Team suffers from Afflalo’s poor performance

Disappointed. Shocked. Dejected.

Junior Arron Afflalo couldn’t find the words to describe his performance during Thursday’s game.

As he had all season, Afflalo took the loss against Cal harder than anyone else on the team.

But on Thursday, it was different.

Afflalo questioned his own mental intensity and admitted he did not have the effort on the defensive end that was necessary for his team to win.

“Mentally, I’m not sure where we are as a team,” Afflalo said. “Personally, I need to get back into the mental state to help my team win.

“There is no mystery about it. The majority of the way I played tonight is the reason why we lost. It’s unacceptable.”

After having one of his worst performances of the season on Saturday against Washington, Afflalo followed up on Thursday with a career-low three points, fouling out with 55 seconds to play in overtime.

Most importantly, Afflalo allowed his assignment, Cal guard Ayinde Ubaka, to tie his career high with 29 points, including five crucial points in the final minute of regulation.

“The other guys did their part (defensively),” Afflalo said. “It was (Ubaka) who was going above and beyond tonight. It’s uncharacteristic for what I do for this team.”

On the week that Afflalo was named Pac-10 Player of the Year and named to numerous first All-American teams, he seemed more unconfident than ever on Thursday.

He only took seven shots, his lowest attempts from the field this season, and didn’t address the team after the loss as he usually does.

It was the first time Afflalo failed to score over double digits in the past 30 games.

“I don’t feel like I was in the position to say much tonight,” Afflalo said. “If I couldn’t go out there and give it my all, I don’t have the position to give (my teammates) advice on what they are doing.”

Despite the performance, Afflalo’s teammates took their own share for the loss, as the Bruins trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half and only shot 42 percent from the field as a team.

Only three players scored in double figures and the Bruins had 11 first-half turnovers.

Point guard Darren Collison, especially, took much of the blame on himself.

“It’s real difficult for us (when Afflalo is struggling),” Collison said. “But just because Arron is our best player and our defender, we can’t just rely on him.

“Just because one man goes down doesn’t mean the whole team has to go down. If Arron is falling, we have to be ready to support him.”

Coach Ben Howland, nevertheless, maintained the utmost confidence in his star guard, expecting Afflalo to come out to practice on Saturday and work harder than he ever has.

Afflalo, after all, has been the mainstay of the program in Howland’s past three years as the coach of the Bruins.

“I’m sure he took the loss real hard because he had one of the worst games of his career,” Howland said. “But he is a bright kid, he will bounce back.”

Afflalo and the Bruins will now return to practice on Saturday and find out their NCAA seed and destination on Sunday.

Afflalo said he no longer cares if the Bruins receive a No. 1 seed, because as Thursday’s game showed, seedings don’t matter if the Bruins don’t show up to play.

“After losing two games like this, seedings don’t mean much to me any more,” Afflalo said. “It’s all about how I mentally prepare myself to play.

“If I do a great job of leading, I am sure the other guys will follow.”

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