Fresh faces to play big role for UCLA basketball team

Ben Howland says his freshmen will play an important role right away this season.






Fresh faces to play big role for UCLA basketball team

October, 13, 2010 Oct 139:19PM PT

By Peter Yoon
UCLA Blog
ESPN Los Angeles

Coach Ben Howland will take a young team with no seniors into the basketball season opener Nov. 12 against Cal State Northridge, and he said he will "rely heavily" on incoming freshmen, which doesn't sound so good considering the team is coming off a 14-18 season.

But when you consider the incoming freshman class was ranked among the best in the country, and the impact that freshmen can have in the college game these days, things might not be so bleak.

Howland unveiled his team and the freshman class Wednesday during the team's annual media day at Pauley Pavilion.

The prize of the class is center Josh Smith and there's a lot less of Smith now than there was when he signed with UCLA. Smith is listed at 6 feet 10, 305 pounds, but he wouldn't say if that was his weight before or after a rigorous training program that helped him lose 50 pounds over the summer.

"Right now is probably the best shape I've been in since third grade," Smith said.

Smith led Kentwood High to the Washington state championship last year, averaging 21 points, 14 rebounds and five blocked shots. He worked out three times a day for six days a week during the summer and was not allowed to touch a basketball before he got into shape, he said.

Losing the weight was necessary to compete at the college level, he said.

"It's going to help me be more agile in the post," Smith said. "I can move my feet around."

Howland said one of the key benefits will be Smith's ability to transition from offense to defense and back.

"Everybody is going to try and beat him down the floor when the other team gets the ball," Howland said. "So that’s going to be a big challenge for him is to make sure that he’s able to keep pace and make sure that he’s able to change ends."

Another touted freshman is Tyler Lamb, the former Santa Ana Mater Dei High standout, who will be competing for playing time at shooting guard. The 6-4 Lamb averaged 18.9 points, seven rebounds and 3.5 blocks last season and earned All-State honors.

"Coach has told me I will be getting valuable minutes," Lamb said. "It’s up to me to contribute and how much I contribute."

Point guard Matt Carlino is the third high-profile freshman joining the Bruins this season. Carlino graduated a year early from high school so that he could join the Bruins this year after averaging 13.4 points and 4.3 assists at Bloomington South High in Indiana last year.

"The freshman are going to play an important role right away, there's no question," Howland said. "They're going to be thrown into the fire and freshmen make more mistakes, that's a part of it, but I think this team has the potential to be good."

Also joining the Bruins this season is point guard Lazeric Jones, a transfer from John A. Logan College in Chicago. He averaged 14.5 points and 5.7 assists last season.

Three returning starters in junior guard Malcolm Lee and forwards Tyler Honeycutt and Reeves Nelson will add experience. Lee averaged 12.1 points last season and is the top returning scorer for the Bruins. Honeycutt, a sophomore, led UCLA with 6.5 rebounds a game last year as a freshman.

Howland said those players have returned with the added motivation of the bitter taste from their disappointing performance last year.

"It’s very painful to lose and it’s a very difficult process to go through," Howland said. "I think that the players who return from last year have really worked hard and they want to have a successful campaign."

Practice officially opens Friday. UCLA has exhibition games Nov. 4 against Westmont and Nov. 9 against Cal State Los Angeles before the season opener.
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UCLA focused on getting back to winning ways on basketball court

By BETH HARRIS
AP Sports Writer
7:39 PM PDT, October 13, 2010
The LA Times


LOS ANGELES (AP) — After limping through the summer recruiting season having ruptured his Achilles' tendon, UCLA coach Ben Howland hopes things are looking up for himself and the Bruins.

They're coming off a 14-18 season — UCLA's worst since 2003-04, Howland's first season in Westwood. The Bruins missed the NCAA tournament just two years after making three consecutive Final Four appearances.

"Last year was a tough year," Howland said Wednesday. "We've got to bounce back and start out strong."

He is walking with a slight hitch after he slipped at home in June and tore his Achilles' tendon. Howland had surgery, then spent most of July on crutches and in a walking boot.

"I can't dunk," he said, smiling. "I'm still not 100 percent and I've still got to do a lot more rehab."

He hopes rehabilitating the Bruins won't take as long.

They don't have any seniors and just two of the three returning juniors have played major minutes. One of them, Malcolm Lee, will play primarily as a shooting guard after splitting time running the offense with Jerime Anderson last season.

"Everybody is playing with a chip on their shoulder," Lee said. "Everybody's got a redemption mindset. I just want to win, earn a Pac-10 title and make it back to the (NCAA) tournament."

Anderson, the other junior with experience, is expected to be challenged for the starting point guard job by Lazeric "Zeke" Jones, a junior college transfer from Chicago.

Freshman Tyler Lamb figures to be a key backcourt contributor. The guard committed to the Bruins two years ago.

Sophomores Reeves Nelson and Tyler Honeycutt will anchor UCLA's frontcourt after playing a lot as freshmen, although both were dogged by injuries at times. Freshman Joshua Smith could relieve Nelson from playing center, although Smith's conditioning (he's listed at 305 pounds) will be tested. Honeycutt led the Bruins in rebounding, averaging 6.5.

A year ago, the Bruins endured a rash of injuries during preseason practice that prevented the starting unit from working together. By December, third-leading scorer Drew Gordon quit, while starter Nikola Dragovic got in legal trouble off the court. Last spring, Howland dismissed J'mison Morgan from the team.

"Everybody was kind of embarrassed with how things went," Nelson said. "We don't ever want that to happen again."

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Bruins know they have to pick up the pace this season

By SCOTT M. REID
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Published: Oct. 13, 2010
Updated: 9:59 p.m.


Los Angeles – UCLA sophomore forward Tyler Honeycutt slowly pedaled an exercise bike on the floor of Pauley Pavilion.

"Lance Armstrong," Honeycutt cracked.

Honeycutt looked across Pauley at his teammates assembled for media day knowing the Bruins are going to have to pick up the pace in a hurry.

UCLA, coming off a 14-18 season, opens practice Friday with just 10 scholarship players available. None of them is a senior.

This makes Honeycutt and fellow Pac-10 All-Freshman selection Reeves Nelson something of elder statesmen.

"We had to grow up pretty fast," Honeycutt said. "But a lot of freshmen are going to have to do the same thing this year. It's a learning process in the beginning, but as time goes you'll get the hang of it."

This includes freshmen such as former Mater Dei all-state guard Tyler Lamb and center Joshua Smith, a McDonald's All-American out of Kent, Wash.

UCLA is returning to Coach Ben Howland's core values. Last year's zone defense is history. Howland's more familiar in-your-face man-to-man defense is back.

In returning to man defense, Howland hopes to capitalize on the athleticism of an inexperienced and thin yet gifted roster.

"I definitely think we have the talent to win the Pac-10 but it's just a matter of putting all the pieces together and seeing what happens," Nelson said.

Smith and Lamb will be prominent among those pieces.

Smith has dropped nearly 60 pounds from a frame listed at 6-feet-10, 305 and remains a work in progress.

"And he'd be the first one to tell you that," Howland said.

"I'm excited about Josh. When he's one-on-one in the post he's going to be hard for people to defend.

"He's got great hands, great feet. He's very coachable, but it's all a learning experience. As a true freshman he'll really be put to the test."

Honeycutt, UCLA's leading rebounder last season as a freshman (6.5 per game), and Nelson returns at forward.

Honeycutt led all Pac-10 freshmen in double-doubles with four, all of them coming in the season's final 11 games.

Nelson should be even more reliable than a year ago when he was second in the Pac-10 in field percentage (64.7 percent) having taken between 25,000 and 30,000 jump shots over the summer.

There is open competition at point guard between Jerime Anderson, the back-up the past two seasons, and JC transfer Lazeric Jones.

Last season's starting point guard Malcolm Lee, UCLA's leading returning scorer (12.1 ppg), moves to his natural position of shooting guard where he will be challenged by Lamb.

"He's going to have to play right away," Howland said of Lamb. "He's going to play and he's going to play an important role right away.

"He can get a lot of time. We've got 10 guys on scholarship. He's going to play a major role this year. There's no question. I can't be anymore clear than that.
"We need to have a quick learning curve for our team for our team where we hope to be start conference play."