It looks like some of the people over here have lost any sense of perspective when they are typing non-sense like we should have blown out Washington. Say what? I was hoping we could eek out a win at Pauley yesterday after losing 4 starters (Ced, Josh, Lorenzo, and now Aboya) in last two weeks against a team that was almost a consensus favorite to win the Pac-10, and here are some who are actually complaining that we didn't blow out Washington.
And then there is the point that somehow Howland got out coached in the second half because he slowed the game down and did not have the team go up and down like it was doing in the first half. People do realize that we lost Aboya in the first half - and until he went down we were handling Washington pretty well. Once Aboya went down of course we didn't get any kind of contribution from the worthless combination of Fellins - that amounted to anything.
If anything Howland needs to get on Jordan for taking more shots. He is playing with a hurt ankle, but given the injury situation of our roster he simply has to take more shots to take on some of the scoring responsibilities in this team, and relieve Aaron who is taking on many with a hip-pointer. Here is BBR:
Arron Afflalo contributed 16 points but on 6-16 shooting. As always, Afflalo was doing triple duty - guarding the opposing team's best player and creating his own shot - all while still recovering from a hip pointer and bruises from a nasty fall last week at Arizona St.
BTW the concern about this team being too complacent is kind of silly. When you consider that Aboya's injury basically meant that we were playing with a six man lineup made up of sophs and freshman, and missed winning this game is remarkable. These are 18-19 year old kids who are carrying the water for a program with no experienced upperclassmen to look up. People ought to look up how UCLA was doing when MacLean and O'Bannon's classes were playing at UCLA as sophomores. Howland is doing a remarkable job given the mash unit he is dealing with this year.
And one more time - it also shows how much douchebag Lavin destroyed this program, when you consider we have nobody above the sophomore class who is worth anything. The buffoon burned the program into the ground - the full effect of which was evident yesterday when Howland called upon Fey and Hollins to fill in for freshmen Aboya.
Lastly, I have not complained about officiating on this blog - because I am basically resigned to the fact of life of having to deal with Pac-10 referees. But yesterday's game was low even for the shitty standard of the Pac-10 officials. It is truly amazing how a major conference tolerates this kind of nonsense. We didn't get a single call in the second half. I am not going to blame the officials for yesterday's loss - but their mendacity sure helped Romar's squealing crew to get a cheap win at Pauley.