More on Shipp
In speaking with many of UCLA's players, they believe Josh Shipp is the key ingredient in a run to a national championship. Here is the story I wrote for today's paper, and here is something else Shipp had to say about the need to get a third scorer.
“It definitely will make it a lot harder,’’ Shipp said of winning without a third scorer. “As long as we play D, we have a chance to win, but it’s definitely going to be tough when you only have those two guys scoring.’’
Shipp added he believes he is close to breaking the slump.
“It’s definitely tough when you have a lot of those in and outs,’’ he said. ‘I see it a lot, but I have to keep shooting the ball.’’
I'm very pleased to see Howland finally taking a proactive approach to the "demise" of Shipp. I think it would be nice to see Howland run some high post plays with Josh so that he can start the game off with some mid-range jumpers. Possibly even some low post plays designed for Josh instead of Love. He's a bigger wing player at the college level and I think he can find some easy buckets closer to the basket. I hate to see such a talented overall player to be such a "one-trick". He's so much more and we should be taking advantage of it. Do you have any thoughts on why we don't see Shipp take advantage of mis matches like that?