Howland ON:
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."
Some good, honest comments from Coach Howland. Hopefully, we'll see more of Reeves Nelson on Friday night.
"Reeves Nelson was really dominant yesterday. The biggest mistake I made Monday night was not playing him more minutes."
...especially in overtime when lots of players may be struggling a bit with their conditioning. Nice to hear him acknowledge this...nicer to have him notice it during the game...
well it is great to see CBH actually recongnizes his mistakes, whick indicates he will make the adjustments.
But Jon, can you ask CBH if he will even consider using a zone defense this year? we have all these long 3-4-5's but are weak in the front court...the pac10 guards are going to chew us up like a slim jim, unless we go zone, IMHO. e.g., Bobo gets totally lost in a man to man, but in a zone i think he will be much more confortable. not using him at all seems coo-coo to me.
Props to Howland for owning up to not playing Nelson more.
jerime anderson is terrible
I don't get why fans are finding Howland's acknowledgement as positive. I find his comment disturbing and I'm very very alarmed by this...hindsight is always 20-20. How come he didn't make the adjustments during the game? He's not new to coaching...Gordon was playing horribly but he stayed in there. This is going to be a long long season for us...the guard play is horrendous...everyone is standing around. Howland needs to figure out a way to use these role players...let's face it...we have too many role players. Only Lee is a playmaker. Dragovic has not improved during his entire time here...I wonder what the veterans were doing during offseason. Ben needs to adjust his philosophy and adapt...because frankly I don't think he can do better than getting to the Final Four.
Haven't you guys heard the same thing before? All last year he was saying how he should play gordon, anderson, and lee more and that never turned out anywhere. Until he actually does give them more minutes consistently, I'm skeptical that he follows through.
"airbanks"
never heard that before.
Maybe if he wasn't jumping around on the sidelines all game, he would have more clarity and scheme better. He's not going to be able to move like that forever.
Faithful is the most negative poster on this blog. I'm pretty sick of it. He should be required to change his name to "Faithless"
I agree with you coach-- big, big mistake. What's with taking Reeves Nelson out just after he almost single handedly muscled the Bruins back from a 10 point deficit? He offered points, rebounds, and controlled attitude when the rest of the team ran around like the Marx brothers.
A bigger question is why didn't the assistant coaches say anything to Howland about putting Nelson back into the game.
"Reeves Nelson was really dominant yesterday. The biggest mistake I made Monday night was not playing him more minutes."
DUH....
Agree with some of the posters above. Howland's comments disturb me. He should have noticed these things DURING the game, not after. In addition, also as noted above by a few, Howland was singing this same tune all last year, but did nothing about it. It's only the first game of the new year, and we are already hearing the same comments/quotes. Not a good sign.
Overall, I like Howland as a coach and I support him fully - he brought us back from the Lavin disaster, but common. In the end, I don't think playing any one person mattered. Sure we might have won the game (by a point or two), but we honestly should have blown this team away. Clearly our guys were way too nervous. We are not a good shooting team, but that game was stupid. Even as a poor shooting team we normally hit much more than we did against Fullerton. This will be a long year I fear.
I just think you all need to sit back and watch the year unfold.
Just relax. It was just 1 game. A bad one, but Washington was able to rebound from losing the opener to Portland St last year. Once the team gels, i think you will all be surprised.
"because frankly I don't think he can do better than getting to the Final Four." What a bunch of pinheads and Chicken Little's on this site. Grow up, relax, have fun watching BH, currently the game's best colegiate TEACHER, mature this team into a true basketball team. And remember - unlike the NBA, his primary job is to TEACH these kids to play ball and build character. A hopeful outgrowth of this will be final fours and championships. Instead of whining about playing zone defense or picking apart coach's decisions, why don't some of you go back and read the "pyramid."