The UCLA men’s basketball team found itself at a crossroads.
Nineteen games into the season and mired in a slump in which they had lost two of their last three games, the Bruins were in an uncomfortable position, one in which they had not been in for the last three seasons.
Doubts were raised about the team. Questions about their offensive capabilities, concerns about the suddenly average UCLA defense and uncertainties about the Bruins’ tournament future were present.
That’s when coach Ben Howland and the three seniors ““ Darren Collison, Josh Shipp, and Alfred Aboya ““ decided to act. The four decided to a hold a meeting when they returned from the Washington trip to refocus, to air out any questions or concerns they had and to reestablish themselves as the leaders of this Bruin team.
It worked.
With two dominating wins over the weekend against California and Stanford, the No. 15 Bruins (17-4, 7-2 Pac-10) regained the swagger they once held and played arguably the two best games back-to-back so far this season.
“I thought our senior leadership was tremendous in both these games this weekend,” Howland said on Saturday.
One of the characteristics of the two games last weekend was the incredible intensity the Bruins displayed on defense. In the two games, the Bruins forced a total of 40 turnovers, 26 of which came via steals. Both players and coaches said point guard Collison is key to the team’s defensive intensity.
“Our defense starts with him,” Aboya said. “If he can pressure the ball and disrupt the offense, everybody will just follow him.”
Collison agreed with the label of leader of the team.
“I’ve been doing a good job of that for the last three years, and coach Howland has always been telling us that’s the reason why we’ve been so good defensively because it starts with (me),” Collison said. “I might have got away from that a little bit because I’ve been playing a lot of minutes, but now that my minutes decreased I could do a lot more on the defensive end.”
All three seniors said that one of the reasons for the meeting was to get on the same page and to get any questions or concerns that they might have had out into the open. The Bruins have had just one senior on the team in the past two years (Lorenzo Mata-Real last season), and Aboya said he felt the seniors had not been doing enough this season in terms of leading the underclassmen.
“Up until that point, we didn’t think that we had a lot of senior leadership, like leading the freshmen and underclassmen,” Aboya said. “(Howland) really emphasized that and asked us to be more vocal in practice and in the game and all that. That’s shown up.”
The leadership has shown up not only in games, but practices as well, say the players. From pressuring the ball, hustling at all times and leading by example as well as through words of encouragement, the three seniors have stabilized the Bruins and geared them up for a run to a fourth consecutive Pac-10 title.
“They’ve really been through a lot, and I really expect a lot from them in terms of their leadership and bringing the other players along,” Howland said.
After the disheartening 86-75 loss at Washington, the Bruins seemed to be a team in disarray. As the perennial first-place, dominant team in the Pac-10 for the past three seasons, the Bruins all of a sudden found themselves in a vulnerable position, dropping out of first place in the conference.
The team’s veterans, players accustomed to Final Four appearances, found themselves in the unusual position of dropping two of three conference games. The uncertainty surrounding the team and the questions about the mental makeup of the team made the meeting critical, Shipp said.
“I just feel like right now we’re all on the same page,” Shipp said. “That was the main thing for us, and I think that meeting was key. Everybody was out there fighting for each other, and they’re showing it in how hard we’re fighting.”
While the Bruins are confident after two convincing wins over the weekend, they are cognizant of the fact that the Pac-10 regular season has just reached its midpoint. Yet the team is confident in their ability to bounce back from adversity, and they have the seniors to thank for that.
“They definitely brought the team together, and you could see that during practice,” freshman Drew Gordon said. “Everybody’s more intense, everybody’s working harder. It’s worked out so far. We’ll see if it keeps working, and I have a feeling that it will.”