Reeves Nelson: Not a Bruin, Just a Classless Jerk
by Bellerophon on Jan 16, 2012 9:32 AM PST
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PrintHmm, someone sounds bitter about not being missed in Westwood:
Congrats to the fam on beating $C. @ YoungChoppz_34 @ LamboMars @ Anth0nySt0ver @ Jay_Bean05 @ Zeek_Jones11 Praise God for the Wears hahahaha not
Real classy Reeves. Not.
Let's see. Ben Howland throws crybaby Reeves Nelson off the team on Dec. 9. Since then, they're 8-2, with the only losses coming on the road to an average Stanford team (the fact they are near the top of the conference tells you how bad the Pac-12 is this year) and a Cal team on its way to the NCAA tournament under Mike Montgomery.
Since Reeves was tossed off the team for being a petulant child, the Wear twins have greatly improved (especially Travis, who has scored 20, 16, and 19 in the last three games, respectively). But most of all, unlike Reeves and his "me-first" attitude, the Wears are doing what Howland wants them to do, not getting in trouble, and not getting suspended for their attitude.
Reeves could have congratulated his friends on the win over hated U$C. Instead, he decided to throw in a shot at the Wears. Is Howland fair in the way he plays them? Maybe not and maybe someone like Brendan Lane should be seeing more time. But that's on Howland, not the Wear twins.
And of course, knowing how classless his Twitter jibe was, he went and deleted it, but not before it made its way around the UCLA blog-osphere. In typical Reeves Nelson fashion, rather than be a man and admit making a mistake and apologizing for it, he simply tries to pretend it never happened. How weak. Chump.
But, are we ever surprised when Reeves does something stupid?
GO BRUINS
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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Nelson
It is on Howland for not reigning him in during his first two seasons. This guy was always a problem on the court (not just off it). He never played defense consistently and never bought into “Ben Ball.” Yet Howland enabled him and played him game after game.
There was a reason I pushed for Lane so hard over Nelson. If Howland went with Lane and gave him the same room to grow on the court like he did with Nelson, we’d have a much different player and team in our hand. Instead Howland went all in with Nelson and it blew up on him this year.
Disagree
When a coach extends an offer to a kid, he’s making a commitment to that player and his family just as much as the player makes a commitment to him. Howland kept up his end of the bargain and gave Reeves every opportunity to grow up and be a successful basketball player. I commend coach for trying to help the kid, but ultimately he had to make the choice he did. Howland fulfilled his commitment to Reeves and his family, then made the best decision for the team – and it’s paid off.
by the blur 98 on Jan 16, 2012 10:15 AM PST up reply actions
Making a committment
Making a commitment doesn’t entail letting a player ruin a program when it was becoming a clear to everyone else. Howland made the same mistake with Nelson as did with Dragovic. His preferential treatment of Nelson was a huge reason why this program was in such screwed up shape at the beginning of this season.
Howland made a commitment to Reeves and his family but that was superceded by the contractual obligations (worth more than well over 2 million per year) to UCLA family of taking care of John Wooden’s basketball program. He didn’t do a good job of it last 3+ years.
It is interesting how reflexively defensive you are about defending coaches making poor decisions. You did it repeatedly during Neuheisel’s closing weeks. It appears you are willing to stretch to defend Howland’s bad decisions as well.
I agree with Nestor
Offerring a scholarship to an athlete does not guarantee playing time. Skill has a lot to do with playing time, but it’s not the only thing. Nelson had a lot of skill, but he also was an ass. He would have been dismissed from a job in the real world long before Coach Howland had endured enough.
I agree with you Fox
Except that college isn’t the real world. Let’s remember these kids are teenagers when they get to school.
And that’s what makes this situation so disappointing. I can only imagine how much of an ass he must have been to get kicked off the team. (Well, actually, thanks to this post I don’t have to imagine.) UCLA grads know he wasted much more than a chance to play basketball. If he were your own child, I’m sure you’d give him more than one opportunity not to throw so much away. That’s the perspective a college coach takes when he sits in a kid’s living room with his parents and offers a scholarship.
Getting kicked off the team was Nelson’s last chance to learn a lesson and still have opportunity. Playing in Lithuania is his last opportunity. Now he’s in the real world.
if indeed the coach has a commitment to the player (nelson in this case)
then doesn’t he have that same commitment to Lane and his family?
He sure does
That’s why Lane is still on the team, practicing every day, and competing for minutes. Like Fox says above, a scholarship doesn’t guarantee playing time.
N,
Do you really believe that Lane would be a quality player had CBH gave him quality minutes early in his career? Not judging, just curious. I saw Lane get his chance against Arizona and consistently get beat off the dribble. I like Lane a lot, think he works extremely hard, but his talent level isn’t the same as the Wear’s or Nelson IMHO.
by Waitingfornumber12 on Jan 16, 2012 10:56 AM PST up reply actions
Yes
Lane would have been a solid player if he had gone to a program like Cal and played for someone like Monty. He has been misused by Howland.
Lane
I’m sure Lane is a good kid and it looks like he works really hard. He just can’t play a lick of defense. Like Waitingfornumber12 said, he is constantly beat off the dribble. Howland sees this every day in practice. He doesn’t have some grudge against Lane. Lane just isn’t good enough offensively to make up for his putrid defense.
by jcgobruins on Jan 16, 2012 7:24 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
Stanback and Moser
Are natural athletes. Lane, not so much. I agree that CBH has screwed up on a lot of players. As far as Lane goes, I don’t see it.
by Waitingfornumber12 on Jan 16, 2012 4:55 PM PST up reply actions
What a child
Nelson should be worried about his own team. The only disappointing thing about his dismissal is that we won’t get to see him set the NCAA record for most dunk attempts blocked in a career.
We are too hard on Nelson
Lithuanian 1 was a MTWThF class at 8am so poor Nelly never made it on time.
Nice.
How come I’m not surprised at cheap shots from Nelson?
Godd riddance to Nelson,..
And thank you for the post. I am enlightened now as to the jealousy issue this kid has with the Wear’s. These kids have all the skills that Reeves wishes he had. The only thing they lack is his tenacity (when his head was screwed on straight) but that is progressing as well. I do like Brendan Lane as a person, classy for sure. However I saw enough of him against Arizona to finally realize that he is simply not good enough to receive quality minutes over the Wear’s and Howland knows it.
+ 1
I saw the same thing with Lane against Arizona. He couldn’t keep anyone in front of him which led to easy buckets.
by Waitingfornumber12 on Jan 16, 2012 10:52 AM PST up reply actions
We can't define a player by one game -- especially one who has not been given an opportunity to grow and develop
Which of the players in our line up has not had a bad game?
In fact, most have had more than one bad game.
But, they’ve been given the minutes to play through and grow.
One valid criticism of CBH is that he does not consistently give the same opportunities to all of his players. Of course, he knows how well they play in practice, when we don’t see them — but both Reeves and Drago were not known as great practice players.
sjh
by Class of 66 on Jan 16, 2012 11:01 AM PST up reply actions
Agreed on not judging based on one game...
My thoughts on Lane are based on my observations on his total body of work and the Arizona game just confirmed it to me. I simply do not see Lane getting a quality minute over either Wear in any situation. As I stated, I really like the kid, but he plays soft and scared for the most part and is out of the rotation for a reason. By the way, good to see CBH out coaching others again. Sans the Cal game, this group has bought in after Nelson’s departure and it is so nice to see.
I just find it ironic that Reeves is celebrating the win against SC
Wasn’t he the one that came out last year with that lame comment how it’s just another game? How it meant more to the alumni than to the players?
I guess now that he is out of the program, he considers himself an alumni and now cares more about the game than he did as a player.
Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. ~ Vince Lombardi
Very sad to see this comment.
He learned nothing from his experience at UCLA. Perhaps in time but I don’t think he’s playing with a full deck. Meanwhile, the Wears can take the high road.
Hail to the Hills of Westwood.
Agree.
Very sad. Always liked the energy of “good” Reeves. Unfortunately, his head does not appear to be screwed on straight.
by orlandobruin on Jan 16, 2012 3:00 PM PST up reply actions
Reeves' personality is his own worst enemy
Not Howland’s inflexible ways, nor jealousy with the Wear’s twins.
I am also surprised he has little, if any coping skills to deal with his own demons nor inclinations to seek help and salvage his UCLA career. He has the focus, plenty of it and over the top determination to compete. That’s a plus for him. Emotionally, he is utterly undisciplined, immature, tempestuous beyond his years.
Again, Howland is not a young, inexperienced coach. Much like Smith’s weigh issue, I cannot understand why such glaring character weakness could have been lost by the recruiting staff, if not Howland himself. But then look how he dealt with Dragovich’s off campus issues. He should have been dismissed too the second time it happened.
Coach used to say to play with intensity not emotion.
The reason is that for every emotional high there is a low that’s at least as deep.
by Seth Chandler on Jan 17, 2012 1:00 AM PST up reply actions
+1,000,000
Or was that too emotional a rating?
by Seth Chandler on Jan 18, 2012 3:27 PM PST up reply actions
Nelson commited before his head started to go south...
Nelson’s HS coach saw it coming on in his senior year, well after committing to the Bruins.
Howland, et al, made the decision to work with Nelson. Personally, I’m proud that Howland gave Nelson more chances than he probably deserved.
And, it must have hard to dismiss Nelson seeing that Howland must have recognized that Nelson had many friendships amongst teammates.
+1 Good Perspective
I don’t fault Howland for trying of for ultimately realizing that Reeves had to go.
I remain saddened by Reeve’s failure to live up to his full potential and for the fact that he will not have a UCLA degree upon which to fall back when basketball is over.
And, as a parent, I feel bad for his parents.
This latest twitter does not bother me any more than everything else stupid he has done. It’s just more of the same.
Maybe, some day, he will grow up.
sjh
Barring any direct evidence to the contrary
I choose to believe that there was no coaching answer for Reeves’ issues and Howland did as much and as well as anyone could to influence his behavior before cutting him loose. I also choose to believe th at CBH was personally pained by this decision, not merely because it could hurt his chances of winning, but because he cared about Reeves, the flawed person. And while I agree with the comment that the coach ultimately has to be responsible to the program, I am sympathetic to his efforts to do what he believes in his heart is right for the individual even if it stressed the program this season. In fact, one could view cbh’s decision to stick with RN beyond what one might consider prudent and risky to his personal standing as laudable.
Hail to the Hills of Westwood.
by Mr. Hilgard on Jan 18, 2012 9:53 AM PST up reply actions 1 recs
Poor Marc Dellins
Does he have to babysit former UCLA student-athletes too?
Dump Dan!
by bruinclassof10 on Jan 16, 2012 3:32 PM PST up reply actions
I didn't realize Lithuanians were so well-informed of UCLA, its players, and their Twitter handles.
by Alanamaslama on Jan 16, 2012 4:41 PM PST up reply actions
Yeah, because so many people are out to hack...
…the Twitter account of a undersized PF who got thrown off his American college team and is playing for some team in Lithuania.
And, naturally, said hacker knew to bash on the Wear brothers. Riiiiiiiight.
Its a deep rooted conspiracy
For some reason I want to blame Nikola Dragovic
Dump Dan!
by bruinclassof10 on Jan 16, 2012 6:01 PM PST up reply actions
The brick layer's brother didn't seem to get in the game for the Troylets yesterday.
by BrendonBruin on Jan 16, 2012 6:22 PM PST up reply actions
the belgrade bricklayer
is all you have to say. i cannot bear to see his real name… ugh! 76 classic in anaheim was my worst nightmare ever…
Reeves Nelson is
so last year. Coach Howland tried to help Nelson as best he could, but some kids are just born knuckleheads and refuse to learn and grow up.
didn't i read somewhere that lithuania claims that nelson is a few cm shorter than he claimed?
he appears to be short in character too…
i still remember that freshman game where he got smashed in the eye and it swelled up like rocky. and then he put on the goggles and came back out playing with one eye basically… or the BYU game last year at the wooden classic. that was the good nelson. delete your twitter account reeves so we can cherish the good memories and not be constantly reminded of the not so good…
Reeves Nelson and Bruin shouldn't be usedin the same sentence.
He was given multiple chances.
Good people worked with him on his behalf.
He was given opportunities many others will never get.
He wasted them.
He is no Bruin. Never was and shouldn’t be remembered or mentioned in the same breath.
Enjoy Lithuania, a$$hole!
I believe that Nelson is another example of Howland's weakness as a coach
For whatever reason, he continues to have problems with many different players. After finally eliminating a head case he is struggling to deal with a fatty. He seems to have a difficult time getting his high end players to buy into his system since the initial group left. Players come and go but the coach remains as The Program. I don’t see us as ever being elite as long as Howland is in charge
I'm going to warn you right here
Don’t take pot shots at our players like that. Josh Smith is a good kid and he has done nothing to embarrass his school. His teammates really like him. Yes, he screwed up by not getting in shape, but in the end he is the one who ends up suffering the most from it, it’s his livelihood. Hopefully he has gotten that message now.
It is clear that you have a vendetta against Howland, and it’s not like we are giving him any slack either. But don’t take shots like that at an undeserving player. You can call him out of shape or criticize his weight, but drop the name-calling.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
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