ATLANTA “”mdash; I swore I was going to really think about this column.
After that game, I said that I was going to think long and hard; I was going to pour my heart into it and write something poignant that would resonate with all UCLA fans.
Instead, I went to Hooters, drained two pitchers, gave 10 dollars to various bums who told interesting stories, and spent the night in a curious drunken state that involved chanting “do dodododo … go Gators!” at any and every opportunity.
Such is life.
While I disappoint myself with my inability to wax poetic about a season gone awry, I think Saturday involved such abject and complete disappointment that this column is simply the icing on the crap cake.
Once again, the Bruins faced Florida in the Final Four. Once again, the Bruins played their worst game of the season in the biggest game of the year. Once again, the Bruins were Gator bait.
Last year, it was of course sad when UCLA lost in the championship game, but you had the feeling that it was a truly redemptive moment for the UCLA program. You knew that UCLA would be back; you knew that Steve Lavin would no longer have his greasy, hair gel-encrusted hands touching anything to do with the team; you knew the team was in the right hands.
Now? Now you know UCLA is going to be good for a long time. You know that UCLA will be a top-10 team most years. You know that, with its defensive intensity and toughness, UCLA can play against more talented teams and sometimes come out on top.
But you wonder …
Can a “defense first, last and always” mentality really get the team a championship? My friend said after the game that Ben Howland will always get this team to the Elite Eight, but will never win it all as long as his philosophy remains the same. I’m not totally sure I agree, but look at the Florida game. Howland made all of his adjustments based on defensive necessity. Florida was playing with three power forwards for a good portion of the game, so Howland put in his bigs.
The problem? UCLA’s big men are nowhere near as good as Florida’s. Putting more of them in limits UCLA’s one possible advantage: guard play.
Instead of making adjustments in reaction to Florida’s moves, why not make adjustments that put Florida in a position where it needs to react? Do a three- or four-guard lineup against their bigs. Just do something, anything, that keeps James Keefe from having to play huge minutes in the biggest game of the year, especially once you realize that the refs are going to call fouls every time you aggressively double-team Florida’s posts.
Oh, and the refs totally screwed UCLA. Everything UCLA likes to do ““ double-team, have bigs switch on ball screens, have Arron Afflalo play defense ““ was called for a foul in the first two minutes. The Bruins were taken completely out of their game.
But my worry is that they never recovered from that. If Josh Shipp hadn’t had a ridiculous first half, I probably would have been able to start writing this exact column (save the Hooters part) at halftime. They simply could not adjust to the refs.
So all that is to say: Afflalo and I will probably both graduate (since he’s on pace for the three-year plan) without a basketball national championship. I will go on to whatever it is people like me go on to; he will likely go on to the NBA. Neither of us is ever going to know what it would have felt like to watch the 12th banner go up in Pauley Pavilion, or to celebrate the 100th title, or to truly witness the return of UCLA dominance.
So it goes.
Woods was the 2006-07 men’s basketball columnist. E-mail him at dwoods@media.ucla.edu if you would like him to make like William Tecumseh Sherman and burn Atlanta to the ground.