A Partial Effort is Enough To Steal A Win Against Texas

UCLA proved they can beat a bad team playing only part of the game. UCLA beat Texas 65-63 with a last minute run and some all out effort for 2 minutes as a team. Box score is here.

Anderson kept us in the game in the first half with nine points and six rebounds. Anderson only scored 2 in the second half with no rebounds and was non-existent until the last two minutes. Shabazz was Kobe on a bad night for the first half but rallied in the second half. Adams was good on offense but horrid on defense. Larry Drew II had the worst game on defense of any UCLA player since Nikolia Dragovic but did play D for the last two minutes. But that was enough for us to beat a Texas team that could not hit a layup, literally.

But here is what I started to write. Dick Vitale calls Out Ben Howland in a loss.

The hyper positive Dick Vitale basically said Howland had lost this team. Dickie V. who defended Lavin and just about every coach in history. He even mocked UCLA’s defense effort as when he played a kid with cancer and let him shoot. He said something to the effect: "I played UCLA defense."

Dickie Vitale even went on to explain that it is not because the players are freshman. He explained that freshman can play. Although he did not explicitly say it, it was obvious that he was saying UCLA freshman should play better right now.

And here is the thing, Dick Vitale was being nice. UCLA’s effort the last two minutes was great. Some players played hard in other parts. You could see where this team with the right coach could do well. For if these guys play hard for 40 minutes, they could be special.

But they don’t and that is on Ben. Good enough for Texas (barely) but not for anyone in the PAC 12 or Missouri.

Go Bruins.