ESPN Agrees with Bruins Nation and Some Insight Into Basketball

Bruins Nation called out ESPN and other journalists for bias last week here. To ESPN's Eamonn Brennan's credit, he did something many tradmed reporters never do: admit they were wrong:

It's possible many of us have overrated the impact the Wears will have, or focused a bit too much on the results of their dual transfer in a news-bereft offseason. The UCLA partisans at Bruins Nation (somewhat cattily) make this argument here, and they're right: Right now, the Wears are backup forwards. That's it.

BN catty?  Never.  But seriously, trust me few journalists would ever admit that someone was right when criticizing them.  Major Kudos to Eamonn for doing so. 

Eamonn's  other observations are worth noting as well (emphasis mine). 

Which is why it would be so nice if David and Travis Wear were not 6-foot-9, 220-pound power forwards but rather 6-4, 180-pound combo guards. Because what UCLA needs is guards. . . .  They have to find someone in the backcourt that can occasionally hit an open 3. (In 2011, the Bruins shot 32.6 percent from beyond the arc, which ranked No. 253 in the country.) . . .Perhaps most importantly, they have to find backcourt players that can initiate the offense in ways that maximize Smith and Nelson's respective abilities.

That is UCLA season next year in a nutshell.  We will have a great front court, maybe the best in the nation.  But this is nail biting time when discussing the back court.  I would so much rather have the Wears be combo guards as we know they were solid in limited minutes at NC.  Powell is a highly rated incoming freshman and Parker is a top JC recruit.  We can talk all we want about them now but we don’t know for sure what will happen once they play against big time D 1 teams.

Eamonn’s second point in the quote above is worth mentioning as well.  We may have lost our best returning three-point shooter by percentage in Anderson and we definitely lost our leader last season in three point makes in Tyler Honeycutt.  While I have a lot of faith in the ability of an uninjured Jones to improve his three point percentage, Tyler Lamb, a decent bet to start at the 2 guard, only shot 20% from three.  Lamb’s percentage was second worse on the team to Reeves "please remember you are a 4" Nelson of players on the team to make a three last year.  While Nelson and Josh Smith will no doubt take care of the inside, who will take care of the outside on offense besides Jones?   

Eamonn is a good reporter who analyzed a lot of things very well but again even he needs to read more BN because he is guilty of falling a bit for spin for he also writes:

 The Bruins have to find a way to replace Malcolm Lee's capable point guard play.

Ah Eamonn you hit the nail on the head for this season but only non-west coast sources don’t realize that Malcom Lee played 0 minutes at PG last year.  Lee began an effort to label himself as a PG or combo guard for the draft in light of concerns for his outside shooting as a 2.  Like a lot of journalists, you bought the spin.   Keep reading BruinsNation and you won’t need the spin.   

Go Bruins