UCLA trying to regain the winning formula

Southeast Region
#7 UCLA Bruins (22-10) vs #10 Michigan State Spartans (19-14)
Thursday, March 17
6:20 pm PDT
TV: TBS

UCLA's Joshua Smith (34) is congratulated by teammates Reeves Nelson, left, Malcolm Lee, second from right, and Lazeric Jones, right, after dunking the ball and drawing a foul during a game in February. After having a winning month, the Bruins have limped into the NCAAs, having lost two out of their last three games.AP PHOTO+SEP+REGISTER ILLUSTRATION

UCLA trying to regain the winning formula
BY SCOTT M. REID
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Published: March 13, 2011
Updated: March 14, 2011 9:25 a.m.


LOS ANGELES – So which UCLA will show up against Final Four regular Michigan State in the 2011 NCAA Tournament's Southeast Region's second round Thursday in Tampa?

The Bruins who buried No. 10 Arizona?

Or the UCLA that was embarrassed by Oregon in the Pac-10 Tournament?

The UCLA that knocked off national player of the year favorite Jimmer Fredette and No. 16 Brigham Young? Or the Bruins who laid down and home to Montana?

Or both?

The Bruins, the No. 7 seed in the Southeast, are a team with a split personality, unpredictable (some would say unreliable) not only from game-to-game but from time-out to time-out.

"And if we don't play like we should," Bruin guard Jerime Anderson said, "we're going to get blown out in the (NCAA) tournament."

And there should be no small amount concern about an early exit given the way the Bruins have started March.

Flaws that were overlooked in UCLA's climb to the top of the Pac-10 standings have been magnified in three poor performances heading into the NCAA Tournament. A late meltdown in a 70-63 loss at Washington March 3, a close call in overtime two days later against a Washington State team playing without Klay Thompson, the Pac-10's leading scorer, and Reggie Moore, another starting guard, and last Thursday's humiliating upset (a 76-59 loss to Oregon in the Pac-10 Tournament) have exposed holes in the Bruin defense and the weakness of their perimeter shooting.

Even more alarming in UCLA's so far maddening March has been the inability of a young Bruin team to focus at key points of games or at all in the case of the Oregon debacle.

"It's embarrassing," Bruin forward Tyler Honeycutt said adding "and it couldn't have come at a worse time."

Having won 12 of 14 games, including a 71-49 blow out of No. 10 Arizona Feb. 29, UCLA entered the final week of the regular season tied for the Pac-10 lead and with a chance to play its way into a No. 5 or No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament.

"I was really excited about the momentum we had built late in the year coming into (the Pac-10) tournament," UCLA coach Ben Howland said. "Now it will be a true test of our character how this team bounces back."

But the Bruins ignored wake up calls in Seattle and Pullman before sleepwalking through a disaster against Oregon that might have been the worst performance by a UCLA team in the Howland era.

Up four at Washington with 5:55 remaining, UCLA goes the next 4:50 without making a field goal, a drought compounded by the Bruins inability to stop, or at times even locate, Husky freshman C.J.Wilcox.

"No one knew who had him," Bruin center Joshua Smith said.

Wilcox finished with a career-high 24 points, all of them scored in the second half of a 70-63 Husky victory that essentially ended UCLA's hopes of a Pac-10 regular season title.

Even with Washington State playing without Thompson, suspended after being arrested for marijuana possession, and the injured Moore, UCLA still needed Malcolm Lee to hit a pair of free throws with 8.9 seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime and four more Lee foul shots in the final 6.9 before finally prevailing 58-54.

"I think we did come out a little lackadaisical, nonchalant and it showed," UCLA guard Anderson said.

And it continued to show against Oregon in the Pac-10 Tournament. "We just came out with a lack of intensity," UCLA guard Malcolm Lee said. "This has happened before and we knew we weren't going to be able to do this in the tournament and we did this is the tournament." No where was that lack of intensity more evident than when the Bruins were hit with a technical foul for having six men on the court.

"That was just embarrassing," Howland said. "That right there was indicative of the night."

It was also emblematic of how the Bruins have stumbled unfocused through the stretch run and raises questions about whether a group with only two players with NCAA Tournament experience, Lee and Anderson, will suddenly be able to flip the switch against Michigan State that is coming off back-to-back Final Four appearances.

"This team's had a very good year," Howland said "and I don't want to go out with a sour taste in my mouth with the end of this year."