At times, the results that Ben Howland produced were almost
laughable. The UCLA Bruins would bumble, stumble and then mumble
about how they had tried.
But effort quickly became a dead issue.
That’s because while this 11-17 season couldn’t have
been what Howland had drawn up in his mind when he left Pittsburgh
in the offseason, he was like Picasso working with crayons in the
first year of his UCLA coaching era.
After all, the mess of players that Steve Lavin had left him was
ultimately impossible to mesh together into a winning team.
“It was just a long year,” Howland said. “We
had a good start and a poor finish. I’m looking forward to
next year.”
The emphasis here is on next year ““ when Howland’s
Top 10 recruiting class finally shows up to Westwood. Before then,
Howland had to suffer along with his talent-challenged squad as
they lost 14 of their last 16 games and made a quick first-round
exit in the Pac-10 Tournament.
UCLA began the Pac-10 with a 5-0 start, but after losses to
legitimate teams in Arizona and Stanford, the slip-sliding
began.
Junior point guard Cedric Bozeman led the Pac-10 in assists and
had a healthy season for the first time in his UCLA career, but he
did not develop into a court general that could generate enough
offense when it counted. Oh, and he couldn’t shoot
either.
“He’s got to be more of an offensive threat,”
Howland said. “People are always sagging and playing off of
him.”
Junior swingman Dijon Thompson quietly led UCLA in scoring at
14.4 points per game, but neither he nor Bozeman as co-captains
fulfilled their emotional roles as co-captains. The most
inspirational player turned out to be little-used senior Jon
Crispin.
Perhaps the turning point of the season came on Dec. 20 when
guard Brain Morrison went down. The team’s best shooter
ultimately missed 15 games due to various leg injuries, and former
walk-on Janou Rubin was relied upon to pick up the slack.
Small forward Trevor Ariza had a fine freshman season, but
despite his eye-popping athleticism, he still can’t shoot or
finish consistently.
UCLA also had trouble scoring in the paint. Senior forward T.J.
Cummings, after coming back from academic ineligibility, continued
to settle for jumpers, while sophomore centers Ryan Hollins and
Michael Fey never quite looked comfortable posting up. All of them
struggled to rebound as well.
The defense actually improved from last year, but while some
players could be silky smooth at times, for the most part, they
were Charmin soft and unlike the battle-hardened bodies Howland was
used to coaching in the Big East.
The players’ physical deficiencies were so apparent that
Howland, who overwhelmingly favors man-to-man defense, had to play
a lot of zone defense by the end of the year to keep quicker teams
from dominating. Howland admitted that sticking to man in the
beginning of the year might have hurt the team in the short term,
but would help the team in the long run.
Suspect starters and a thin bench from this year’s team
will certainly be helped out by the signed incoming freshmen,
including point guard Jordan Farmar, shooting guard Arron Afflalo,
swingman Josh Shipp and post presence Lorenzo Mata. Superstar
forward Malik Hairston from Detroit is said to favor coming to UCLA
and his signing would significantly help the Bruins next
season.
But Howland placed the burden on the returning players to lead
the resurgence of the program.
“The kids that are returning to our program are going to
be the key to the success of next year,” Howland said.
“Although we have a Top-10 recruiting class coming in, it
will still come down to how hard our players who are in the program
now work in the offseason.
“This thing isn’t going to magically turn around.
It’s a process. It’s going to take a lot of hard work
and dedication.”
The current players can start by getting in the weight room and
bulking up. This is essential also because the recruits clear the
way for Thompson to move to small forward and Ariza to move to
power forward.
“The fans here are pretty knowledgeable, and they
understand that building a program from where we started is not
something you do with the snap of a finger overnight,” he
said.
“I expect us to be much improved from where we were this
year. We’ll go into next season with a new hope and new
optimism.”
And new players. Hopefully for the Bruins, maybe some reinvented
ones as well.