Another Ugly UCLA loss at UW

[Russ Smith]

4th year in a row Romar got us. Just a beatdown, outrebounded us 40-28, all over the offensive glass. Dentmon dominated Collison. DC had the flu against WSU and had all 18 of his points in the 2nd half, today he didn't score until late in the game and had 8 turnovers, worst game I've seen him have since he was a freshman.

There was one really weird play late in the game, UW was inbounding and Aboya was guarding Tim Morris on the inbound, Morris couldn't get teh ball in so he fired the ball right at Aboya, hit him in the face, and teh ball went out of bounds as Aboya checked to see if his nose was broken. NOt long ago Aboya had a fractured orbital bone near the eye and was wearing goggles so that really had to hurt to get hit there.

Near as I can tell it's not against the rules but it was sure a weird play.

UW just played better, Brockman outplayed Love, Dentmon killed DC, if not for Westbrook and Shipp it would have been a blowout.

I miss the next 4 games while I'm in australia so I hope Luc's ankle heals for USC we could have used him on the glass today.

 

[Arizona's Finest]

From after the game:

Love finished with 13 points on just 3-of-8 shooting, with 10 rebounds.


"I was frustrated," Love said, using the same word he used Thursday after getting only eight shots at Washington State. "I was looking for the ball. ... I felt I was open and my teammates didn't find me."



I am starting to get the impression that your boy Love is a primma donna, Russ.

 

[DWKB]

Yeah, that was the wrong comment to make, but the kid is a frosh and he was frustrated. A senior member of the team should/will set him strait about teammates and buses.

 

[Russ Smith]

Yeah, that was the wrong comment to make, but the kid is a frosh and he was frustrated. A senior member of the team should/will set him strait about teammates and buses.

The problem is it's probably the 3rd time this year he's said that publicly. I think he's a great kid but keep that stuff to yourself don't publicly throw your teammates under the bus. They were doubling him. If he'd boxed out a bit more yesterday and kept Brockman off the Offensive Glass UCLA would have won the game.

Kevin does have an ego he's shown that a few times this year, needs to shut up about that stuff and just play.

 

[Russ Smith]

Quotes about the play where Morris intentionally hit Aboya in the face wtih the ball. Aboya seems to be ok with it, Howland clearly wasn't.

Aboya said he didn't expect to take an inbounds pass square off his nose. "But that was a perfect example of the game right there," he said. "They were doing everything they could to win. It's allowed."

Howland gave a terse "no" when asked if he thought the play was right. "He threw the ball off a kid's face," Howland said. "The official said there was nothing he could do."

I still say it's not against the rules and again our HS coach taught us to do that I remember a teammate of mine did it in a game too. It sucks for the guy getting hit in the face of course but I'm pretty sure it's within the rules.

 

[Arizona's Finest]

Quotes about the play where Morris intentionally hit Aboya in the face wtih the ball. Aboya seems to be ok with it, Howland clearly wasn't.

Aboya said he didn't expect to take an inbounds pass square off his nose. "But that was a perfect example of the game right there," he said. "They were doing everything they could to win. It's allowed."

Howland gave a terse "no" when asked if he thought the play was right. "He threw the ball off a kid's face," Howland said. "The official said there was nothing he could do."

I still say it's not against the rules and again our HS coach taught us to do that I remember a teammate of mine did it in a game too. It sucks for the guy getting hit in the face of course but I'm pretty sure it's within the rules.

Whats funny is the first I had heard of that was in your post and then I watched the highlights last night and well.....LMAO

I mean dude was like a foot away and he just chucked it at his face. There wasn't anything accidental about it.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Look at Stan Love, it's not a shocker where Kevin gets his crappy attitude from. UCLA has enough strong leadership though from it's vets and head coach to put up with his nonsense for a year though so it won't be that big of a deal.

And Tim Morris' play was 100% bush league.

 

[Russ Smith]

Look at Stan Love, it's not a shocker where Kevin gets his crappy attitude from. UCLA has enough strong leadership though from it's vets and head coach to put up with his nonsense for a year though so it won't be that big of a deal.

And Tim Morris' play was 100% bush league.

Yeah I tend to think some of this actually comes direct from Kevin's dad, but in this case Kevin said it right after the game I don't think Stan had time to put it in his head. Earlier this year Stan was wearing a shirt at a game that said "feed the monster", meaning give the ball to Kevin. Later Kevin brought it up after the oregon game saying you don't want to wake up the monster.

Great player and a good kid but he needs to keep that stuff in house the reason he doesn't get the ball more is teams are doubling him. When UCLA shoots 1-16 on 3's, Kevin won't get the ball much because they can double him without fear, when they're 8-12(like the ASU game) you can't double as easily on Love.

It is what it is, if they make jumpers Kevin gets more looks, if they don't, he's a marked man.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

And let's also not forget the 'Fire Shoff!' bumper stickers Stan passed around the HS gym referring to Love's HS coach after Shoff had the audacity to bring Kevin off the bench for missing practice. Or threatening a transfer unless Shoff (who had been at the school for over two decades and coached players such as Salim Stoudamire) was fired immediately. Parents like Stan Love just simply need to go away and take Rudy Carpenter and Todd Marinovich's fathers with him.

 

[Russ Smith]

And let's also not forget the 'Fire Shoff!' bumper stickers Stan passed around the HS gym referring to Love's HS coach after Shoff had the audacity to bring Kevin off the bench for missing practice. Or threatening a transfer unless Shoff (who had been at the school for over two decades and coached players such as Salim Stoudamire) was fired immediately. Parents like Stan Love just simply need to go away and take Rudy Carpenter and Todd Marinovich's fathers with him.

yep. People made a big deal out of the venom Oregon fans unveiled on Stan when UCLA played there but as you pointed out Stan did some pretty stupid things himself.

He hasn't been as big a problem as I feared he might I was worried he could be a real pain in the neck but he's sort of let Ben do his job and stayed out of the way.

 

[Russ Smith]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZXPAl4-8f8

The video of Morris hitting Aboya. Kind of what you expect UW fans for the most part say we don't know if it was intentional or not, UCLA fans think he should be suspended.

The worst argument I've heard is Aboya is jumping so it's impossible for Morris to aim at his face. he actually didn't jump when Morris threw the ball and he's so close to Aboya it's comical to suggest he couldn't aim at his face. He even runs to the side to make sure the ball doesn't ricochet and hit him.

I actually thought he made the play you're taught to make but it does look bad in slo mo.

 

[Skkorpion]

The pass was bush league. But what you are ignoring Russ, is that nobody around the PAC really cares and many are probably secretly happy about it because Howland plays thug ball and teams are going to retaliate.

So, go ahead and keep whining and denying. I'll keep bringing it up.

I didn't know about the rest of the Stan Love stuff you and Mao brought up. Quite interesting. Makes me think even less of Howland knowing he's putting up with crap no coach should have to take from a spoiled kid and his family.

Already disliking UCLA and Howland, this new situation just reinforces in my mind my perception that both the school and the coach will stop at nothing to win big.

If this bites Howland in the ass this year, I'll enjoy it greatly.

 

[Russ Smith]

The pass was bush league. But what you are ignoring Russ, is that nobody around the PAC really cares and many are probably secretly happy about it because Howland plays thug ball and teams are going to retaliate.

So, go ahead and keep whining and denying. I'll keep bringing it up.

I didn't know about the rest of the Stan Love stuff you and Mao brought up. Quite interesting. Makes me think even less of Howland knowing he's putting up with crap no coach should have to take from a spoiled kid and his family.

Already disliking UCLA and Howland, this new situation just reinforces in my mind my perception that both the school and the coach will stop at nothing to win big.

If this bites Howland in the ass this year, I'll enjoy it greatly.

No I'm not ignoring it Skorp I keep calling you on it when you say it but oddly you never respond.

In the ASU game there was one dirty play in the whole game, an ASU player nailing Collison into the basket standard.

When UA lost to UCLA there were 2 dirty plays in the whole game, Bayless sticking his foot out to trip Josh Shipp, and Budinger shoulder blocking and then shoving Shipp on a breakaway.

In the UW game there was a lot of contact but the 3 "dirtiest" plays in the game were the Morris hit on Aboya(which I personally had no issue with), the double foul on Love and Morris when Morris slammed into Love and Love threw him down. and the 3rd was a hard foul when Love was going up for a shot, Brockman hit him with a forearm across the neck and he was falling Tim Morris shoved him with 2 hands causing him to fall on his back. Love got up calling for an intentional foul.

Now if you read that paragraph you'll see the common denominator is that Tim Morris was involved in all 3 plays, Tim Morris plays for UW not UCLA and Howland.

Regarding Love his dad is a loose cannon, I knew that all along. Now if you want to talk about stopping at nothing to win and dislike UCLA and Love because of that I assume you're absolutely apalled that ASU hired Scott Pera so that his best player, James Harden, would sign with ASU? If not, you're being hypocritical about the whole thing and should probably quit while you're behind.

Morris' excuse for the pass was that Howland was blocking his passing angle because of where he stood on the inbounds. Note, the refs actually made Howland move just prior to that so where he was standing was exactly where the ref told him to stand. Morris said Howlands hands were up, Youtube replay says they weren't up. I think Morris hit exactly what he aimed for, I don't think it warrants a T but I do think we're going to see a rule change.

I don't exactly know what your issue is Skorp but I wish you'd just come out and say it instead of doing all this drive by posting nonsense. When the supervisor of officials for the NCAA admits he thinks the play was called incorrectly that suggests it probably was. The guys on PTI blasted it, Andy Katz wrote in his blog that Morris should lose his scholarship over that, and Romar himself said if he knew for a fact that Morris did it on purpose he'd suspend him. I think all those reactions are a lot stronger than mine again I was taught to do that in HS because it's a lot harder to avoid the ball in the face than at your leg or stomach.

 

[Skkorpion]

Russ, I've told you my issue many times. I hate UCLA hoops with a passion going back a long time.

Petty? Probably. But there it is. Sports hatreds are fun.

So now you are back on top, loaded with truly impressive talent and playing well. That sucks.

Making it even easier to dislike UCLA is the mind-numbing, hacking and bumping game-grinding defense the team plays. It really is ugly and is a return to thug ball that ruled eastern hoops a while back.

Obviously, you don't see it this way. I hate when the refs reward it.

By the way, I hated Howland-ball when he was at Pitt. Brutal and boring. The following, taken from wikipedia.org on Howland's career, states clearly what I despise about Howland's game style:

UCLA looked to find a coach that could move the Bruins back to the elite ranks of the Pac-10 and the country. Howland's success at the University of Pittsburgh and his southern California roots made him an attractive candidate. In 2003 he accepted the one job he said he would leave Pitt for: the head coaching duties at UCLA. UCLA felt that Howland's Big East style of basketball, characterized by a slow down offense and lock-down man on man defense, would vault the program to the top of the Pac-10.

Yuch. The school sucks and the coach teaches boring thuggery.