrintA really good read from the Oklahoman which recently did a Q&A with JF (who is now up 2-0 against RW's Thunder). JF was asked "why so many Bruins" including his predecessors from pre-Howland era have made it "big as point guards. JF right at the beginning gave credit to Coach Ben Howland (emphasis added):
Farmar: "We just happened to go there, I guess. We all played for different coaches. A lot of us have moved in. Russell (Westbrook), and Darren (Collins) and I played for Coach Howland. He’s a good basketball coach. Teaches you to be ready to play at this level. We just came in one after another, got an opportunity to come in and play at a high level and show our talents and go pursue our careers."
JF then said the following when asked if there was a connection among former UCLA guards:
Farmar: "Definitely. Once you’re a Bruin, you’re a Bruin for life. We all take pride of being part of that history and tradition. Looking forward to building on that. Got a chance to do that with the Lakers, my hometown team, win a championship here. Which is special. Definitely take pride in being a Bruin."
Read rest of it here. I sure hope Coach Howland and his staff is blasting that piece around to all recruits because he needs messages like this going out to today's high school kids.
JF along with KL, RW, LRMAM, and AA have been great about supporting the current program after leaving for the Big Show. Can't say the same about others.
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.
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The Farmar-Westbrook-UCLA angle
Got plenty of airtime last night. I was eating it up, but it was also kind of sad knowing that that pipeline might be dry for a while. I know describing the program as a “pipeline” doesn’t really help player retention, but I still love hearing about the program when I’m watching NBA games, and the only way for that to happen is to put guys in the league. I know CBH isn’t the friendliest guy or the easiest coach to play for, but you’d think the success his players have had in the draft would be an unspoken vote of confidence in his abilities as a teacher and a coach.
It's an angle that UCLA should be playing up heavily
I hope Howland’s staff is thinking about this. If I were in his staff I’d reach out to these guys in making more of these kinds of statements through videos, twitter etc.
They clearly love UCLA. I am sure Howland is a tough coach. So is Coach K. The key here is communication, communication and more communication. It will also help the guys who are already in the program realizing how listening to Howland will actually benefit them in the long run.
+1 The Performance of Our Alumni is our #1 asset.
JF, AA, LRMAM, KL,RW, DC, and even RH are not only successful pros who make major contributions to their teams, but they are team players and model citizens who are great ambassadors for UCLA and their pro teams. This legacy should be a great recruiting tool, but it loses its impact if these same players are saying, in private, that they left because they didn’t enjoy playing for CBH, or were stifled by his system. I wonder if they are saying these things in private, or whether they could give strong endorsements of the “fun” of playing at UCLA, getting in the best condition of their lives, learning to play the game right under CBH, and thriving at UCLA.
by 75NatChamps on Apr 21, 2010 10:42 AM PDT up reply actions
well...
tell that to Duke. I agree with what you are saying to a certain extent, but somehow Duke has produced nothing but crap in the league save grant hill but has somehow still been able to recruit really well.
Boozer, Brand, Deng, Maggette
Each of those guys is in the top 15% in terms of productivity amongst NBA players that actually went to college. Beyond that Jay Williams could have been awesome if not for the accident.
What confuses me
Is that I can’t imagine that he’s become a worse communicator than our FF years. Maybe he got lucky and was able to recruit guys who were more naturally tuned in to his message from the start and therefore he didn’t need to communicate as much? Either way, you’re right about communication, but the disconnect between the guys who have bought in and have great respect for what CBH has done for them and the guys who can’t fit in and lash out is striking. If there’s middle ground there, it’s very thin.
Well
This is something Achilles has poignantly brought up before. We had someone like Kerry Keating in the staff during those first 4 years who kids could look up to more as a peer/mentor. He definitely helped.
I am not sure if someone like him would have made a difference in addressing the disconnect especially rising out of class of 2008. Still think it could have helped.
Probably more important than we realized
Listening to the afternoon sports talk guys yesterday brought this exact point to mind. Scott Hastings is one of the hosts, a former All American center, NBA champ with Detroit, and now color guy for the Nuggets (so I think he has a lot of cred when discussing basketball mentality). He was discussing the appearance that Chauncey Billups ignored interim coach Dantley’s instructions for the final play against Utah in game 2, and whether the players respect Dantley as their Head Coach (Dantley is filling in for George Karl who is undergoing cancer treatment).
Hastings made the statement (paraphrasing) that the Head Coach is the bad cop who bosses the players around, and the Asst Coaches are the ones who go make the player feel better afterward and keep them happy and get them to follow the HC’s instructions.
We may have really lost that dynamic with some of the changes on the staff in the last few years. It’s not likely CBH just recently became tough or cold or difficult. It seems much reasonable that the program lost those go-between guys who could relate to the players and were able to get them to buy in to CBH’s message.
Plus, I still think we have been getting a more entitled, me-first-UCLA-second, this-is-just-my-stepping-stone-to-the-NBA sort of player in the last couple years. It’s been a bad mix.
greg in denver - UCLA guy for life
Different sport and different era
but the Brian Clough/Pete Taylor dynamic in English soccer proved to be one of the greatest coaching teams in the sport’s history and they had the same thing. Clough would rip the guys a new one and Taylor would pick up the pieces and make nice with the players.
For everything UCLA baseball, visit my UCLA baseball twitter.
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Apr 22, 2010 12:16 AM PDT up reply actions
I agree...Different type of player
My son, the sports writer for Max-Prep Sports and former prep editor of the Oakland Trib says that there is a different breed of kid coming into college BB. Today we are getting kids who come to college to major in basketball. They are kids who would go directly into the NBA if they could but now they have to park themselves for one or two years in college.
These kids are talented but they worry more about their draft status than their team’s performance. JH is a classic example. I think what happened with the ‘08 class is that we recruited a bunch of spoiled brats. We got the top recruiting class but didn’t realize what a bunch of spoiled brats we recruited.
When these spoiled brats didn’t get their way they started to bail or CBH told them to leave. I think the last year or so is an abberation. UCLA BB will be back on track starting next season. This year was just a point in time where the critical mass reached a point where we just imploded.
Just don’t ask me what the deal was with Drago. Even my son couldn’t figure that one out but he’s gone and now it back to normal.
I think Good Cop/Bad Cop is too broad
Some of the most successful coaches were “nice guys.” Look at Wooden and Dean Smith. Remember Dean Smith even had the seniors set the rules for his teams. (And the seniors decided when to suspend players as happen to then star JR Ried once in the Tourney.)
Also the best coaches can be good and bad cops. Larry Brown and Phil Jackson are master psychologists who get inside their players heads but treat different players very differently. (And I realize that Phil never coached kids but Brown did.)
And Kareem once said in all his years playing the scariest words from a coach were Wooden’s: “Goodness gracious sakes alive.”
I think all coaches need respect but their is many ways to get that. Obviously Gordon did not respect CBH but ML did as he very willing continued to play PG and tried to slow down even though it hurt his personal game.
What really confuses me
is how we have done such a poor job of selling ourselves as a premier destination for players (particularly guards) after three consecutive final fours and producing so many guards in the association.
by silverlakebruin on Apr 21, 2010 11:47 AM PDT up reply actions
To be fair silver
And I say this as someone who has had no problem being critical Coach Howland and his staff did a very good job of selling the school following Final-4. I mean they did land the class of 2008 (number 1 according to many rankings). That happened because of a good selling job.
The problem was with evaluations and then connecting with those kids. Even heading into this season we had two great recruits in Josh Smith and Tyler Lamb locked up. Then the debacle happened.
So I can’t knock Howland and his staff for not selling the school in past. They have done it. They need to turn it up few more notches. The area they need to address is address a healthy foundation for internal communication and then retool their efforts to communicate externally. That will require reinvigorated efforts but its unfair to say they didn’t do a great job of it in the past because they did get results at least recruiting ranking wise.
Sure, we needed to capitalize on that
But then continuity is the key.
Farmar – Westbrook – Holiday ( NBA bench )- Anderson ( YMCA League ) just won’t sell at all.
Ummmm
I don’t know what bench you were looking at, but Holiday started a large number of games for the Sixers, maybe even most of the year, and he put up some good numbers. He will be a star.
"We should have a banner up there: the only team to make the tournament without a coach." -- Baron Davis, remembering his "coach" at UCLA
by inhowlandwetrust on Apr 21, 2010 12:12 PM PDT up reply actions
Okay, so Holiday does make the grade in the pros
The whole season at Pauley, his heart was never in it.
LoL N, yeah yeah yeah, but his player card will always say UCLA for college!!
"We should have a banner up there: the only team to make the tournament without a coach." -- Baron Davis, remembering his "coach" at UCLA
by inhowlandwetrust on Apr 21, 2010 5:21 PM PDT up reply actions
Another quote from the article that is helpful
and should not be forgotten is this.
Westbrook comes back to UCLA and plays in the summer. Do you?
“Absolutely. It’s a lot of fun. A lot of the pros come out here and do it. It’s a good run, good competition.
"
What other school can you spend your summers practicing against the Pros? NC, Duke, Kansas etc. do not have this.
this hurts
the bruins in a way.. the players get to go up against the pros in the summer and figure out they can play at that level and leave early. Westbrook was a stud in the summer and the scouts noticed!
"Success is never final, Failure is never fatal. It's Courage that count's"
John Wooden.....
But it helps recruit
You’re right it goes both ways.
DC
Not sure if DC was intentionally left out of you last line N, but I think he has done a lot in his one year away from UCLA to raise the program.
To reiterate JF’s “Bruin for life” comment, here is DC’s facebook status today:
It was cool seeing Russell and Jordan battle last night
You are right about DC
However, I left DC out of that because that was a specific group of Ben Ball warriors who left early.
DC of course has been wonderful in showing his loyalty to UCLA.
Of the current pros from CBH's time don't all of them
say nice things about UCLA except Jrue Holiday? Am I missing someone?
I wonder if
Jrue watched DC this year and realized that (at least for now) DC is the better player. If he can’t get his head around that concept then he will most likely always resent CBH/UCLA for not putting the ball in his hands during his one-and-done year. I’m guessing that in his mind CBH cost him a lottery spot.
Think of it this way...
JF — rotation player in the playoffs, on the defending champs (although he needs to step up his game more)
AA — starter in the playoffs.
RW — starter in the playoffs.
LMRAM — rotation player in the playoffs.
Ain’t nothing in recruiting like watching your players STILL playing.
M
"In this program your passion bucket must be full to play SC." -- CRN, to Dan Patrick, 1/2008
Just another example of...
The top notch reporting from “The Oklahoman,” The State’s Most Trusted (Fact Optional) News
by C.T. in Boston on Apr 22, 2010 8:18 AM PDT up reply actions
Farmar downplays CBH influence on PG performance, emphasizes talent level of former UCLA guards
From the Oklahoman (emphasis added):
Farmar: “We just happened to go there, I guess. We all played for different coaches. A lot of us have moved in. Russell (Westbrook), and Darren (Collins) and I played for Coach Howland. He’s a good basketball coach. Teaches you to be ready to play at this level. We just came in one after another, got an opportunity to come in and play at a high level and show our talents and go pursue our careers.”
Perhaps with two upperclassmen PGs now on the squad, it is understandable that players like McCallum wouldn’t want to come to UCLA, as the #1 attraction – the ability to “come in and play” – has been diminished.
Unless CBH gets back to the tried and tested formula of having NBA-talent point guards coming to UCLA, playing and then leaving early (and providing opportunities for the next generation), he’ll soon find his tepid seat increasing in temperature.
I am NOT advocating that CBH be fired.
Wow
I was scratching my head on that till now.
by 75NatChamps on Apr 22, 2010 11:53 AM PDT up reply actions
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