PALO ALTO “”mdash; Trailing by just one with nine minutes remaining in the game Saturday, the UCLA men’s basketball team seemed in good position to take the lead against Stanford when it forced a turnover by Landry Fields.
Yet UCLA sophomore guard Malcolm Lee turned the ball over himself, giving the ball back to Stanford and leading to a Jeremy Green made jumper.
Following a Nikola Dragovic jump-shot and a missed layup by Fields, the Bruins found themselves in the same position: with the ball, down by one, seemingly ready to take the lead.
However, UCLA guard Michael Roll took his eye off the ball before controlling a pass by Lee, resulting in yet another UCLA turnover.
The Bruins would never come closer to within two points for the rest of the game.
After coming from behind and securing a thrilling win in overtime against California on Wednesday, the Bruins (7-9, 2-2 Pac-10) could only blame themselves in a sloppy 70-59 loss to Stanford (8-7, 2-1) at Maples Pavilion on Saturday.
The Bruins committed a season-high 23 turnovers on the day, putting an end to whatever hopes the team had of coming away with a weekend sweep of the Bay Area schools.
“I don’t know how many of those 23 errors were forced, but I say a lot of them are our mistakes,” coach Ben Howland said. “Just being in a hurry or fatigue.”
Stanford was more than happy to receive the endless supply of UCLA gifts, turning the 23 turnovers into 25 points.
Adding in the 17 turnovers the Bruins committed in Wednesday night’s win over Cal, the team committed 40 turnovers on the weekend and were still able to come away with a weekend split, a fact not lost on Howland.
“We’re just not going to win many games on the road until we take better care of the ball,” Howland said.
One possible explanation for the turnovers and something that has become a trend for the Bruins so far this season, is playing at too fast a pace. A number of the turnovers on Saturday came as a result of charges and bad passes on UCLA fast-breaks.
“It’s just understanding of being under control,” Howland said. “I don’t think its anything selfish or anything like that. I just think it’s the understanding of being able to play at different speeds.”
Lee, who scored 11 points and had a team-high seven turnovers, admitted that there were times throughout the game in which he needed to slow down in moving the ball up-court, citing one example of forcing a Stanford turnover, only to have the ball stolen away a few seconds later.
“I just didn’t anticipate him stopping the ball that early,” Lee said. “But then again I should have just been slowing down. I probably would have had less turnovers.”
Freshman forward Reeves Nelson, who had eight points and four turnovers, did not wish to place all of the blame for the high amount of turnovers on the guards.
“It’s frustrating, but I’m not going to get mad at the guards because I’m sure if I was handling the ball I’d have some turnovers, too,” Nelson said.
Roll said that he would have to go back and watch the film from the game to determine what exactly caused the Bruins to break down on offense in what could have been a significant win for a struggling UCLA team.
However, he could dispel one theory after the game.
“Don’t think it was fatigue at all,” said Roll, who finished with 12 points and five turnovers. “Just bad karma. I don’t know what it was.”
Howland explained after the game that it has become customary for the team to stop practice and run sprints after each turnover in an effort to discourage the Bruins from committing mental mistakes.
After Saturday’s loss, which was overwhelmingly characterized by turnovers, Howland said more of the same regimen is to come.
“That’s what we’re going to have to continue to do,” he said. “Until we learn to value the ball.”