Some Jon Gold nuggets

from Inside UCLA with Jon Gold
The Los Angeles Daily News

Tidbits from Howland press conference

By Jon Gold on February 22, 2011 1:32 PM

* UCLA head coach Ben Howland said during Tuesday's press conference that the Bruins would not go back into the zone, and that his decision to switch was dictated by foul trouble.

"They scored well against the zone, too," Howland said. "They made a couple really tough shots. Harper Kamp's jump hook, even though it's one of his best shots, that was tough. You have to give them credit, they did a good job."

Howland is still nervous to allow wide-open shots, which occurred a few times against the Bears in the team's loss on Sunday.

"Crabbe had a wide-open three against our zone, and he just missed it," Howland said. "The one thing I hate about zone, eventually if they're patient, they're going to get a good shot. We were fortunate there."

What if the team is in foul trouble again?

"No. No, we're not going to be playing zone," Howland said. "The reason I went to it was the foul trouble to Reeves and Josh. Josh played with four fouls for a while, and three fouls for a while."

* Given UCLA's rather lackadaisical effort against Cal, Howland was asked if anyone was sick prior to the game.

"No, we were sick after the game," Howland joked.

I was particularly curious about Tyler Lamb, who played a season-low three minutes, but Howland said it was just his fault that he didn't play the freshman guard more.

"I should've played him more," Howland said. "I talked to him about that. He gives us good defensive presence. That was my fault."

*Howland on Brendan Lane:
"I thought he did a good job in the Cal game. I was glad to see him score a couple baskets, along with that three. He had a couple baskets around the basket which were good."

*Howland on Arizona State being a trap game on Thursday:
"I don't think so. This is a huge game for us. They're coming off a win - and they've been close - they had Cal down seven with the ball with 6:20 to go. We know what it's like to play Cal at Cal. We're going to have to play really well Thursday to win."


UCLA zones....in?

By Jon Gold on February 21, 2011 3:15 PM

You should have seen the looks on my colleagues' faces with around 15 minutes to play last night in UCLA's overtime loss to Cal.

There were looks of pure amazement, a little confusion, even a little smugness.

Finally, surprisingly, shockingly, UCLA switched into a zone defense. It's been a long time coming.

Despite constant questioning from the media about even testing a zone defense, UCLA head coach Ben Howland had been so steadfast in his opinion that, quite frankly, I never expected it.

Coach, will you use the zone?
"No."

Would you consider it?
"No."

Why not?
"We play man-to-man."

Do you ever practice it?
"Only when the other team uses it."

So when it happened, suffice to say, we were all blown away. So too, it appears, were the players.

"It caught me by surprise, to tell you the truth," Joshua Smith said. "I remember going in the huddle and he said we were going to run zone and I was kind of like "Oh, OK."

The response among the players was universally positive, and though Howland said he would not use the defense for the rest of the season, you have to think he'll reconsider.

"It was good. It slowed them down. They had a good game plan and the zone kind of threw them off a little bit. That's really the first time we did it all season. Coach made a good adjustment and maybe if another team is hitting all their shots on us, we'll see it again." - Reeves Nelson

"I felt like we should've played zone against a couple teams. We're long enough and athletic enough to do that. Showing teams different looks is going to confuse them." - Tyler Honeycutt

"The zone stopped the bleeding a lot. Although they were scoring in the zone, it was more like one out of three times, as opposed to scoring every time against the man. Zone is the reason we got back in the game." - Malcolm Lee

At this point, we all know Howland is who Howland is. But maybe he's learned that with this team's deficiencies, he'll need to bend a bit.


Game time set for Washington swing

By Jon Gold on February 21, 2011 1:50 PM

Game times have been set for UCLA's men's basketball trip to Washington on the final week of the Pac-10 regular season.

The game at Washington on March 3 will tip at 6:00 pm and will be televised live by ESPN or ESPN2.

The regular-season finale at Washington State on March 5 will tip at 2:30 pm and will be televised live by Fox Sports Net (Prime Ticket in Los Angeles).