Bruin Bites: Powell's Potential, Josh's Turnaround, Dixon Leans on Ben, and Four More Bruins Drafted
by Bellerophon on Jan 18, 2012 3:00 PM PST
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It's Wednesday, so we're a day away from Ben Howland's squad going back to work against the Oregon schools, starting with the Beavers tomorrow night and the Ducks on Saturday, and we're halfway through the work week on our way to the weekend. Obviously, the big news has been around Jim Mora's program, which has been on fire on the recruiting trail the last few weeks, snapping up Ellis McCarthy, T.J. Millweard, Colby Cyburt, Christian Powell, and Fabian Moreau, all within the last week.
But, let's take a step away from football (which we'll continue to update as things develop) just for a minute and let's take a look at the bits and pieces of news from around the UCLA-iverse for the middle of the work week:
- Starting with baseball, UCLA commit Luke Persico, an outstanding junior infielder who hit .395 last season, is being moved from the infield to center field for Newhall Hart High. Persico, a versatile multi-tool guy is expected to make a seamless transition to center field, per his current coach.
- Speaking of recruits, super-stud basketball recruit Kyle Anderson was profiled by Erik Gallant at MassLive.com, who recapped Anderson's performance on Monday's game in the Hoophall Classic (18 points, 10 rebounds, having shot 8 for 11 and 1 for 1 from downtown). Of course, Kyle was matched up against UCLA target Tony Parker for most of the game, so hopefully Kyle was putting in some recruiting work for Howland.
- Turning to current UCLA big man Josh Smith, ESPN's Peter Yoon (one of the few good regular writers employed by WWL) took a look at Smith's self-admittedly disappointing start to the season and points out a variety of factors he believes show that Smith is turning around his season, which could produce big results for UCLA, especially down the homestretch. Yoon gathers a handful of quotes from fellow Bruins, including Jerime Anderson and Travis Wear on Smith's turnaround.
- Meanwhile, Jon Gold hit on similar notes, talking about freshman guard Norman Powell high-flying potential and Howland's reluctance to utilize freshmen. Gold has a couple of quotes from Howland on Powell, as well as notes on the Wear twins and Smith's (hopefully) soon-to-come breakout.
- Speaking of Howland, ESPN took quick note of the close relationship that Howland still has with his former assistant and current Pitt head coach, Jamie Dixon. Dixon, currently going through a very disappointing season (nearly as disappointing as UCLA's), apparently has a lot of conversations with Howland about weathering the poor year.
- Finally on Howland, the L.A. Times has a run-down of all the current Howland-coached Bruins in the NBA, with a lot of great quotes from those Bruins about the important lessons they learned from Howland, with quotes from AA, LRMAM, DC, KL all about the toughness and mental discipline they got from Howland's coaching. So, Shabazz, if you're reading this, maybe you should take note: NBA front office guys and scouts are taking note of the kind of player Howland produces: guys who understand the game, who are mentally tough, and who pay attention to detail, and thus, able to earn minutes and playing time as rookies.
- Turning to our men's soccer team, following (sort of) in the footsteps of their teammates Chandler Hoffman and Kelyn Rowe (sort of), four Bruins were drafted in the MLS supplemental draft, with Andy Rose going to Real Salt Lake, followed by Shawn Singh to Sporting Kansas City, Eder Arreola going to the Houston Dynamo, with Brian Rowe going to Chivas USA to close out a busy draft for the Bruins.
- Finally, on the academic side of the university, Mitsue Yokota, a career advisor and program coordinator at the David Geffen School of Medicine earned national recognition from the Associate of American Medical Colleges for her outstanding Career Development Month programs at the medical school. Oh, and not only does she work at UCLA, she's an alum as well (Class of 1998), so congrats to Mitsue!
Alright folks, those are your mid-week edition of Bruin Bites as we count down the days until the weekend. Fire away with your thoughts, additions, and comments in the thread.
GO BRUINS
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Kyle Anderson is already a very good Bruin
In addition to his sizable athletic talent, he also tweets all the time to guys like Shabazz and Tony Parker encouraging them to come to UCLA. He is working hard for UCLA off the court.
Persico
is making the move to centerfield to open up a spot at shortstop for Nicky Valaika, the brother of current UCLA shortstop Pat Valaika.
Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I tweeted my followers to ask which I should take
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Jan 18, 2012 3:22 PM PST reply actions
Interesting that Howland gave Powell 21 minutes vs ASU
after, as Jon Gold notes, “four straight off-nights”, in which he had gone 4-22.
Fundamentally, with De’End now out and the DWear-at-3 experiment mostly a failure, Powell is going to get significant play, unless we have the good fortune to play against a team featuring a wing unathletic enough for DWear to guard. With 120 minutes of PG/SG/SF to distribute mostly across Zeek, Jerime, Tyler and Norman, you’re probably looking at something like 34-34-30-22, with maybe even a few more for Norman if CBH wants to limit Zeek and Jerime’s minutes closer to 32.
On Smith nonchalant way of doing things...
He would be a lottery pick if he ever did get in shape… it’s kinda “I am working on it” Smith says… he needs to stop being so nonchalant about why he sucks right now… and just say I am overweight and I need to not be not overweight in order to DOMINATE!… I am liking his progress but I shouldn’t be talking about his progress in weight just about how sad I would be when he goes to the NBA and how UCLA is now in the Top 10… instead UCLA needs to keep winning games to hopefully make the tourney or else Howland might be fired and Shabbazz gone…
I am a die hard UCLA fan but I call it like it is… Smith… MAN UP or we will lose tourney chances, our coach and the #1 recruit in the nation!
LOL
So you copy and paste your own comment into ESPN? Or vice versa? That’s cool…i guess you really mean it.
I wouldn’t really say that he “sucks” right now, anyway…
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
I'm just annoyed he showed up fat this year.
There is simply no excuse for that. It shows a complete lack of respect for your teammates, your coach, your school and yourself. And I haven’t seen a mea culpa. Too bad to have so much and not use it properly.
Utterly none, if you asked me.
Basketball requires agility, swiftness and for center position, vertical leaping skills, quick lateral moves besides exhibiting a good shooting touch, the power to pivot, etc. Having a healthy weight to go along with one’s height to play the position well is different than to say he has the potentials to play well because of his huge defensive linesman’s physique.
This is not football tackling or blocking we are talking about.
To say it makes him difficult to guard underneath the basket, when he only has one dimensional offensive skill to speak of is merely addressing the problems by simplifying the solutions.
A capable center does ten times more in various areas than Smith did so far. If I were you, I’d twitter the comments to him. I wouldn’t mind he read mine.
I think
you guys put too much blame on Josh and not enough on CBH et al. if I were his coach I would have been on his ass all summer and called his parents, his friends, his mailman, whomever, and told them to get on his case. I would have flown out to see him and gotten on his case. When a player is such a big cog on your team, you don’t just let him go home scot-free when it’s clear he has weight issues.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Will be very interested to see the rules...
As I recall, I heard Howland say he wasn’t allowed to even watch his players over summer.
I'm sure there are ways to get through to him
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
+1
I completely agree that Howland is very much to blame. It’s his program and he allows fat Smith to get away with it.
This isn't elementary school...
Smith needs to take responsibility for his basketball and physical shape on his own. He should be coming into the season at near top shape, like his teammates. As far as I am concerned, he let them down and has significantly contributed to the possibility of no post season dancing.
Does someone get on him to study for exams?
He should prepare for exams and basketball with equal verve.
My gosh, he’s within two years of getting to the top level of sports, the professional ranks.
Nope, no coddling and no trophies for just showing up.
Basketball Recruits pay attention
If you want to eventually play in the NBA – your best chance will be with Howland. It’s well known among the GMs that coming out of UCLA, under CBH, you are going to be ready to play and be a step or two ahead of other rookies. So if you’re an expected elite top 3 pick, playing under CBH will probably get you the #1 spot, because the GMs know that you’ve been so well coached. Even if you’re a borderline talent to even make it to the NBA. Just knowing that you played under CBH will likely get you selected in the 2nd round. A GM who is going to take a chance on a player in the 2nd round will go for the guy who has been coached well.
Bottom line – any recruit who has serious NBA aspirations is best served playing and learning from CBH.
I seriously wonder
what will happen to our top two recruits should that happen
Great ! So when Howlands leaves, then our super rich alums can put together
a billion plus package to bring in coach K . Now this is progress, instant winning gambit of the first order.
No, I am just kidding but I seriously doubt if we would miss the tournament this year, unless the team suddenly takes a nosedive for any reason unforseen. As long as it makes progress with every game, win or lose, and play competitively on the road or at home. The results will show.
It is still nowhere near Neuheisel’s calamitous status that forced the administration’s hand.
Not quite
We can’t just “be competitive” and “make progress every game” if we want to make the tourney. The only way we get in is either by winning the conference or winning the tournament. We are pretty far from being even a bubble team at the moment.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Seriously
People, we’re UCLA, not fucking middle-of-the-road Pac-12 program.
Only national title banners hang from our rafters, so feeling good about being “competitive” in one of the weakest conferences in the country (at the moment) is just pathetic.
by Bellerophon on Jan 18, 2012 11:57 PM PST up reply actions
Yep
We have to be near perfect (2 or 3 losses for the rest of the season) and still need help. The early season blew out any cushion. It is true we are making progress and playing better BUT where we started was really bad.
yup
not only our early season, but also the early season of our conference…
by VeniceBruin on Jan 19, 2012 11:49 AM PST up reply actions
I predict this team will regress and not make the tournament
This team lacks discipline and heart in combination with a lack of talent and coaching. I am sorry but Howland has to go. It’s his mess. He needs to own it.
This weekend should be telling
On your prediction. Lack of talent? I do agree with you on not being disciplined as a team, but they have shown improvement each week, the problem is the competition has been below average to be kind. This weekend should tell us what we need to know. A sweep is in order.
DGB
by westwood12003 on Jan 18, 2012 11:46 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
I don't think we will regress
I don’t think it lacks discipline (with one exception) and I think the X and O coaching is good. The question is talent.
We have enough talent in this team to win the Pac-12
and be a tournament team. Talent will not be an excuse. And if it is used as an excuse that will be an indictment against Howland.
I agree on the latter
That a UCLA team does not have enough talent is on CBH. Not just for the obvious reasons,but for less obvious reasons such as the transfers. Moser is a Wooden Award finalist, why was Drago played over him and Moser not even given a chance. Carlino is averaging 5 assists and almost 15 points (shooting 47% from three) a game, why was he not used last year as the backup guard over Anderson, who is just as limited athletically but in four years has never put up numbers like Carlino?
I could go on, but CBH must win because this is his mess.
I could have sworn Carlino had a concussion early season then transferred before even seeing the floor
Moser was no where near as conditioned in that year as he is now. Not that it’s an excuse, obviously if he stuck around and bulked up for a year like he did while red shirting at UNLV, he would probably be exploding here at UCLA as well. But clearly he saw that Howland plays favorites and the risk was too high.
I think both felt they weren't get a chance
They are very different cases. Carlino only played in an exhibition. Carlino did have a concussion like you said BUT he was ready to play the last few games he was not used. He transferred after the Montana loss, when although UCLA was desperate for a solution, he did not play.
Moser was playing the three more for CBH. He is a 4. Also, he was not playing the three much. He got a few minutes and none at the four.
I'm not much of an expert
and I didn’t sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
But I think it takes a pretty rare athlete to play the 3 and 4 well. LRMAM is the only guy I can recall doing that. What I don’t get is why Howland insists on playing guys out of position. Some is out of necessity, but it just doesn’t work. Wear at 3, Moser at 3, Holiday at 2, and some others that I can’t recall. Maybe I’m reading too much into it.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Yep Although
I think Honeycutt was pretty good at 4 and 3. Actually I liked him better at 4, he just looked too skinny. At 3 he was too often THTO but that was his “natural” spot.
But your point is well taken and the David Wear at three experiment killed us early this year.
Reeves and Smith are the discipline problems.
All the others have struggled to learn a zone and can’t run an offense. Of course, Howland shares the blame for that.
Reeves is gone
I wouldn’t say Smith lacks discipline so much as motivation. He’s getting his focus back hopefully.
I really don’t think we’ll regress, particularly as Powell gets more playing time. The Wears have started showing me something but I’m still on the fence. I think this team has already played its worst game.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
sports
The scratch balances a prerequisite dentist above the universe. Sports smiles a forbidding sack. Any recreational circular holds a sect. Sports ducks across an inconsistent console. Why can’t a surprise emerge outside sports?
by wilimasmanimm@gmail.com on Feb 9, 2012 2:36 AM PST reply actions
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