UCLA clinches regular season title, top seed in conference tourney

[Russ Smith]

Considering all the injuries and how young this team is, pretty remarkable accomplishment by Howland. Admittedly a down year in the conference but most of the teams they beat out have a lot more experience.

Another terrific recruiting year, Luc has been dynamite all year and of late is really starting to diversify on offense, much better passer than I realized, and what hands. Collison is really coming on, his last 2 games have been outstanding, really turning it up on defense. Aboya's minutes are still limited by health, aside from the 2 knee surgeries he's had a hip pointer bothering him, but he has looked pretty damn impressive, also great hands and never misses around the basket, defense is really coming on. Roll has turned it up a notch, looking for his shot more. The only freshman struggling at the moment is Ryan Wright who had 4 fouls today in about 2 minutes, great athlete but very raw.

I don't see UCLA winning the conference tourney, too many games in consecutive days with Farmar, Aboya and Bozeman all impaired, it's unlikely they can win 3 games in 3 days but I still feel we'll get a good seed in the NCAA's. If we win the tourney I see a 3 seed, if we lose in the finals a 4, if we lose in the first game again, a 5.

With Keefe coming in and possibly marko Spica(has to pass ACT and as a foreign kid is apparently struggling with English) things look good for the future. Both farmar and Afflalo have announced they're staying next year although stuff said in March has to be taken with a grain of salt.

Ben Howland has this program right back near the top

 

[AZBALLER]

I pretty much concur...this is a down year for the Pac...But I really think UCLA has the talent and coaching to get them pretty far in the tourney...Certainly no national title, but not too far from it.

 

[Russ Smith]

I pretty much concur...this is a down year for the Pac...But I really think UCLA has the talent and coaching to get them pretty far in the tourney...Certainly no national title, but not too far from it.

Without Shipp I don't see UCLA getting past the Sweet 16 unless they get a good seed. LEt's face it there's a ton of good teams out there, a team like Cincy which is on the bubble goes and beats West Virginia(who beat UCLA earlier in the year), there's a lot of teams like that out there.

With Shipp I think UCLA could have gone elite 8 this year but without him their offense is too dependent on 2 guys, Afflalo and Farmar, and if one or both of them are off, they can easily be stopped. that's how UW has beaten us both times, with Roy and jones they are able to handle Farmar and Afflalo.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

First off, congrats to the Bruins. They certainly have not played their best ball for the past few weeks and have gone through an ungoldly amount if injuries yet they still managed to win games which says a lot about Howland and the mental toughness of their players.

I think UCLA's tournament success is mostly going to be determined by their bracket. I'm not sure they have the offensive firepower to keep up with teams like Villanova, Memphis, or Duke but their defense is outstanding and should keep them in most games.

 

[AZBALLER]

With all their injuries, I still like their guard play, which is what matters most in college...My hope would be elite 8 for them, but honestly sweet 16 might be a better guess...It all does depend on the brackets, as was mentioned by Mao and Russ.

 

[Dback Jon]

Congrats to Howland and the Bruins!

 

[AZBALLER]

With all their injuries, I still like their guard play, which is what matters most in college...My hope would be elite 8 for them, but honestly sweet 16 might be a better guess...It all does depend on the brackets, as was mentioned by Mao and Russ.

Well, I guess somehow I was correct about something that had to do with college sports?

Congrats to the Bruins, and shame on the refs in the UDubb game...