Ben Howland offensive philosophy

[Russ Smith]

Over on Bruinzone I made a very similar post a few days ago and again this morning so this isn't an overreaction to losing to Cal.

No coach I'd rather have at UCLA than Ben Howland so understand where I am coming from. Howland is a control freak, and the one area it HURTS UCLA IMHO is on offense.

Howland had a PG for 2 years in Farmar who absolutely loved to work the pick and roll from the foulline or higher, he was so good at splitting the double and attacking the basket that it became UCLA's bread and butter play. When you watch UCLA now there's a distinct pattern with a double digit lead at 7 minutes, Howland starts milkingthe clock. If UCLA is behind they will open up the offense and run, but when they catchup, like yesterday, he will immediately milk the clock again.

And the play they run, over and over, is the high pick and roll.The problem, Cal runs the same play, so does Gonzaga etc, but the guy setting the pick for Cal is Anderson, who's a great shooter, for Gonzaga it's Mallon or Pendergraph, good shooters. For UCLA that guy is Mata, Luc or Aboya, and I truly believe I can beat any of those 3 in a game of horse shooting jumpshots, none of them are good shooters.

Everyone in the Pac 10 knows this and so EVERY time UCLA runs that play, the big shows and jumps out, turns Collison back, where the guard is there. Collison ALWAYS has to beat 2 players to make that play work, unless the big shows poorly and allows Collison to just blow around him. The shot that put UCLA up 2 yesterday was precisely that, the big didnt' cut off DC and he blew into the lane for a layup. Cal tied it and UCLA ran the exact same play, the big played it correctly this time, DC had to turn back, and wound up shooting a 22 footer with Anderson flying at him that just misses short. Collison is not Farmar, frankly I think he's a better player this year than Farmar was last year(Because of his defense) but he's not as good at the pick and roll play, he tends to settle for the jumper because he's not strong enough to take the pounding that you can get from splitting it and driving hard to the basket.

During the WSU game Dan Belluomini commented that the way WSU was defending UCLA on the pick and roll he didn't understand why Howland kept running it. He said they're not getting anything on it, Collison is winding up taking bad shots because of the shotclock, why not just do away with the screen and force them to guard Collison one on one?

 

[Mulli]

Sounds offensive.

 

[Russ Smith]

I should add since most here aren't UCLA fans and probably don't see all the alleged inside stuff.

The rumor is there's a "rift" between Collison and Afflalo right now. If you watch the games it's not uncommon to see Afflalo clap his hands loudly and yell when he thinks he's open and doesn't get the ball, did that last year with Farmar too. It's usually when they run that screen and roll but twice recently Collison kept the ball on 2 on 1 breaks and Afflalo open and you could see AA was mad. The rumor is Afflalo is going pro, this is his last year in his mind and he thinks Collison is overdribbling(the pick and roll again) and that's hurting his chances of going out a winner.

Last week Howland said Collison got a swelled head after the Arizona game, said people were telling him he was the next Iverson. Yesterday Howland said both Collison and Afflalo had gotten knocked down a peg after all their press clippings. Afflalo said he was proud of the team for fighting back and singled out every starter, but Collison, for praise during the comeback.

So nobody knows for sure but it appears there may be a friction between the stars that's hurting UCLA right now too.

 

[bko32]

I don't know what's hurting the Bruins right now, but AA stunk it up yesterday. I've never seen a "Player of the Year" suck as much as he did. It was his lack of aggressiveness that was pissing me off. Gotta go right now, but I'll post more on this later.

 

[Russ Smith]

I don't know what's hurting the Bruins right now, but AA stunk it up yesterday. I've never seen a "Player of the Year" suck as much as he did. It was his lack of aggressiveness that was pissing me off. Gotta go right now, but I'll post more on this later.

I'm really hoping he WAS sick and UCLA just kept it under wraps. That would be easier to swallow, he played great earlier this year with the flu but was really bad last night.

Physioc and Marques both said they had discussed amongst themselves during the game that Afflalo looked under the weather(they weren't working the game) and Marques said Physioc talked to someone after the game who suggested that may in fact be true.

the other thing that's killed UCLA in the last 2 losses is the total lack of bench. Aboya didn't play against Washington, had 6 last night before fouling out.

Roll in his last 3 games has played 37 minutes without scoring, 0-0 from the field only 1 assist. Westbrook has only played a total of 14 minutes in those 3 games (and had 4 points). I've been saying for a while except against zone, Roll is very ineffective and I'd like to see more of Westbrook in for Roll and play smaller with 3 guards some, but Ben appears to have lost confidence in him since the west virginia game.

 

[bko32]

I really hope Afflalo was sick. And if he was, he should have sat out of the game. I think he was more of a hinderance by being out there. He looked absolutely horrible. I've never been a big fan of Afflalo and yesterday's showing really has me down on the guy. He's made some big shots and has been a catalyst for quite a few comebacks this year, but he's also disappeared down the stretch i.e. the loss at Oregon and last night and his poor play in some games has played a part in why UCLA has had to come from behind in a bunch of games. When I watch UCLA, I'm not sure what I'm going to see out of Afflalo. I'm actually looking forward to Afflalo entering the draft. With Love coming in next year and Afflalo leaving, I think they'll be a better team.

As for the bench, they've produced about as much as I've expected. I've never been a fan of Roll's. He's supposedly a great shooter and the Bruins zone buster, but he only shoots 35% from 3pt land. No very good for a 3pt shooting specialist in college. Westbrook is a freshman shooting pt guard learning to run a very methodical, half-court offense. I think he's still learning when he can and can't be aggressive in the offense. I think he's shown some improvement this year and I expect him to be much better next year. Aboya has been solid all year and I'm hoping he's just a little rusty from his injury. I expect Howland to rally the team and get them well-prepared for the tourney. It is disappointing that the bench has played poorly lately, but if the starters played better this wouldn't even be much of an issue.

 

[Russ Smith]

I really hope Afflalo was sick. And if he was, he should have sat out of the game. I think he was more of a hinderance by being out there. He looked absolutely horrible. I've never been a big fan of Afflalo and yesterday's showing really has me down on the guy. He's made some big shots and has been a catalyst for quite a few comebacks this year, but he's also disappeared down the stretch i.e. the loss at Oregon and last night and his poor play in some games has played a part in why UCLA has had to come from behind in a bunch of games. When I watch UCLA, I'm not sure what I'm going to see out of Afflalo. I'm actually looking forward to Afflalo entering the draft. With Love coming in next year and Afflalo leaving, I think they'll be a better team.

As for the bench, they've produced about as much as I've expected. I've never been a fan of Roll's. He's supposedly a great shooter and the Bruins zone buster, but he only shoots 35% from 3pt land. No very good for a 3pt shooting specialist in college. Westbrook is a freshman shooting pt guard learning to run a very methodical, half-court offense. I think he's still learning when he can and can't be aggressive in the offense. I think he's shown some improvement this year and I expect him to be much better next year. Aboya has been solid all year and I'm hoping he's just a little rusty from his injury. I expect Howland to rally the team and get them well-prepared for the tourney. It is disappointing that the bench has played poorly lately, but if the starters played better this wouldn't even be much of an issue.

Wow completely disagree on Afflalo, one of my all time favorite Bruins, he's not a superstar but he plays the game so hard at both ends of the floor and he just hates to lose. He was awful against Cal but that's only the 2nd time all year he failed to get double digits, and everyone keys on him. Washington used 5 different defenders on him, teams have given us box and ones(Oregon did it both games).

The one issue with AA is he usually does most of his scoring in one half, often the 2nd. So you can argue if he played more consistently half to half, the games might not be as close. but that's the pattern with the team, Collison is the same way. I strongly suspect Ben plays the first half to get to the 2nd half close so he can "open it up." He clearly did it last year.

You'll notice Wright and Keefe don't even see the floor now in the 2nd halves of games, only the first. Westbrook's minutes are down which I disagree with, assuming AA leaves, I think Westbrook is the starting SG next year, and I think he'll be very good.

I think Love will be great, I can't wait to see a high pick and roll where the guy setting the screen can't actually pop out and hit a jumpshot. I'm also very high on Chace Stanback, he'll take minutes from Roll very early on, he's a good shooter, 2-3 inches taller than Roll and much more athletic. Must get a lot stronger and improve his defense but he has the tools to be a really good player. I hope Afflalo stays but doubt he will, the only fear is Collison getting a big head and jumping, but I think recent games might have put the kibosh on that.

I like the draw, Ben's alma mater(weber state) then probably Gonzaga(rematch of last year) then probably Pitt(ben's old school). If UCLA can get by that I like their chances to get out of the west. I have them losing to florida in the final 4.

I really like Oregon's draw too. USC got hosed, very tough 2nd round matchup.

 

[bko32]

The one issue with AA is he usually does most of his scoring in one half, often the 2nd. So you can argue if he played more consistently half to half, the games might not be as close. but that's the pattern with the team, Collison is the same way. I strongly suspect Ben plays the first half to get to the 2nd half close so he can "open it up." He clearly did it last year.

This is my big issue with Afflalo, his consistency. I give Collison a little bit of a break on this one, because he's asked to run the offense and get teammates involved rather than look for his shot. Collison seems to become more aggressive offensively when time starts running out and the Bruins need some baskets. Afflalo, however, is the guy that the Bruins look upon to score. He's also the Pac-10 player of the year. I just get so frustrated watching him go scoreless in a half AND barely taking any shots. If he was at least aggressive and went scoreless but took 6 or 7 shots, I'd be okay but usually when he has bad halves, it's because he is barely even looking at the basket. UCLA's got a great chance to get real far again this year, but they can't afford to have a bad half and be forced to battle so hard to get back into a game.