Ben Ball News & Notes

by Nestor on Feb 19, 2008 4:34 AM PST in Basketball

Let’s take look back at Sunday night’s game because it provided some encouraging signs as we head into our last 6 regular season game. As we mentioned yesterday Luc’s return had an impact. Kevin Love noticed the difference with Luc’s return to the lineup:

UCLA center Kevin Love said having power forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute back after missing the last two games was a tremendous asset in rebounding. Both players grabbed 10 rebounds and UCLA beat USC in the rebounding department by seven.
"That made it a lot easier,'' Love said. "I don't know what the outcome would have been if we had him in the Washington game, but he came in and played great defense. He got in there and rebounded and scored the ball well with some putbacks."

Another encouraging aspect of Sunday night was our effort in transition defense improved compared to the last time we took on those thugs:

When UCLA and USC met last month at Pauley Pavilion, the Bruins allowed 14 fast-break points. USC rarely had a chance to run in Sunday's rematch. "The one thing we did for sure better was our transition defense,'' Howland said.
"Transition defense was so much better than the first time we played. Very few points were in transition against us."

Again it is laughable how so many in the local media are having a hard time with giving our defensive effort any credit. People are grasping hard for all the excuses they can find about the Trojan injuries and how they are a "young" team even though they are band of misfits and academic rejects are as old if not older than lot of our upperclassmen. These are the same people who haven’t been taking into account how our guys have not been in full health all season as we have had to make do without having 3 out of our top 7 guys out of the lineup through a huge chunk of this season. Whatever.

Yes we still have issues to work through. Thursday night’s game against Oregon State should provide a good opportunity for us to tune up heading into the stretch run. No way we should take Oregon State lightly. However, that game should give an opportunity for players like Stanback, Keefe and maybe even Dragovic to go in and play some solid mins grounded on defense and steady play around the offensive side of the ball. Hope those guys are focusing on their defensive effort in practice this week earning them some PT on Thursday night.

If you are keeping track of rankings we are number 6 in both major polls. Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me having Duke and KU still ahead of us considering they each dropped games this week. But then again lot of these ballots were probably filled out before our late Sunday night game.

As for bracketology and tourney seedings Lunardi has us as number 2 seed out West:

Again for me its still early to get caught up in all this. If we just keep taking care of business on our end and defend our Pac-10 championship, this will shake out in our favor. We just gotta keep improving and polishing up our issues. We will be allright.

GO BRUINS.

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Comments

Core Strength

It was a beautiful sight indeed to see Prince Luc in the starting five. He is a glue guy, and his quiet double-double was critical.

Luc's impact on our team is like working on your core strength in the gym. You might work out a lot, and do a lot of upper-body and leg work. However, if your ignore your abbs, back, and other core muscles, or if they fail you, the other stuff loses its significance.

Luc is core strength, and I love him for that.

I agree with Nestor, its a tad early to get to amped up about our seeding, etc. The bottom line is, we have to win the Pac-10, and beat Stanford. If we do all that, the committee will take care of us.

However, one semi-bad development in my opinion is the Texas resurgance. If Texas and Kansas finish ahead of us in the polls (and more importantly, if the committee thinks they are both better than us), then we could easily have a scenario where we get shipped to a different region. Texas would appreciate the western regional almost as much as us (especially considering Phoenix as the Regional-final site), which means if they are above us, they might get first crack at it.

Anyway, it worries me a bit that we might get shipped out if we don't focus down the stretch. But again, we control our destiny--which is nice.

by rfirpo on Feb 19, 2008 8:30 AM PST reply actions

Why Isn't LMR Getting More Mintues?

Is there something we don't know, like an injury?

In my eyes, he is substantially better than Keefe, Drago, and Stanback -- at this stage of their development and this stage of the season.

When he was getting more minutes, he was playing great D, shooting well, and rebounding tough.

When he was in with KL, his strength and presence were helping free KL from the 3-4 defenders people were throwing at him.

I know everyone says that BH is trying to get K, D, and S some playing time before the tournament so that they can sharpen up, but am I alone in worrying that LMR will get rusty for sitting on the bench so much more?

sjh

PS. I just can't see him in Howland's dog house because there is no player on this team who is more a "prototypical Howland player" than LMR.

What's the deal?

sjh

by Class of 66 on Feb 19, 2008 10:08 AM PST reply actions

LMR's mins

He was around 80 percent when he played against SuC. I am glad CBH is bringing him along slowly. I don't want LMR's long term status to be jeopardized because of forcing him into action too early. Keefe also did all right in his limited mins against the thugs on Sunday night.

by bluestreet on Feb 19, 2008 10:18 AM PST up reply actions

Is he still getting over the concussion?

If that is the case, then I hope Hackett's fracture keeps him out at least as long.

by isodore on Feb 19, 2008 11:11 AM PST up reply actions

Agree

His presence and experience is a key that no opposing coach can ignore. Good point and glad you brought it up.

by brewinz on Feb 19, 2008 11:51 AM PST up reply actions

Not sure if this is old news

But theres a pretty good article about KLove on Rivals.com.

http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=776269

by lolwtferic on Feb 19, 2008 10:36 AM PST reply actions

Great Article

It's the "cover" story on Yahoo Sports as well

by Bruin in Denver on Feb 19, 2008 10:43 AM PST up reply actions

Regional Seeding......

Does any one know how this works? Of course I know we stay if were #1, but what about #2? I saw some mock seedings and they had the #2 coming to Denver (where I live)... is it just random or what?

by Bruin in Denver on Feb 19, 2008 10:45 AM PST reply actions

Top 4 Seeds Stay Home

2 or 3 years ago the NCAA changed its sub-regional placement procedures to allow teams that are seeded in the top 4 in each region to play the first two rounds as close to home as possible. If UCLA does wind up in Denver, it would mean that we dropped way down to a #5, which clearly is not a good thing. We'll very likely be in Anaheim for the first two rounds regardless of the region we are placed in, but we want to remain in the West region because the sweet 16 and elite 8 games would be in Phoenix this year (like San Jose last year and Oakland the year before). Wouldn't it be nice if the Final 4 was ever on the West Coast?!? The last time was in Seattle in 1995 . . . when we won #11.

by charnaw on Feb 19, 2008 12:00 PM PST up reply actions

Technichally not completely true

IIRC, the way it works is that the top 16 are taken as the "head" team of their pod. Then, the pods are placed with the head going to the closest place to them that still had a spot open. If the closest place to the 3rd #1 was also somehow the closest place to the top two #1s, the 3rd team would have to go to the next closest site. That specific scenario isn't really possible, but we could theoretically still get turfed out while still being a top 4 seed.

As for the Final Four never being remotely close, that's one of the great things about the place they just played the Super Bowl in Phoenix. It's new, dome-able, and a football stadium. Pretty much the perfect recipie for a Final Four site.

by jaffa on Feb 19, 2008 8:04 PM PST up reply actions

Possibly Seeding

The game this Saturday between Memphis and Tennessee is really important for the potential seeding of UCLA. All Bruin fans should be rooting hard for Memphis because they have basically already secured themselves a #1 seed and if Tennessee is able to pull off the upset then they will be in the driver's seat for another one of the #1 seeds as well (especially considering how weak the SEC is) with another #1 seed pretty much guaranteed to the winner of the ACC (unless the regular season winner and tournament winner are somehow different) and then final #1 going to the winner of the Big 12(Kansas/Texas) or us. This is why it's so important for us to both win the Pac-10 regular season and conference tourny (like we saw last year). I'm not so worried about Texas stealing a seed out West because they South Regional championship is played in Houston so if they continue to come on strong they will probably end up there. Another good thing about a Tennessee loss is that it would probably drop them below us in the rankings for next week if we take care of business because we would both have three losses so that would give us the advantage going forward. Right now 1 or 2 doesn't really matter as long it is out West because we are going to have to play that corresponding 1 or 2 seed at some point (most likely) in the tournament anyways. I'm also not upset that Duke/Kansas didn't drop below us because they have fewer losses than we do.

by turs12 on Feb 19, 2008 10:47 AM PST reply actions

Win Out and Dont Worry

If we win our last 6 and win the Pac-10 Tourney we will get a #1 in the West. Either Duke or UNC will fall to a #2, and at least somebody else will lose as well. We would end the season on a 10-0 run, which is something the committee values (they check last 10). With wins over Oregon, ASU, AZ, Cal and Stanford our RPI would be in the top 10, and the conference RPI is #1. Also, lets not forget that DG is on the committee as well . . . there's no way we don't get a #1 with 15-17 wins against Top 50 teams, Pac-10 regular and tourney championships, and a 30-3 record. NO WAY!

by charnaw on Feb 19, 2008 12:05 PM PST up reply actions

Sure

Well OF COURSE if we win our last 10 there is no way we're not a #1 seeds but that is a lot of ifs, especially with so many tough games ahead of us. That would also mean that if we were to go on to win it all then we would end the season on a 16 game winning streak which would be pretty epic.

by turs12 on Feb 19, 2008 1:10 PM PST up reply actions

History is on our side

We won our last 17 in 1995. We won our last 15 in 2006 until losing to Florida in the final. These are both realistic goals because our record against our last six opponents is 6-0 already, and 4-6 games are in Pauley.

by charnaw on Feb 19, 2008 1:39 PM PST up reply actions

Great article on front page of Yahoo! Sports

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/news;_ylt=AvkG2x1IbB_e2.f4XVmoymg5nYcB?slug=jn-love021908

100andcounting

by dkao1 on Feb 19, 2008 11:44 AM PST reply actions

A #2 seed in the West wouldn't be bad

Especially since the last two times we were seeded #2 in the West, we ended up in the Final Four. I think if we finish the season strong, take the Pac-10 crown, and do well in the Pac-10 tournament, we should make a strong case for a #1 seed in the West. If we're still #2, I won't be disappointed.

by hspigskinfan on Feb 19, 2008 11:45 AM PST reply actions