Ryan Menezes
Want to know how I know the UCLA men’s basketball season is officially official? Thanksgiving is here and already the faint smell of tempered expectations is in the air.
A staple of every top college basketball program’s schedule is the early season tournament, the time your squad can take a small vacation and, in the process, try to prove itself against some non-conference competition.
When it comes to the Bruins, leaving their yearly tournament disappointed has become as much of a ritual as bros wearing ties on a Monday night in Westwood.
This year, UCLA took to Brooklyn for the Legends Classic. Indiana, the top team in the country, was in attendance. So was Shabazz Muhammad after he was liberated from the clutches of the NCAA just before the team plane left.
An Indiana-UCLA showdown was anticipated but it never happened. As Muhammad put it after his collegiate debut Monday, the No. 11 Bruins showed they simply weren’t ready for a matchup like that. Not after Georgetown ran a Princeton offense clinic all over UCLA, all while the Hoyas stifled the Bruins with a simple 2-3 zone defense.
The Bruins salvaged a win over the Georgia Bulldogs on Tuesday night in a sloppy “consolation” game, while the Indiana Hoosiers sat nearby in their pinstriped pants and waited to take on the Hoyas.
If you’re not feeling some déjà vu already, let me remind you how the Bruins have spent the week leading up to Thanksgiving in recent seasons.
Last year, UCLA went to the Maui Invitiational and managed only one win in three games ““ that one coming against Division II Chaminade.
The season before, the Bruins were in Manhattan for the NIT Season Tip-off and left without ever holding a lead.
The Thanksgiving trip in 2009 was arguably the lowest point of the Ben Howland era at UCLA: an 0-3 showing at the 76 Classic in Anaheim, with all of the losses coming against mid-major schools.
Even before my time at UCLA, the 2008-2009 team, then ranked No. 4, was proving the uselessness of early poll rankings as Michigan delivered a November upset at Madison Square Garden.
Like that bloated feeling that will hit you after your Thursday feast, this is nothing new. But why does it keep happening like this year after year? Is the perception of this team being ill-prepared early in the season some sort of ploy by Howland to make sure the hype around the team stays at a manageable level?
UCLA is fortunate enough to be a popular landing spot for top recruits and a departure point for NBA talent. But after all the roster turnover that results, the Bruins always seem to be a team of many moving parts in the early stages of the schedule, trying to find their identity.
The buzz (or was it Sha-buzz?) around the Bruins has been minimized again. After nearly losing to UC Irvine and getting handled by Georgetown in the first real test of the season, it’s apparent that this team is long on talent but short on chemistry.
Muhammad had a solid but unsteady debut in Brooklyn. All of the rust that comes with missing the first three games (plus practice time lost to various offseason injuries) was on display. He still made quite an impression by willing his way to baskets, even when he was struggling to put his jumper in.
His freshman counterparts are in the same situation. We finally saw the “Fab Four” lineup of Muhammad, Kyle Anderson, Jordan Adams and Tony Parker take the floor at the same time, but their inexperience was quickly apparent. Even a redshirt senior like Larry Drew II is trying to find his role with another point guard in Anderson on the court with him.
Most of all, this falls on Howland. This team can still live up to its lofty expectations. Before that can happen, Howland needs to find the right balance of guards and forwards, starters and reserves, and young and old.
If you can smell your Thanksgiving meal already email Menezes at
rmenezes@media.ucla.edu or tweet @ryanvmenezes.