SF Chronicle: Bruins in ruins? UCLA may be rebuilding at last

Head coach Ben Howland of the UCLA Bruins reacts during a college basketball game against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Pauley Pavilion on Jan. 17, 2009 in Westwood, Calif. Photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images


Bruins in ruins? UCLA may be rebuilding at last
Vittorio Tafur
The San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Last year, as it turns out, was not UCLA's down year.

Coming off three straight Final Fours, the Bruins finished 26-9 and in second place in the Pac-10.

This season has gone so far off track so quickly that coach Ben Howland shocked his players during a timeout in the first half against Arizona State on Thursday.

With losses to Cal State Fullerton, Portland and Long Beach State still fresh in his memory, Howland watched ASU start running all-too familiar layup lines and three-point-shooting drills against his team.

His Bruins, McDonald's high school All-Americans or not, could not stay in front of teams defensively.

So, he said it:

"Let's play zone defense."

UCLA guard Michael Roll could not believe his ears.

"I thought hell froze over," Roll said. "I mean, nobody in the world expected coach Howland to play zone."

Cal coach Mike Montgomery, whose Bears (9-4) host the Bruins (6-8) tonight, had to pause the game tape when he watched it.

"Yeah, I was surprised," Montgomery said. "His M.O. has been physical, aggressive man-to-man defense. That's been his trademark, but he hasn't been getting the level of physicality he's wanted, so ..."

So Howland did what good coaches do and adjusted. And it worked. Arizona State was caught off guard, and UCLA happened to make eight of its first 10 three-point shots to escape with a 72-70 win. Saturday's 77-63 loss to Arizona was more in tune with how the Bruins' season has gone: poor shooting, slow defense and erratic effort from a young team.

"Against Arizona, I was really disappointed in our effort," Howland said. "We had no patience offensively."

In a conference hit hard by players leaving early for the NBA, the Bruins have been hit the hardest. UCLA has lost five players to the land of agents, groupies and room service, and only one was a senior. Some Howland could expect, but no one on the Bruins thought guard Jrue Holiday was going to be a one-and-done.

"We lost a lot last year and we lost a lot the year before that," Howland said in a conference call Tuesday. "We've had some definite bad breaks. ... But there's no excuse. We should be more successful."

He has the high school All-Americans. Sophomore point guard Jerime Anderson has struggled, and sophomore shooting guard Malcolm Lee has been inconsistent. Sophomore forward Drew Gordon, from Mitty High, left the team last month.

Whereas he used to be the hunted, Howland is now the nervous hunter, worrying how his team can possibly match up with tough, more experienced Pac-10 foes. Like Cal tonight.

"Their four seniors - (Jerome) Randle, (Patrick) Christopher, (Theo) Robertson and (Jamal) Boykin - are really, really good," Howland said. "They're efficient, confident, shoot so well and tough. They can all shoot with range and they can all put the ball on the floor and get to the basket.

"They're a tough matchup - I mean, the No. 1 team in the country (Kansas) had a tough time covering Cal."

Internet recruiting
Gordon, the 6-foot-9 forward who was averaging 11.2 points for the Bruins before he and Howland mutually decided he should split, is going to land at New Mexico. The sophomore will be eligible to play in the middle of the 2010-11 season and is excited about the Lobos' wide-open stye of play.

It's funny, because somehow Gordon missed the bulletin that Howland prefers a slow-it-down, half-court offense when he was being recruited by UCLA. And Howland and his staff wouldn't have been so surprised by Gordon's emotional flare-ups with coaches and teammates if they had checked into his anger-management issues during high school.

That's what happens when recruiting sometimes resembles online dating, with each side falling in love with scouting services' warts-free representation of themselves.

Leaner Duck
Oregon did what no other team likely will do this season: win at Washington State and at Washington. The surprising Ducks are 10-4 and 2-0 thanks to center Michael Dunigan.

The 6-foot-10 sophomore went from being a McDonald's All-American to being in constant foul trouble last season. Last week, he had 22 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks against the Cougars and 20 points and 14 rebounds against the Huskies.

What happened?

"He only started playing in the 10th grade, so he is only five years in," Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. "He grows and gets better every day."

Actually, he shrinks and gets better every day.

"He's changed his work ethic," Kent said. "When he got here, he weighed 280 pounds. Now, he is 248. He has turned fat into muscle and is going to get even better as his confidence grows."

Kent, considered to be in serious danger of losing his job before the season, said, "This is the first time I have ever had a dominant presence inside."

Tip-in
USC falling on its sword and banishing its team from the postseason isn't fair to the current players. They didn't get a cut of the money Tim Floyd and others allegedly gave O.J. Mayo. The players weren't even there. Maybe athletic director Mike Garrett should have punished himself, forfeiting a chunk of his salary because the Mayo, Reggie Bush and Joe McKnight transgressions all happened on his watch.