Howland Failed to Envision Minutes for Mike Moser
by Achilles on Dec 2, 2011 1:12 PM PST
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PrintJonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com, writing at Grantland, has a piece on once-a-Bruin, now-a-Rebel Mike Moser.
He quotes UCLA head coach Ben Howland from a May story that appeared on ESPN.com. He also quotes Moser:
Howland: "I'm supportive of him finding a program where he will have a chance to play more minutes than we envision he will have here."
Moser: "I feel it is necessary for me personally, to make a move somewhere else so I can play."
Then, he notes that:
Moser plays 31 minutes, scoring 16 points and grabbing 18 rebounds - outplaying potential lottery picksJohn Henson and Tyler Zeller - while helping UNLV knock off top-ranked North Carolina.
Four days later, he scores 34 points and grabs 10 rebounds in a double-overtime win at UC-Santa Barbara, bringing his team's record to 8-0 on the season.
Before asking this question:
Where did things go wrong for Howland? Was it really worth running Moser out of the program for the sake of giving Nikola Dragovic 32 minutes per game? The 6-foot-9 Serbian power forward rewarded his loyal coach by pulling down 4.4 rebounds, shooting 37 percent from the field, andgetting arrested twice, as part of a disastrous 14-18 season. (In both cases, charges were either dropped or not filed.)
Every great game Mike Moser has for UNLV makes Ben Howland and UCLA simply look bad. Moser's decision to attend UCLA after first committing to Arizona was considered a huge coup for us. Then, Howland squandered an entire year of Moser's eligiblity by playing him garbage minutes instead of redshirting him. He also played him out of position at the three, while Moser is really an unconventional four.
Ironically, on a team with too many power forwards already, Moser is the one we let get away and he is turning out to be the best of the bunch and the best pro prospect. Drew Gordon's decision to leave might have been for the best -- there were "issues" involved. Screwing over Moser for a season and then letting him transfer was just wrong headed and its only now coming back to haunt us.
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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Gehrig who? Rub some dirt on it, Pipp, and get back out there.
. . .and Dragovic was no Wally Pipp.
I wouldn't place all the blame on Howland
Yes, losing Moser was/is huge. I wish Howland would’ve tried to keep him here. However, Moser was complaining after just the first few games and was set to transfer until the whole Drew Gordon episode. Moser expected to come in and play right away. That was just unrealistic.
Sorry
Moser hasn’t been the only player who has had rough time with Howland. We now have players’ parents (multiple of them) from the current team (good kids) who are BLASTING Howland for being a jerk. I will not buy this excuse any more. This Moser fiasco is all on Howland. He owns this.
I am coming around to Nestor's way of thinking on this.
It’s not like Coach and his haircut ultimatum to Walton. It’s not even “my way or the highway.” It sounds more like a coach who is unable to see and evaluate what he has, and the best example of this is the Belgrade Bricklayer.
I stopped respecting Howland that year.
It was so obvious to everyone but Howland what a catastrophe the Belgrade Bricklayer was.
by Seth Chandler on Dec 3, 2011 12:49 PM PST up reply actions
Agree
Hindsight is 20/20. Moser was not willing to work and earn his minutes. It’s unfortunate that he transferred out (and I regretted hearing it when the news broke) but he was not reasonable in his expectations.
There are other fair criticisms of CBH but I don’t think this is one of them, especially since no one put up a fuss when he did transfer.
by Lifelong Bruin Fan on Dec 3, 2011 9:31 AM PST up reply actions
actually we did make a big issue out of it
When Howland ran Moser out. You weren’t paying attention.
by Nestor on Dec 3, 2011 9:51 AM PST via mobile up reply actions
Its time for Ben to go.
Ben Howland needs to be fired. He really holds the program back from being as great as it once was.There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have won at least 1 national championship after 3 back to back appearances in the final 4.The 08 team was full of talent but he failed to utilized them to their fullest potential. I was so pissed watching that UNC/UNLV game. It sucks seeing players that should be Bruins play great against the #1 team in the nation. With the way our current team is playing,we desperately need a player like Mosner. There’s a reason why our best player are ready to get out of Howland’s program the first chance they get. It shouldn’t be hard to get player to want to stay in beautiful California but Howland finds a way to chase them away. I can understand a coach playing favorites with his best player or players but what kind of coach plays favorites with players who bring nothing to the team.
if only it was just
the lack of a national championship…sadly the issues run much deeper than that.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
by tasser10 on Dec 2, 2011 2:39 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
Don't forget Chace Stanback
Stanback in the against UNC: 28 points, 10 rebounds
Against Santa Barbara: 19 points, 6 rebounds
The Dragovic part alone is PAINFUL, but seeing how UNLV can play both Stanback and Moser and seeing them tear up UNC is simply inexcusable
I agree on Gordon going was probably for the best… but Moser AND Stanback? That’s on Howland. Plain and simple
even worse
making Stanback go so he could get Bobo…oh the horror.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
by tasser10 on Dec 2, 2011 2:41 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
at the time we were short on genuine bigs...
PAA was the only returning center, with Gordon coming in as a power forward. Meanwhile we had Josh Shipp and Mike Roll as potential 3s, and three guards in the incoming class to join DC. On paper it made sense, but was an epic fail in actuality.
Seeing Moser as a swingman I thought it was right he might not get so much time – but thinking about him as a 4, and seeing how he has developed, also adds to the epic failure. I defended Howland on that originally because I didn’t see him as a 4. But given our current group I guess he would still have been playing the 3 (instead of the DWear experiment…)
We need shooters
We could most definitely used Chace Stanback’s shooting right now. We don’t have any shooter and Chace was lighting UNC up from the 3pt line. Tyler Lamb has improved his shooting from last year but I wouldn’t label him as shooter. My friend is a UNC fanatic and is always bragging on them,so I was happy to see them lose but I was sad to see 2 former Bruins being 2 of the main reasons why they lost.
Stanback would have graduated last year, so no help now
But he might have come in handy at times during the last 2 seasons.
formerly bruinhoo
Recruiting
Some of our recruits look like our staff took a page out of Harrick’s recruiting of Brandon Lloyd via his video at the time. Lloyd’s claim to fame was a nice shot of him crying while walking off the court in UCLA’s back door loss to Princeton in the 1st round. MMoser and Stanback are huge fails for us not keeping. Recruiting sub par players and letting good ones go…..
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