And they’re done.
Game over, season over.
Washington’s Bobby Jones got a breakaway dunk as the final
seconds ticked off the clock, putting an exclamation point on an
impressive comeback (or if you’re a Bruin fan, another
disheartening collapse) for the Huskies.
With that emphatic basket, UCLA’s second-straight
miserable season mercilessly came to a close. The Bruins played the
kind of basketball that has unfortunately characterized the entire
season: decent, but not quite good enough.
If heartbreaking losses actually counted as victories, UCLA
might be going to the NCAA tournament.
Throughout the first half and even into the later parts of the
second half Thursday night, the Bruins moved the ball well on
offense and were taking good shots.
But predictably, they soon fell apart. Washington refused to be
denied, and UCLA was content to give away another game. Up two with
just over four minutes left, Dijon Thompson bricked a wide-open
three-pointer then committed a foul on a transition layup off his
miss for a painful six-point swing.
The final two minutes of the game were a gut-check for all Bruin
fans. Tied at 80, Cedric Bozeman frantically threw the ball away,
leading to a fast break layup and another three-point play. On
their next possession, Trevor Ariza threw up a wild layup, leading
to a turnover. Next time down the floor, Ryan Hollins tossed up a
duck.
Washington made its free throws at the end, and UCLA put
directly into the garbage another game it could have won.
Where is the poise? Where is the desire? Where is the
leadership?
Wasn’t Ben Howland supposed to fix all of this? Steve
Lavin was fired because his teams consistently underperformed based
on the amount of talent they had. This season, Howland won exactly
one more game than last year, and the argument has been made
““Â even by me ““ that he can’t turn things
around without his players and without his talent.
Forget that.
This team was good enough to win 18 games. Easily. How many
times did it choke away leads? How many times did it fritter away
possessions, giving up turnovers and offensive rebounds like Santa
Claus on Christmas Day? Weak sauce.
“We’re disappointed with the result,” Howland
said after the game. “The tough thing is that there were so
many close games this year.”
My oh my. You don’t say.
A large part of me does want to blame the past two seasons on
talent, or lack thereof. To be fair, this team just isn’t
very good. But the Pac-10 was way, way down this season, and in
comparison to the rest of the league, the Bruins certainly had
enough on paper to get the job done.
The biggest problem with this team is that it doesn’t even
have as much talent as it apparently thinks it does. How can it be
so casual about losing? The Bruins’ play is uninspiring and
blasé. They have accepted losing and ““ based on the way
they act on the court ““ expect to lose. To the media, the
team says all the right things, but after 30 losses in two seasons,
you have to wonder whether the players even care. All they can do,
and all they seemingly want to do, is lose.
Lavin couldn’t get it done with this group of players, and
neither could Howland. It is too easy and convenient to pin all the
problems on that vague and ephemeral thing we in the media call
“heart.” Or even better, how about the old cliché,
“lacking a killer instinct”?
Bottom line, neither phrase can accurately encapsulate all the
negativity surrounding the program, the coaches and the players.
These dark years will go down as perhaps the worst in UCLA history,
and this group of players will be remembered, infamously, as one
thing: chokers.
Jordan Farmar better be a stallion, or next year won’t
be any better. E-mail Yuhl at cyuhl@media.ucla.edu.