UCLA Head Coach Ben Howland
Coach Ben Howland is embarassed. Rightfully, the buck stops with him:
"I'm in charge of the program," Howland said. "The buck stops here. It starts here. We were not well-enough prepared for this game. Nor did we understand how they were going to come out and jump us with defense."
Ultimate warrior Reeves Nelson looking for heart and guts from his teammates:
"People who don't play with heart and don't play with (guts) don't register with me," Nelson said. "I'm not going to bad-mouth my teammates, obviously, but today was a gut-check and we got checked pretty hard, and that showed."
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UCLA coach Howland is 'embarrassed'
By Jon Gold, Staff Writer
The Los Angeles Daily News
Updated: 01/18/2010 10:56:25 PM PST
As UCLA's throttling at the hands of crosstown rival USC fades away, the Bruins seem to finally be getting frustrated and embarrassed with the state of the season.
In early-season losses, the tone was, "Well, we're young, and we'll improve."
Then it became, "We need to work on the fundamentals."
Now it has become, "I am embarrassed."
"I'm embarrassed for our team," head coach Ben Howland said after the Bruins' 67-46 loss to USC on Saturday. "I feel embarrassed for our program, for the former players and coaches. That's all you can say about this effort ... . It was embarrassing. That's what I told the players after the game.
"And I'm responsible. Number one."
Embarrassed for the team's offensive effort, which included just 15-of-45 field goals and 3-of-20 3-pointers.
Embarrassed for the team's defensive effort, which consistently resulted in easy penetrations to the basket and wide-open shots.
Embarrassed for the team's effort, which included lackadaisical shot attempts and poor attitudes.
"I'm in charge of the program," Howland said. "The buck stops here. It starts here. We were not well-enough prepared for this game. Nor did we understand how they were going to come out and jump us with defense."
UCLA freshman forward Reeves Nelson said after the game he did not think Howland deserved so much responsibility for the disappointing season, that the player's bore some of the responsibility as well, "maybe 60-40."
Nelson was particularly frustrated by the apparent lack of effort as the game progressed, as a manageable deficit at halftime quickly became a blowout.
"People who don't play with heart and don't play with (guts) don't register with me," Nelson said. I'm not going to bad-mouth my teammates, obviously, but today was a gut-check and we got checked pretty hard, and that showed."Magic moments
In a season so close to slipping away, sophomore guard Malcolm Lee has taken to finding good in the little things, as small as they might be.
"In moments, not in the whole, but at moments were getting better," Lee said. "We have to stay consistent. That's the main thing. We're not consistent right now. We played Cal real well and then Stanford was just like a whole different game. As it was (Saturday). We have to play consistent - and that comes with experience."
Experience isn't going to magically appear, however, and they know that.
"We're going to have to start from the bottom up," Lee said. "They killed us on the boards. We have to do the little things - boxing out, controlling the rebounds on their offensive end, take smarter shots. We can't take big steps. We have to take little steps. We're not doing the little things."
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UCLA BASKETBALL: Bruins seek cure to their season-long ills
By Vincent Bonsignore, Staff Writer
The Wittier Daily News
Posted: 01/19/2010 10:50:32 PM PST
LOS ANGELES - Mike Roll isn't sure what was more agonizing, the excruciating stomach bruise he suffered Saturday against USC or sitting through a 21/2-hour film session reviewing UCLA's embarrassing 67-46 loss to the Trojans.
"I hate losing, especially to USC," Roll said of reliving the nightmare from last weekend. "They took it to us."
The good news on the injury is it eventually will get better - painful as it might be at the moment - and he should be fine to play against Washington on Thursday at Pauley Pavilion.
It isn't often the word embarrassing gets thrown around to describe the effort of a UCLA basketball team, but that was the adjective bandied about after the Bruins' listless performance against their crosstown rivals.
"We didn't match their intensity and we didn't play as hard as they did," forward Nikola Dragovic said.
But it wasn't just effort that did in the Bruins against USC, nor has that been the biggest problem in their most troubling season in recent memory.
It was bad shooting, blown assignments, a lack of fundamentals and savvy.
"A combination of everything," freshman forward Tyler Honeycutt said.
This makes finding a quick solution almost impossible, especially with the powerful Huskies coming to town.
Roll did his best Tuesday to promise UCLA will amp up its effort, but he couldn't even explain why it was so poor Saturday. How can he be sure the Bruins won't repeat it?
"All I can say is from here on out it's not going to be like that anymore," Roll said. "The effort is going to be maximized from here on out."
Trying to unlock Dragovic
UCLA coach Ben Howland pulled Dragovic aside Tuesday to talk about the remaining 13 games of his UCLA career and how the senior needs to rededicate himself to rebounding and getting more involved offensively.
To illustrate how far Dragovic's rebounding has fallen, he had 14 rebounds in the first game of the year against Cal State Fullerton but managed just 16 through the Bruins' first five Pacific-10 Conference games.
"The main thing is to bring a great level of energy to everything we're doing and really try and do the tough things." Howland said. "He needs to put a big emphasis on rebounding the basketball for us to have success."
Dragovic is averaging 10.5 points and just 4.9 rebounds per game.
Part of the problem offensively is he is creating more of his shots this year, as opposed to past seasons when he would get open looks on kick-outs or pick-and-rolls.
Dragovic came to the United States more of a creator offensively but he adjusted his game to suit the Bruins' needs.
"Now I'm going to have to change back to it and create more of my shots," he said.
Injury update
Jerime Anderson, who has a hip flexor injury, did not practice Tuesday and likely won't practice today, which puts his status for Thursday's game against Washington in doubt.
Reeves Nelson is battling the stomach flu.
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Bruins vow to battle
By AL BALDERAS
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
January 19, 2010 9:14 PM
LOS ANGELES - UCLA seems determined to bounce back from its last setback. Again.
What has become an all too familiar rallying cry resurfaced Tuesday, three days after the Bruins were handed a humiliating, 21-point loss by USC.
"All I can say is from here on out, it's not going to be like that anymore," Michael Roll said. "The effort is going to be maximized each game."
So what took so long?
The Bruins' loss to USC wasn't their only setback of the season. It also wasn't their only embarrassing loss.
The Bruins vowed to regroup after a season-opening overtime loss to Cal State Fullerton, an 11-point defeat to Long Beach State, an 18-point drubbing at the hands of Mississippi State in the John Wooden Classic, and a 23-turnover performance (and loss) at Stanford.
"We knew we had to get it together since the first couple of games," forward Tyler Honeycutt said. "We're kind of playing different every time. It'll be offense in one game, it'll be defense in another, and it'll be turnovers in a different game. We're not consistently playing how we should be playing."
Honeycutt described the Bruins' problems in the USC game as a mixture of all three deficiencies.
"The offense wasn't really there," he said. "Their (offense) was scoring at will.
"Our turnovers ... we had too many turnovers, especially in the first half."
The Bruins will have to show decided improvement in all areas if they hope to get back on the winning track.
Washington had lost three consecutive games but righted its ship with one-sided victories over Cal and Stanford last weekend.
"If you look at our season, there's been lots of times when we needed to respond, we needed to turn it around," James Keefe said. "It's easy to say that after this (USC) loss we're going to turn things around but it hasn't been that easy this season.
"The Pac-10 is still up for grabs and we're a game and a half out of first.
"As badly as we've played this season, we can finish it off with a good ending but we have to do something."
ON THE BOARDS
UCLA coach Ben Howland met with Nikola Dragovic on Tuesday and the two talked about rebounds.
Dragovic had 14 rebounds against Fullerton but is averaging 4.9 per outing when you include his other 11 games.
"I asked him to focus on rebounding," Howland said. "There has got to be a bigger emphasis on rebounding the basketball for us to have success from Nik."
SICK BAY
Jerime Anderson and Reeves Nelson were not expected to practice Tuesday but for different reasons.
Anderson has what is being described as a hip flexor.
Nelson is the latest UCLA player to come down with the stomach flu.
Roll, who suffered a bruised abdomen after being kneed in the USC game, is sore but was scheduled to practice.
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