Were The Bruins Listening?
I was watching Barack Obama's Inauguration this morning and I think the message was clear. We need to take personal responsibility and react to the changing times. Yes, the message went further, but let's concentrate on being willing to change and adapt. Yes, I'm talking to you Mr. Howland and the rest of your Bruins. I have been a UCLA fan my entire life, going to games since I was able to walk and I have never, I repeat, never seen something as pathetic as the Bruins' effort in the last 8 minutes of regulation against Arizona State at Pauley this past weekend. I know what you're thinking; this is just a case of whatever happens in the present garnering too much attention compared to what happened in the past. But it's not. I remember the Lavin years. I was a UCLA student who went to every home game during the Lavin years. The one UCLA jersey I own is the #24 basketball jersey because Jason Kapono was the bright spot during my tenure. I saw Moose Bailey play, and start. I saw Steve Lavin start Sean Farnham because he thought it was good luck. I heard Lavin, when asked after a game why the defense seemed in disarray say that if we don't know what defense we're playing then the other team doesn't either and can't react. So I've seen a lot of tough times at Pauley, but none of it was as bad as Saturday's game against Arizona State.
Coming into the game I was apprehensive because ASU had just lost a close one to USC and ASU also had the best player on the floor in future top-5 pick, James Harden. But I was still confident that UCLA would win a home game against ASU. I was in no way prepared for what transpired. I honestly would have been okay with a Howland firing right after the game ended. That's how bad a loss it was and how mad it made me. I know that sounds a bit over the top, but have you ever seen a top-10 team in the nation go scoreless for the final 8 MINUTES of a game? 480 seconds! That's how long UCLA went without scoring to end regulation. They recovered to score 4 in the 5 minutes of overtime. I have never seen a more pathetic display in my basketball watching life. Eight whole minutes without scoring. It was 54-43 UCLA with 8 minutes to go and the final score was 61-58 (OT) ASU over UCLA.
Here's what UCLA's mantra has been in the Howland years: Our defense will win the games for us and our offense can't screw that up. UCLA is never out of a game against anyone because the defense is so efficient. But the offense? They're running basketball's equivalent of the prevent. But instead of football's prevent defense, UCLA is running the Prevent Offense. They string together a bunch of passes for 25 seconds, passing up open looks and rarely getting the ball inside, if ever. Then, hoping I guess to drain the other team's energy because they're on defense, they kick the ball out to Darren Collison and he goes 1 on 1 in the final ten seconds. That's UCLA's offense. It's annoying against a man to man defense but it's outright stupid against a zone. With no dominant inside force and a bunch of slashers and shooters, UCLA should be begging teams to play zone, but because of their strategy, their zone offense makes about as much sense and accomplishes about as much as the Electoral College. The UCLA guards swing the ball around the perimeter and then are forced to go 1 on 2 or 1 on 3 in the last 10 seconds of the shot clock or instead fire up a long distance shot with a hand in their faces. How they don't get the ball inside and use the post is beyond me. But the real problem here is the Prevent Offense. ASU sat in a 3-2 zone, sometimes shifting to 2-3, but zone the entire 40 minutes. ASU is not Syracuse. It was pathetic.
And that gets me to Ben Howland. As an avid UCLA fan, the Howland era has been great, but his greatest strength of being stubborn in his ways that instills the defensive and rebounding principles in his players is his greatest weakness on offense. Did you know that Luc Richard M'bah a Moute had any offensive game whatsoever until he started throwing up double doubles for the Milwaukee Bucks? I didn't. Luc owes a lot to Howland for turning him into a seasoned player with NBA defensive and rebounding skills, but Howland's offensive schemes or lack thereof are mind boggling. When UCLA was up 54-43 with 8 minutes left on Saturday, the Bruins didn't put the foot on the accelerator and go for the jugular. The Prevent Offense has worked in the past, albeit turning blowouts into close games, but the Bruins never seemed to lose these games. I'm glad that the game happened on January 17th instead of March 17th; however, that's only going to matter if Howland is willing to abandon his stubborn ways on offense. Use the high post. Use the short corner. Let your guards penetrate. Give good shooters the green light for open shots even if there are 20 seconds left on the shot clock. Otherwise, the Bruins will be stuck relying on 1 on 1 play in the last 10 seconds every possession. Against teams that are not well conditioned or not overly good, the Bruins will wear them down as they always have. A Howland-led Bruins team will not lose to a CSUN the way Lavin-led teams did. However, a Howland-led team also has a large disadvantage against a team with as good or superior athletes. The Bruin losses to the Gators twice and the Tigers last year showed Howland's Achilles heel. You can't have Love hedge a screen at half court if he can't recover back to the basket to stop a dunk. But Howland is stubborn. I don't want another Lavin era where we have to suffer losses to Pepperdine in the hope of stealing a win against a #1 Stanford. But I also don't want an era where #1 UCLA loses every year in the tournament. Howland harkens back to Wooden's sense of discipline but Howland should take a page out of Wooden's book and encourage his players a little more. Trust a guy like Jrue Holiday to do his thing the way Wooden adapted his coaching to a Sidney Wicks, Bill Walton, or Lew Alcindor. Structure is important and probably paramount. Discipline is up there too. But the ability to adapt is not far behind. Howland's zone offense and Prevent Offense in general have been painful to watch and it's starting to result in losses. Here's hoping that some minor tweaking comes to Westwood in this age of change.
Coming into the game I was apprehensive because ASU had just lost a close one to USC and ASU also had the best player on the floor in future top-5 pick, James Harden. But I was still confident that UCLA would win a home game against ASU. I was in no way prepared for what transpired. I honestly would have been okay with a Howland firing right after the game ended. That's how bad a loss it was and how mad it made me. I know that sounds a bit over the top, but have you ever seen a top-10 team in the nation go scoreless for the final 8 MINUTES of a game? 480 seconds! That's how long UCLA went without scoring to end regulation. They recovered to score 4 in the 5 minutes of overtime. I have never seen a more pathetic display in my basketball watching life. Eight whole minutes without scoring. It was 54-43 UCLA with 8 minutes to go and the final score was 61-58 (OT) ASU over UCLA.
Here's what UCLA's mantra has been in the Howland years: Our defense will win the games for us and our offense can't screw that up. UCLA is never out of a game against anyone because the defense is so efficient. But the offense? They're running basketball's equivalent of the prevent. But instead of football's prevent defense, UCLA is running the Prevent Offense. They string together a bunch of passes for 25 seconds, passing up open looks and rarely getting the ball inside, if ever. Then, hoping I guess to drain the other team's energy because they're on defense, they kick the ball out to Darren Collison and he goes 1 on 1 in the final ten seconds. That's UCLA's offense. It's annoying against a man to man defense but it's outright stupid against a zone. With no dominant inside force and a bunch of slashers and shooters, UCLA should be begging teams to play zone, but because of their strategy, their zone offense makes about as much sense and accomplishes about as much as the Electoral College. The UCLA guards swing the ball around the perimeter and then are forced to go 1 on 2 or 1 on 3 in the last 10 seconds of the shot clock or instead fire up a long distance shot with a hand in their faces. How they don't get the ball inside and use the post is beyond me. But the real problem here is the Prevent Offense. ASU sat in a 3-2 zone, sometimes shifting to 2-3, but zone the entire 40 minutes. ASU is not Syracuse. It was pathetic.
And that gets me to Ben Howland. As an avid UCLA fan, the Howland era has been great, but his greatest strength of being stubborn in his ways that instills the defensive and rebounding principles in his players is his greatest weakness on offense. Did you know that Luc Richard M'bah a Moute had any offensive game whatsoever until he started throwing up double doubles for the Milwaukee Bucks? I didn't. Luc owes a lot to Howland for turning him into a seasoned player with NBA defensive and rebounding skills, but Howland's offensive schemes or lack thereof are mind boggling. When UCLA was up 54-43 with 8 minutes left on Saturday, the Bruins didn't put the foot on the accelerator and go for the jugular. The Prevent Offense has worked in the past, albeit turning blowouts into close games, but the Bruins never seemed to lose these games. I'm glad that the game happened on January 17th instead of March 17th; however, that's only going to matter if Howland is willing to abandon his stubborn ways on offense. Use the high post. Use the short corner. Let your guards penetrate. Give good shooters the green light for open shots even if there are 20 seconds left on the shot clock. Otherwise, the Bruins will be stuck relying on 1 on 1 play in the last 10 seconds every possession. Against teams that are not well conditioned or not overly good, the Bruins will wear them down as they always have. A Howland-led Bruins team will not lose to a CSUN the way Lavin-led teams did. However, a Howland-led team also has a large disadvantage against a team with as good or superior athletes. The Bruin losses to the Gators twice and the Tigers last year showed Howland's Achilles heel. You can't have Love hedge a screen at half court if he can't recover back to the basket to stop a dunk. But Howland is stubborn. I don't want another Lavin era where we have to suffer losses to Pepperdine in the hope of stealing a win against a #1 Stanford. But I also don't want an era where #1 UCLA loses every year in the tournament. Howland harkens back to Wooden's sense of discipline but Howland should take a page out of Wooden's book and encourage his players a little more. Trust a guy like Jrue Holiday to do his thing the way Wooden adapted his coaching to a Sidney Wicks, Bill Walton, or Lew Alcindor. Structure is important and probably paramount. Discipline is up there too. But the ability to adapt is not far behind. Howland's zone offense and Prevent Offense in general have been painful to watch and it's starting to result in losses. Here's hoping that some minor tweaking comes to Westwood in this age of change.
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