Post game things

It was like playing Memphis all over again. I'm convinced howland's style of basketball will not bring us a championship.

exactly. we are easy to prepare for because we only play man to man, double the post, and we run the same schemes over and over again. athletic teams with the ability to drive to the hoop will dominate us a la Memphis and now Villanova. We obviously had trouble with UDUB's dibble penetration. This always had been a problem.

To the Howland ingrates:
1. He should beg forgiveness for missing the Final 4 this year.
2. For those who complain he will never bring us a championship: ok who do you want to bring back
a. Lavin
b. Harrick (best of them)
c. Hazzard
d. Farmer
e. Brown (might not be bad for a season if we don't end up on probation).
f. Cunningham
g. Bartow
h. ... praying that the next coach is better then Howland and not one of a-g despite the fact we underpay our coaches.

Am I still a negative guy for saying that UCLA was overrated all year and they would be lucky to get out of the first round?
Am I still negative for saying that Collision and Shipp were overrated and nothing without Luc, Kevin, Aaron, Russell, and Jordan to carry them?

Am I still negative for saying that Howland will never win a National Championship at UCLA with his Prehistoric style of ball?

Am I still negative for saying that Holliday is a complete bust? Or was I just being realistic all along?

If Ben could not win with the talent he had the 3 previous seasons, when will he ever?

And how many teams have won championships playing Memphis' style? Thought so.

Style isn't what wins championships. Well-rounded, deep, ultra-talented teams win championships regardless of style. Having the most talented players is what wins championships...and UCLA hasnt had the most talented players.

Florida won those 2 in row cuz they had 4 NBA players on their team.

When UCLA has the most talented team in the nation and doesnt win the title...then you can blame Howland.

Truly embarrassing! I couldn't bare to watch, we're getting trashed on SI and all over the net. The fact that I work with a bunch of trOJans doesn't help, and even if they lose it won't matter. I'll have to wear a sack over my head on Monday. I'm heading to the bar to knock down some REAL 3's, and I'm leaving my gear at home. Cheers *sigh*

By what measure would Howland consider this season a success? The Pac 10 regular season championship UCLA didn't win? The Pac 10 tournament championship it didn't win? The national championship it didn't win? Nobody expects UCLA to win everything every year, but I guarantee all fans are most upset about this year's team going out with its tail between its legs vs. USC in the Pac 10 semis and against Villanova today.

It will be funny, and not a little bit ironic, if Jamie Dixon of ND High School takes Howland's old team where Howland could not himself get to.

So the deal is that this is a down year. We have one NBA caliber player on this team, Jrue Holiday, who was forced to play out of position. What is Holiday had played the point all season? We would have been much better.

We had a good year for our talent level. Howland did a great job. We have a bunch of excellent recruits coming in and our sophomores will have another year of experience next year.

I proud of the effort our team put in this year.

Go Bruins!

I remember reading somewhere that after our loss to Florida in the Final 4 two years ago, Westbrook and Keefe hit the weight room first thing Monday morning. I'm hoping our returning guys now have the hunger to take it all the way next year and start the attack plan Monday morning, as well. Oh man, there goes my bracket!

Sid - dont you think that two top 5 NBA draft picks, a 2nd rounder who is playing like a lottery pick and a future first rounder were more talent than Memphis or Kansas?

I hope these blow out losses force Ben Howland to reconsider his own stubbornly held ideals. First and foremost, it should be noted that he is fantastic coach and UCLA would not in the position it would be in without him. A regular top 25 program with consecutive trips to the tournament with 3 resulting it trips to the final four.

That being said, UCLA sometimes is too easy to game plan for. If UCLA has superior talent, they usually win because even if you know what they are going to do, you cannot stop it. However, the second the paradigm shifts and we start to match up with that are equally as talented as us (or moreso), our lack of variability really hurts us.

For example, playing a zone for just a few positions of a game takes the opposition out of a rhythm and forces them to game plan for a different look.

All in all, I wish the seniors of luck and wish there was something hung in Pauley to remember their great accomplishments at UCLA.

If UCLA does NOT have the talent to play better, go deeper in the postseason, or at least win the Pac-10 Tournament, let alone go to the Final Four or win a championship - is that NOT the fault of the coach?

It's the coach's job to bring in the talent to work in his system of basketball. If he can't recruit the necessary talent to UCLA, then what does that tell you?

Romar and many other Pac-10 coaches out-recruit Howland. Please, no more excuses - if Villanova can beat the snot out of UCLA on a basketball floor, then what does that tell you about UCLA's ability to recruit the nation's best players?

The better team won today, and it was not located in Los Angeles. Opposing teams are no longer scared to play against UCLA, witness the Pac-10 tournament.

The era is over ... never to return.

Ucla is now being known as the most overrated program in the country. Ben Howland's style of offense will never win big games. Teams that win the title are up tempo styles. Ucla has no scoring power forwards and none on the horizon. I'm tired of getting blown out in tourney losses. Holiday is the most overrated player ever to wear a Bruin uniform. He was absolutly horrible today and Howland continues to leave him in the game, turning the ball over and missing shot after shot. Roll should hit the road and enjoy life somewhere else, putting up with the guys in front of him hurting this ball team. It's embarrassing that the Bruins are down by 20 and coach still has them running at a snails pace offensive. And we never practice the press? Wow!! Nice prep, Coach. Find a coach that isnt happy with getting blown out on all national TV games. I'm sick of the excuses. Hit the Road, Ben. Your out of cards.

And why not practice the press? From a non-basketball player's perspective, I don't get that. Shouldn't a great team have its arsenal ready at all times and pull out the weapons as the war dictates?

Uh, Liron -

The fatal flaw in your argument is that Memohis and Kansas both had multiple players drafted last year because of their athletic prowess. UCLA's guys were drafted more for their defense (Mbah a Moute) or technical skill (Love), then their athleticism. We have always lacked the long, rangy athletes that some of these other schools are stacking up.

Liron Artzi,

You are correct and Anonymous is sounds silly. It sounds like Anonymous truly feels that UCLA was so overmatched in talent against Florida and Memphis that it was ok to for the Bruins to get blown out.

I would argue that UCLA had as much or more talent that both Florida teams and definitely more than Memphis.
The bottom line is Ben's window closed and the Bruins are becoming like Pitt. It will take a few years until Dan Guerrero gets tired of 2nd round losses and cans Ben.

Let's just hope we get a modern day coach at that point!

>>The bottom line is Ben's window closed and the Bruins are becoming like Pitt.

Actually, it seems like the reverse is happening. Pitt is rising to where UCLA used to be, and UCLA is settling down to where Pitt used to be - good enough to make the tournament barely, then go meekly early in the first or second round.

This is what happens when you cant stop dribble penetration, control the boards and show up in the biggest game of the year without the focus of your opponent. This team earned what happened in todays game, let them feast upon the results. And for all you Howland bashers, who's this great coach that you are planning to replace Ben with? It's easier to fire than hire.

According to Dohn, Howland is to blame for the loss. UCLA coach Ben Howland said the Bruins were "outplayed and outcoached."

Outcoached - during practice in preparation for Villanova.

Outcoached - on the floor in the hugely embarrassing loss by UCLA.

Outcoached - on the recruiting trails by most other teams.

Candidates to hire after an easy fire: Romar, Dixon, Braswell, to name a few.

Howland seems to be a nice guy, and his old-fashioned style of coaching will still succeed to a certain extent, but it will never attract the premier athletes to UCLA, and it will never be enough to take a team to the promised land.

The era is over ...

bunch of idiots... Remember where the program was a few short years ago and where we've been since.

You guys don't know what you are talking about in terms of recruiting. We had the number 1 class last year, and a top 10 class this year. Plus the fact that it seems most of you expect ALL freshmen to come in and dominate is stupid. I didn't hear people saying Westbrook sucked his freshmen year or that Collison was a big disappointment his freshman year. Remember everyone's jump from freshmen to sophomore year and just relax. Just cause we lost in the second round this year doesn't mean it's time to panic.

Also for all you people bashing on UCLA offense sucks. We LEAD the nation is field goal percentage! The offense may look ugly, but it is effective.

One last thing, some of you guys make it seem as if a national championship is so easy to attain. It is hard, look at how many great coaches haven't been able to win one, and also look at all the great coaches and how many they have won. Roy Williams has only one national championship in all the years he has coached. Should he be fired?

It baffles me that a team that goes 9 deep doesn't practice a press

To BLUE BEUIN:
You must cease and desist using that moniker. I am the one and true Blue Bruin, as my site registration proves. Kindly get your own name!

You guys are getting unnecessarily stressed out over a ball game. And I agree with Howland, that this season was a success. This season was a success because of its participation in ncaa post season play, number of wins recorded, and the system continuity provided by the decisions of Collison and Aboya to stay for their senior seasons.

I'll admit, it was pretty frustrating to watch our inconsistent play and I was disappointed by Collison's play too. In retrospect though, our team, given its losses to the NBA and graduation, did the best it could with its available personnel. Collison, Aboya, and Shipp may not be crazy great players for their respective decisions but they all worked hard with the experience and skills they had to offer by being under Howland for three plus years. The three seniors lead the team to produce a 26 win season and to post season play. I think the most important thing they will leave to the program, besides their final four contributions and this season's post season play, is the experience they had to offer to the underclassmen players. They may not be super vocal leaders, but I think the fact that the underclassmen had the opportunity to experience ONE injury free season with these veteran Howland players was very important. The underclassmen may not have experienced crazy great success, but they were able to play on a team with a winning record, in the post season, and learn along side people who knew Howland's system and have experienced the success (or near success for all you "we want championships" fanatics). And I think Howland recognized their importance because he got Aboya to sacrifice his personal plans (help family's economic difficulties) and Collison to stay.

I think at this point forward, future success (next couple seasons and possibly deep runs into the ncaa tourney) of the program will be attributed to who returns next year (Holiday) and/or the team's commitment to work hard and develop as players to have a more successful season than this year's (Anderson, Gordon, and Morgan).

UCLA should NEVER, repeat that NEVER lose a game to ANYONE like we did today. If you told me the Bruins were paid to flop today or throw the game, I'd never believe it because it would have been to obvious.

HOWLAND gets paid BIG BIG bucks. He needs to improve his game just as he would expect his players to. If HE can't teach the press or zone, get an assistant that can. All I can say is: GO MICHIGAN STATE!

There were some things to be critical about with how this team was managed, but it never had the talent to be better than a sweet 16 team.

Anyone saying Howland needs to be fired, or can't win the big game knows nothing about basketball.

Howland should have developed his bench better during the cupcake part of the schedule in november and december, and used them more at the end of games so he would be more comfortable using them.

He also never committed to one style of play. Was this team going to be built on half court defense? Than why start Drago over Keefe? He cannot play man to man defense. Was the starting 5 limited? Than why not go deep into the bench and run an uptempo game and take advantage of your depth?

I think Howland could have adjusted better to his talent, but he is a great coach and a great recruiter and anyone who doesn't see that is ignorant about basketball

LOVE the way silverlake and others say Howland is a great coach, but only after listing the several mistakes he made during the season, and on Saturday against Villanova ...

"never had the talent to be better than a sweet 16 team": OK, then how can you say he is a "great" recruiter?

"Howland should have developed his bench better during the cupcake part of the schedule": OK, then how can you say he is a "great" coach?

"He also never committed to one style of play": So you still think he's a "great" coach?

The era is over ...

oh chill it guys, it was a bad lost... but our team is thin this year anyways, we have a 6'7 PF who never start all 3 previous year playing center, we had 3 crucial guys leaving for the NBA... why are LA people so negative about things, maybe we should take a look at Wake Forest's board and see if anyone is asking for the head of their head coach after a #3 seed LOST... we were not overrated, the media overrated us, if you truly followed UCLA ball you knew we were not going to be that good this year as the previous 2 years. Howland will reload and be back gunning for many years to come. Look at our incoming class. 2 6'10 C/PF, a 3 6'7-6'8 G/F + Malcolm Lee, J'mison Morgon, and hopefully Holiday (who was being a little too respectful and timid as he deferred all year to the seniors) we'll be GREAT...

for Howland haters, all you need to go is to go back to Lavin, who made UCLA suck year to year - yearly sweet 16 exits which led to barely making it into pac10 tournament.... how can you guys be calling for Howland's head? what's wrong with you guys... one thing though, Howland should definitely add some zone/press to his defense and probably hire a good offensive coach for the team

quit complaining whiners of LA who only supports the team when they win and quits on the team when they lose, that's why i so much hate lakers fan

these days are NCAA BB coaches supposed to be able to teach freshmen every conceivable aspect of the game in one year so they can immediately leave for the NBA?

good luck

BLUE BRUIN: STOP USING MY NAME!!!

I'd have to say that Howland deserves a lot of criticism. He does not appear to be very imaginative - last year leaving Collision on Rose, and not guarding CDR with Mbah a Moute, 2 years ago sticking with the post double rather than trying Hollins man-to-man in the post with Horford, not trying zone this year, or playing Lee and Gordon more. I don't think we're anywhere near considering changing coaches, but there is definitely a refusal to see when we might be overmatched physically/athletically and adjust appropriately. Will this change? I hope so, before the recruiting buzz turns against us.