Marcia Smith, OCR: "UCLA still has a lot of time to improve"

UCLA still has a lot of time to improve
By MARCIA C. SMITH
The Orange County Register
2009-11-30 17:39:19

ANAHEIM - It has been just six games — two cruising victories and four bruising defeats — and Ben Howland is already collarbones deep in the most challenging coaching job of his seven-year UCLA tenure.

His Bruins (2-4) are off to their worst start since going 2-5 to open Steve Lavin's final season in 2002-03. Howland opens games with four first-time starters, and his rotations have included three freshmen, five sophomores, a junior and three seniors.

"When you're playing young players, they are going to make mistakes," said Howland, who has had to be more of a basketball teacher this season than a fine-tuning coach.

In his 15 years of coaching, Howland never has had to work with such raw materials. Building a competitive, winning team will take time.

But a silver lining surrounds this construction dust cloud. A long season remains ahead.

Howland, undoubtedly, will work his kids — because that's how young this team is — through intense practices in preparation to play No. 1 Kansas on Sunday afternoon at Pauley Pavilion.

Preseason injuries to such key players as point guard Jerime Anderson (groin muscle), guard Malcolm Lee (concussion), sharpshooting guard Michael Roll (ankle) and still-out freshman forward Tyler Honeycutt (leg), have affected the continuity of practices and slowed down the installations of Howland's entire strategy.

On the upside, these youngsters will improve without Howland having to worry that one will leave early for the NBA. Having no obvious Jrue Holiday or Kevin Love-caliber player on the roster bodes well for keeping most of the team intact in the future.

"We've got to definitely play better in the backcourt to be successful," said Howland, who has first-season starters sophomore point guard Anderson (Canyon High), sophomore guard Lee and senior guard Michael Roll (Aliso Niguel High) in the backcourt.

Anderson has struggled the most, averaging just 6.2 points and 3 assists per game. He has 18 assists but 19 turnovers.

Lee has become the top defender and most penetrating scorer, averaging 12.2 points and 3.7 assists, while Roll leads the Bruins in points (13.2 ppg) and assists (5.0 apg).

As a team, the Bruins have shot just 43.6 percent from the field and has a worrisome 26 percentage from 3-point range and a 55.6 percentage from the foul line.

"We've got to defend better, shoot better and make good decisions," Howland said.

After dropping all three games to Portland, No. 12 Butler and Long Beach State in this past weekend's 76 Classic at Anaheim Convention Center, Howland is ready to rethink his strategies to fit the strengths of his team.

On Sunday, after trailing by 17 points and losing, 79-68, to the speedy and slashing 49ers, Howland is considering partly abandoning his traditional man-to-man defense for the zone.

"We got hurt in transition defense," said Howland, after losing two games this season for the first time in school history to the Big West's Cal State Fullerton and the 49ers, both strong transition and zone- playing teams. "We're going to have to play softer and really pack it in because we're just getting beat (to the basketball) and be more help conscious that we are right now."

Howland's grinding defense has been his teams' keystone for the past six seasons. He noted that his Bruins haven't had to wrestle with such defensive shortcomings since his first season, when the Bruins went 11-17 (7-11, tied for seventh in the Pac-10).

Since then, Howland has guided the Bruins to five NCAA Tournaments, including three Final Four appearances.

"Nothing comes easy," said Howland, who opens the Pac-10 season on Dec. 31 against Arizona State. "We're going to have to really, really work hard so we can become a competitive team night in and night out in the Pac-10."

On a positive note, climbing the Pac-10 ladder into the NCAA Tournament is not yet out of reach. The conference is down, considered by some to be the weakest it has been in more than two decades.

UCLA isn't the only school taking a beating in the nonconference schedule. Upsets have abounded. Pac-10 favorite and nationally ranked Cal couldn't hold off Syracuse or Ohio State. Oregon State fell to Sacramento State, Stanford to Oral Roberts and USC to Loyola Marymount and Nebraska.

With Howland's adjustments, the maturing and improvement of young players, the addition of Honeycutt and a strong run through a weaker Pac-10, the Bruins could become a tournament team.

March Madness is so far away, and the UCLA season is still so young but not without its silver lining.