Basketball
UCLA vs. Concordia: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
by Ryan Rosenblatt on Nov 4, 2009 11:34 PM PST
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40 comments
Ouch. That was ugly. I think we were all braced for an up and down season with inconsistencies, poor performances and plays that make you scratch your head, but needing a late three to top Concordia by one in an exhibition game? I don't think anyone expected that. UCLA has a lot to fix, from the coaches on down to the players and getting Michael Roll, Jerime Andersen and Brendan Lane won't be enough, although it will most definitely help.
The Good
James Keefe- In my opinion, Keefe was the Bruins' best player on the night. He knocked down a couple threes, was sound on his rotations and was strong on the boards, not just getting rebounds himself, but also boxing people out so teammates could rebound. This senior came to play and while he wasn't spectacular, he was solid all the way around and was a stabilizing force on a team that clearly lacked stability. It was nice to see one guy out there that you knew what you were going to get from him and it was clear from the opening tip who the senior on the court was.
Drew Gordon- He led UCLA in scoring with 17 on 8-11 shooting and was also the Bruins' top rebounder with 11. Gordon showed a much improved outside shot and feel for the game, jumping some passing lanes and even delivering some outstanding passes. He was very active and was able to get a tip to some rebounds, keeping them alive for others. While Gordon still have moments where he is out of control, I think that he was better than he was last season. He will always be a bit out of control, but that is okay because it will play him into as many plays as it plays him out of.
Pac-10 Logo- The John and Nell Wooden Court now has a Pac-10 logo out of bounds along the baseline. I assume that this will be on the floor of every Pac-10 school and I'm glad. While I don't think it looks great, it's a step in the right direction for the conference. Having the logo on the court gives the conference some brand recognition and helps to promote the conference, something other conferences have been doing for years, but the Pac-10 has been well behind on. New commissioner Larry Scott has the right idea and is moving in the right direction, even if the look isn't the greatest.
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Center Court: Ben Ball (Concordia) Second Half Thread
by Nestor on Nov 4, 2009 8:28 PM PST
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288 comments
Ben Ball warriors are off to somewhat of a predictable sloppy start breaking in brand new starters and missing three of their key players to start the season. They are down by a score of 28-31 against a Concordia team which is treating this matchup as the game of their lives. Turnovers have been killing us a bit as we have coughed it up around 10 times.
The key for us in the second half is going to be tightening up on defense and attack the rim on offense. We have to take advantage of our size and not settle for jump shots.Our perimeter defense looks a little leaky (guess somewhat expected with all the new guys who are getting used to playing Ben Ball defense). Guys will have to focus and pick up their intensity level lot higher.
RN looks like a polished version of LMR from his freshman season. But guys ... come on ... let's make some FTs. Let's start threading for the second half.
GO BRUINS.
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Center Court: Ben Ball (Concordia) Open Thread
by Nestor on Nov 4, 2009 7:00 PM PST
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183 comments
Here we go. DG and rest of the Ben Ball warriors will lift off tonight in the season's exhibition game.
BTW this thread gave me an excuse to look back the kind of post/thread we were putting up when we got this community started. It's always kind of fun to look back to get a sense of how much this place has grown over the years. So yeah, if you are interested check out the "game thread/post" for the season opening exhibition game against Carleton College we put up 4 years ago today. Yes, we had three comments! One of them happens to be from yours truly. Three final fours later things have changed. Just a little.
Anyway, for tonight you should know by now that the game is not televised. UCLA All-Access will carry this game online. You can get more details here. Earlier today I posted some game notes which you can read up on here. Also, if you haven't done it, you should think about downloading this year's media guide via the official site.
So let's get this party started. If you are watching the game on your computers tonight, share your first takes, impression on our Ben Ball warriors right here on BN. We would also love to hear your takes on the new kids if you are logging on after coming back from the game.
Fire away.
GO BRUINS.
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Ben Ball Roundup: 2009 Pac-10 Media Day Notes
by Nestor on Oct 29, 2009 7:00 PM PDT
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7 comments
Lets pile on some more Ben Ball notes to add to the fanpost bruinponcho put up earlier today. Poncho posted some injury updates (all good news) and info on the first ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll of the season. Bruins are ranked number 29 which I don't think is too far off. If I were to rank us in a pre-season poll, I think even without the injuries I would have had us somewhere in the top-30 because of the obvious lack of experience in our roster. So our ranking sounds just about right.
Meanwhile, the Pac-10 held its annual pre-season media day today at the LAX Hilton. Nothing earth shattering came out of that gathering of conference coaches. Coach Howland went to the shindig and took MR along with him to represent the four letters. To no one's surprise media covering the conference picked California to finish first in the conference. Cal got 25 of 37 first-place votes. Washington, the defending conference champion was picked to finish second, receiving 7 first-place votes. UCLA came in 3rd as the Ben Ball warriors received the remaining five first-place votes in the preseason poll. For more on the media day check the notes on the official site.
The most exciting thing about the Pac-10 media day means our first game is less than a week away. Our guys take on Concordia University (guess it is somewhere in Irvine) in an exhibition game game on Wednesday, Nov. 4. Game time in UCLA's Pauley Pavilion is set for 7:30 p.m. Those of you who are lucky enough to go down to Howlandwood, will get to check out RN and rest of the freshmen for the first time in UCLA uniform. I have some more notes on those guys after the jump.
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Appreciating The Caretaker Of Westwood
by Nestor on Oct 20, 2009 3:42 PM PDT
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9 comments
Let's go with another basketball post right now. I'd like to wash away the bad taste in everyone's mouth from reading the last post on the lizard of Westwood by sharing a quick note on the Caretaker of Westwood. Plus this will drive home the point on how much we need to appreciate Coach Ben Howland, here is little something excerpted on UCLA's official blog.
Daven Harmeling, the former sharp shooter for Washington State Cougars, who played a nice role in those Tony Bennet coached squad that would always play our guys tough, wrote the following about about Ben Howland (emphasis added):
"We all know UCLA has been the breeding grounds for NBA draft picks: Farmar, Hollins, Afflalo, Collison, Mbah-a-Moute, Westbrook, Love, Holiday, etc. But I would argue that their talent is item 1B in terms of what has led them to three Final Fours in four years. Item 1A? Head coach Ben Howland. With all due respect to other great coaches in the country, Howland is the best there is. What makes him the best? His teams always come prepared and they always play with passion. But the most important thing is detail. Howland preaches minute detail that most coaches overlook. And when Howland preaches detail, his players listen and respond. Talent obviously helps, but I believe no other coach in the country could have taken those UCLA teams to three-straight Final Fours. And for that reason, I purposely am not even mentioning any current players' names in this article. Because for me, UCLA is all about Howland. And while they don't have the talent in my mind to compete for the Pac-10 title this season, they do have Howland. If I were a betting man -- which I am -- I would never bet against Howland to exceed expectations."
Harmeling wrote that as a part of Cougfan.com's look at the Pac-10 race for 2009-10 basketball season.
Just gives us more perspective on how fortunate we are to have Ben Howland after spending 7 years under the Blagojevich Of College Hoops.
GO BRUINS.
9 comments | 1 recs |
Steve Lavin Lies So Effortlessly About His UCLA "Experience" As A "Coach"
by Nestor on Oct 20, 2009 2:10 PM PDT
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32 comments
I don't think we need to expand and lay out why Steve Lavin is a joke (or why we have dubbed him the Blagojevich Of College Hoops) as a "coach" and insult to the legacy of UCLA basketball. However, what amazes me still is he how can continue to BS and more disturbingly just lie so effortlessly about his time at UCLA.
Case in point check out this cringing interview that just went up on Washington Huskies's Dawg Blog in which Husky senior Quincy Pondexter interviewed the ESPN's in house gasbag clown (guess they are grooming him to be Duke Vitale's heir apparent).
Per the Dawg Blog the inteview "turned into a great 3 1/2 minute segment that had Pondexter and Lavin joking with each other and then coach Lorenzo Romar." The result is something pretty cringe worthy as you might expect:
The Flip Side: Quincy Pondexter Interviews Steve Lavin (via UWAthletics)
Hmm I tried to watch it and then almost threw up at the point when Lavin started BSing how "if he had recruited Pondexter out of Fresno, he still might be working at Westwood."Guess what he actually said with a straight face about why he missed out on recruiting talents such as Poindexter to UCLA :
I always missed out on players ... Too much talent. Not enough scholarships to go around.
Yeah, this is from the same guy who lived Coach Ben Howland with a roster with which he ended up having to give substantial minutes to Janou Roubin, Kon Crispin, Josiah Johnson and Ryan Walcott. Should I even bring up how he was playing "talents" such as Sean Farnham and Rico Hines while wasting NBA talents such as Matt Barnes on the bench?
Yet he is out there BSing about missing out on players because he didn't have enough scholarships to recruit talent into Westwood. Just how pathologically shameless an individual can get? I don't get why a scumbag like this fraud is sometimes allowed near functions associated with UCLA or even back inside Pauley.
GO BRUINS.
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More Thoughts (And Questions) On The Upcoming Ben Ball Season
by Nestor on Oct 15, 2009 11:01 PM PDT
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5 comments
Let's continue with the story lines on the Ben Ball warriors coming out of Media Day. One thing I am already liking about this upcoming season is the absence of incessant chatter from the local (and national media) driving the narrative that UCLA basketball season is a bust if there is no Pac-10 championship or drive towards the Final-4. Don't get me wrong. I want the Bruins to win the Pac-10 title every season and make a hard charge to the Final 4 (and banner number 12 and beyond) in every post season. However, the reality - especially in today's world of one and done ballers - it is not going to happen every year and there will be times when the Bruins will be in semi-rebuilding and reloading mode.
Well this is one of those years during which observers both inside and outside the BN are not going to expect a lot out of UCLA in terms of conference championships or deep run in the Dance, but we do have a team that has the potential to develop into something fun to watch and achieve a result somewhere in between what Howland accomplished between his second and third season at UCLA (something beyond just a 1st round tourney team but not necessarily a Final-4/Pac-10 championship team). Where the Bruins end up will depend on number of factors.
We will have to find out what kind of transition JA makes as the full time floor general replacing DC (who made a fantastic transition taking over for JF). From the LA Times:
Anderson expected to be a factor last season but got boxed out by Collison's decision to remain in school one more year. As a result, he played only 8.6 minutes a game.
The sophomore is eager to make up for lost time. "I definitely know how to run a team," he said. "This year, I'm going to be allowed to do that."
From what I saw in JA last year I saw a kid who certainly has the tools to become a good floor general and get the ball to his talented team-mates. However, the question I have in mind is his defensive mindset. How good and aggressive will he be defensively and generate pressure on the opposing guard. He did struggle at times during last season. For some reason I have bad memories from the Wasington game at Pauley (even though we won that game) of moments when DC left the court. I am hopeful that JA is going to grow into his new role and get to work out the kinks during the non conference. He will get to do that against very tough competition which will include dates with the Jayhawks at Pauley and a solid Mississippi State team in the Wooden Class. JA is not the only question mark around this team though. More after the jump.
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Ben Ball Roundup: Video Tribute To Coach And More Notes From UCLA Media Day
by Nestor on Oct 15, 2009 4:53 PM PDT
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1 comment
Let's start with a little video from Coach Howland, his coaches, and our Ben Ball warriors:
Men's Basketball Team's Birthday Tribute to Coach John Wooden (via UCLA)
That should get everyone going. Right?
Well Jon Gold has more fun bites from some of our Ben Ball warriors. I think we discussed at the end of the last season that if there is one guy who has the potential to emerge as the emotional focal point on the court, it would be DG. I thought the comment he made about Trapani in that video above was pretty revealing. He also comes across as someone who will be taking up the leadership role just like AA did vocally very early on during his UCLA career. He sounds fired up about the potential of this young team:
"I wouldn't come here if I didn't think that we had a chance of winning. I have confidence in my freshmen that they are going to step up to the plate. They want to impress Coach Howland, they want to play well for us. We want to play well for them. We want to play well for the seniors, obviously - this is their last year and they want to play well for themselves and us. It's positive energy inside and out."
And kind of being coy about the lowered expectations as a result of the departure of so many Ben Ball veterans this past season:
"This is good for us, it kind of knocks us down a little bit. I guess they were trying to put us on that pedestal after back-to-back-to-back Final Fours. When you get knocked down, the target kind of gets lifted off our backs. It's not us any more. It's good, because we're a sleeper team - we're a lot better than people give us credit for.
"Just because we're young doesn't mean we're not dangerous."
I like the idea of these guys going into this season playing without any sense of pressure yet mindful of what they need to do - in terms of providing maxium effort and energy - to represent well the previous edition of Howland teams at. Little bit more on these guys after the jump.
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