Bruins Fail To Rise To Beavers, Fall 87-84 In Corvallis

I think the Beavers just played a hella game. They made a bunch of prayer shots that I was like wtf. But I think we lost the game at the free-throw line. 33 shots to 12. Wow

- 46 missed shots in this game (25 UCLA, 21 OSU). OSU pulled down 24, UCLA, 21. The Wears and Joshua couldn’t outrebound Eric Moreland and Angus Brandt.

- Poor offensive execution. Unbelievably poor offensive execution. Ball movement pretty much non-existent. Hard to believe Anderson and Zeek actually had 17 assists tonight. Harder to believe OSU’s defense is so bad that UCLA played one-on-one nearly every possession and still managed to shoot 58%.

- Turnovers! OSU played a pretty loose trap but how many of those turnovers were unforced errors?

- UCLA was mangled in the paint and didn’t get any love from the SPTRs. 33 to 12 in FTs attempted? That’s some serious home cooking. Of course, it’d be a moot point if UCLA played any kind of defense whatsoever.

- Zone? Man? Did it matter? OSU shot 58% They took (and scored on) their first look way too many times down the floor.

I applaud the kids’ effort, but the team is mediocre at best. Worse, I’m beginning to think Howland never read Practical Modern Basketball. How else to explain his non-offense and his non-defense and non-rebounding.

Hey, did you see the Cal game? Doh! Wrong sport.

NIT? I think not.

Seemed we lost discipline about midway through the second half, and that led to turnovers and OSU opening up a 10 pt lead. Seemed our execution in half court sets was pretty effective until then.
As for defense, our Man D was barely hanging on, but ultimately could not stay with the quicker athletes. The Wears were exposed. I saw one play down low where Angus Brandt put a modest elbow into a Wear and the twin basically staggered out of bounds and Brandt simply laid it up for two. Weak Wear – hopefully they’ll come back next year with some weight training.
Howland, as many predicted, failed to mix in enough zone to disrupt OSU’s offense.
Lamb continues to disappoint. Jerime Anderson had some hideous finishes – I saw one where he had 2 hands on the ball elevated several feet from the hoop and the shot was short of the the front of the rim by at least a foot (it seemed). Zeke battled, but had his usual number of head scratcher plays.
Powell, unfortunately, got into foul trouble. Not sure why Stover didn’t get a few more minutes. Josh Smith continues to look un-skilled, slow, earthbound and generally ineffective. Starting to think I’d rather see Stover at the 5 with T Wear subbing.
What a year:
- Josh arrives having done nothing about his physical status or his low post skills
- Reeves misbehaves into a dismissal from the team
- Wears have skills, but are athletically limited – need to play both because Smith/Nelson disappoint
- Lamb arrives with his J still broken and his D over-rated
- Jerime is a average pg; Zeek is an overachieving average 2-guard
- Powell is still learning
Man, I hope the Oregon game makes me eat all of the above!

I feel like he is still way too out of shape and we play better when he is not in the game.

(a) that is outhustled;
(b) that is outcoached;
© that has lesser athletes than friggin Oreson State;
(d) that cannot play “fast;”
(e) that has multiple transfers from other teams (while former Bruins flourish on top 25 teams); and
(f) that takes 25 second to get shot off down 9 with 3 minutes to play.

I took a “break” from UCLA basketball after the Cal blowout and, after hearing that the Bruins were playing better after 3 wins, decided to tune in to watch. Big mistake.

They are not worth my time and I am not sure they will be until Howland is gone. It pains me to say that but, even in Howland’s “golden years,” we were oftentimes tough to watch offensively (anyone remember the second round Alabama game in the NCAA tournament???).

At least those guys played awesome D. Now it is matador D since we don’t have athletic players anymore.

Maybe I’ll watch us in the NIT…