Point, counter-point

The conventional wisdom after the second time Florida soundly beat the Bruins last year was that the team lacked an offensive threat in the low post. Mata Real, a good shot blocker and hedger, could handle the defense well enough but he would rarely produce a lot of points in the paint. Kevin Love changed all that. This was the year that Howland had all the pieces. So the loss to Memphis, which seems a lot like the previous losses to the Gators, requires a different analysis. It looks like the players we have just have to get both stronger and quicker. Of course, making their shots would really help. In order to win a national championship, we need good players who will stay in school, play four years and graduate. Imagine what it would have been like to have had both Farmar and Afflalo still on this team, if only they stayed in school for four years.

simply put, both Florida and Memphis have better and bigger athletes who can play D and still give you something on offense. with the exception of Love none of our big men are any threat offensively. if Luc, Keefe, Aboya, or Mata were better scorers we could have really exploited Memphis double teaming Love. but when guys cant hit open shots then Memphis is going to double team love all day. we finally got our big man, and it turns out we dont need one big man, we need two. Florida had two, and Memphis has 3. were not gonna win another title with these guys. Howland HAS to recruit bigger, more athletic players and make them fit in his system. and focus more on offense, when Love leaves the game the offense stops bc no one can score.

Ucla Basketball under Howland has been consistently good with a chance to win almost every game, and we usually do win; but the few exceptions in which we were soundly beaten have been in the Final Four. It was clear that we were soundly defeated by Florida twice and last night against Memphis.

It should be noted that Howland is in his 5th year at Ucla. Billy Donovan won the title in his 9th or 10th year at Florida. And Calipari is in his 8th year at Memphis--we'll see how he does Monday night.

We all know where Ucla basketball was just before Howland--near the bottom of the Pac10.

Howland will eventually get all the pieces of the puzzle to run and execute his scheme, or else he'll have to tweak his scheme to his players. His tough man-to-man defense and double in the post was pretty much ineffective last night, and we got pounded on the glass.

I think he needed to go to some sort of zone to stop their dribble penetration and offensive rhythm, or bench Collison in favor of Westbrook on Rose, Luc on CDR, Shipp on Antonio Anderson, Love on Dorsey, and Keefe on Dozier/Taggart.

Other than that, we need to recruit some long athletic wings that are pure shooters that can slash. Any Corey Brewers out there with good GPA's and high SAT scores???

Absolutely! We don't have wildly athletic players in the Howland era. Our players may go to the NBA, but they are at best marginal players (Farmar has the best upside). As much as I love Afflalo, I don't think he'll survive long in the NBA. Even SC has better NBA talent. Nick Young, Taj, Jefferson will do well in the pros. The Florida team had and Memphis teams are stacked in legit NBA players.

Just shows how great a coach Howland is despite his lack in athletes. If Howland had Lavin-like players athletic wise, we'd be a team to reckon with.

I wonder if a better question would be this:

Can Ben Howland win the "Big Game"? He has failed in three tries now and this year seemed like the third time would be the charm, yet his team was outplayed. Does anybody think he was out-coached? I don't have an opinion on that one.

I think, yes, in the 3 straight losses in the Final Four to Florida (twice) and now Memphis there was a big talent gap between UCLA and their opponents BUT I think with Howland's success he has begun to narrow that talent gap between UCLA and the other elite programs like UNC, Kansas and Memphis (this year).

A little perspective is needed. Donovan hit the recrutiting jackpot with 3 lottery picks in one class (Horford, Noah and Brewer) and with Green and Humphrey they had an outstanding college starting 5. And let's not forget that Noah and Horford made a pretty selfless move to stay for their junior years to defend their titles. I think both would have been lottery picks after their first championship. Just to illustrate if Kevin Love decided to come back next year (which I highly doubt he will), I doubt anyone would argue that with a backcourt of Westbrook and Jrue Holliday along with Kevin Love that UCLA would not again be a prohibitive favorite for the Final Four again next year and could probably win it next year.

In the case of Memphis you had an outstanding "One and Done" PG in Derrick Rose and a very good supporting cast around him (Douglas-Roberts and Dorsey) who propelled them to the championship and who clearly were more athletic than UCLA.

But UCLA has the no. 1 recruiting class coming in next year and arguably the best player in the nation in Jrue Holiday. Holiday is a stud and drawing comparisons to Dwayne Wade.

IMO, even without Love and Collison, IF Keefe can continue to improve and if Aboya can provide meaningful minutes next year, UCLA still must be considered the favorite to win the Pac-10. That should get them a No. 1 or 2 seed in next year's tournament and at least another deep run.

My point is I think Ben Howland is going to get UCLA a championship sooner than later because I think he is now going to be able to consistently recruit Top 10 recruiting classes and combine that with his coaching ability and I think that is a recipe for National Championships.

Can Ben Howland win the "Big Game"?

Was the National Semi-Final the "Big Game?" I thought the Big Game was the national championship. As far as Big Games are concerned, Howland is 0-1.

How about coaches who can't even get to the National Semis let alone the Big game? Roman, Floyd, Sendak, Bennett, Kent, etc.

Would anyone want to trade Howland for Big Game winner Jim Boeheim? Or how about Gary Williams? Or Bobby Knight? Or Lute Olson? Coach K? No? No??

Howland is doing just fine. He is banging on the door for 3 straight years. Give him crazy talent like Memphis, KU, UNC, or Florida last year and he wins the NC.

We lacked athleticism. Russell was the only guy on our team who looked like he could roll with them, and its no coincidence since he is the most athletic player on our squad. We are recruiting better and better players now though, so we'll get that title soon enough! Go Bruins!

Sitting back and thinking about this loss I can't help to compare this situation to college football as it is right now. The SEC is dominating the country right now and for very simple reasons. Their athletes are bigger, stronger, faster. Simply put, its a different breed of athletes than what is found in the pac-10, big-10, etc. The same goes for the teams we have lost to the last three years. Just completely different breeds of athletes. quickness, great lateral foot speed, and all around explosiveness at a level not found anywhere across the country....

There may be a talent gap, but I think this game could have been one had Howland been a little more flexible and made some adjustments.

I think he's one of the best (if not the best) coaches in the country and I wouldn't trade him...but I feel his one flaw is he doesn't reoognize that his system won't always work. Three times in a row we lose to the same type of team...and he doesn't make an adjustment on defense that I can see. Our defensive strengths are when we can double team the post or the ball on screens...everyone knew Memphis' offense wouldn't allow that very often. What adjustment was made by Howland?

I don't think any other coach could get more out of his players than Howland. But I guess I'm saying that I think HE can get a bit more.

All that being said, it was a great year and I wouldn't trade him for any of the other coaches in the country. I'm looking forward to seeing what he does next year. I'm sure he'll learn from this, too.

Howland's teams at UCLA have yet to lose a game in which we were the clear favorite.

This speaks volumes about the kind of coach he is.

I know some have expressed concern about his recruiting. But considering how in the toilet the program was when he showed up, his classes have been nothing short of amazing.

When you throw in the fact that we have most likely the #1 overall class for 2008 on the heels of (then) back-to-back Final Fours, I'd say things are just fine.

CBH will only improve in his recruiting efforts as potential players see just how good our team perform in the tournament. Eventually, we get that stud or couple of studs who want to be the ones which get us over the top. It will happen.

It's just a matter of how soon.

Considering everything CBH has set out to do has been accomplished far ahead of schedule, I expect it to happen sooner rather than later.

Howland's teams at UCLA have yet to lose a game in which we were the clear favorite.

This speaks volumes about the kind of coach he is.

I know some have expressed concern about his recruiting. But considering how in the toilet the program was when he showed up, his classes have been nothing short of amazing.

When you throw in the fact that we have most likely the #1 overall class for 2008 on the heels of (then) back-to-back Final Fours, I'd say things are just fine.

CBH will only improve in his recruiting efforts as potential players see just how good our team perform in the tournament. Eventually, we get that stud or couple of studs who want to be the ones which get us over the top. It will happen.

It's just a matter of how soon.

Considering everything CBH has set out to do has been accomplished far ahead of schedule, I expect it to happen sooner rather than later.

Howland's teams at UCLA have yet to lose a game in which we were the clear favorite.

This speaks volumes about the kind of coach he is.

I know some have expressed concern about his recruiting. But considering how in the toilet the program was when he showed up, his classes have been nothing short of amazing.

When you throw in the fact that we have most likely the #1 overall class for 2008 on the heels of (then) back-to-back Final Fours, I'd say things are just fine.

CBH will only improve in his recruiting efforts as potential players see just how good our team perform in the tournament. Eventually, we get that stud or couple of studs who want to be the ones which get us over the top. It will happen.

It's just a matter of how soon.

Considering everything CBH has set out to do has been accomplished far ahead of schedule, I expect it to happen sooner rather than later.

No, I don't believe the talent gap is very big. We're going up against talented teams, but UCLA has talent too. Love, Westbrook, Collison - those are all future NBA players. UCLA soundly defeated Kansas last year, a team everyone lauds for it's talent, and we defeated Memphis and LSU two years ago. Most analysts thought we would lose to LSU, and that Memphis team was very good with Rodney Carney, Shawne Williams and Darius Washington. Florida was a rare type of team that doesn't come around often, and Memphis just played better last night. Had Collison brought his A game and if there weren't so many poor shots and unforced errors, the tables could have been turned. That's not a talent problem the way I see it. Yeah, it's nice to have amazing athletes, but they don't grow on trees and our athletes are consistantly underated.

i think there is a talent gap against Memphis, but not as much as it was against Florida. With Memphis, the key advantage was the bench. They were running us off the court, wearing our guys down. They get tired? Next guy off the bench. Us? Sit Collision down and we lose 51% of our offense.
As for the starting 5, I say our talent matches up well against theirs, maybe even better, if everyone played to their potential (Shipp out of his slump, Luc the scoring threat he was late-freshman/early-sophomore year). It would have been a very different game if they couldn't afford to double Love by sending the man guarding Shipp or Luc away.

The only thing UCLA lacked against Memphis was their typical aggression and discipline on offense, defense, and the boards.

This must have been due to Collison's being unable to stop the Memphis guards.

Once he went out with his fourth foul, UCLA had Love, Mbah a Moute, Keefe, Shipp, and Westbrook on the floor, and the Bruins finally stopped Memphis. They fought hard and made the Tigers look like any other decent team they beat this year.

Inexplicably, Coach Howland reinserted Collison almost immediately.

When it was obvious that Collison wasn't going to show up, the coach should have admitted that and gone with players who would fight back.

I hope that Coach Howland will be able to recognize this situation when it arise in the future and adjust quickly.

YES.

i guess theres lots of factors in getting the top talent...guessing how good theyll be, recruiting wars, are they local, injuries, etc...so to counter the varying factors for talent level in a program: HOWLAND MUST FOSTER A TRADITION OF PLAYERS STAYING IN SCHOOL. we finally land one of the few freaks of nature blessed divinely by God in klove, and he bails after just one year? no one or two and dones. can u imagine the program if everyone stayed and developed to their junior or senior years with consistent top rated recruiting classes coming in? dynasty.

and target recruits higher in talent level than like keefe and shipp. sorry to say that, but it makes me sick to watch certain talent on other squads and wishing we had them instead.

(and howlands gotta get chow to run the offense)

Our teams are getting more talented, as Howland's recruiting classes are improving. We will be in the category of Kansas and NC very shortly.

We will never be a Memphis however, just like nobody with be a Jerry Tarkanian/UNLV. When you are willing to take players who are in their early 20s as freshmen because it took them 7 years to get through high school, you can field a different team than more traditional colleges.

I don't know why the media isn't writing anything about Calapari's "student" athletes.

Bingo. Once again, Silverlake Bruin has hit the nail squarely on the head. Short of using kids who've been on church missions, UCLA will probably not be fielding too many 22-year-old sophomores who would have a hard time being admitted to most programs. Flexible admissions standards can be a real boost.

Two real issues affect Coach Howland's recruiting, UCLA's academic demands and Howland's admitted need to recruit players that will buy into his defense first system. Together, these restrictions make it very difficult to recruit the best athletes out there. I suspect that none of the players on Memphis would have satisfied both criterion. Given these "limitations" Coach Howland and his assistants have done a wonderful job in getting very good players into the program and generally making them better or, in Russell Westbrook's case, much better. IMO there will be championships in Howland's future.

On Saturday, I really felt at halftime that the Bruins were in the game, Memphis shot over 60%, no turnovers yet only lead by 3 points. Unfortunately, Collison imploded and the team did not have the stamina/depth/firepower to claw its way back. Given the possibility that from 2 to 7 players could leave this year, Coach Howland will again face a serious depth problem. If we can keep RW, find a 2 or 3 star to play the 5 and Keefe and Roll come back breathing fire then we'll have a fine team with depth at most positions and, hopefully, a host of offensive weapons.