FanPost

The Wears

I watched nearly all of our first two games against LMU and MTSU (angrily turned off the LMU game with three minutes to go, stopped watching the MTSU game when the online feed cut out with about 7-8 minutes left). From my vantage point (and I've watched a TON of basketball in my life, including nearly every UCLA game since 2004, so I think I have a frame of reference), our two biggest problems were 1) Zeke, and 2) Zeke again. The guy can't hit a shot to save his life, can't throw an entry pass to save his life, can't defend to save his life, etc etc etc. He was good last year, which is why this early rough patch is so baffling, but anyway: he seemed to be the biggest problem. Discouragingly, the next-biggest problem was "the rest of our guards." Nobody was jumping out on LMU or MTSU's perimeter shooters, which is how Anthony Ireland managed to torch us in the opener and how MTSU managed to hit on 90% on their threes in the second game. I didn't even see Powell's random scoring explosion in the second game because the feed had already cut out, so in the 65-70 or so minutes of basketball I've watched I haven't seen our guards do ONE thing right. They can't hit from outside, they can't defend, they can't drive-and-dish, they can't get the ball in to our bigs. When things get so bad that Jerime Anderson a) looks like a star, and b) has the entire fanbase clamoring for him to get more minutes, you know you're in trouble. Our guards have to be considered the biggest problem with the team.

That's why it's so strange that everyone seems to be blaming the Wear twins for all of our problems. Watching those first two games, I did notice that they struggled to control rebounds and (especially against MTSU) gave up some easy layups because they were late switching over on defense. But with our offense in complete shambles (no scoring or offensive help at all from the guards, none of our bigs being able to get the ball because our guards CAN'T EVEN THROW IT IN TO THEM), aren't they pretty valuable if they can continue draining those 15- and 18-footers? It would seem that, if they can spread the floor a little bit and demand attention from the other team's defense, that it might open up the inside for Smith/Reeves to actually be able to get the ball and score. And isn't it possible that, given time, they could learn to acclimate themselves to Howland's defensive scheme since they've only been playing it in real games for a week? (You can teach a guy how to play defense; it's much harder to teach him how to consistently make jumpers.)  I agree with the general consensus that they're not great on defense and need to have better ball control, but jeez, reading some of these threads it's like they're both Drago clones.

So...did I miss something from those first two games? From my POV, it looked like our guards were the biggest problem, and that while the Wears were definitely taking things off the table, they were definitely also bringing things to the table as well. Why the overall dismissal of them?

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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