Bruin Bites: Wooden's Worldwide Effect, Follow-Up on Japanese Garden, and Shaq Recruiting Profile

UCLA can make a lot more money by getting rid of DG, hire a competent AD, promote the UCLA brand. Donations and sales will skyrocket if you have two winning and successful revenue sports programs.
The money generated from the one time sale of the Japanese garden is tiny compared to potential money that can be generated from above scenario.
UCLA is in dysfunction just like the state of California run by a bunch of buffoons.

I have to say, you guys are idiots. Howland is a great coach. As someone who grew up in the stands, while coach Wooden was coaching his final teams, Howland is the first coach to come along in decades to earn his place in history. Obviously, you people think it is easy to win a National Championship (and I beg you to try, rather than just harp and whine from the sidelines). You were wrong about Mora and you are wrong about Howland.

Howland is learning…his first teams were composed of scrappers the kind of which he coached at Pitt. He was successful but couldn’t seal the deal with the talent that he had. And he was obstinate. After three final fours, he started to attract star power that could win a National Championship if it would just stick around for more than a year — as well as more than a few who signed on just for the promise of an NBA paycheck. The thing I love about Howland is he adjusts…he hates the zone but he will try it, he asks the players what they want to do on offense, he hires a coach from the AAU to help him with recruiting. He wants to win. As most of you silly back seat drivers have stated, there is “something” about a UCLA player in the NBA. Duh. They were well coached. Good but not great. You guys are idiots. Howland will make the leap. He will learn how to coach the kind of star talent the Bruins are finally landing after so many years adrift. And when they do, and Howland succeeds, I hope every one of you apologize to the true Bruin faithful out there. Probably, though, you will just try to couch your humbling as some kind of “told you so” with caveats because you all think you’re a bunch of sport geniuses.

Now, for Mora. I was up here the one season he coached the Seahawks. He was a disaster. Abrasive, domineering, paternalistic…just write for a UCLA team without any sort of discipline. He was a disaster for the pros, because those were men he was trying to coach, but he will be a success with kids, because they are all looking for some kind of male role model…a father figure. I hope he succeeds and I hope he never reads your blog, because he would probably become either disgusted at your ass-kissery for success or constant whining at everything else.

I realize I will probably be banished from further comments on your blog at this point (and why it is your blog, and not all Bruins’ is a mystery to me) because you cannot handle any sort of criticism, but so be it. If you were truly representative of the UCLA fan base, I cannot think of a coach in the nation that would want to win anything for you. Heck, Wooden himself would be completely disheartened at your lack of knowledge of what it takes to be a winner, to climb the pyramid of success. You obviously think a winner can just be bought off a shelf, that it doesn’t take years of learning how to win with the talent you get in the atmosphere that is today’s college sports. If that were the case, wouldn’t every team simply buy that coach and team and no one would be a loser?

Anyway…this year, in terms of winning it all, has obviously been a disappointment, but in terms of watching a coach adjust with his team, learn how to make them winners, deal with adversity, teach them the fundamentals, and make the kids believe in themselves, it has been thrilling. Not talking moral victories here, talking life. What Coach would have talked about. You do his a disservice acting like what he did — his accomplishments — were so easy they could be replicated by anyone at any time.

And I am beginning to doubt that Howland is capable of re-generating the run that he had from 05-08 at UCLA. I think that he is a very good coach who has lost his recruiting edge and, for a variety of reasons, it is much more difficult for him to recruit top players to UCLA. I still think he would be a championship caliber coach at another top school and am not throwing in the towel on him just yet as UCLA’s coach.

However, to compare Howland to Tedford and say that he is a “good, but not great coach, who can build excitement, but never get to the top” is insane. Really? He can never get to the top? He was one win away in 2006 and two wins away in 2007 and 2008- but I guess it was impossible to win those games from the beginning because Howland was coaching. You replay the 2006 title game and the 2007 and 2008 Final Fours ten times and UCLA comes away with several titles.

that back then the players were responsible for the success, not the coach, but now we have the talent, but the coach is failing them by not coaching them up.

The BRO Tracy Pierson article gives a lot of credit to Howland for getting this bunch to buy into Howland’s offense and executing it properly so as to produce the results we saw Saturday. Of course, time will tell if this ‘buy’/execution continues.

And, I agree, Tedford is no comparison to Howland. Tedford never came close to final fours or a championship game as Howland did.

You hit it right on the head.

That is EXACTLY , ABSOLUTELY, UNDENIABLY the biggest problem of Ben Howland’s coaching style. This is a malignancy he incubated himself, and only he can find a cure too.

Please, fax it in boldfaced version to his office, for his eyes only.

Tracy seems to like Howland’s approach. Some quotes from his article, which I assume is OK to do.

“…this is perhaps the best UCLA team at executing Ben Howland’s offense…”

“…how many assists to made baskets – reflective of how the offense isn’t dependent on players going one-on-one but is getting its points through execution…”

“Jones has really grown into a good player, being smart enough to minimize his weaknesses by buying in and allowing Howland’s offense to boost what he naturally doesn’t do well.”

“Anderson, while he has a better natural feel and vision for the game, still has had a history of poor decisions, and Howland’s offense has been the perfect vehicle for keeping Anderson under control.”

“Anderson, Lamb and Jones have now become so experienced within Howland’s offense they’re starting to find open second, third, and even fourth options.”

“For Howland’s offense to work as well as it has at times this season, it’s completely dependent on its bigs executing precisely,…and the Wears are very precise in their execution”

“…the Wears are moving without the ball exactly where Howland wants them to, and it makes for a well-designed play, with many options just about every time down the court.”

“At the beginning of the season, Jones wasn’t buying in, the Wears were getting acclimated and no one on the team really knew their role, especially with the Reeves Nelson distraction. "

“And give Howland a great amount of credit for not only conceiving of the offense, but getting these five to buy in and stay focused in executing it. "

“It’s a matter that the personnel on this team, while it lacks a high degree of talent and athleticism, is a perfect match for Howland’s structured offense, moreso than any he’s coached at UCLA.”