What is wrong with UCLA basketball?

[Russ Smith]

Tyler Honeycutt becomes the first current Bruin to go on public record about Drew Gordon. Before him most guys just refused to comment or said they weren't expecting Drew to leave, but knew there were issues with him and Howland.

Here's Tyler: "I feel like our team is a lot more united. Sometimes when things didn't go Drew's way, he'd have a fit. We'd try to help him, and he didn't want to hear it. Now that he left, we kind of feel like we need to start over. That was our first game, against the No. 1 team. We learned a lot from that game."

I like it because there have been rumors that Honeycutt is one of the players unhappy with Ben, so to hear him essentially say Drew needed to go makes that seem less likely.

 

[Lefty]

UCLA gets smoked again, this time by Mississippi State. I can't believe Howland keeps playing Drago.

 

[Russ Smith]

UCLA gets smoked again, this time by Mississippi State. I can't believe Howland keeps playing Drago.

You and every UCLA fan I know. That's all people ask on BRO anymore, what is Drago still doing playing? 0-9, 1 rebound in 29 minutes and no defense.

I really worry about Howland's inability to adapt, he said he would back off the pressure on defense a bit because they get beat too much, not yet, said we would see some zone, not yet, said he'd play the freshmen more, not yet.

I like Brendan Lane but I gotta wonder if I'm him and I'm sitting behind Drago and Keefe all year am I really going to have the patience to wait for my soph year to play? Losing Gordon hurts you can see that Nelson is too small and Morgan too slow, but they are bad in so many areas, PG play, shooting, on ball defense. This team screams zone, slow but long.

Really frustrating year, you figure at least we can watch the kids develop, but guys like Lane and Moser are just not getting the minutes. I like Honeycutt, he's rusty but the talent is there, and I love how hard Nelson plays, but I sure would like to see more Lane and Moser and less Drago and Anderson.

They're now purportedly offering 2 Juco pg's Lazeric Jones and Kenny Brown, I don't know if they would take both of them or are just covering their bases but they desperately need at least one PG ready to play next season.

I'm sure glad the Cardinals are good again this year, having them and UCLA both suck would be unbearable.

 

[Russ Smith]

Good news bad news last night for UCLA. They played a horrible New Mexico State team and won 100-68, yes no typo UCLA scored 100 with this years shooting. NMSU is terrible, no defense whatsoever, it was a layup drill most of the night. Honeycutt had a career high 14 and you get the impression he'll breaking that career high several times this year.

The bad news is James Keefe getting hurt again. NMSU has this kid named Rahman who in one game managed to reopen the cut below Nelson's eye with a whack to the face, got ejected at the end for a contact technical foul when he threw an elbow at Lane after bumping into Lane as he turned to go upcourt after scoring. And in between, he hit Keefe so hard from behind defending him in the post that he popped Keefe's left shoulder out of the socket, pretty ugly looking you could see the bone trying to pop out of the skin. They went to the locker room, put it back in and he spent the rest of the game with ice on it. No announcement yet so it's hard to know how much time he'll miss. He had surgery on it 2 years ago and it has popped out since then so hopefully he'll be OK.

If only we could play teams that bad everynight the season would look a lot better.

 

[NMCard]

Drew Gordon will be attending UNM according to the local news. Good news for Steve Alford and the lobos???

 

[Russ Smith]

Drew Gordon will be attending UNM according to the local news. Good news for Steve Alford and the lobos???

Could be. Gordon has talent, he's just a very emotional kid. Sometimes it takes something like being asked to leave at your first school to get through to a kid. The people at the game in Anaheim which was his last game as a Bruin said he due to the small crowd it was quite easy to hear Gordon cursing at Howland on more than one occasion on the bench after being pulled. Howland suspended him 2 practices and when he was to be reinstated he apparently refused to accept the rules Howland wanted to put in place and they had a meeting after that and essentially Drew was gone.

I always thought he was a good kid in HS(he's local to me) but after this happened several people came out with stories about him having been a problem in HS or in AAU so I don't know what to think. I do know UCLA would be a lot better off with Drew on the court so it's too bad it didn't work out.

 

[NMCard]

http://www.currentargus.com/ci_19997960?source=most_viewed

New Mexico was hoping for a big game from Drew Gordon in the post against No. 11 UNLV on Saturday.
What he delivered far exceeded the Lobos' expectations.

Gordon scored a career-high 27 points and grabbed 20 rebounds in New Mexico's dominating 65-45 victory, its second in 48 hours over a ranked team.

"Twenty-seven and 20 against not just a team but against a top-15 team in the country and you get 27 and 20, it's pretty special," New Mexico coach Steve Alford said. "Our guys saw that and they kept going to him and I think that was a big positive."

Gordon is just the fifth player in the last decade to record a 20-20 against a ranked team. He is the first since DeJuan Blair of Pittsburgh did it in 2009 against Connecticut.

 

[Russ Smith]

http://www.currentargus.com/ci_19997960?source=most_viewed

New Mexico was hoping for a big game from Drew Gordon in the post against No. 11 UNLV on Saturday.
What he delivered far exceeded the Lobos' expectations.

Gordon scored a career-high 27 points and grabbed 20 rebounds in New Mexico's dominating 65-45 victory, its second in 48 hours over a ranked team.

"Twenty-seven and 20 against not just a team but against a top-15 team in the country and you get 27 and 20, it's pretty special," New Mexico coach Steve Alford said. "Our guys saw that and they kept going to him and I think that was a big positive."

Gordon is just the fifth player in the last decade to record a 20-20 against a ranked team. He is the first since DeJuan Blair of Pittsburgh did it in 2009 against Connecticut.

Yeah I saw some of their previous game he's improved his footwork quite a bit so he's not missing the easy shots he did at UCLA. The move clearly worked out for him and while I think UCLA did the right thing, ironically he may have been ahead of his time since it looks like UCLA is probably going to have more attrition this offseason.

I've been off the fence since the first Cal loss I think Ben has ran his course at UCLA and even with a heralded recruiting class potentially coming in I don't see him lasting that much longer.

Very good coach but if nobody wants to play for you it becomes a problem.

 

[MrYeahBut]

Man, was Gordon smooth in that game. Didn't rush his shots, played in flow, couple of super moves down low to split defenders... in the zone, imo





Edit to add.... then he goes out and gags the next two games and the not ready for prime time Lobos blow it once again.


.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Going to get a lot worse this week...

 

[Russ Smith]

Going to get a lot worse this week...

Yep, apparently tomorrow if not later today.

 

[azsportsfan01]

Yep, apparently tomorrow if not later today.

Does not sound good:

Sports Illustrated is expected to release an ‘extremely negative’ article on Wednesday about the UCLA Bruins men’s basketball team under coach Ben Howland... and is rumored to include an allegation of abuse, in addition to rampant drug use by players under Howland.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012...-negative-article-on-ucla-basketball-program/

 

[Russ Smith]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/magazine/02/28/ucla/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_t11_a1

Not as bad as I expected although it's unreal that Howland kept Nelson around this long in light of this.

Intentionally injured 3 teammates, I knew about Lane not the other 2. Should have never made it past his soph year at UCLA.

But the guy that comes off badly is Nelson, Ben too but Nelson comes off as the root cause/cancer. I knew he was a problem but not that bad, very disappointed Howland didn't run him off much sooner.

 

[Dback Jon]

Howland is welcome to come back to NAU - we need a coach

 

[azsportsfan01]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/magazine/02/28/ucla/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_t11_a1

Not as bad as I expected although it's unreal that Howland kept Nelson around this long in light of this.

Intentionally injured 3 teammates, I knew about Lane not the other 2. Should have never made it past his soph year at UCLA.

But the guy that comes off badly is Nelson, Ben too but Nelson comes off as the root cause/cancer. I knew he was a problem but not that bad, very disappointed Howland didn't run him off much sooner.

My thoughts exactly. I also get the sense that Howland is done as a college coach. He will probably be fired once this season is done and his only available position will probably be the pros.

 

[ASUCHRIS]

What a prick Nelson is, just stunning you'd led a cancer like that stay on the team.

 

[Russ Smith]

My thoughts exactly. I also get the sense that Howland is done as a college coach. He will probably be fired once this season is done and his only available position will probably be the pros.

He'll probably be back next year look at the recruiting class. They will give him a chance to fix the problems now that theyr'e public IMHO.

I'd like a new coach but it comes down to until boosters demand a change, barring violations or scandal, he's going to be given some time to fix it.

I don't agree with that, but I think that's how it goes.

We'll see if Calhoun retires I can see Ben leaving for UCONN, wouldn't surprise me at all.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

That article is a joke. 18 year old kids misbehave, drink, and smoke pot? No way!

 

[Renz]

That article is a joke. 18 year old kids misbehave, drink, and smoke pot? No way!

I think the "joke" is that Howland was aware of it and did nothing about it.

This is pretty damning just from a basketball standpoint:

Carlino became eligible for BYU midway through this season and immediately became a standout. Through Sunday, he was averaging 13.0 points and 4.7 assists. He joined the list of recent players who have thrived after leaving Westwood, most for schools in the Mountain West. At week's end Moser was the leading scorer (14.2 points per game) for No. 17 UNLV, and was ranked sixth in the nation in rebounds (11.0 per game). Chace Stanback was the Runnin' Rebels' second-leading scorer (13.6 points per game). Gordon was averaging a double double (12.5 points, 10.9 rebounds) for New Mexico (22-6). Morgan has had the least impact of the former Bruins, but he did appear in all 31 of Baylor's games last year, starting 14. (He is redshirting this season.)

This line was the best, though:

"Guys drinking, guys doing drugs, guys not taking practice seriously, guys fighting," said one player. "You won't find that on the Pyramid of Success."

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

That article is a joke. 18 year old kids misbehave, drink, and smoke pot? No way!

OK, but how many 18 year old kids intentionally injure three opponents let alone three teammates and manage to get away with it unpunished? That's the stunning part of the article.

 

[Russ Smith]

OK, but how many 18 year old kids intentionally injure three opponents let alone three teammates and manage to get away with it unpunished? That's the stunning part of the article.

Right that's the problem. With the drug and alcohol stuff it's a little easier to defend Ben. UCLA has a policy, if a kid passes a test it's almost impossible for Ben to suspend him unless he literally sees the kid using drugs or alchol. in this story one of the rumors is 2 of the players had medical marijuana cards and were disputing howland's ability to have a team rule against it saying they were legally allowed to use it.

The hits keep coming for Ben now the NCAA is looking into Shabazz Muhammad's amateur status they think he's been financed by Adidas and by friends of the family(paying for unofficial visits).

Not a good week for UCLA.