SB Nation - Michael Roll

Bruins Put Up A Fight But Notre Dame Holds Serve In South Bend

Nestor — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:05:12 -0000

Ben Howland and his Bruins were undone once again by Nikola Dragovic and Jerime Anderson

Well the at least on the scoreboard the conventional wisdom turned out to be true. Notre Dame (now with a record of 10-2) held serve on their home court to beat the Bruins by a score of 84-73. Bruins now fall to a record of 3-7 with no chance of getting back to .500 before the start of the Pac-10 conference season.

For the Bruins there were some bright spots this afternoon. They came out on fire, shooting lights out on offense while playing classic Ben Ball defense on the other ends of the court. Our defense was suffocating early on as we were putting on vintage display of Howland defense with quick rotations, intense double teams while securing our rebounds. We were also getting our offense started with our intense defense. Things were working as we were in the lead late in the first half.

Then some of the old habits (by usual suspects) kicked on. Jerime Anderson turned the ball over in a careless possession that resulted in 4 point turn around. We also let Luke Harangody get confidence (after he missed his first shots) with a perfect execution via an inbound play. Late in the first half our defensive intensity just sagged off (and it was probably not a coincidence that it happened after Reeves Nelson had to sit down with 2 fouls) allowing Notre Dame to finish the half with a 40-36 lead.

In the second half, Notre Dame went on a run thanks to lazy defensive efforts from the entire team and the usual bricks from Nikola Dragovic on the offensive side. Dragovic had yet another pathetic game making only 4 out of his 12 shots and essentially shooting us out of the game early in the second half. Thanks to a spectacular effort from Malcolm Lee, who had a career day with 29 points, 4 assists and 3 steals, Bruins made it close but it just wasn’t enough. Here is the box score and more thoughts after the jump.

As mentioned above Malcolm Lee was easily the player of the game on our side. He did get some help from few other Bruins. Michael Roll did his part scoring 19 points with 4 assists and 2 steals. Although, I wish we had gotten a better effort from Roll on the defensive end. Reeves Nelson once again stood out as the defensive stalwart while chipping in with 11 points and 8 rebounds. Honeycutt as usual flashed his abilities for the time he got on the court, which included 3 rebounds on the offensive end.

I think on the whole the effort of our team was encouraging as they clearly built on the confidence building blowout against New Mexico State. They did show poise, composure and desire early on to start the game. However, they didn’t get it done at the end because of not being able to maintain their defensive intensity.

Jerime Anderson’s effort was not encouraging but he is a sophomore. Perhaps someday he will realize he needs to play within his athletic ability and not hurt his team with going for the spectacular play. As for Dragovic, there isn’t much to add to this point. Sure he got some rebounds and made some shots here and there, but the only thing consistent about him is how he continues to hurt our team with awful defensive effort, careless and unfocused plays on offense, and just horrific shooting in general. We are not going anywhere this season if Dragovic continues to waste minutes that could be allocated to other younger players with more talent and upside in the team. Not to mention Dragovic with his pathetic defensive effort continue to serve as a poor example of what a Ben Ball warrior should be performing on the court.

Anyway, as I said up top despite the loss, there were some positive signs in today’s loss. I can see a core emerging in this team around the leadership of Michael Roll and the natural talent and ability of Lee, Nelson and Honeycutt. I hope in the coming games Howland allows those guys – especially Honeycutt – give them bigger roles, while limiting the minutes of Dragovic and Anderson. With those guys leading the way at least the Bruins showed some fight in their first true road game of the season.

With that I will leave the analysis up to you. Fire up your thoughts in this post-game thread. If you have extensive reflections to share please put them up in a separate fanpost. Enjoy your Saturday as best as you can despite the (not so unexpected) loss in South Bend.

GO BRUINS.

Ben Ball Roundup: Early Notre Dame Notes

Nestor — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:11:39 -0000

More photos » by Joe Raymond - AP

How do we stop the Beast? 6-foot-8, 246-pound Luke Harangody is averaging 24.6 points and 10.1 rebounds

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Our friends over at Rakes Of Mallow are still too euphoric about their hiring of new football coach. So, can't blame them for not thinking too much about the 9-2 Fighting Irish's upcoming (gulp) nationally televised non conference game against our 3-6 Bruins. May be they will get fired up about it before Saturday but they are not yet.

We can expect the Irish hoops team to be fired up on Saturday because they are going to want revenge for what we did them to Pauley last year drubbing them by a score of 89-63. They have a record of 9-2 but they are coming into this game following a 2 point loss against LMU (may be they were already looking ahead to UCLA?). Their other loss this season came against in a 15 point defeat against North Western. The best team the Irish has beaten this year is St. Louis in the third-place game of the Chicago Invitational Challenge.

Obviously the center of attention on Saturday will be Luke Harangody. It will be interesting to see how the Bruins can defend him at Joyce Center. Perhaps they can use the same formula that allowed Nelson to contain Aldrich at Pauley. Then again, may be it's too much to ask our freshmen to show the kind of poise and maturity needed to get a win in a fired up, hostile, roald enviroment. Besdes Harangody, 5-11 guard Tory Jackson is the other dependable option returining from last season. Currently their rotation looks like this:

Usual Starters -- F Luke Harangody, F Tyrone Nash, G Jonathan Peoples, G Ben Hansbrough, G Tory Jackson. Key Subs -- F Tim Abromaitis, F Carleton Scott.

Ben Hansbrough, was hobbled a bit early in the season by a sprained right ankle, but he is rounding into form. He has been in double figures from the scoring line last 5 games and almost shooting 50 percent from the 3 point line.

Meanwhile, junior forward Tim Abromaitis, who played rarely as a freshman and missed the entire 2007-08 season, has emerged as the second leading scorer in the team as he begin this year with seven straight game in double figures. So, in other words, with injury to Keefe, Coach Howland is going to have his hands full dealing with the Irish front court. More on that after the jump.

Well here is the latest on Keefe. He is out at least 2-3 weeks with a dislocated shouler. It was the same shoulder that kept him out with a huge chunk of the season two years ago with a torn labrium. Thankfully though per Jon Gold the xrays this time were negative. I have to say again Keefe was an absolute warrior on Saturday. He got off to such a great start on the defensive end. When he got hurt it was pretty amazing to see how composed he was in dealing with the pain (when it was clear on camera (and to those who were at Pauley) what was happening to him). If there is a kid who deserves a happy ending at UCLA, who has done everything Coach Howland has asked him to do over the years without complaining one bit, it's James Keefe. I hope he can get fully healthy and can make a return to make some meaningful contributions before he is done.

Now without Keefe Bruins are going to be short handed against Harangody and Abromaitis in the front court. It will be all about playing team defense:

The 6-foot-8, 246-pound Harangody is averaging 24.6 points and 10.1 rebounds.

"He's a beast," UCLA guard Michael Roll said. "It's going to be a team defense."

That means double-teams, help-side defense and players scrambling to box out.

UCLA Coach Ben Howland plans to throw a bench-full of players at Harangody, including Nikola Dragovic, Reeves Nelson, J'mison Morgan and perhaps Brendan Lane.

"Obviously losing James is really, really a tough deal for us," Howland said.

Well perhaps one guy who might be ready to step a little more will be freshman point-forward Honeycutt. Tyler is feeling pretty good after his effortless performance on Saturday. As poncho fanshotted this is what TH had to say about starting off 3-6:

"It's been real hard. I didn't expect this at all when I came here. I knew we had a tough schedule, but I thought it'd be competitive, close games. It's kind of helped us actually, kind of set us in our place. Let us know we're not all that and still have room to improve."

I was even more encouraged by this:

"I'm still getting back into it. Obviously I've only had about three practices. Eventually it will come along. I can improve on a lot. Defense, on-ball defense. I'm not used to turning the ball over that much.

Having him talk about the need to cut down on TOs and improving his "on-ball defense" is music to my ears. Honeycutt is not the only underclassmen excited about building on Tuesday's confidence gaining blowout win:

"A win against anybody right now makes a difference," point guard Jerime Anderson said. "It helps our confidence a little bit. It helps us feel better about ourselves.

"We've been working hard. That's one thing you can't take away from us. It just hasn't been transferring into games. The main thing for us was to really work hard, and it finally transferred to a game. I think we should try and build from that win."

All of the comments from this week has been encouraging. However, right now for me the key is for these guys to maintain their composure when they are on the road this Saturday. I still can't take too much from the blowout win against a cupcake team on Tuesday night. I think that effort will win something if they can replicate it again on national TV by slugging it out with what I expect to be a hungry and angry Irish team on both ends of the court.

It means the Bruins will have to come into that game with a defensive mindset. They will have to think about getting their points by generating suffocating defensive pressure, going after lose balls and then playing smart ball on the offensive end. It will mean not jacking up hurried three pointers (and you know who I am especially thinking about here) and looking for that extra pass down low to find the team-mate with easiest shot. If the Bruins can come out and give another all out effort with intensity and passion, it might just might set them up to finish rest of the non-conference season in a positive note.

GO BRUINS.

UCLA – FINALLY – Cruises To an Easy Victory by Trashing New Mexico State

Nestor — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:40:40 -0000

More photos » by Chris Carlson - AP

Like an old school Ben Ball warrior Honeycutt dives on the floor to go after a loose ball

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Well looky here. The Bruins finally – FINALLY – cruise to an easy win during non conference season by blowing out a hapless New Mexico State (3-7) team in (sparse) Pauley. Bruins hit the century mark with a final score of 100-68, running up the Bruin record to 3-6. Here is the box score. Bruins got off to a great start with a huge run early on propelling them to a 21 point half time lead. They never looked back. Just as it was in the glory days of classic Ben Ball warriors, it was fueled by a tenacious defense (holding the Aggies to 38.9% shooting for the night).

The stat line was dominating for the Blue and Gold in all facets of the game, as Howland’s team flashed memories of good old days with a blistering pace of shooting (55.2%) while controlling the boards with a 39-28 edge in rebounding margin. The MVP of tonight’s game was Malcolm Lee with a team leading 20 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 stills and going 4 for 5 from the FT line. Lee finally had a night which lived up to some of the hype we were hearing about him before he arrived in Westwood and during this off-season. He looked sharp, smooth and CONFIDENT while driving to the bucket and creating his own shots. Lee’s effort was supplemented by Michael Roll who was in rhythm all night with 14 points and 3 assists. Reeves Nelson continued to solidify his early cult hero status by chipping in with 18 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals (with an extra patch to cover up another fresh wound under his black eye).

As for the two players who have been in our cross hairs this week, Jerime Anderson had a solid night while Nikola Dragovic was average. Anderson’s performance was encouraging to say the least as he scored 13 points, dished out 7 assist, while turning over the rock just once. Dragovic wasn’t overwhelming as he scored 9 points, shooting a mediocre 3 for 9 from the field and pulled in 4 rebounds. Noting to write home about. I can only hope Anderson will build on this in his next game but then again don’t want to get my hopes up too high before seeing how next few games develop.

In general the Bruins did come out with a sense or energy we haven’t seen from them most of this season. They came out and showed tenacity and effort on both ends of the court getting out to a huge lead on. The entire team looked confident and seemed determined to answer the questions clouding the program for last few days. However, before everyone gets too jazzed about this victory, we should have a sense of reality check. That said, at least for a night during this early season there were some feelings of relief and confidence vibing through Howlandwood.

After all these are games that we should win by this kind of margin. We shouldn’t be jumping up and down right now with easy victories over cupcake programs that should be the norm in Westwood. Was tonight encouraging? Definitely. At the same time we were also encouraged after "lively" performances against Butler and Kansas that were followed up respectively with disgusting losses to Long Beach State and Mississippi State.

For the team’s sake, let’s hope they stay even keeled after this win and don’t get too comfortable. They will need to build on this and come out with higher level of intensity and focus, if they want to pull out a huge win this weekend against Notre Dame. Couple of other notes before I close out on my end late tonight/early morning here on the East Coast.

I am enjoying watching Tyler Honeycutt. He is a natural. Watching him glide around the court so effortlessly makes me think of him as a combination of DJ and LRMAM. He is still shaking the rust off his game and happy playing the role as a facilitator for his team-mates rather than a creator. Still he contributed tonight what seemed like an effortless 14 points, 4 rebounds and going 6 for 6 from the FT line. You can sense he has all the tools. He just needs more time to get stronger and also time on the court.

Lastly, it’s a shame that James Keefe left the game early on with a shoulder dislocation (that’s what we heard tonight) injury. He was playing solid – defensively – before he left the game. Hopefully, he gets healed up and can return at some point this season.

With that, I will leave the rest of analysis up to you. Fire away with your post game thoughts.

GO BRUINS.

Shaking Up The Core: Thoughts On Changing Up UCLA Basketball's Starting Lineup/Rotation

Nestor — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:06:09 -0000

More photos » by Chris Carlson - AP

Jerime Anderson is not getting it done with an A/T ratio of 1.18, shooting 50% (!) from the FT line, 23% from 3 point line (35 % overall), and yet averaging 29 mins per game

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So here I go.

I have seen 4 regular season games this year. 5 if I count the second exhibition game against Humboldt State, which I saw via the pathetic online feed from the official site. Based on what I have seen so far here is the starting lineup that seems to make sense:

I think for the short term Howland needs to make two critical moves:

Bench Dragovic for rest of the year (duh) limiting him not much more than 10-12 mins per game
Bench Anderson and limit his mins to not more than 15 mins per game.

More on these two points and other thoughts on how Howland needs to shake up the current core of starting rotation after the jump.

Let's start with the obvious problem, which is the crazy amount of minutes Howland keeps wasting on Dragovic. Nikola Dragovic might be the most startling enigma during Coach Ben Howland's 7 years in Westwood. It simply doesn't make any sense how Howland continues to give this kid special treatment despite his total failure (and no I couldn't care less about his meaningless rebounding statistics) on the court. Time after time we have seen Howland using a quick hook whenever dealing with an underclassmen. We have seen him inserting and then pulling a freshmen or sophomore for making simple defensive mistakes or turning the ball over on the offensive side. Yet, with Dragovic (and in some cases with Josh Shipp from last season), we have seen Howland giving special treatment to an upperclassmen, who clearly doesn't play up to the standards of a Ben Ball warrior on the court (I will not even touch Dragovic's off court issues).

The only explanation I can think behind Howland giving Dragovic mins is that he is hoping that he somehow regains his shooting touch like he did to a certain extent against Pac-10 teams last year. However, numbers don't lie. He is shooting less than 20 percent from the 3 point line this season. Last year, after he got hot during the Pac-10 games, he still shot less than 39 percent from the 3 point line. He is an atrocious defender and he has never shown anything that indicates that he has a natural feel for the game. Yet, he continues to get the mins.

At this point, after what he did against Mississippi State, Howland will send wrong message if he starts Dragovic tomorrow. To me it's a no brainer that Howland takes Dragovic out of the lineup. Now the guy I would start would be James Keefe and here is my explanation for it. I think Brandon Lane has more upside than Keefe. However, I would at least give Keefe the start, because Keefe despite being tentative has a better feel for the game than Dragovic. I think it might make sense to start him and then bring in Lane off the bench. Keefe is better than Dragovic when it comes to shot selection (he has better FG%) and he understands Howland's offense and defense much better than Dragovic. Keefe's problem has been on the FT line and just being too tentetive (which goes back to Howland having a quick hook for all the other players except for some one like Dragovic).

At least with Shipp, I understood a little why Howland let him get away with defensive relapses. Josh Shipp had courage and also a knack for making big shots when it mattered. He was fearless and I thought was a game. Dragovic? Well, I think Bellerophon was off the mark, when he called Dragovic a "scrub" for his effort (or lack there of) on the court. He has shown as much as guys like Ryan Walcott and Travis Reed, to merit starting mins on the court, which is nothing.

Moving on to the point guard situation. This one is obvious. Here is bruinponcho:

The biggest problem is that his lineup and rotations make no sense. As soon as I saw JA in the starting lineup with MR at small forward, I knew this was a loss. JA is not a starting point guard, period. MR is not a small forward. We have lots of big guys and only three guards, go with a bigger lineup.

ML and MR should each be playing 30 minutes a game with JA playing 10 minutes backing up ML and MM playing 10 minutes backing up MR. JA and ML should never be on the floor at the same time. Ever. Their games are too similar in that there only offense is driving and neither can shoot. Used appropriately and in conjunction with a shooter like MR, this can be effective. But you cant have both JA and ML out there together when JA’s game is just an inferior version of ML.

And Meriones called for this, well back in April:

Backcourt size — Can anyone remember when we started a both-6-5 backcourt? Didn’t think so. Malcolm’s hustle and length and Roll’s experience in CBH’s schemes should do wonders to negate any possible lack of waterbug quickness. Worse comes to worst, we bring in JA to check smaller guards and fight pace with pace, but at least we START with the size advantage, for a change.

Note Meriones did have Dragovic in the starting lineup but being the wiseman that he added this:

Caveat: this would hinge ENTIRELY on whether Drago can put in a full summer of workouts and improve his defensive rotations.

Uh, I think from what we have seen this year we don't have to discuss Drago's defensive rotations any further.

I have to say I was dumbfounded that Howland even started Anderson last game after seeing how much more effective and energetic we were against Kansas, when Lee got the start. It doesn't make any sense how this kid continues to get more than 20 mins per game, given he cannot shot, cannot drive, cannot make FTs (!!!), and most importantly cannot defend. Jerime might be working hard. However, given what we have seen from the court, we are not seeing the results. I think it is time for Howland to dramatically reduce his mins, so that Anderson can reflect on how he can be more efficient, smart in practice and focus on how he can improve game by game.

Going back to our rotation, Honeycutt needs to start next game. After watching two games, it seems like he probably has the most upside as the natural scorer in this team. He is also a rebounder (8 in last game, 6 against Kansas). I think it is time for Howland to ride Honeycutt and Nelson, just like he rode on the freshmen talents of JF and AA in their first two years of Westwood.

I get that Howland is trying to win every game. However, from what we have seen its clear that the current core which includes major mins for Dragovic and Anderson, is not the winning formula. It is time for Howland to shake up his current core. He needs to do that by starting Lee at the 1, user Moser's athleticism to back up the 2-3 spot behind Roll and Honeycutt, take out Dragovic from the lineup at the expense of increased mins for Lane and some Keefe. I have to say I have also been impressed with the effort Morgan has given in recent weeks. I think he has clearly earned some backup mins at the 5. I am hoping he can turn up the intensity even few more notches and he might be able to salvage his career in Westwood, just like Ryan Hollins did before he was done in Westwood.

Lastly, people who are feeling uncomfortable with the criticism of Coach Ben Howland on BN needs to chill out. None of us are even going anywhere close to calling for Howland to step aside. There is no discussion of "coaching candidates" that are actually happening on other UCLA online communities. All we are doing is offering our frank thoughts and analysis on what we see wrong with our program. We have been in Howland's corner all this time. We will give him all the benefits of doubt. However, don't expect us to stay quiet and be blind homers when we see something is wrong.

All we are doing is offering our analysis and thoughts. So with that said the thoughts above are my impressions on what Coach Howland needs to do address the current concerns with our hoops program. While the measures suggested are steps to address the short term concerns, I believe they can also help to steady the program, paying dividends for the long term, bringing back where Howland took us in recent history. We can get there again and it will require Coach Howland to adjust, adapt, recalibrate, just like Coach John Wooden did during his time in Westwood.

GO BRUINS.

Ben Ball Roundup: Update On Nelson/Honeycutt, Howland's Thoughts On Bulldogs & Other Notes

Nestor — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:53:13 -0000

So just two more days to go till the Finals weeks come to and end. Bruins will get back to practices tonight to prepare for Saturday's game against Mississippi State Bulldogs. I believe they are heading out to Anaheim on Friday. Hopefully the focus on finals and taking couple of days off from practices will allow freshmen such as RN more time to heal up and TH to get stronger as he works his way back to the rotation. Coach Howland gave updates on the status of his two key freshmen and his impressions on the Bulldogs yesterday.

Howland is optimistic that Nelson will be able to play on Saturday:

Nelson hasn’t missed any practice time because it’s finals week at UCLA and the Bruins didn’t practice on Monday or Tuesday. The Bruins are optimistic that he’ll be able to play Saturday against Mississippi State at the Wooden Classic in Anaheim.

"The main thing is there’s no significant damage to the eye," Howland said. "It could have been a lot of potential for bad things in a situation like that but everything seems pretty good."

Given how tough this kid has proven to be in early going, I will be surprised if he is not available on Saturday. Speaking of being available, Howland is hoping to get more mins for TH on Saturday. TH had a rough start on offense (shooting 1 for 6) in his first regular season game as a Bruin, however, he showed glimpses of his athleticism grabbing 6 boards in just 19 mins. From the LA Times:

Howland chalked up some of the rough play to jitters and said that he would have to use Honeycutt judiciously until the underclassman worked himself back into top shape.

But the Bruins need another body in the rotation, someone to take the load off Michael Roll, Malcolm Lee and Jerime Anderson, so Honeycutt may have to push himself in Anaheim this weekend.

"We're hoping he will be able to get more playing time," Howland said.

TH himself is focusing on getting back into the flow of the game:

"I felt like I did pretty good," he said. "I've just got to get back into the flow of the game."

It's not just TH. The entire team still has a lot of work to do in terms of having a flow and rhythm in offense. More on that and other notes after the jump.

Coach Howland talked about the need for the team to eliminate taking rush/hurried shots:

Of the 61 field goals that UCLA attempted in the 73-61 loss to Kansas, Howland counted 14 that were ill-advised. That might explain why the Bruins rank last in the Pac-10 in field-goal percentage.The Bruins have connected on 42.5 percent of their field-goal attempts - that includes a 27.1 clip on 3-point shots - through seven games."We got way too anxious on a number of occasions, even in the first half, and early in the second half were we took bad shots," Howland said. "I think we’re going to have to really understand that we have to be more patient."When we can get Michael Roll and Nikola (Dragovic) and Malcolm (Lee) open for wide-open shots, they’re going to make them. But when they’re rushed and they’re hurried, it’s going to be much the same."

It is going to be interesting to see just how long Howland can remain patient with Dragovic. He had two airballs last game in addition to all the instances when he just seemed to forget the need for boxing out on the defensive side of the court. I am hoping somehow Honeycutt will find his scoring rhythm in the coming weeks. If that happens and Dragovic is still shooting less than 20 percent from behind the arc, I would have to think Howland will have no choice but to reduce his mins during the conference games.

Coach Howland also offered the following thoughts on Bulldogs:

On Mississippi State's offense:
"They have a very good point guard, Dee Bost, he's a smart player. Shoots almost 53 percent from threes thus far. They're a pretty good shooting team. They have another kid (Ravern Johnson), he's long athletic and a starting three-man, really a good athlete."

On Mississippi State's defense:
"They pressure you and try to get after you defensively. They can really get out and get after the ball. They're athletic. They're a very good rebounding team and obviously they block shots with the big guy inside."

It sounds like we can't expect much zone defense from the Bruins this weekend in Anaheim:

"You know what? Old Dominion, who's a really good team this year, tried to zone them and actually it didn't work. They do a lot more zoning that we do. We'll look at it but they're a good shooting team. It's a thing where we'll have to see how we do as the game progresses. At some point, we're going to use it. It's not going to be...I feel like our young guys, like Reeves Nelson and Tyler, they need to learn how to play man-to-man. We have to keep working on getting them better."

Given how good of the shooting team the Bulldogs are it makes sense. I think the key for our guys is going to be putting pressure with our on ball defense and then hustling around the rim to make sure we are not getting out-rebounded. This means our frontcourt (cough*Nikola*cough) can't take time off from boxing out and giving up easy rebounds to Jarvis Varnado.

I think we will have a good shot in winning the game if we can win the turnover margin, hold our own on the rebounding numbers, and play a smart and patient offense. It sounds so easy but has proven to be incredibily difficult with our team in the early going. Hopefully a somewhat healed up Nelson, healthier Honeycutt and a rested team will be difference for our guys on Saturday.

GO BRUINS.

Ben Ball Roundup: Regrouping Without Gordon With "Fundamentals" & "100 Percent Effort"

Nestor — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:06:56 -0000

Photo Credit: insomniacslounge (flickr)

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Well I guess the only modicum of good news right now is that we don't have a basketball game to play during the middle of the week. Given the bombshell news from yesterday our team has few days to get it together before taking on Kansas (gulp) at Pauley on Sunday. We have already read highlights of Howland's comments from yesterday in earlier posts. Wanted to excerpt another graf that ran today in the LA Times (emphasis added throughout):

Some teammates were not sorry to see him go, a source close to the program said. Certainly his relationship with Howland, who values discipline, had grown increasingly tense.

"We have expectations of how our players represent the university on and off the court," the coach said. "When those standards aren't met, there are consequences."

Obviously everyone here agrees with that point. From what I have read so far, I am supportive of the coach's action in this case. However, I couldn't help but wonder about Howland's actions with respect to Dragovic when I read that quote. Forget Dragovic's off the court troubles (I have already made my thoughts clear on that front as I think he shouldn't have come back until his legal issues were resolved). I am having a hard time reconciling those words from Howland with what I have seen from Dragovic over the years (and not just this season). Yes, Dragovic came on a little last season when he made some clutch 3s in some games. However, most of the time from what I have seen from Dragovic, hasn't been someone who has lived up to the Ben Ball standards of playing solid team defense and patient/methodical offense.

Anyway, I will not dwell too much on Dragovic for now. I will let it go and see how he performs in next few games. Meanwhile, the veterans like MR doesn't sound too upset about Gordon leaving the team:

"As far as it going down, I don't really know," senior guard Michael Roll said.

"I came into lift today and I heard the news. It's unfortunate for both him and for us, and hopefully it works out for him. We're going to make it work for us here."

MR's comments seem very poigant these days. I especially remember the following ones after the Long Beach State game. I believe I have excerpted this on BN once already but they are worth highlighting again:

"Practice," Roll said, when asked what the Bruins can do to get better. "This whole week (in practice) we're going to have to listen to coach, get back to the fundamentals and get back to 100 percent effort every day."

I think those kinds of quotes provide even more context around Gordon incident. More after the jump.

As mentioned yesterday, Gordon's departure means more PT for RN. His team-mates such as MR sound excited about it:

The 6-8 freshman with the faux-hawk hairdo has been a bright spot, averaging 7.3 points and 4.7 rebounds in 14.8 minutes.

"He's a really strong kid," senior Michael Roll said. "Just comes in and tries to bully people, get rebounds, play physical, just do the dirty work that we need."

That attitude might be UCLA's only way out of a hole.

Hopefully RN will provide the much needed element of smart intensity (not out of control street ball) around the rim. Coach Howland is going to need that intensity from his team even if he tries out a zone on Sunday:

"I coached in the Big East for four years, worked against Syracuse, the best zone defense in the country, and they really work hard at it," said Howland, who coached at Pittsburgh from 1999-2003.

"One thing we can do at times is have length and size in there. You have bigger, longer players in that zone and it's difficult to play against. But you have to understand you have to work really hard in the zone.

"Defense, whether its zone or man, is meant to be played with intensity."

Keep those words in mind if we get to see JMM in a zone defense in the coming days. Watch how he defends the paint. Watch whether he is making an effort to provide help to his team-mates defendind down low and whether he is doing his part prevent dribble pentration. I always hear the loud cries of people wanting PT for him. I think for that to be justified he really needs to prove himself on the court defensively.

I don't think we need to give up on JMM. However, at the same time I think we need to watch him closely instead of holding on to perceptions based on the news clippings we read about him as a hot shot recruit. From what I have seen from JMM so far, he reminds me more of Rodney Zimmerman than PAA, when it comes to toughness around the rim. Like I said, I hope he proves his doubters (like yours truly) wrong by earning mins by proving himself during practices, and then translating the practice efforts into solid (defensive) showing during games. Like MR said it all goes back to sticking with fundamentals and giving 100 percent effort every day. Hope JMM is getting the message.

FWIW it sounds like JA struck the right note in terms of our outlook against Kansas:

"Our morale might be down and the season's not looking good," Anderson said. "But we're at UCLA. We have to fight back."

We expect nothing less.

GO BRUINS.

UCLA Beats Up Pepperdine 71-52, Takes Another Step Forward

Nestor — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:25:02 -0000

More photos » by Gus Ruelas - AP

Pepperdine's Taylor Darby getting a little taste of Ben Ball

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So the Ben Ball warriors did exactly what they needed to get done tonight against Pepperdine Waves. Coming into this game they need to play a game in which they got off to a decent start in the first half, played solid defense for the entire game, hit their FTs, and be selective with their shots in a classic Ben Ball game. Well they did just that against an inspired Wave bunch (who must have been reading press thinking our guys are vulnerable) by putting together their most improved performance of the season to date.

Bruins win by a final score of 71-52. Here is the box score. The player of the game tonight was MR, who had his best game as a senior with 17 pts, 5 assists, 2 rebounts, 1 block and 1 steal. Hopefully this is just the beginning for MR in what was his most fluid performance of the season. In addition to MR, Coach Howland got another solid effort from DG who led all scorers with 18 points, 9 boards and 3 blocks. I wrote in the comment thread how DG has been bringing it with his sheer tenacity and hustle every game (emerging as early candidate to claim himself to be the heart and soul of the team). ML also looked good today as he contributed with 13 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals and an assist.

The Bruins throttled Pepperdine to 19 of 46 shooting (41.3%) giving us glimpses of the Ben Ball warriors we have seen in previous years. Our on ball defense looked a little better and our rotation has certainly improved from our previous outings. We also shot better making 54.3% of our shots (25 of 46) as we did a decent job of with our shot selection and also benefitd from some great interior passing (MR gets a lot of credit for that). Oh and we were solid from the FT line today making 13 out of our 15 freebies. So can't really complain there. Of course as always, we have to keep this performance in perspective. More on that after the jump.

We after all just beat Pepperdine who haven't done much this season that's worth noting. We will have a better idea of our team when they take on Portland Pilots, a team that has started the season 3-0 which includes a victory over Oregon Ducks. We will have to wait to get updates on JA who went out with cramps and wasn't able to return in the game. Replacing JA, Abdul Hamid did all right, scoring 10 points (4 of 6 shooting including 2-4 from the 3), 3 assists and 2 TOs. However, I don't think he is the long term answer when we take on tougher competition. I really hope Coach Howland thinks about using more of MM, who I thought looked comfortable out there, even though he is still a raw freshman.

Bruins also have to do a better job of rebounding. The final stat sheet showed a tie in the rebounding department (26 a piece). I don't think that's good enough given the size we have in our front court. We also need to cut down on sloppy possessions. JK had two really bad possessions on back to back occasions turning the ball over with lazy passing. We can't afford that kind of plays from our senior starter. As a team though we turned the ball over 11 times, which wasn't too shabby.

Still I would consider tonight's game a positive step forward. It will give our guys something more to build on after getting encouraging results against Bakersfield the game before. Now if we can get JA fully healthy and come back out on Thursday and show the same hustle and intensity on both ends of the court to get us another victory, we will be in decent shape given where we were at to star the season. This is all part of the growing process with this young team. Lot of us are enjoying it because we knew it was going to be a long journey. If you don't want to be on our trip right now, don't try to jump back on the bandwagon when the engine starts clicking on all cylinders.

With that ... I will turn this court back to you. Fire away.

GO BRUINS.

UCLA vs. Humboldt St.: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Ryan Rosenblatt — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:54:03 -0000

Mike Roll and Jerime Andersen did wonders for the UCLA backcourt in their return from injury, but Nikola Dragovic is still struggling to find his shooting stroke. (Photo Credit: J. Rosenfeld)

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While far from perfect, UCLA's performance versus Humboldt St. was infinitely better than the one they put on six days ago versus Concordia. It's a good thing too as the Bruins have only five days before the games start to count. With the team almost completely healthy (Tyler Honeycutt was the only Bruin not dressed to play tonight), UCLA can now go ahead full bore and begin to work out the kinks that are all too evident in their play.

The Good

Two New Guards- If anyone was questioning how important Michael Roll and Jerime Andersen are to the Bruins, they aren't anymore. While James Keefe played the role of stabilizer in the last game, Roll took on those duties versus Humboldt St. The senior led the Bruins with 17 points on 50% shooting, but most importantly, he was tenacious on defense and ball mover on offense. Roll threw some fantastic entry passes and was quick to get the ball out of his hands to stretch the Humboldt St. defense with ball movement. Meanwhile, Andersen took over the point and maintained complete control of the offense. He kept the pace of the game where the Bruins wanted it for the most part, applied the ball pressure on defense that is so key to Howland's offense and was deadly getting to the rim upon occasion. Surprisingly, he was even able to play 29 minutes despite being sidelined for much of the past few weeks.

Second Half Defense- After a dreadful defensive effort in the first half, UCLA came out in the second half ready to defend. Andersen increased his ball pressure, while Malcolm Lee did a much better job denying his man the ball. This kept the guards from being able to penetrate and forced the Humboldt St. guards from doing much. While poor outside shooting from Humboldt St. did help out the Bruins, the fact that 12 of the starting guards' 16 shots came from behind the arc says something. The Bruin big men also did a better job of working to keep the Humboldt St. bigs away from the rim and on the defensive boards as the Lumberjacks saw their offensive boards cut nearly in half in the second frame. In total, UCLA held Humboldt St. to just 23% shooting in the second half.

Ball Awareness- It appeared as if the UCLA defense had no idea where the ball was last week, but tonight they were on it from the opening tip. UCLA forced 19 Lumberjack turnovers, thanks to Drew Gordon's six steals and three blocks, both team highs. When the ball was on the block, help was coming from all over and hands were on the ball to knock it free. Players also did a good job of reading eyes and passing lanes to make things difficult on the Lumberlacks, forcing turnovers. The ball pressure up top by the guards and high hands forced a lot of lobbed entry passes, which the UCLA big men recognized and got hands to.

The Bad

Malcolm Lee- The guy who was supposed to be the Bruins' breakout star has struggled to this point, although it is still very early. Lee missed both of his three point attempts and shot just 33% from the field. He did well coming back to the boards to reel in six rebounds and he was five of seven from the free throw line, but he's yet to find his place in the offense. He is a dynamic and athletic player, but he's yet to show the improved jump shot we heard about over the offseason and three turnovers to go with it won't help. He did make a few nice passes, totaling four assists, but he needs to be better if this UCLA team is to thrive. Luckily, there's still plenty of time for him to find his place in the offense and he clearly knows that he's just getting going, as evidenced by the work he put in after the game.

Free Throw Shooting- I guess this is progress because free throw shooting was in the ugly column last week, but it's still not good enough. 22 of 33 from the line is not going to get it done against good teams in close games, especially when UCLA hits the road and has to deal with hostile crowds while toeing the line. This is an athletic team that when clicking offensively, should put pressure on defenses and force teams to foul. That won't mean much though if they can't knock their shots down from the charity stripe.

Nikola Dragovic- Dragovic's mindset was much better in this game than it was last game when he was jacking up a shot anytime he could see the rim. He was a part of the offense in tonight's game, instead of working outside of it, and he moved the ball better so he didn't spend as much time on the ball. That decreased the number of turnovers from Dragovic so overall, he was better today than he was a week ago. The mindset and attitude, especially with the intensity he showed defensively, were a plus. The problem for Dragovic is that he is a shooter first and foremost, but he's not shooting well. Just three for 10 tonight from the field and two of seven from behind the arc, Dragovic got good shots, but couldn't knock them down. Dragovic does have a sweet stroke though so you would have to assume that his shots start falling soon.

The Ugly

Rotations- Especially in the first half, UCLA's rotations were absolutely horrific. I would not want to be a player watching film of the defense's rotations with Howland. Too often, the Lumberjacks were able to turn a simple screen into an easy basket as the hedge forced a rotation that UCLA just did not execute. This was especially true of the screens the Humboldt St. big men were setting for cutting guards at the elbow, only to roll to the basket and get a pass from the wing for an easy bucket. The rotations were getting better as the game went on, but they were still late. The good thing for UCLA is that quick and efficient rotations are something that only comes with experience and practice so it is reasonable to assume they get better in the coming weeks.

Rebounding- Does anybody except for Gordon rebound? It sure didn't seem so tonight. Gordon brought in ten boards and Lee did well to bring in six, but nobody else got more than three. As a team, UCLA was outrebounded 46-38 despite Humboldt St. missing seven more shots than the Bruins. The Lumberjacks had 14 offensive rebounds on the game, eight of which were grabbed by the Humboldt St. center Brian Morris. While Gordon did have 10 rebounds of his own, he did not do well enough boxing out Morris and the eight offensive boards are an example of that. Howland's teams have been built on great defense, but great defense doesn't mean much if you allow offensive rebounds. It is understandable that UCLA struggle to find an offensive rhythm or communicate efficiently early in the season as they gain experience and learn to work together, but they should be able to rebound and tonight they didn't.

Center Court: Ben Ball (Humboldt State) Second Half Thread

Nestor — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:28:18 -0000

Uh, I guess with our guards (JA and MR) back in action the Ben Ball warriors look just a little different tonight. Bruins are up against Humboldt State by a score of 41-34. If not for couple of missed dunks and missed FTs the margin would be higher. They were up by 10 pts couple of different times during the half. The ball movement is so much better tonight with JA running the point. He looks relatively healthy (knock on wood) as do MR. So far this half it looks like they have taken couple of steps forward after last week's sloppy outing. DG filled up the box score with 11 pts, 4 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 4 steals.

Still they have lot more to work on. For the short term they will have to do a better job of playing interior defense in the second half and also rebound better. They were out rebounded by a margin of 11-24. That number will not be acceptable for CBH. He is going to be zoning in on that number during half time and also preach defense. We have a lot of work to do in that department.

Let's hope they can come out and keep improving in the second half and wrap things up setting themselves up in a decent frame of mine heading into season opener next week. Time for the second half thread. Fire away.

GO BRUINS.

Center Court: Ben Ball (Humboldt State) Open Thread

Nestor — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:00:30 -0000

Half an hour to go till the Ben Ball warriors tip off in our second exhibition game of the season. Tonight we get to welcome JA and MR back in the lineup, who are taking on Humboldt State. You can read up on the Lumberjacks over here. Once again, if you don't know by now this game is not on TV. UCLA All-Access will carry this game online. You can get more details here.

Tonight's exhibition against the Lumberjacks has a deja vu feeling around it. Last time UCLA took on Humboldt State for an exhibition game was on November 9, 2006. That day on BN - just like we are doing today - we were celebrating the signing of another 5 star blue chip center from the Pacific Northwest. Okay to be technically accurarte KL sent in his LOI today. We haven't gotten the LOI from MS (that would be Mr. Smith) yet but you get the idea.

If you are watching the game on your computers tonight, share your quick takes, rapid commentary on our Ben Ball warriors right here on BN. Most importantly, if you can please post the game score updates in our game thread as much as you. That way rest of the BNers who can't follow the game anywhere else can get direct updates from you in our game thread. It will be much appreciated.

So let's get this party started. Fire away.

GO BRUINS.