M. basketball: Fey’s slump chips away his minutes, confidence

After a winless weekend in Northern California, the questions
surrounding the Bruin center spot still linger without answers.

Michael Fey, who coach Ben Howland replaced with Ryan Hollins in
UCLA’s starting line-up Thursday night against Stanford, was
reinstated before Saturday’s loss to Cal on a hunch of
Howland’s.

Unfortunately, Fey still seems mired in a slump. At Cal he was
only 1-for-5 from the floor and grabbed two rebounds, but also
committed that many fouls in his eight minutes of play. The center
spot was filled for the rest of the game by Hollins and Josiah
Johnson, who normally plays forward.

“His confidence has taken some hits,” assistant
coach Donny Daniels said of Fey. “One thing I’ve told
him is that we’re going to need (him) here. A lot of it needs
to be self-imposed. He has to understand we need him to do
better.”

The performance of Fey, who won starting center responsibilities
at the beginning of the season for his physical presence in the
paint, has sank considerably in the course of the Pac-10 season. In
the Bruins’ season-opener against Vermont, Fey sank 20 points
and grabbed eight rebounds. Last weekend, Fey played for a combined
20 minutes but only grabbed three boards.

“The guys are very conscious that rebounding is a weak
spot right now,” Daniels said. “We’ll watch some
more tape, and emphasize blocking out again. That’s really
all we can do right now.”

Another issue for Fey is that despite a meek performance on the
boards, he’s still drawing fouls. While playing only 12
minutes at Stanford, he fouled out with just four points to his
name.

Contrary to what one would think, Daniels believes Fey is
getting fouls from a lack of aggression, not too much. He pointed
to Fey’s lack of reaction against Stanford or Cal as a point
of improvement.

“He needs to not be so passive,” he said. “He
gets a lot of his fouls from not being aggressive
enough.”

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