UCLA revival: Bruins back in role as a Pac-10 heavyweight

UCLA revival: Bruins back in role as a Pac-10 heavyweight

By David Leon Moore, USA TODAY
Posted 4h 38m ago



LOS ANGELES — Though word of it seems to be leaking out slowly and rather quietly, there is something going on with Ben Howland's UCLA Bruins.

They're back.

Not back in the polls, where they were again missing this week despite crushing then-No. 10 Arizona on Saturday, an impressive performance that was the Bruins' 12th win in their last 14 games, improving them to 21-8 overall and tied with Arizona at 12-4 for first in the much-maligned Pacific-10 Conference.

But they're back where it counts — in the mix for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament if they do not win the Pac-10 tournament next week in the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

"As long as we have the same kind of effort we showed against Arizona," sophomore forward Reeves Nelson says, "we feel we can play with anyone in the country."

Even Kevin O'Neill, coach of archrival Southern California, is lobbying for UCLA — and the Pac-10 — to get more respect.

"To me, they're a top-15, top-16 team," O'Neill says. "I think they've really come along and become a really, really good basketball team."

There are those who agree with O'Neill, including UCLA freshman center Joshua Smith.

"He's a smart man," Smith says of O'Neill.

So UCLA is good in basketball.

And dog bites man.

And Charlie Sheen gives an interview.

What makes the Bruins' surge worthy of notice is that it was just last year when they were pretty terrible (14-18). That was a year after they were merely pretty good (26-9, a first-round NCAA tournament loser). That was a year after they had appeared in their third consecutive Final Four.

A downward spiral appeared to be in full swing.

But Howland, 53, who has never experienced a decline in his program as a college head coach — he built Northern Arizona and Pittsburgh into consistent winners, then left — rolled up his sleeves, convinced his players to do the same, and he and the Bruins have worked themselves back into another postseason picture.

The Bruins are good, big and young, with more talented, big and young players headed their way in the form of twins David and Travis Wear, 6-10 forwards from Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, Calif., who showed considerable promise as freshmen at North Carolina but decided to transfer to UCLA. They will be eligible to play for the Bruins next season.

With the bruising Nelson (6-8, 225), Smith (6-10, 305) and the Wears, the Bruins should be loaded with inside talent next season and possibly beyond.

"Good problem," Howland says with a smile.

Last season, when the talent level arguably reached its lowest point since Howland arrived in 2003 and the Bruins lost to Cal State-Fullerton, Long Beach State and Portland (74-47!), appears now to be nothing more than a painful blip.

"I hope so," Howland says. "The bottom line is, I've got to do a better job at being able to plan for losing multiple players year in and year out to the NBA. It's hard to do, but it is what it is."

Since Howland arrived, he's lost three one-and-dones —Trevor Ariza, Kevin Love and Jrue Holiday. He's also lost two two-and-dones —Jordan Farmar and Russell Westbrook.

Has that caused him to change his recruiting philosophy?

"Not really," he says. "The bottom line is you want to recruit the best players."

If the talent level this season isn't up to the standards of Howland's Final Four teams, it is significantly higher than last year, partly because of the addition of Smith and junior college transfer guard Lazeric Jones but maybe more because of the improvement of last year's nucleus — Nelson, 6-9 sophomore Tyler Honeycutt and 6-5 junior Malcolm Lee.

Nelson has gone from 11.1 points and 5.7 rebounds a game as a freshman to a team-leading 14.0 points and 9.0 rebounds a game.

As a result of doing three-a-days at UCLA in the summer — lifting in the morning, pickup games in the afternoon, shooting in the evening — Nelson entered his sophomore season as nearly a new man: His body fat went from 9.5% to 5.5% and his vertical jump improved to 37 1/2 inches, slightly better than Lee's 37 and just under Honeycutt's 38.

"Last summer, my whole life revolved around basketball and trying to get better," Nelson says. "I feel a lot more bouncy. I think I've improved a lot."

You'll get no argument from Arizona, which surrendered 27 points and 16 rebounds to Nelson on Saturday.

Lee, second on the team with a 13.3 scoring average, has benefited from not having to share the point guard position this season.

"Now he's able to focus more on shooting and being more of an offensive threat as opposed to running the team and distributing the ball," Howland says. "He's also our best perimeter defender."

Honeycutt has made a huge leap as a sophomore, averaging 12.8 points (up from 7.2 as a freshman), 7.4 rebounds and leading the Pac-10 in blocked shots.

"He has really improved his jump shot," Howland says of Honeycutt, who leads the Bruins with 46 three-pointers, including five of six at then-No. 4 Kansas in a Dec. 2 game UCLA lost 77-76.

Three days after that, UCLA hit a low point — a 66-57 home loss to Montana, the Bruins' fourth loss in a row, putting them at 3-4.

They stood at the turning point. They could go back to the losers of last season or get back to work and build brighter days.

"We knew we had a lot to work on, and we did just that," Honeycutt says. "We needed to share the ball. We needed to have trust in each other. We needed to play better defense. And we needed some young guys to mature into leaders."

There has been a lot of joy in Westwood since, and more turning points.

One, Howland says, came Jan. 29 at Arizona State, when, kind of out of nowhere, Smith, the ever-improving freshman center of whom dominance is eventually expected, threw down a highlight-reel dunk on the Sun Devils.

"Since then, he's been really aggressive," Howland says of Smith. "He was the key last weekend. They (Arizona) couldn't match up with him down low.

"Josh is unique. He's very, very skilled, and has size and strength that is second to none.

"And he's huge."