Who is responsible for the incessant lack of motion in the
men’s basketball team’s “motion
offense?”
Is it head coach Steve Lavin, whose play-calling seemingly
doesn’t get through to his players?
Is it players such as forward T.J. Cummings and guard Ray Young,
who have been criticized for waiting for others to create shots for
them?
These obvious culprits aside, statistics and coaches both point
to the play of Ryan Walcott and Cedric Bozeman, the sophomore point
guards who are supposed to be the “captains of the
offense.”
Between them, they are averaging just seven assists and a
bloated 4.7 turnovers per game.
Overall, the Bruins are eighth in the Pac-10 in assists per
game, and last in turnover margin.
“I’d like to get them to the point where they were
last year,” said Lavin. “They were nice complements to
each other.”
At the end of last season, Bozeman and Walcott both played
extremely well, leading UCLA to a Sweet-16 berth.
Between them, they averaged 9.2 points and 5.6 assists per game
over the final 10 contests, admirable totals considering they were
surrounded by experienced seniors and a junior.
With Dan Gadzuric, Matt Barnes and Billy Knight all gone this
year, Lavin was expecting Bozeman and Walcott to step up and take a
larger leadership role on the court.
However, that hasn’t happened. Bozeman’s assists are
actually down from last year, while Walcott’s are only
slightly up from when he broke into the rotation last season.
And Walcott already has four more turnovers this year than he
had all of last season, while Bozeman’s turnover total is
only slightly lower.
“Right now, we aren’t clicking,” Walcott said.
“Last year we were.”
For most of the season, Lavin has started both in the
backcourt.
But this past weekend, he chose Bozeman to start over Walcott,
going with four players in the frontcourt.
“Ryan is struggling with his confidence,” said UCLA
assistant coach Jim Saia, the resident guru of the one-four
offense. “The starting role is too much too soon for him. His
role is to come off the bench and give us energy.”
For now, Bozeman has distinguished himself as the lead point
guard. In the past two games, he has been more aggressive,
penetrating opposing defenses in an attempt to get open shots for
his teammates.
He has also become more of a scoring threat, scoring 27 points
in his last two games.
Before that, Bozeman had been averaging just 6.8 points per
game.
“Cedric has been playing well the last few games,”
Saia said. “He’s not worrying about other people
getting inside his head.”
The coaches are also fans of Bozeman’s 6-foot-6-inch
frame.
“Cedric can see over defenses,” Lavin said.
“He’s one of those new-era, new-style point
guards,” added forward Jason Kapono.
But the team still hopes the 6-foot, 1-inch Walcott, nicknamed
“The Waterbug” by Lavin, is able to find his confidence
and his game.
Having a shorter, faster, more traditional point guard gives
UCLA another dimension and another look to throw at opposing
defenses.
“They are so different,” Lavin said. “It gives
us different looks.”