Future looking bright for Bruins

Future looking bright for Bruins

By Jill Painter, Staff Writer
Whittier Daily News
Posted: 03/16/2011 09:15:38 PM PDT


UCLA's basketball team won't make a run to the Final Four ("Don't say that!" --Atb), and that's just fine because the future looks bright.

That's a switch from last year when UCLA was shut out of the NCAA Tournament after a 14-18 season. And it's a switch from the expectations Ben Howland created when the Bruins went to three consecutive Final Fours from 2006-08 but didn't win a championship.

UCLA rebounded from a horrid season last year by finishing with a 22-10 record and was second in the Pac-10. Think of this year as prep work for bigger things to come. Whatever UCLA does in the tournament - starting with today's game against Michigan State - consider it a bonus.

"It is a good season for us and we did do a lot of good things," said UCLA junior guard Jerime Anderson. "But we didn't make the goals we wanted. We thought our team was good enough to win the Pac-10 and do those things. Of course, coming after last season, it's a good turnaround season. We're above .500, we won 20 games, beat some good teams. We're trying to make some noise this year. We'll worry about next year, next year."

Next year should be good. Even if UCLA loses forward Tyler Honeycutt to the NBA, UCLA has help in the form of the Wear twins, David and Travis, who sat out this season after transferring from North Carolina.

Recruit Norman Powell, who already has signed a letter-of-intent with UCLA, is the third-ranked shooting guard in the West according to Scout.com.

And UCLA has received a commitment from De'End Parker, a 6-foot-5 junior college transfer from City College of San Francisco.

Parker is a tall guard who can play defense.

"Next year, I think you can make a case that if Honeycutt leaves, it would be addition by subtraction," said Tracy Pierson, publisher of bruinreportonline.com. "In my opinion, he didn't have a great year. To me he appeared distracted and didn't play hard all the time and didn't play hard on defense. Ben Howland's system is dependent on athletes who defend.

"With the team being overall more experienced and having this year, being in the tournament, under its belt and being older, I think the team would be better."

The Bruins are such a young team there isn't one senior on the roster. Everything is new for the Bruins, who have a combined 32 minutes of NCAA Tournament experience among them. Freshman center Josh Smith has been plagued by foul troubles this season, but he's so difficult for opponents to defend because he's such a big body.

Imagine Smith next year with another offseason to work on his game and at least one contest against Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament.

He's going through all those rounds of interviews with hordes of reporters and bright lights and big moments and expectations because of the name of the school on his jersey. Of course, if Smith has a great year next year, he could leave early for the NBA. But that's another story.

Next season will be a good one, but Pierson cautions about thinking UCLA is back for good beyond that.

"I'm of the opinion that how well Howland recruits the 2012 class is greatly going to determine his future at UCLA," Pierson said.

"They're a young team right now. If they lose Honeycutt and if Smith has a chance to go pro, and let's say after next year maybe there's a transfer or two, they're going to need an influx of talent.

"They didn't really recruit well in 2011. They did get Norman Powell, but over the last two years, they missed out on a lot of national recruits. Howland, after his three Final Four runs, decided he really wanted to go after national-level prospects, not just guys from the West Coast who were rated highly. He went after guys out of the area. Just to be frank, he's whiffed on all of them."

Howland recruited so many Southern California kids who played his tough-minded defense and are now in the NBA - such as Russell Westbrook and Arron Afflalo - and neither of those players were superstar recruits. Then he had Darren Collison, who stayed all four years, and Kevin Love and Jrue Holiday, who both left after just one year. All of them are having successful NBA careers, and no school sends more players to the NBA than UCLA.

Even if the Bruins lose today ("Don't say that!" --Atb), help is on the way.