Mr. Crackerz wrote:
fine wrote:
warriorsstepup wrote:UCLA fan, since Lavin days when I started liking basketball, don't know what drew me to them but I liked his teams, been a UCLA fan since both basketball and football.
What is with their system right now that seems to not take full advantage of their talent, mainly at the guard positions? Westbrook was first to come out, and he was a much better NBA player than college player. Than this year Collison has come out and has, by most accounts, exceeded expectations. And then there is Jrue Hollliday, who did nothing remarkable at UCLA, but is currently holding his own in the NBA.
It seems like these guys should have been more dominant in college.
UCLA is the most boring team in college basketball... even when they were making their final four appearances. Strategy: hold the ball for 33 seconds, then shoot.... don't waste too much energy on offense, save all of it for defense. I mean, it was effective for those teams in the past, but at the same time the coach was doing a disservice to his players by not allowing to be free on the court...
now, u look at the complete mess that is going on in UCLA just a year or two removed from the Final Four... atrocious. They have no clue to play offense, because their coach's only concern is defense. When your players cannot play defense (which is the case this year), you will be getting blown out game after game (which is the case this year).
Pretty correct on your analysis and take there Mr. C. UCLA's Offense relies heavily on the PG, they control the slow pace by moving the ball around until the clock drains down. Coach Ben Howland is a disciplined coach and expects all his player to be the same if not hit the road, 2 transfers in the last couple years who have butted head with his style of play.
He has been to 3 final fours, 2 against Florida and 1 against Memphis losing both. In all the final four games he was mis-matched by the length of from Florida (Noah and Horford) add on Cory Brewer the 6'9 wing, UCLA just could not match up.
Can’t do much of a thorough research at the moment (sorry) but I think 2 or 3 years back when the bruins had Westbrook, Collinson and Kevin Love and went up against Memphis in the final four, a game Memphis eventually won, but lost to Kansas in the finals. In that game miss-matches became the problem, Rose was just too big for Collison to guard, too much power and strength, so why not put Westbrook on Rose ? Well the entire Memphis team was tall and athletic so Howlands only option was to put Collison on Rose or not play Collison at all. They ended up losing, making it 3 final fours and no advancement to the final.
At the moment, early entries to the NBA has hurt UCLA, Kevin Love would be a junior, Westbrook a senior, and Jrue Holiday a sophomore. This years team is young with only 2 seniors stars who Howland has depended too heavily on, scrub role players should never be leaders on a team. Its been a long season, losing to lower division teams and a horrific display of offense as well as defense.
Now moving forward UCLA will have a competitive team next year, they will the top center coming in next year, a 6'10 320 monster, along with 1 sg and some jr college PG. The current pg has had issues running the team and will need to work his butt off because, PG position at UCLA is vital for the system, so the success of UCLA hinges heavily the PG Jerime Anderson who will be a Jr. They lose 2 scrub seniors, and will have a tough rugged sophomore team next year Reeves, Honeycutt, and Lane all 6’8 or taller and versatile, things will be looking up once again at UCLA.
