UCLA’s football team had another bye this past week, so it
was awfully nice of the basketball team to volunteer to fill
in.
Ben Howland’s squad didn’t need helmets or shoulder
pads to mimic its touchdown-scoring counterpart on its recent trip
to New York.
Some lackadaisical play followed by a pair of late-game flurries
sufficed plenty.
After the Bruins squeaked out a 57-56 win against overlooked
Drexel in the consolation game of the NIT Season Tip-Off, I
couldn’t help but wonder if the basketball team had been
watching Karl Dorrell and company a little too much.
Granted, the football team’s four fourth-quarter comebacks
have been attributed to intangibles like heart and character. For
UCLA basketball, Friday’s win was mostly a product of the
Dragons’ late-game clumsiness and ineptitude. Nevertheless,
the game still allowed Bruin fans to bite their nails and pull out
their hair, something they’ve become well-accustomed to
during football season.
“It taught us to keep fighting,” senior Cedric
Bozeman said, reciting a lesson the football team has perfected
umpteen times. “There will be other games where we have to
grind it out. We did just that, and we survived.”
The basketball team still has a lot of work to do if it truly
plans on following football’s steps. For starters, the Bruins
can’t just spot opponents like Memphis a 17-point lead, and
then fall short in their second-half charge. Additionally, if
they’re serious about taking a page from football’s
success, they shouldn’t be holding halftime leads against
teams like Drexel. It couldn’t hurt if they dragged some of
their games into overtime as well.
Indeed, the Bruins still have some lessons to learn, but give
them credit for already discovering the flair for late-game drama.
Dorrell couldn’t have scripted the ending to Friday’s
game any better.
A Bruin team that had been outplayed in the interior all day
long made some clutch defensive stops when it needed to. Leading
scorer Arron Afflalo was quiet for the greater part of the game,
but found his range down the stretch and nailed his free throws at
the end. Jordan Farmar kept the outcome in jeopardy until the very
last play by airballing the first of two last-second free
throws.
“It felt good, it was just a little short,” Farmar
said. “I’ve seen it happen before, so it was pretty
funny to me.”
I also thought it was nice of Farmar to add some comedic value
to the dramatic victory, particularly since the football team
hasn’t had the opportunity to pull such pranks in their
comebacks.
It still remains to be seen, however, whether the basketball
team can score nerve-wracking wins as often as its football
counterpart. The win over Drexel certainly suggested the Bruins
don’t have the make-up to jump ahead early against good teams
and pull away. At least not yet.
With the revolving door of Michael Fey, Ryan Hollins and Lorenzo
Mata, UCLA’s center position is essentially a mirror image of
football’s defensive line. The trio gets pushed around down
low, struggles to produce, and basically requires a whole lot of
compensation from other teammates. They’ve put increased
pressure on the backcourt, and only time will tell if Farmar can
quarterback his team as effectively as Drew Olson.
“I wasn’t feeling good about our production from the
two seniors that were playing,” Howland said of Fey and
Hollins after Friday’s win.
“Mike is still a long way away from being back to full
strength. The last two days were a reflection of how much
we’ve missed being healthy. It’s really retarded our
growth.”
The best prospects for the interior’s improvement seems to
be once freshman power forward Alfred Aboya recovers from his knee
injury. Howland has insisted the Bruins will get better once he and
Josh Shipp return to the lineup.
When talking about how the injury bug can explain some of his
team’s struggles, Howland does make a convincing case. I just
wonder how much he had been listening to Dorrell before making
it.