SB Nation User Blog: Meriones

Interesting new web site

Meriones — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:34:06 -0000

Ladies and gentlemen of the Nation.

This probably won't make the 200-word limit, but this slight, minor amusement may well be worth it.

Look up this site.

Yep, it's actually called www.uclarejects.com.

Enjoy, people.

Enjoy.

Bruin "Attitude"

Meriones — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 19:35:12 -0000

I've read Plaschke's column this morning on our team's supposed "Elitist Attitude." I won't link to it -- everyone who wants to read it can find it.

I've also read the posts of some on BN blasting the MSM for criticizing us because, after all, we're winning, aren't we?

With respect to all members of our community -- not the posters, just the posts -- and to the paid writers and pundits of the MSM, I disagree with a lot of what's out there ... and here's why.

As Coach himself has taught, "Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."

This does not mean, as ESPN would have us believe, our wins would somehow be "better" if we blew every team out by 25-30 points.

This also does not mean that a win is somehow less satisfying or more meaningful if it involves scrapping and fighting and duking it out for 40 minutes of so-called "ugly" basketball.

Don't get me wrong -- winning at this time of year feels a whole truckload better than losing.

Have we played our absolute best ball of the year the past 2 games? In some glorious stretches of the game, OH YES WE HAVE.

Have we played our absolute worst ball of the year the past 2 games? In the 2nd half of the Western Kentucky game, YES.

We HAVE lost focus in stretches of both games.

We HAVE allowed the pressure and aggression of opponents to get the better of us, from time to time.

And WE HAVE DOMINATED quality opponents in rebounds, in shooting percentage, in toughness, in resolve, in large chunks of contests.

I BELIEVE in this team.

I am GRATEFUL for all they have done this year through injury, changing roles, tough competition, and media scrutiny...

I have FAITH in this team.

And I KNOW their "job" is NOT DONE YET.

If we start thinking that winning is all that matters, then we become little more than Trojans.

But, if we play as if we truly value playing the right way...

... with consistent effort...

... with confidence instead of cockiness...

... with poise and patience over the need for praise and publicity...

-- with speed, skill, strength and smarts, without settling on temporary leads...

... THEN WIN OR LOSE, we will have succeeded.

What I want is this team to play in a fashion that will render them invulnerable to regret, whether the regret be from us or within themselves.

I want them to end this season THREE GAMES FROM NOW from now, with 100 TOURNAMENT WINS in the school ledger, but most of all, with the knowledge that they gave their very best in the games that count the very most.

Plaschke wrote that the Bruins "need to show something to themselves and fans."

I don't agree. They don't need to show me or us anything. I have ridden the roller coaster, and loved the ride.

But what I would love even more, is for them to play the way I pray for before every game.

I try not to pray for our team to win, but rather for them to play to the best of their ability, health and experience... without injury, without fear, without hesitation.

Without regrets.

What the...? Luc to undergo MRI, Shipp has strep

Meriones — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:57:41 -0000

Oh dear, as rfirpo already quickly pointed out in the diaries, we've got a medical update which doesn't sound very good:

LOS ANGELES -- UCLA's Luc Richard Mbah a Moute was set to undergo an MRI on his sprained left ankle and Josh Shipp was recovering from strep throat Monday, putting two of the Bruins' starters at less than full strength. ...

Coach Ben Howland said the MRI on Mbah a Moute was being done as a precaution.

"His ankle was swollen pretty severely yesterday," he said. "I was surprised and a little bit down by it. We don't anticipate there being any issue."

Granted, we've got the emerging Keefe as the new No. 1 guy off the bench, but I think we can all agree that we are a FAR better team with a healthy Luc than without one. Per the WWL, Howland said Luc would play against WKY "barring any unforeseen abnormality on the MRI."

However, it looks like the walking wounded is a duo, not a solo act:

Shipp was given antibiotics for strep throat after Saturday's game, when he was scoreless in 37 minutes but came up with a key block on A&M's final shot to preserve the victory.

Now I'll admit, I've been screaming at the TV for JS to drive/ slash/ shoot more. And no, I do not discount the experience, screens, ball movement, hustle and passing lane defense from Shipp which are certainly important to our team. No arguments whatsoever.

However, I think we can all agree that playing 2-on-5 on offense in the first half of a game is NOT what our Bruins should be doing. Not by a freaking longshot.

I believe JS and RW will step up.

I believe it, and I REALLY want to see it. SOON. JS is arguably, behind KL, our best finisher near the rim in terms of touch, hands, moves, and resourcefulness. I'd be just as happy seeing JS go 5 for 6 inside the paint as I would be watching him go for 4 for 7 outside the arc.

I just firmly believe that we need a balanced team OFFENSE as much as we need a dominating team DEFENSE.

Apparently, CBH feels the same way:

"That's an aberration," Howland said. "We want to get more production out of our other three starters."

Here's to fast healing and regained stroke for ALL of our Bruins.

Avengers Assemble

Meriones — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:54:56 -0000

(Because I'm a former comic book geek, and I have a half-hour until my next meeting...)

Time to avenge past wrongs.

9-2 in the Tournament the past 2 years.

No Gators with ponytails and unconscionable shooting ranges blocking the doors.

14-2 against teams that made the Tournament THIS year.

Forget RPIs. We've gotten the NO. 1 seed. TIme to show HOW we earned it.

19-2 against the Pac-10, the toughest conference in America, THIS year.

We are as battle-tested as we can be.

IT'S TIME. The epic contests begin now. The big crossover event. The multiverse-shattering drama. The double-bagged collector's item story. Shoot, SI has already chimed in with the variant covers (though, sadly, no trading cards or holograms).

And look who we have in the blue and gold? We've got the HEROES.

The X-Men? Nope, not with another school named Xavier in our bracket, for crying out loud.

The Justice League? Not quite. Superman's wearing an Orlando Magic jersey now.

The Fellowship of the Ring? Nah, we covered those guys already, and I can't do embedded pictures that well.

Nope. We're here to right past wrongs. We're here to take back what should have been ours last year, and 2 years ago.

We're here to prove that our record is not based on horse shots and horse-feather calls.

We're here to prove that while Final Four berths are great achievements, that's not all we're going for.

Webster's defines "avenge" in part as, "to exact satisfaction for a wrong by punishing a wrongdoer."

Digger. Vitale. Hubert. Everyone at ACCSPN who salivates at every drop of flop sweat coming off the brow of Tyler Hansborough. The ones who turn a blind eye to the arrogance and well-coiffed thuggishness of Coach K. The geniuses who would spend the first 20 minutes of SportsCenter drooling over a post UNC-Duke press conference even if Tiger Woods had won the Masters while standing on a broken leg and getting his other one gnawed raw by rabid beavers.

To all the "pundits" who think we'll only go so far, no further -- YOU ARE WRONG.

Meet the Avengers.

Darren Collison = Captain America
Leader, point man, the guy we turn to when nothing seems to be going right. The guy who can take on guys twice his size and cut them up. That's our Cap.

Russell Westbrook = Spider-Man
Quick, strong, and incredible leaping ability; always ready to tangle up opponents.

Josh Shipp = Hawkeye
Even with his recent slump, still our purest shooter... and the best trick arrows in the business.

Luc Richard Mbah A Moute = Iron Man
Forget the injuries; he's still got the most diverse arsenal of athletic skills on the team. Speed. Strength. Vertical. Length. Just watch what other gadget or gizmo he can pull out of his game.

Kevin Love = Thor.
Our own God of Thunder. Thunderbolts from Asgard are replaced by 80-foot whips on the inbound plays. In his hands, the ball is an enchanted hammer -- one that slays giants.

Lorenzo Mata-Real = The Hulk.
If I need to explain this one, well, you haven't seen any of our games, have you. Hulk SMASH.

Alfred Aboya = Beast.
Big? CHECK. Strong? CHECK. Fast. CHECK. Freakishly agile? CHECK. Smart? Guy can already graduate by THIS summer and run for office in Cameroon. That'll do.

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE.

AND I STILL BELIEVE IN THIS TEAM.

Meriones — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 04:43:20 -0000

YES, WE CAN STILL WIN BANNER 12.

THIS TEAM.

THIS TIME.

THIS YEAR.

I still cringed at the thought of us needing to go through another ultimately worthless Pac-10 Tournament. Yes, I did.

I still went into this game, an imperfect Catholic, saying a Hail Mary for our guys to avoid injury. Maybe I should have said a whole rosary. Yes, I should have.

But as I have learned after years of parochial school, Sunday masses, and unexpected grace from above, our prayers are ALWAYS answered, if not always in the ways we expect.

It would have been easy for us to lose today, with our rightly-named defensive glue going down in a heap thanks to the big shoe of an $C Toejam.

And a loss would have made it easier for the Selection Committee to drop us down to a 2, maybe even a 3, just as Cincinnati got bumped down when Kenyon Martin got hurt in a conference tournament.

Our Bruins could have lost, and just ridden on the laurels of a strong, gut-checking season...

BUT THEY DIDN'T.

I prayed that our team would avoid injury... and we did not.

Instead, what did we see?

We saw Kevin Love bull his way to another second half sparked by three straight 3-point plays -- and only one of them originated from 21' out.

We saw JS play a complete two-way game -- inside and outside on offense, manning up and playing lanes on defense -- all the way down to playing just enough solid CBH-defense to keep $C from getting clean looks in the final seconds.

We saw AA2 keep his motor running, going after boards and keeping balls alive, doing his JOB.

We saw DC proving once again that there may be no better 2nd-half point guard in all of Division I.

We saw James Keefe, a bit player last year, giving us more of his Rambis-style game -- a smart board here, sound help defense there -- and once again being an asset on the court.

We saw Lorenzo Mata-Real doing what he does best -- taking space, taking names, taking boards.

We saw Nikola Dragovic getting rewarded for practice time and giving some needed breathing time for our perimeter Trinity.

AND... we saw Russell Westbrook going all-Harry-Potter-on-a-Nimbus-2000 and turning OJ Mayo into his own little Golden B*tch.

No. 1 or No. 2, we will still most likely be pod-bracketed out here, out West. We will be the big fish in the Anaheim Pond, the Honda Pond, the Ponda Center, whatever.

Yes, I am the guy who feared the hardcourt equivalent of a spread offense.

And tonight, we faced a fully healthy $C team, one loaded with the somewhat athletically freakish (though more freakishly hyped) OJ Mayo, the freakish athletes Davon Jefferson and Taj Gibson -- a triangle of hyper athletes -- without our defensive glue...

...AND WE WON.

We won with coaching adjustments against the triangle and two.

We won with smart, sound ball movement around the zone.

We won with strength and tenacity inside.

We won with renewed shooting stroke on the outside.

We won with endurance and anticipation on defense.

We won with rebounding.

We won with poise.

We won... without Luc?!?

YES, WE DID. We beat one of the teams that NOBODY wants to play against in the Tournament. They were healthier than we were. They had 2 hours more rest than we did.

AND WE WON.

We are a FAR better team with Luc than without. Fact is fact, truth is truth.

BUT the season is NOT over. Not by a longshot... whether from behind the arc or over the corner of the backboard

We are led by the coach who led this team that came back from a double-digit deficit, and beat Gonzaga.

We are lifted up by the Pac-10 Player of the Year who, after we lost Luc to injury, and AA2 and LMR to ridiculous foul trouble, racked up 26 and 18 as we beat Oregon.

We are driven by the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year who, after rolling his own ankle, rose up and posterized the Ducks.

We are steadied by the Preseason All-American point guard who slashed a double-digit deficit and shot us past the Top 10-ranked Cardinal.

And we are inspired by the veteran swingman who came out of the year's worst shooting slump with the single-best shot of the year... SO FAR.

After last year and our disappointing loss to Cal in the 1st round of the Pac-10, I asked this simple question: "When all else fails, what do you have?"

The answer remains the same.

"You have your core. Your roots. Your heartfelt belief. Your self."

And maybe, just maybe, even more than defense, a CBH team is built on one thing.

TOUGHNESS.

We said it here last year: "Toughness is a choice. It's a choice. It's a decision."

This year, "toughness" may just mean CHOOSING NOT TO FOLD. It may mean NOT throwing in the towel, NOT giving up when one player goes down, and NOT losing hope when the going gets tough.

DC went down early. And he got back up.

RW goes down for a few seconds every couple of weeks. And he gets back up.

LMR has gone down with real injuries -- concussions, broken noses, broken legs. And he got back up.

LMRAM went down today with another ankle sprain.

AND WE WILL GET UP.

There is a saying, "Act as if ye have faith and faith shall be given unto you."

HAVE FAITH, BRUINS.

If, if, IF!!! we have to go another 1, 2 or 3 games without Luc, then guess what? We just learned how to play a motivated, athletic, spread-offense style team in a one-and-done format without him... AND WE WON.

Do I have faith that we will win Banner 12 THIS YEAR?

YES, I DO.

AND YES, WE WILL.

MIM

Old kryptonite -- big teams. This year's kryptonite?

Meriones — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:15:55 -0000

"Spread" offense teams.

I'm serious.

In 2006 and 2007, we lost to Florida for two simple reasons -- (1) they had more bigs, and better bigs, than we had, and (2) we couldn't get those bigs off the court.

In 2006, we had the suddenly-emerging Ryan Hollins who could finish anywhere within 5' of the rim -- on or above the floor -- with his reach and quickness. Hollins gave a solid effort during that game, but, without reliable post moves, could not put Noah and Horford on the bench with foul trouble. Meanwhile, without bigs who could play them straight-up, Horford and Noah could cut, catch, and score on us at will.

In 2007, the same occurred, except LMR, while stronger than Hollins, and LMRAM, even with another year of experience, simply could not get the Gator bigs to burn energy and fouls on the D end, resulting in another premature exit for our guys.

Fast forward to now, where 2008 Pac-10 POY KLove is the closest thing L.A. has seen to early-2000s-level Shaq: a big-man who commands double teams and has the mass, strength, and moves to score through and in spite of fouls -- whether on 3-point plays or 2-shot fouls.

Add that to the always versatile LMRAM at the 4 and his growing slash and backdoor cut game (just not his outside spot-ups, ugh), the energy-drink games of AA2 and LMR off the bench, and we are better-equipped to handle the double-big style attack. Look at KLove's foul-drawing work against BLo Stanford in Game 1, and the same agaisnt RLo in Game 2, OT be damned.

Now? Well, we have a new problem, and it's one that football fans should know well -- the spread offense.

The teams that have hit us hardest this year have shared one common trait -- freakish perimeter speed and athleticism.

The teams that have been our toughest matchups have been the ones with the athletes and speedsters -- or one nightmarishly fast one -- who can break our guys down off the dribble and create, slash, or dish and catch us off-balance.

Texas with D.J. Augustin.

U$C with Davon Jefferson.

Cal with more slams than a Wack-a-Mole game at Chuck E. Cheese.

OK, that last one may have been a stretch, but come on -- whether it was from our own post-Cardinal fatigue or whatever, we let a LOT of perimeter players get inside the perimeter.

Those forays into the lane came from either DC or RW or JS getting beat by a series of screens and shoves, or our bigs not sliding over and cutting off the lane.

I've already commented on our perimeter concerns earlier in the year, but I think it bears continued examination...

...along with some thoughts on how to correct/ safeguard against it:

(1) Continued PG pressure.

As has been said before, by CBH and others, the entire defensive gameplan starts with DC. He is not only a one-man press breaker, but he's a one-man press, with spider-like arms and sprinter's speed on recovery (Thank you, Ma and Pa Collison!). Of course, both DC AND our newly-awarded Pac-10 DPOY RW are capable of disrupting opposing offensive sets just by challenging the PG right at the halfcourt line. Keep forcing the other team to start running their offense at 20-21 seconds left on the shot clock, instead of at the 25-26 mark, and it catches up to them.

(2) Renewed rebounding.

Stanford outrebounded us by 3 at our place. Cal, without Hardin, was only outboarded by 5. On a team with talented/ tested bigs like KLove, LMRAM, AA2, LMR, and inconsistent outside shooting from our Beloved Perimeter Trinity of the Father (DC), the Son (RW), and the Holy Shipp(!) (JS), rebounding not only gives us putback points (points which saved us against Cal in the closing minute) but leads to transition points -- points which, from here on out, are at a premium for us. As Pat Riley once said, no rebounds, no rings.

(3) Continued big-man hedging.

I think that I shall never see, a poem more lovely than a guard getting thumped against Mata's knee. Although we risk having our bigs out of position, a key part of our defensive philosophy, right up there with tight man D and doubling the post, is a big-man hedging on screen and rolls. I realize KLove can't do that all the time without being left on an island and the basket unprotected, but I would love to see more of AA2 in the game to do this against fast guards, and Keefe getting more time to do this, too. With 5 guys capable of rotating at the 4 and 5, I don't want us leaving fouls on the bench. If we can make it harder and harder for the opposing point guards to run screen and roll by having a 6-8, 235-lb or heavier guy force them back 5-7 feet every time, then let's do it. In particular, AA2 is probably the fastest big on the team behind LMRAM, so even if it occasionally results in a ticky-tack foul, I want his energy used up out there to help conserve fuel for our woefully short backcourt rotation.

If we can't maintain a full 40 minutes of perimeter pressure with out backcourt stalwarts, the disrupting force has to come elsewhere. One of our biggest strengths is, well, our strength. Let's use the strength where most teams would least expect it.

OK, enough from me. Feedback is welcome.

One Possible Reason for Our Defensive Worries...

Meriones — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 02:40:03 -0000

... may be our thinning backcourt.

Let's face it, our D schemes are built on tight, aggressive man defense at every position. You need quality bigs, to be sure. Bigs who can rebound (KL, LMRAM, LMR, AA2), hedge on pick and rolls (LMRAM, AA2, and especially LMR!), and fill their roles with brains and toughness and/or tenacity (all our bigs, including Keefe).

But, in recent years, by far our strongest area of defense has been perimeter D. Look at last year -- we had a reliable, formidable 4-man defensive rotation in the backcourt.

(1) AA -- a great combination of strength and almost limitless endurance, enabling him to chase and handcuff shooters. Maybe not the #1 quickest SG around, but quick enough, and freakishly determined.

(2) DC -- applying one-man pressure to force PGs to set up their offenses 3-4 feet further out, or get in sync 3-4 seconds later in the shot clock, everytime.

(3) Roll -- again, not the quickest guy in the world, playing smart defense and not messing up the team schemes.

(4) RW -- pure quickness and aggressiveness off the bench.

FOUR GUYS, without even counting JS swinging down to the backcourt in times of injury or crazy foul trouble.

Even the year before, we sent guys after opposing guards and swingmen in waves, with Farmar, AA, the green-but-whippet-fast DC, and the underrated Ced Bozeman. Yeah, Ced played the 3 in our sets, but still -- a long-armed 6-6 guy who covered whomever you wanted? Sold.

THIS YEAR? Hooooo boy.

(1) DC -- Coming off injury, but back to his time-burning, floor-extending one-man press. Check.

(2) RW -- Playing smarter, tougher D at the 2-guard spot. Check.

And, um... hmmm... oh dear... who else? Oh yeah...

(2.5) JS -- occasionally playing the 2, and still adjusting to the different D assignments.

I have believed for several eyars that to have an effective defense -- not necessarily a Detroit Piston "Bad Boys" D, but an EFFECTIVE one -- you need some basic elements. In brief, they are:

(A) INTERCEPTOR -- a guy with quickness to disrupt the opposing PG and keep them from setting up right away. Preferably your PG or other good handles guy who can steal the ball and score at the other end on his own.
e.g., Collison last year, Byron Scott on the Showtime Lakers, Tyus Edney on the '95 Champs.

(B) SEEKER -- Like Potter on a broom, your go-to chaser guy. If the other team has a freakish shooter off screens, or a crazy slash and finisher, you send THIS GUY to cuff him and stuff him.
e.g., Coop on the Showtime Lakers; Kobe and/or Rick Fox during the Bling Era; AA last year.

(C) INTERCHANGEABLE WINGS -- You know the types. 6-4 to 6-8 guys, long-armed, absurdly fast quick-twitch muscles. Guys who can double the post and still get back to the shooters. Guys who, if they switch off on pick and rolls or fighting through screens, can pick up the other guy's man with no worries. Can include your seeker or even your interceptor.
e.g., Charles O'Bannon and Toby Bailey and Ed; Jordan and Pippen and Harper; Fox and Horry and Kobe.

(D) BACKSTOP -- Shotblocking is great, but not entirely essential, depending on the team. However, the backstop has to take up space (by muscle or plain mass), control that space (by length or by strength), and make other guys regret going into the surrounding airspace (block 'em or rock' em).
e.g., Hollins in '06, Mata in '07.

In any event, let's face it: guards have to run around more. A LOT MORE. Thus, it's important to have quality and quantity of depth in the backcourt if you want to keep chasing shooters, taking PGs out of sync, and fighting through screens.

This year, with a healthy Roll, a 3-guard rotation in the backcourt (since LMRAM is just better at 4 for us than he is at 3, thereby forcing JS to be at the 3 again this year) would have changed things, but would still have been doable. Conceivably, DC would have start at the 1, Roll may have been a named starter at the 2, and RW would coms in to spell either and still play starter's minutes. Start RW instead of Roll, and it'd still have arguably the same effect.

But without Roll? Geez, we're playing with a two and one-half guard rotation here: DC and RW with extended minutes, and JS essentially the 3rd guard here, and only part-time, at that.

In years past, we've had an abundance of guys in the 6-0 to 6-6 range (Dijon, Ced, AA, Roll, RW, Jordan, DC, Shipp, etc.) NOW? Holy freaking BLEEP.

We've got an interceptor, we've got a seeker, but the interhcangeable wings are lacking. Granted, CBH's defensive schemes don't call for that many switches, but the same skill sets and physical attributes are needed.

Right now our guys have plenty of strength, but we need to develop our younger quicks.

Think of it this way -- we have THREE rotation guys capable of defending the center position on this squad: Love, Mata-Real, and Aboya.

We have SIX guys capable of defending one or both forward positions on this squad: Aboya, LMRAM, Keefe, Shipp, Drago, even Mata-Real (who still has the edge on footspeed and alterals over Kevin.)

Um, how many guys do we have that are capable of guarding guards? Seriously. THREE. Darren, Russell, and Josh -- and Josh is having some trouble on that end.

And his troubles reflect the team's troubles. That's our big problem. I'm not blaming Josh, or anyone else. The fact is, though, we need to get help for our backcourt, and on the defensive end.

Personally, I still think Chace will be the key to stopping the stretch-run bleeding, but Chace MUST practice well enough and develop fast enough to get IN the game. The kid may still be thin, but he clearly has athleticism. He may not be AA 3.0, but we clear need some energy on the perimeter to spell our starters.

Otherwise, we could have more problems. Shoot, we are already having some now -- look how many times the back door has been open.

It is clearly fixable, but it HAS to be fixed soon.

We need another wing. We need another seeker/ chaser.

I think we need Chace.

OK, enough from me. Feedback is welcome.

Kobe says "passion bucket" on TNT Postgame Interview

Meriones — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:06:34 -0000

Proof that CRN is taking over all media.

After the Lakers' 116-99 win over the Nuggets last night, TNT sideline reporter Cheryl Miller spoke with Kobe Bryant, who said: "We played with a full passion bucket tonight."

Props to insomniacslounge for pointing this out in an earlier Norm Chow thread.

Catch it here.

Apparently, however, it is also the "YouTube of the Day" in Yahoo's NBA Section. They offer this explanation of our new favorite phrase (boldface added):

That's right. "Passion bucket."

Now, a quick Google search reveals that it was some odd phrase that UCLA college football coach Rick Neuheisel created while guesting on the Dan Patrick show, and where it goes from here is anyone's guess.

Honestly, I wouldn't mind the phrase dying a quick death, but that's mainly because my passion bucket isn't overflowing for passion buckets in general.

Watch out, Howard Stern -- looks like Skippy is not only looking to challenge Pom Pom Pete for L.A., but he's (intentionally or not) becoming a rising contender for the title of "King of All Media," with a HUGE push from Dan Patrick.

Gotta love it.

Athleticism and Anger

Meriones — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 14:52:21 -0000

Two things that, believe it or not, may have been in short supply today.

DC is STILL our fastest guy, and even though he is not all the way back yet, he did fine interceptor work, esp. in the 1st half. If you doubt it, check his series of steals toward the end of the 1st half.

RW has all the tools, but to fill AA's shoes, you have to strap on his work boots. Hackett and Mayo blew by RW several times -- not just to the basket, but to loose balls. They wanted it more. Even Billy PACCker could tell that in the first half.

And Josh -- Josh had his stroke going from outside for sure, but how many times did Mayo and Hackett and Jefferson get to the glass for 2nd chance points?

Leaders lead. It's Josh's time. He can take the reins, but he has to know when he HAS to take the reins. I think and hope this game will be a good learning experience for him.

IIRC, I think Katz or Stein or Gottlieb said earlier in the week that our backcourt is "good, but not great." I'm sure many were ticked off at the notion. However, the WWL writer (whichever one it was) may have a point.

Coming into the year, I'm sure many of us thought that DC would be our best backcourt athlete, with RW right behind, JS being a fairly good athlete, and Roll being just athletic enough.

At this point, however, with Roll out for a few more weeks, we're playing 3 guys extended minutes, and even if Roll wasn't Rex Chapman in blue and gold, he at least spelled our guys so their batteries could recharge mid-game.

You can see toward the end that our 3-man backcourt, ever so slightly, was a quarter-step behind the Toejam backcourt. To loose balls. To the glass. To shooting spots on the floor.

Shoot, how many of our last-minute heaves -- when we really didn't need to settle for 3s yet -- were short or plain-out WIDE. That's mental and physical fatigue there, folks. Mental fatigue in particular, as we apparently tried for 3s at the 59.2-second-point when we could have gone to Gonzaga-style choke-hold D and still possibly pulled it out.

Plus, with Luc on the bench with a concussion, one of our best clean-up defenders was on the bench for a LONG time. Aboya has the speed to cover a lot of mistakes with rotations, which is why the lineup with him AND Luc together at the forward spots is better defensively than a Luc-Love-Mata frontcourt.

Keefe, however, for all his increasingly valuable hustle and smarts, doesn't have Aboya's quicks, or Luc's wonderfully freaky combo of strength, quickness AND length.

Do I think we'll still make the F4? Oh, HELL FREAKING YES. The FAITH is NOT broken today, but is merely being reasserted. Refocused. Rededicated.

But our Ben Ball Warriors WILL need to adjust.

Our mental focus must be sharpened. Our rotations and decisions and communication on help D must ALL be quicker.

But most of all, as unhealthy as this sounds, we need to play with something that AA and Farmar gave us in years past, but what I have yet to see this year.

ANGER.

Who on this team will REFUSE to let himself and his teammates LOSE a game they should have no business losing?

Light and dark side of the Force aside, who is most likely on this team to use their ANGER to drive their play?

Who on this team is going to get PISSED when we lose? Not disappointed. Not frustrated. Not bummed.

I'm talking light-a-stack-of-old-truck-tires-with-his-own-eyes -pissed-so-that-the-flames-can-only-be-quenched-with -the-sweat-borne-of-two-hours-of-shooting-drills-after-breaking-into-the-locked-doors-of-Pauley PISSED.

Sometimes, you need to relight the pilot light for that fire to get your feet back to the Four.

This looks like one of those days.

Relight the pilot, and the whole house can be warm and happy in no time.

Who's our pilot light? Right now, my money's on Josh, but questions remain.

Will he take the reins?

Will he find the anger?

Will he take the next step?

Someone check the locks on Pauley in the morning for me, will ya?

In the words of Charlie Brown: AAUUGGGHHH!!!!

Meriones — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 20:18:01 -0000

Per Doh!n, Bellotti is staying at Oregon:

Mike Bellotti has rebuffed overtures from UCLA and will remain head coach at Oregon, leaving Rick Neuheisel as the apparent front-runner to become the Bruins' next football coach. An announcement is expected today.
Bellotti had met Thursday with UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero, who has been interviewing candidates since firing Karl Dorrell on Dec. 3.

This is NOT on Dohn's blog, but is on the actual Sports Section of the online edition of the Daily News.

Mike Bel-Lucy just pulled the freaking football.

^%$@#!% DAMN.

At the same time, you have to respect DG and his search committee/ firm for this: when was the last time (other than during the CBH hire) you heard of our AD's office going for anyone with anywhere NEARLY as big a name as Bellotti, huh?

Plus, the Bellotti news snuck up on us *less than 24 hours ago.* How many of us would LOVE to find out DG has another big name in the bag of tricks, along with the same big sack of cash to throw at him?

It's the time of year for miracles, folks. Who knows?

NEXT!