Turnovers plague Bruins offense
By AL BALDERAS
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
January 12, 2010 10:07 PM
'Bad decisions' have led to 40 miscues in their past two games.
LOS ANGELES -- A six-day break in the schedule could work to UCLA's advantage.
Not because the Bruins will have almost a week to prepare for crosstown rival USC but because the extra time will give the UCLA a chance to clean up its own game.
UCLA coach Ben Howland didn't have to look very far into the past to see where the main point of emphasis was going to be this week.
The Bruins committed 23 turnovers in last Saturday's 70-59 loss at Stanford. It was a game that they were still describing at "winnable" on Tuesday.
"You look at our first four games, we're shooting the ball well from the field and from three but our turnover differential is 69 that we have, and our opponents only have 39," Howland said. "Thirty turnovers over the four games in conference is a big number and something that we have to improve on for sure."
One way is to run sprints at practice every time someone turns the ball over. It's something that Howland has been doing but with only limited results.
Forty of the Bruins' 69 turnovers came in their last two games.
"It's something we definitely have to get better at," Howland added. "It's something that definitely cost us Saturday against Stanford.
"So many of the turnovers, they were not caused by the defense. They were just bad decisions by us."
Howland explained that a lot of the turnovers against Stanford happened because UCLA was trying to do things too quickly. Rather than take their time and set things up on offense, the Bruins were constantly trying to rush down the court, allowing things to get out of control.
"Going too fast," Howland said. "Bad decisions. Being loose with the ball. One time, early in the game Nikola (Dragovic), we get a steal and he tried to throw the ball long. It's not even close to being open. They steal it, come back and hit a three. It's a big turnaround. We've got to be understanding that we've got to value each and every possession that we get.
Former UCLA coach Steve Lavin, now working as an analyst for ESPN, suggested earlier in the season that the Bruins take an offensive approach similar to that of Gene Keady's Purdue teams of the past, where the Boilermakers would pass the ball a certain number of times before taking a shot.
As extreme as that might seem, something has to be done.
In addition to the 23 turnovers against Stanford, the Bruins' hurry-up-and-shoot offense resulted in a 20.8 field goal percentage in the first half of the Bruins' loss to Arizona on Jan. 2.
"I think we definitely can," freshman forward Reeves Nelson said of slowing things down. "Just try and play as hard as you can, and play as smart as you can. Let the game come to you.
"We just have to get it in our minds that maybe the first open shot isn't the best shot. It'll help us more as a team to swing the ball around a little bit more. I think it's more of a mindset that we have to put ourselves in."
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