MANHATTAN, N.Y. “”mdash; The Bruins didn’t come away from the NIT Season Tip-Off with any victories, but luckily Bruin Sights was there to come away with a healthy chunk of knowledge about the UCLA men’s basketball team.
(Also, check our game wraps from UCLA’s 80-72 loss to No. 7 Villanova and its 89-85 defeat to Virginia Commonwealth.)
Here are some more things we learned about this year’s squad from their unsuccessful New York trip:
Big Josh Smith is a Big Work in Progress
Freshman center Josh Smith is averaging just 16 minutes a game and had only 13 minutes in the consolation game against VCU. The early season concern was that he wouldn’t be able to play enough minutes because of conditioning issues, but it’s the foul trouble that is forcing coach Ben Howland to keep him on the bench.
“I feel like since my season started here, I haven’t played one complete game,” Smith said.
Smith has reached four personal fouls in each of the Bruins’ five games this season.
The 18-year-old was very apologetic in The Garden locker room after the team’s second loss. It was obvious he was frustrated that he couldn’t be out there helping his teammates more, but ““ unlike after earlier games ““ he declined to blame the referees and pointed the finger at himself for being too slow on defense.
“He’s learning a number of things for the first time,” Howland said. “There’s a lot more to the game than a normal high school kid probably comes in ready for.”
VCU senior forward Jamie Skeen, who had his way with the Bruins’ interior defense on Friday en route to a 23-point performance with four offensive rebounds, gave some insight into how teams are going to try to beat Smith this year.
“We did know that he looks a little slower on ball screens,” Skeen said. “We were going to try and put him on a whole lot of ball screen action, so that was our goal.”
Even when Smith was in for significant chunks of time, UCLA did not do a good job of giving him chances to make an impact on offense.
Smith had just one field goal attempt against VCU, a made basket to start the second half, and only one rebound.
“We’ve got to get it inside more,” Howland added.
Turnovers Over and Over
Through the first five games, the Bruins are last in the Pac-10 in turnovers and turnover margin. Sophomore forward Tyler Honeycutt is the biggest culprit, averaging almost five per game.
It was two turnovers in the final two minutes against VCU that eventually doomed UCLA.
“We had a chance there late in the game, with a one-point deficit, but just couldn’t get control of the ball,” Howland said. “That was obviously a key juncture.”
Howland attributes a lot of the team’s struggles with ball control to its youth. He specifically referred to freshman guard Tyler Lamb, who up until now has given quality substitute minutes for Honeycutt, but had possibly his worst performance so far against the Rams.
When he came into the game in the first half, Lamb quickly gave up two turnovers and committed a foul. He had no points in 11 minutes.
“This is a process,” Howland said. “We’re playing without a senior on our club. … We have a lot of growth we have to make with our younger players.”
On Putting the Ball in the Basket
UCLA’s defense is obviously a pressing issue, but this appears to be a much better offensive team than last year.
“I think we have a team that is going to be able to put some points on the board,” Howland said. “But it doesn’t do any good … (with) 89 points allowed (it) is going to be hard to win a lot of games.”
Howland said earlier this season that he expects sophomore forwards Reeves Nelson and Tyler Honeycutt to each get a double-double every night.
Nelson did his part with his fourth straight double-double against VCU. He had 30 points and 23 rebounds in the two games, which earned him UCLA’s only appointment to the All-Tournament team.
The biggest offensive development of the week, however, may have been Malcolm Lee’s three-point shooting. The junior guard was 0-for-5 from beyond the arc going into the game against VCU. Then he went 5-for-7, including a shot with 1:48 left that brought the Bruins within one.
“Coach has been working on my arc, and just getting extra shots before and after practice, not only with my mechanics, just confidence,” Lee said. “A lot to do with shooting is just confidence. I just got confident.”
Lee is the third piece of what Howland calls this team’s “nucleus.” In past seasons, he has proven to be an effective off-the-dribble scorer, but Lee has a career three-point percentage of just more than 25 percent.
A highly touted recruit coming into college, Lee is appearing on early online projections for the 2011 NBA Draft. His outside shooting was probably the biggest thing missing from his repertoire, but if he becomes a consistent threat from the perimeter, he will definitely have some people knocking on his door this June to leave Westwood prematurely.