How about we talk a little bit about expectations?
Now seems like an incredibly appropriate time, with the
beginning of school and all. As you get set to embark upon yet
another glorious chapter in your illustrious UCLA career, consider
the things you expect to accomplish, and the things you expect to
be accomplished around you.
Good grades? Check.
A million parties? Check.
A loving spouse and a comfortable suburban existence? Well, not
quite yet.
A winning record for the UCLA men’s basketball team? Uh
oh.
Perhaps it’s not good to expect things from areas that are
out of your control. So, here we are expecting Ben Howland’s
Bruins to win. And win consistently.
I realize it’s not basketball season yet, but UCLA is a
basketball school, THE basketball school, and gosh darn it,
there’s finally something to get excited about in Westwood
after a couple years of relative misery.
I grew up in a UCLA house. My dad graduated in 1974, and I would
read John Wooden’s “They Call Me Coach” as my
Bible. I heard stories of the glory years, and I naturally expected
my years here to be just as glorious for the UCLA basketball
program.
Uh, dude, I was wrong.
Now a junior, I’ve had to sit through two of the most
disappointing seasons in the history of the program. First there
was coach Steve Lavin in his swan song, just missing the finals of
the Pac-10 tournament and finishing the season 10-19.
It was supposed to get much better the following season, as UCLA
athletic director Dan Guerrero made a great coaching hire, bringing
in former Coach of the Year Ben Howland from Pittsburgh.
Well, it didn’t get much better. Maybe the Bruins played
harder, maybe they were slightly more fun to watch, but the results
simply weren’t there. UCLA finished the season an uninspired
11-17.
There are numerous explanations as to why the Bruins struggled
in Howland’s first season. The most common assertion is that
these are Lavin’s players, not Howland’s, and
it’s difficult to learn and adapt to a new system.
Maybe that’s true, but UCLA lost a lot of winnable games
last year. And that’s just incredibly frustrating. Last
season’s Bruins looked something like a team that
didn’t know how to win close games. But to be a good team,
you have to win the close ones.
So that’s the background. Now we’re in the present,
with reason for high expectations. Howland brought in one of the
best recruiting classes in the country ““ seemingly bringing
in players who know how to play the style of basketball he
likes.
Jordan Farmar of Taft High is a stud point guard and will almost
certainly start at the position as a freshman. Arron Afflalo and
Josh Shipp are proven scorers and pure shooters. And there’s
also Lorenzo Mata, a bruiser and oft-described
“blue-collar” player, a big body who, though still raw,
will rebound and get things done defensively.
Add into that mix talented players like Dijon Thompson and
Cedric Bozeman who need to get the confidence brought about by
winning, and this could be a fairly decent, if not good, UCLA
basketball team.
So that’s what I’m expecting, and that’s what
we should all be expecting. A .500 record is a reasonable
expectation, and I see no real reason why it shouldn’t be
achieved. An NCAA tournament berth certainly isn’t out of the
question, either.
Howland’s system, which is a proven system, has now been
in place for a year. The time for excuses is over. The time for
winning is at the doorstep. Though basketball season is still
months away, it’s never too early to raise the bar of
expectations, and hope the team does likewise.
Come on, we’re UCLA. We expect a lot.
Because we should.
E-mail Regan at dregan@media.ucla.edu.