UCLA head coach Ben Howland at the team’s press conference on Thursday, as the Bruins gear up for Cal-State Bakersfield:

On UCLA’s poor offensive performance:
“The biggest thing was offensively we took so many bad shots. We were really hurried. That’s the most shots a team of mine has taken since I’ve been here by 14. Malcolm Lee took 23 shots, the most any player has taken. We were very anxious, very amped up.”

On why the team shot so bad:
“The most important thing about offense is shot selection. I think I counted six or seven either airballs or airbanks. I don’t remember seeing that many in any time in recent memory. After the game (I realized) I played our starters too many minutes. When you’re a shooter, you have to have your legs. We were so quick to shoot, we were on defense more than offense in that 50 minutes.”

On what practices have been like:
“Our practice yesterday was geared totally toward us. Our execution of the things that we need to do. We need to focus on ourselves.

On Jerime Anderson:
“Obviously, he didn’t have a good game in terms of his shooting. Neither did Nik. Between the two of them, 3-for-25. Jerime really had a setback, and you could see in his first exhibition against Humboldt State, he got really tired. He’s still catching up conditioning-wise. What I want out of Jerime is continued improvement in every facet of the game. I look back at how he was playing in January, February and March, and he was playing really well, just behind an NBA point guard. When he gets back to where he was, I think he’ll be fine.”

On not playing Reeves Nelson more:
Reeves Nelson was really dominant yesterday. The biggest mistake I made Monday night was not playing him more minutes.”