The photographs adorning the walls of the Staples Center pressroom trumpeted a parade of champions who each had ““ at one time or another ““ graced these quarters.
But where Ben Howland was sitting was no winner’s podium. Rather, he was being made to take the stand for one final round of questioning.
Over the last four months, the UCLA men’s basketball coach had often been asked how he could turn around his team’s disappointing play. He had often been asked what was sending his meticulous plans into a tailspin. He had often been asked why this season was so different than years past.
Now, just moments after conference champion California had finally put that season to rest, Howland was able to offer a response from a larger perspective.
“The key to it all is recruiting,” he said.
In truth, UCLA has had no problem getting recruits to come to Westwood. For example, the Bruins’ class of 2008 was ranked the best in the country by numerous scouting agencies. More precisely, Howland means the answer is in the development of those recruits, cultivating performance from that foreseen potential.
“The young kids that return to our program have to have great offseasons,” he added.
The offseason, the great unblemished landscape that lays ahead, is the only remaining place for these Bruins to take refuge while deflecting the criticism of a greatly dissatisfied fan base.
Sitting to Howland’s immediate left was sophomore Jerime Anderson, the member of that highly touted 2008 class once expected to be next in a long progression of outstanding Bruin point guards. Instead, Anderson stared dejectedly at the media in the postgame press conference, bemoaning his lack of proper preparation and promising a more wholehearted commitment in the coming months.
“I had a real disappointing season, the way I performed,” he said, despite finishing the year with a career-high 15 points in the loss to Cal. “This (game) is something I can take with me to the spring, to the summer, and work really hard to become a better player next year.”
Anderson’s sentiments, as well as those of his coach, reflect the dominant feelings of a team that has suffered through only the program’s third losing season since 1948.
“I’m going to work out this summer as hard as I can,” freshman forward Reeves Nelson said. “Nobody likes to lose and get talked badly about so I think that will be a motivating factor in everybody’s offseason.”
The prevailing questions before this season began were all about how UCLA could be successful while relying on so much youth, but even with an extra season under its belt, next year’s squad doesn’t look much older.
If graduating redshirt junior Mustafa Abdul-Hamid decides not to return as a Bruin, the team will have zero seniors and no clear source of leadership. Of course, it’s worth mentioning that it was this year’s senior guard Michael Roll who at times ““ including the final game of the season ““ was the only thing keeping the bottom from completely dropping out on the Bruins.
“It’s going to be tough for anybody to fill his shoes,” Nelson said.
One upside to come out of the Bruins’ rocky season is an increase in overall playing experience. A prime example is freshman forward Brendan Lane, who might not have been able to develop as much if the year had gone as smoothly as UCLA had hoped. As a result, he averaged more than 17 minutes in his final eight games following senior forward James Keefe’s season-ending shoulder surgery.
“That playing time at the end of the season really helped me a lot,” Lane said. “It’s exposed what I need to work on: quickness, strength, getting tougher.”
There was very little sulking Friday night in UCLA’s adopted Staples Center locker room and absolutely no tears. In fact, there was even some horsing around from various players who had just become the first Bruins in six years not to deliver an NCAA Tournament appearance. Maybe they didn’t exactly know how to handle it.
“Most of these kids, in fact all of them, have probably never been on a losing team before in their life,” Howland said. “That’s something you don’t want to make into a habit.”
As a coach, Howland has not had back-to-back losing seasons since his first two in Division I, at Northern Arizona more than 14 years ago. He said he is determined not to have more, but he won’t be able to shoulder that entire burden.
Once again, a new crop of untested players will have to learn Howland’s system. Once again, the returning players will have to show improvement if they want to keep up with the high standards that the UCLA tradition expects of its basketball team. Once again, a former protégé will have to step up and become the team’s leader.
But with all that they have gone through this year, at least the Bruins will once again get to start it all with a fresh slate.