The first two games of the UCLA basketball season only produced more questions about this year’s Bruin team.
Tonight and Friday the Bruins will have a chance to answer those questions on one of basketball’s biggest, most iconic stages.
No. 4 UCLA (2-0) faces Michigan (2-0) tonight in the semifinal of the 2K Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The winner will face either No. 5 Duke (3-0) or Southern Illinois (2-0) Friday in the championship game. ESPN and ESPN2 will broadcast the tournament nationally.
“We’re definitely not where we wantto be; we have a lot to improve,” senior guard Josh Shipp said. “But there is a lot of potential.”
UCLA’s point guards turned the ball over 12 times in the team’s first win over Prairie View A&M, last Thursday at Pauley Pavilion. The next night the team barely beat Miami (Ohio) and struggled to muster any inside presence offensively.
The difficult, grinding win against the Redhawks erased some of the hype surrounding UCLA, which has reached the Final Four in each of the past three seasons. And despite their high ranking, the Bruins now face several uncertainties.
How quickly will star freshman Jrue Holiday adjust to the college level?
Will the Bruins find a low post scorer? Or is this team only able to run a one-dimensional, perimeter offense?
More repetition and practice time will help to answer some of these questions, coach Ben Howland said.
“With this current team, I’d rather play (the tournament) a little later; I’d rather be doing it in a few weeks from now,” Howland said.
But the Bruins will have to find some quick answers to beat Michigan tonight.
The Wolverines run an unorthodox system, designed by coach John Beilein. On offense, the team will employ lots of cuts and perimeter shooting. Defensively, the team runs an unusual, 1-3-1 zone.
“You can’t just break down,” Shipp said. “You have to be on top of your defensive game.”
Fortunately for UCLA, several of the team’s veteran players have played against Beilien’s system before.
Last year the Bruins beat a less experienced Wolverine team 69-54 in Ann Arbor. However, the 15-point margin of victory did not indicate the close, back-and-forth nature of the game, Howland said.
Four current Bruins played in that game: Shipp, forward Alfred Aboya, and guards Darren Collison and Michael Roll.
Howland also said that lengthy preparation will help his team tonight. While the Bruins had just one day to prepare for Miami (Ohio), they have had four practices to plan for the Michigan game.
“It’s hard to point out the nuance (of Michigan’s system) to players,” Howland said. “You can’t simulate it as well as they run it, because they practice it every day. … You just try to point out the framework. Fortunately we had four days to get ready.”
Michigan guard Manny Harris should be the most difficult one-on-one matchup for UCLA. Harris, a 6-foot-5-inch sophomore, has averaged 28 points in the Wolverines’ first two games.
The Bruins tried three defenders ““ Holiday, Roll and freshman Malcolm Lee ““ to stop Michael Bramos, Miami’s shooting guard. Holiday will start and get the first crack at Harris.
Howland is asking Holiday to try to stay in front of Harris.
“It breaks down your defense when you can’t stay in front of the ball,” Howland said.
The Bruins and Wolverines will tip-off at 6 p.m., after the completion of the Duke-Southern Illinois game.
Tournament organizers reportedly hoped to match Duke and UCLA, two of the most prestigious programs in college basketball history, in the championship game.
Unlike UCLA, the Blue Devils have returned the core of their 2007-2008 team; guards John Scheyer and Greg Paulus and forwards Kyle Singler and Gerald Henderson.
If both teams win Thursday it will be the first matchup between Duke and UCLA since 2001.
But UCLA is trying to focus on improvements, not the spotlight or glamour of that potential championship matchup.
“We’re not thinking about Duke at all,” Shipp said. “We take it one game at a time. Michigan is our next opponent, and we’ll do whatever it takes to beat them.”
Shipp also said that the team has forgotten about the mistakes and problems it faced against Miami (Ohio). He also dismissed concerns about Collison’s six turnovers in the team’s opener.
“That game’s behind us; we have a lot more important games coming up,” Shipp said.
“We’re ready to move on.”
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