SAN ANTONIO “”mdash; The final foul of Darren Collison’s junior year came with 2:53 remaining in the Bruins’ loss to Memphis in the national semi-final Saturday. The foul, the fifth of the game for Collison, was a reach near mid-court on his game-long tormentor Derrick Rose, who lit Collison up for 25 points.
After Collison’s foul, UCLA forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute got in his ear, screaming repeatedly at him as the two walked to the bench, and then continued for a time while they sat on the bench.
Collison sat mostly expressionless.
In a game where he went 1-for-9 from the field and proved unable to guard either of Memphis’ guards effectively, there was nothing for the point guard to say.
He was attacked defensively from the first minute, Rose taking him off the dribble at will. Rose outweighs Collison by 40 pounds and has three inches on him. It was a near-impossible matchup for the slight Collison.
The problem for the Bruins was that, after the 6-foot-3-inch Rose, there is no one else in Memphis’ lineup under 6-5.
Memphis recognized that and took advantage.
“Well, what I was trying to do from the sideline is put those guys in positions where whoever (UCLA coach Ben Howland) put on them, whoever the small man (was guarding) was going to get posted up,” Memphis coach John Calipari said, referring to Collison. “Whoever the small man was, was going to be put in a position to have to make plays.”
And Collison was just unable to do so. He could match neither the strength nor the height of the Memphis players.
The Bruins’ best defensive series of the second half, a stretch of about a minute and a half from the 7:53 mark, came when Collison was sitting on the bench with his fourth foul and UCLA played a bigger lineup, with James Keefe at the power forward position and Mbah a Moute shifted to the small forward position. UCLA held Memphis scoreless in that stretch and seemed to be getting in a flow both offensively and defensively, but Keefe missed a wide open 3-point jumper that would have brought the game to within four with 6:48 to play.
Russell Westbrook, running the offense and guarding Rose with Collison on the bench, said UCLA needed to be more aggressive against the pressure of Memphis.
“I was just trying to go out there and help my team where I can,” Westbrook said. “I don’t know, I just mean, sometimes we was just a little hesitant to attack. I just tried to keep telling my teammates to keep attacking, keep attacking and make them guard us.”
Collison was not aggressive in the half court. He took just four shots in the first half, none of them 3-pointers, and had trouble with Memphis’ defensive rotation, which had Collison getting doubled off of ball screens by the Tigers’ big men.
“At times, they was doubling,” Collison said. “They was really focused on me. You just got to give that team credit; they did their homework.”
Collison played 33 minutes, the lowest total of a UCLA starter in Saturday’s game. Mbah a Moute stressed in the locker room how hard it is to win with Collison having a rough game.
“It’s tough,” Mbah a Moute said. “He has the ball 80-85 percent of the time on offense, and him not having as good of a game as he usually does was definitely tough, but Russell came out tonight and had a good game.”
Howland appeared to recognize Collison’s struggles on defense early in the second half, switching Westbrook onto Rose and leaving Collison to guard the 6-5 Antonio Anderson while Mbah a Moute tried to bottle up Tigers’ swingman Chris Douglas-Roberts. But, deferring to their strategy, the Tigers worked the ball to Anderson and had him drive in on Collison for an easy two points.
“No, (Westbrook) had his hands full with (Douglas-Roberts),” Howland said in response to a question about whether there was any thought to making the defensive switch earlier. “We did (shift Mbah a Moute onto Douglas-Roberts) at times.”
There has been speculation since the end of last season that Collison will forgo his senior season and enter this year’s NBA Draft.
If that’s the case, Collison’s final foul in the Final Four may have also doubled as the final foul of his UCLA career.
With reports from Ajaybir Behniwal, Bruin Sports senior staff.