Drew Gordon transferring at end of quarter

More Reeves Nelson! Finally someone who deserves more minutes will get them. Keefe, Drago and Gordon blocking Nelson was becoming really irritating.

Seriously? Why is he leaving? Is he disgruntled because we are having a bad season? Sounds quite immature to me.

I usually support any Bruin player to the end but I think this is pretty pathetic. I can't stand people who run away from situations and just don't man up and work through the difficulties and adversities. Where is he going to go?

Geez. And he was one of the bright spots on the team.

Jon--

As you get more info, YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED TO SHED LIGHT ON THIS and why he's leaving.

This news is insane.

let him leave! Lane and Nelson can fill the void and no Bobo will come in more too.
he obviously had issues with the coaching philosophies of CBH.
Maybe he was scared of Josh Smith coming in next year and stealing his minutes!
Go Bruins!

Intense guy. I liked his energy, but he seemed to be a bit of a head case. When the team is struggling to find itself, you don't need problem players to make the situation even worse.

Good riddance

WHY???

Wow. At the end of the quarter? Not even the end of the year?

What is going on right now

You know the REASON for leaving.

Major issue for a player to leave at "start of season".

Ben was SHOKE to hear the news.A
And could not influence his decision.

This was coming for a long time.

He was granted a full conditional release...right.

meh...it's coaches way or the high way...he chose the highway. he isnt the only basketball player in the country who can catch a ball and put it into a basket. why is everyone screaming the sky is falling? the only thing i fault howland with is getting blinded by the bright lights of stars and forgetting to recruit the kinds of players that mesh with his system. forget the drew gordon...some have said he is a me-first kind of player...i dont know if thats true, but if it is even close to the truth, than he obviously wasn't suited for coach's type of basketball. that said, coach does need to bend a little bit, and learn to adapt his system to the players he has any given season rather than always try to force round pegs through square holes.

Not surprised. Nelson is already better than him, and Josh Smith will be better than him next year. He can take his bad attitude and go sit on a bench somewhere just like Holiday is for the 76ers.

Sorry.

BEN was completely SHOCKED by the news.

This wasn't a good fit.
But, didn't the alumni recommend him to ucla....

Not a good fit, from the start.

I hear a school is already the leader for Drew.

Good for Gordon! Increased athleticism on the team won't change a bumbling offensive system and Howland's excessive desire for control. This year is going to be b-r-u-t-a-l for Bruins basketball fans.

If the team does not show major improvement by the end of the season then it is time for Howland to transfer.

As an outsider obviously not privy to what really happens w/ the team and Howland, all I can say is, "Wow." He can't even wait to finish out the year? Man, there is some serious stuff going on at Pauley Pavilion. Jon, would love to hear all the details you can get.

If Gordon is really gonna leave mid season then he isn't a true Bruin anyways. He doesn't deserve to wear that jersey! I hope he goes to USC so Josh Smith can dunk him into the hoop next year.

YOU GUYS ARE BLIND! You are watching the erosion of this program. The recruiting by BH has been HORRIBLE! BH was fortuneate to get Farmer, Affalo, Shipp, Westbrook and Collison who were all SoCal kids who wanted to attend UCLA. The development of Westbrook and Collison beyond all expectations carried BH! And don't give me that bull that he made them better! Love again wanted to attend UCLA as Smith this year! TOP COACHES AT PRESTIGIOUS SCHOOLS WITH GREAT HISTORY SHOULD RECRUIT GREAT, NOT GOOD PLAYERS! BH has consitently made poor recruiting decisions!
NEWS FLASH: ABOYA, MATA, KEEFE, ROLL AND DRAGOVIC ARE NOT TOP LEVEL D1 TALENT. No disrespect to them but it is what it is!! Look back at the players we missed on in these classes, it makes me sick! If either Keefe, Roll or Dragovic were UCLA D1 material where would we be!!!! BH's coaching style provokes kids to leave as soon as they can! If you don't think that the thought of playing another year for Gen. BH vs the uncertainty and blank of entering the NBA draft doesn't effect these kids decision then either you never played sports or you are blinded by the empty final four appearances that we were out coached in! N.C., Duke, Kansas, etc can keep talented kids around for more than one year, our kids leave to go play for the D-League (Holliday)! Maybe I'm just p$#%$# off and i'm overreacting but I call them as I see it and it don't look good folks! Whatdaya think bruin nation, Baketball is our glory!!!!!!

I'm putting the over/under for the Kansas game at 50. Seriously, this could get REALLY ugly for UCLA

Jeez, I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.

Looks like Cal and Arizona are going after Drew.

have you heard of other schools?

Yes, Okla..but, not a serious choice.

That's the sound of bigdbruin jumping off the bandwagon. You can take the 'bruin' out of your name, because you are not one. That was seriously the worst thought out rant I've ever read. 'No disrespect to them'? Uh, too late bud.

As Randorson said, bad week to quit smoking dope. Geez. BTW, bigdbruin, you've lost it . . . .

Does anyone else get the feeling that Howland has reached his ceiling? What I mean is he restored the program back to respectability (making deep tournament runs), but is that as far as we can go with him?

I am really bothered by the fact that the team has always looked lost offensively under him. I know he hangs his hat on defense which I love, but at times we seem to not make use of players' offensive talents.

It seems to me like players are handcuffed under him only to amaze us with how polished they are when they get to the NBA. One quote that comes to mind is when KLove made a series of post moves late in a second round tournament game against Texas A&M. One of the shots he hit was a sweet fade-away completely in rhythm. He said Howland hates it when he does that and would probably be mad! What?!! You have a player polished enough to improve your offense and you don't want him to use it?

Don't get me wrong, I love Coach Howland. The thing is that part of me thinks we have reached our climax under him. It reminds me of Del Harris taking the Lakers from the Lottery to 50+ game winners with playoff runs but never breaking the barrier to elite status. I know the Lakers brought in Phil Jackson (after short Rambis stint), the problem is I don't think UCLA will ever pay enough to do something similar. To be clear, this doesn't make Howland a bad coach, it just means he may have already done his best.

Bigdbruin, that was embarrassing... From what I've heard from some friends of mine in the program it was verbally aggressive, ignorant, and ill-informed rants like that of Drew's against Coach that played a large role in his departure. Immaturity on the court, and obviously off it, have no place in the house that Wooden built. If you aren't willing to climb the pyramid you aren't a fit for UCLA. Obviously Gordon falls in this category. He had a lot of problems, we as a team have a lot of problems, and I trust Coach, Guererro, and the loyal members of Bruin Nation to support the team, as we move forward. Success is how high you bounce when you hit the bottom. Go Bruins.

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!!! don't we at least get a press release type of phony comment like: i have decided to pursue other opportunities or some crap like that?? but to get not even an attempt at an explanation??? ok wait i just check ESPN...they have a statement from CBH (says nothing) and a source says the kid has a bad attitude. well if so better he leaves.

i dont care if we lose so much as our players give all out effort and hustle...errr not seeing that this year.

Apparently, the split was mutual and it was because of "conduct detrimental to the team" that led both parties to split. Anyway, here's the link that explains it all: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=4705019

Hmmm, more minutes the future I see for Bobo. A disturbance in the force I feel. Control more Coach Ben is. The dark side of the force is strong in young Gordon. Is best his departure from the team.

A loss to Kansas, I feel strongly. Together this will will come and spot in NIT I predict.

Prima donna wasn't that good anyway. But he improved 100% under Howland. With all the minutes in the world and as one of the main scorers why would he leave mid-season? Did he get his feeling hurt when Howland coached him with a loud voice? Who cares? It opens up another scholarship so good riddance. One question I have is who are these recruiting services that rate guys like Jeremie Anderson as best in the west and Keefe a McDonald's all-american? I know Howland should be able to recognize talent and skill sets but how do these recruiting and rating services get things so wrong? They ought to close up shop.
How about a front line of Morgan, Honeycutt, and Nelson and a backcourt of Lee and ????. Can we have an open try-out? Thirty five thousand high achieving students walking around, there's got to be a point guard out there.

Answers on maverickbruin.com!

I'm glad to see that Coach Howland is strong enough to deal with players who have problems and are not willing to play within his system.Coach Howland has been successful by sticking to his principals and not being swayed by prima donnas.We have become spoiled by our success in basketball and have lost our perspective.It is not easy to get athletes into our school because we maintain high standards.I am proud to be an alum of UCLA.

In Howland we trust.

A little sad that for the first time in years I had to read the LA Times Blog to find out what was going on at UCLA and what wasn't being reported here. This after no coverage of the LBSU game.

For those Dohn bashers - I miss the guy.

Gold - Like your effort and the BB team may stink but this is still a BB school

Unbelievable... I highly doubt we will ever hear the true reason for Gordon transferring (ie. arguing with BH? personality clash? strategy disagreement? dissatisfaction with school/BB program?, impatient with this horrible year so far? None/All of the above?). I'm not going to say that the sky is falling (it fell enough on Saturday), but I'm chalking this one up to the most likely reason: personality clash. Gordon seems like a headstrong kid, very emotional... probably didn't mesh with Howland's strict structure. Without hearing the real story, we shouldn't blame either party, but its a huge loss to the BB program. Gordon was showing A LOT of improvement from last year and I definitely thought he'd be a monster next year. I am still a Howland supporter, but he needs to show he has the ability to adapt and be flexible (on strategy only, never character).

I have to disagree with almost everything bigdbruin said... BH recruits well, bringing in lots of talented players (you did name a whole bunch of them). Yes, lots of kids want to come to UCLA to begin with, but the coach is still the closer. AND he still pulls kids away from their home schools (ie. Love and Smith). AND he recruits good character kids. Honestly, even though Gordon is leaving, he seems like a decent enough kid , albeit a bit too emotional or immature perhaps (he is only 19 or 20).

I don't think I can say anything negative against Alfred Aboya or Lorenzo Mata-Real. Scoring or NBA Draft picks do not equal greatness. Those guys scrapped, hustled and bled for their teams. Both graduated (I think Alfred even went on to grad school). Both are True Bruins in my book. I'm just using those two as examples of course, but you get the point...

Well Gordon is my favorite player so Im looking for the positives hard here....

At least Howland knows he will have an extra scholarship for next year, and he knows early enough where he can actually recruit someone to use it. Zeigler maybe?

Jessie W he wont go Pac-10 as there are restrictions on the Pac-10. You should read Andy Katz article on ESPN. Howland was not shocked. Where do you get your info? Do you get it from BigD??

I think we all know what Big D stands for at this point. The only question is how the Bruin part got in the name. He is a Big D, but certainly no Bruin.

Drew Gordon = another Bigdbruin?? Just a thought.

This is too bad. I really liked this kid, really scrappy type player. Reminded me of Matt Barnes, without the 3 point shooting ability. I think he brought great energy and athleticism and could have been great.

However, it had been reported several times that he and Howland butted heads often. Anyone remember when he questioned and put Howland's offense on blast in the LA Times last year? Well it looks like his disatisfaction of the offensive tempo, coupled with losing and a supposed recent quiet 2 game suspension put him over the edge, according to LA Times UCLA blog story. Some kids just think they know more and better than the coach. His parents say he's not going to a Pac 10 school, probably part of his conditional release. So much for the guy who claimed AZ and Cal. Funny, the mom says their phone has been ringing off the hook. I guess snot nosed kids with attitudes who question their coaches are in demand. Good luck and good riddance.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2009/12/ucla-basketball-gordons-departure-prompted-by-suspension.html

Could things really get any worse this week?

BigDBruin and others:

It NEVER ceases to amaze me how many idiots who don't know WTF they are talking about continually chime in. Like the guy who said Howland can't recruit and that Farmar and other players were UCLA locks. LMFAO. Nothing is a lock in recruiting. All these top recruits you mentioned, we were in dog fights for. Do your homework. Farmar was ALL set to go to and sign with Florida, before Howland put the Full Court press on him.

If Howland is guilty of anything, it's trying to switch his recruiting philosophy and going after more athletic players who don't fit his system, rather than physically and mentally tough players. He had the same problem with Holiday and others. He has said as recently as 2-3 years ago that he would like to run more and recruit players and depth to be able to do that. I just don't think he knows how to do that anymore. Somewhere, Ben got lost. He used to switch his coaching style to the level of talent on the court. When he was at Northern Arizona, he used to run up and down the court and shoot the lights out. I think the 3 Final Fours in a row might have been a curse. In that he proved to himself to stick to his guns and maintain that style of play. I think he is stubborn and smart enough to learn better though.

In closing, say what you want to, but bad coaching and a bad offensive scheme don't affect effort, mental lapses, and missed free throws. I've NEVER seen a team miss more free throws. These guys just aren't that mentally tough this year. All talent, no grit. Howland teams have historically thrived on the latter and I think he needs to stick with that philosophy or go all in with a run and gun offense. He has obviously tried and failed to do both.

re: bruinternational, if you are a true bruin you should be embarrassed by the losses to CSUF and Portland St. (by 30?). Please don't question my commitment or loyalty to my university. Homebru, I never get off the wagon I drive it! Bruinfaithfull, you have got to be kidding me with Farmar choosing between UCLA and Florida. In your own rant you state that 2-3 years ago BH sd he would like to run more. If that's the case then recruit athletic players who can run? Simple! And you stated that he's lost? You lost your own argument! I hope you don't practice law! Now that i've calmed down I will spell things out for the kids who rode the short bus. #1)If you recruit a kid for 2 yrs how do you not recognize that he is not a good fit for your program and that he has behavior problems. #2) I have immense respect for any kid who puts on a Bruin uniform and plays his @#$ off for us, but you and I could do that and that would not make us good recruits for a top tier D1 program who expects to compete for a championship each year. #3) I meant no disrespect to any current or previous players but the REALITY is that if you are unable to become a major contributor and in some cases even start as a 4th or 5th year senior then you shouldn't have been recruited. As a former player I would not find that disrespectfull at all, this is as I remember one of the most successfull and storied programs in the history of all sports. 4) If any Bruin fans are happy with gritty, scrappy, hustlers who bleed for their team then maybe you should be a Nets Fan! I would much rather have a well recruited, talented and well coached team who has the same grit and hustle to accompany it. 5) If you think for one minute that Gordon left because of a "personality clash" with BH then you probably beleive that Tiger lost controll of his car and recked in the drive way, and with quick thinking, his wife grabbed his 9 iron to rescue him by knocking out the window! 6) Where are all the talented recruits? HMMMMM! We don't even have a solid point guard, Anderson may develop and I hope he settles down but as of now BH doesn't have a lot to work with even less with the departure of Gordon now. As I have always said who's responsibility is it to evaluate the team and recruit accordinly? BH! So, when do you apologist begin to hold BH accountable for the results on the court? I would never call for any man to loose his job, but when you are falling short of expectations that were clearly in place when you agreed to receive the big checks then you need to re-examine your methods and make changes accordingly. GO BRUINS....

The problem with UCLA is Ben Howland. Although he made the 3 final fours each time was with marked skepticism about the team as they advanced thru the rounds. The offense plainly stinks, there is no concept. All this guy knows is defense. One way to look at it is what players under howland have gotten better over their careers? They leave often times worse than when they get there. Too many recruits are leaving the program and I expect more to reasses before the signing day period. As long as he's here UCLA will not contend again. The kids today all look at situations of schools and he's taking UCLA off their map.

la sports, that's an easy one

Much better: Ryan Hollins, Russell Westbrook (basically an unrecruited 3 star who two years later is a lottery pick), Darren Collison, Luc Richard, Lorenzo Mata, Alfred Aboya, Michael Roll

Better: Aaron Afflalo, Jordan Farmar, Kevin Love (got him in shape at the very least)

Neutral: D'rue Holliday, Nicola Dragovic

Busts: Trevor Ariza (if he had only stayed, champions!), Cedric Bozeman, Drew Gordon (how could he not know the guy was a lunatic?)

probably forgetting a few.

BigDbruin, I am so glad you put your follow-up comment on Farmar near thr top of your response. That ignorant comment relieved me from having to read the rest of your fecal material. If you weren't so ignorant/mis-informed you would know that there were several articles published including a big one in the Times years ago that talked about how close Farmar was to pulling the trigger on Florida. I believe he even called Donovan before Howland to tell him of his decision. He said it was really tough on him. Again, thanks for highlighting your ignorance early in your post so I could avoid other invalid of half baked conclusions.

@bigdbruin: Ok... I guess you still don't get it. At the very heart of UCLA is trying to do things the right way. It is the thesis of the Pyramid. To win (or lose) by the Pyramid is many times more important to some Bruin fans than winning alone. Do not misunderstand that as we are OK with losing. We want to win just as badly as anyone else, but we want to be equally proud of the team that represents our school and our BB program's history. If I were to take it to the opposite extreme as you have done, is it safe to assume that you want to win at all cost above all else? Does that mean that you would have preferred we recruit Renardo Sidney or tried to pay off OJ Mayo also? I hope not. Over the years, this has been misconstrued as "soft", "holier than thou", "gutty little bruins". CHARACTER is never a weakness. I believe Ben Howland puts a premium on that, and its a big reason why I (and many other Bruin fans) stand by him.

That being said, BH still has things to improve on. I have qualms over his offense and his inflexibility on adapting to the strengths of his personnel or weaknesses of opponents. His BBall DNA is pure man-to-man, low possession, high efficiency basketball. I understand that he is a staunch system guy, but I've always thought it makes you stronger to have the ability to give different looks to the opposition. I'm relieved that he's willing to put in SOME zone. Next, I hope he tweaks some things to get the offense to score more than 47 vs Portland. ugh...

from day 1 i knew this guy had a bad attitude