Consecutive wins from the UCLA men’s basketball team prove to be tiresome

Consecutive wins from the UCLA men’s basketball team prove to be tiresome

By ELI SMUKLER
The Daily Bruin
Published February 15, 2011 in Men's Basketball, Sports
Updated: February 15, 2011, 12:05 AM




The UCLA men’s basketball team has now won five in a row, nine of 10 and guess what? I was bored watching the Bruins’ two latest victories last weekend at Pauley Pavilion.

For the last season and a half, games at Pauley used to be a crapshoot. Even a home stand against the under-0.500 Oregon schools could have gone awry, the UCLA offense suddenly afflicted by an outbreak of Serbian smallpox or ball-handling-itis.

Now, a week like this, with two breezy wins by the odds-on favorite home team, makes it hard to rant and rave or whatever sports columnists are here to do.

The Bruins don’t always keep the lead from start to finish – actually, they usually don’t – but they are winning the games they are supposed to.

“We’re 17-0 when we have a 10-point lead,” coach Ben Howland announced proudly at the last press conference.

This is his new favorite statistic. It means despite any manufactured excitement around halftime, even the more stimulating games are going to end the same way.

This winning streak is starting to work on me like a handful of Tylenol PM.

UCLA once won 88 games in a row? How did people stay awake?

The John Wooden era must have been like the show “Two and a Half Men.” Why would anyone want to see the same thing over and over, for years at that?

Unfortunately, in the 30-plus game schedule of college basketball, slow and steady wins the race. It’s just, well, not as interesting as the ups and downs of mediocrity.

“I know this is really boring – I get accused of that a lot, especially with you guys,” Howland said to the media after Thursday’s game.

“We’re just taking them one at a time.”

One at a time? I’m from the school that you should just roll the dice on the easy games and put all your eggs in the basket for the year-end tournament, if you make it.

The players have gotten lame too. Junior shooting guard Malcolm Lee was the poster child for last year’s hodge-podge offense, playing out of position at the point guard spot. He was always good for some ill-timed turnovers, and the muscle cramps that forced him to miss key sequences really mixed things up in those endgame situations.

Now, Lee is dialed in every night. The only thing more reliable than his streamlined scoring outputs is watching him shut down the opponent’s best player on defense every night. Where’s the fun in that?

The Bruins’ upcoming road trip to the Bay Area this weekend will be a good test of the team’s newfound winning monotony.

Last year, UCLA had an exciting last-second victory at Cal’s Haas Pavilion and then ripped out your heart with a total letdown loss in Palo Alto two days later. I bet you this year’s team won’t make it nearly as interesting.

Stanford and Cal in 2011 are both beatable teams. In fact, UCLA did beat both of them in Westwood last month.

A boring team would probably take care of business again, rolling along to seven straight wins. But what, no love for the masochists among us?

Compare the size of the fan bases for these two pro franchises: the Chicago Cubs, who have found 102 new and different ways to build up people’s hopes only to crush them spectacularly by the end of each season, and the San Antonio Spurs, who have won four NBA titles in nine years thanks to a player nicknamed Mr. Fundamental. Snooze.

Sign me up, Cubbies!

If you are into the whole efficiency and organization thing, you could root for the Bruins to pick up a couple of road wins this week to keep their NCAA Tournament resume looking nice and orderly.
I, on the other hand, wish I was covering USC basketball this year. The Trojans know how to keep it interesting.

Earlier this season, ’SC lost to unranked Rider by 20 at home, then shocked now-No. 2 Texas. Sure, they’ll probably just go to the National Invitation Tournament, but the Trojans are all about keeping their fans engaged. That must be why they haven’t won twice in a row since Jan. 9.

UCLA is another story. With every ‘W’ that piles up outside Howland’s office, another ‘Z’ piles up in my bedroom.

Wake me up when UCLA is back to riding that thrilling win-loss roller coaster.


Smukler co-hosts the Daily Bruin Sports Show, which airs every Monday at 6:30 p.m. on UCLAradio.com. E-mail him at esmukler@media.ucla.edu.