UCLA's Howland deserves one more chance to recover reins
By MARK WHICKER
COLUMNIST
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
It's what John Madden said.
Discipline is not screaming, yelling, chair-throwing. Discipline is not pressed slacks and cuff links.
"On third down and short yardage, the Raiders don't jump offside. That's discipline – not a coat and tie, not a clean shave."
What Sports Illustrated's critique of UCLA basketball tells us is that Ben Howland lost his discipline.
His center, Joshua Smith, is too fat to play basketball, yet he is allowed to stay fat and play basketball.
His former power forward, Reeves Nelson, was a menace and a miscreant who embarrassed his university, and yet Howland let Nelson injure teammates and mock John Wooden's legacy before he finally fired him.
It is a methodical account of UCLA basketball that, to some extent, could have been written about any of 320 programs
It did not accuse UCLA of recruiting violations or academic fraud.
College basketball players use drugs and drink. Not unanimously, but universally.
Players develop jealousies, get unhappy about their roles and sometimes attack each other. That is not uncommon either.
And coaches make recruiting mistakes, as Howland has admitted on multiple occasions.
But when coaches fail to practice what they preach, they lose teams. Howland is fairly close to entering land of the Different Direction, and, and losing his program.
Athletic Director Dan Guerrero, on Wednesday, repeatedly stopped short of saying Howland would coach the Bruins in 2012-13, when four of the top six scorers return, to be joined by transfer Larry Drew II and touted freshmen Kyle Anderson and Jordan Adams.
Howland proved himself by visiting Final Fours in his third, fourth and fifth years. But UCLA is on track to miss the NCAA tournament field for the second time in three years, and that field is bigger and more inviting than it ever has been. Steve Lavin got the Bruins into the big tent every year except for his final one.
Howland has had "a lot of pluses as well as a lot of issues," Guerrero said. "There have been mistakes in evaluating character and talent."
What Sports Illustrated noted, and what has been obvious, is that Howland went for quick fixes when Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, Luc Mbah a Moute, Jrue Holiday and Darren Collison left within a two-year span.
The trouble began with the recruiting class that included Nelson, the departed Drew Gordon and J'Mison Morgan, and point guard Jerime Anderson, who is still there.
People on the scene said the freshmen didn't respect the Bruins veterans, like Collison and Michael Roll. They wanted immediate minutes. The tattoo-littered Nelson, with his sunken-eyed stare, was lionized for his "toughness," by we in the local media and also by SI, which put Nelson on its cover.
We're not allowed inside Howland's practices, in order to keep us from hearing Howland's rants, or seeing Nelson take head shots at Matt Carlino, who had suffered a concussion and was then known to Nelson as "Concussion Boy."
But not until Nelson was laughing on UCLA's bench, during a loss to Texas, did Howland cut his cord.
Even when Nelson blew a flight to Maui – how is anybody ever late for a flight to Maui? – Howland drew a faint line in the sand by benching him for the first half against Chaminade. Then, when it appeared UCLA would lose to the Division II club, Howland put Nelson in, and the Bruins won.
It followed that UCLA played softer basketball. The Final Four teams would rise in the final two minutes to handle any situation. What the '06 team did to Gonzaga, in the West regional semifinal, was incredible. "Somebody tell me how we won that one," assistant coach Donny Daniels said, laughing.
Now, nobody has to tell the Bruins how they lost. They don't guard, they buckle on the road, and their big man obviously thinks a StairMaster has a third rail.
Howland acknowledged mistakes Wednesday but cited his own "body of work," which must have amused Lavin to no end. The body of work decomposes every year at UCLA, as Gene Bartow and Larry Brown and even John Wooden all knew.
But now that UCLA has tried to cleanse itself, Howland should be allowed one more shot.
The old song-and-dance about Howland's cumbersome style of play gets exposed by the number of essential NBA players he has produced, including three point guards on playoff-bound teams. Michigan State plays Studebaker basketball and nobody complains there.
Howland will greet a gleaming Pauley Pavilion re-do, and he will take aim at the same dingy Pac-12 Conference.
How will we know that the old has become new? We will know next November, by the way the jersey hangs – or pops – on Joshua Smith.
Discipline is not screaming, yelling, chair-throwing. Discipline is not pressed slacks and cuff links.
"Discipline is knowing what you're supposed to do and doing it as best you can," Madden wrote in "Hey, Wait A Minute!"
What Sports Illustrated's critique of UCLA basketball tells us is that Ben Howland lost his discipline.
His center, Joshua Smith, is too fat to play basketball, yet he is allowed to stay fat and play basketball.
His former power forward, Reeves Nelson, was a menace and a miscreant who embarrassed his university, and yet Howland let Nelson injure teammates and mock John Wooden's legacy before he finally fired him.
It is a methodical account of UCLA basketball that, to some extent, could have been written about any of 320 programs
It did not accuse UCLA of recruiting violations or academic fraud.
College basketball players use drugs and drink. Not unanimously, but universally.
Players develop jealousies, get unhappy about their roles and sometimes attack each other. That is not uncommon either.
And coaches make recruiting mistakes, as Howland has admitted on multiple occasions.
But when coaches fail to practice what they preach, they lose teams. Howland is fairly close to entering land of the Different Direction, and, and losing his program.
Athletic Director Dan Guerrero, on Wednesday, repeatedly stopped short of saying Howland would coach the Bruins in 2012-13, when four of the top six scorers return, to be joined by transfer Larry Drew II and touted freshmen Kyle Anderson and Jordan Adams.
Howland proved himself by visiting Final Fours in his third, fourth and fifth years. But UCLA is on track to miss the NCAA tournament field for the second time in three years, and that field is bigger and more inviting than it ever has been. Steve Lavin got the Bruins into the big tent every year except for his final one.
Howland has had "a lot of pluses as well as a lot of issues," Guerrero said. "There have been mistakes in evaluating character and talent."
What Sports Illustrated noted, and what has been obvious, is that Howland went for quick fixes when Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, Luc Mbah a Moute, Jrue Holiday and Darren Collison left within a two-year span.
The trouble began with the recruiting class that included Nelson, the departed Drew Gordon and J'Mison Morgan, and point guard Jerime Anderson, who is still there.
People on the scene said the freshmen didn't respect the Bruins veterans, like Collison and Michael Roll. They wanted immediate minutes. The tattoo-littered Nelson, with his sunken-eyed stare, was lionized for his "toughness," by we in the local media and also by SI, which put Nelson on its cover.
We're not allowed inside Howland's practices, in order to keep us from hearing Howland's rants, or seeing Nelson take head shots at Matt Carlino, who had suffered a concussion and was then known to Nelson as "Concussion Boy."
But not until Nelson was laughing on UCLA's bench, during a loss to Texas, did Howland cut his cord.
Even when Nelson blew a flight to Maui – how is anybody ever late for a flight to Maui? – Howland drew a faint line in the sand by benching him for the first half against Chaminade. Then, when it appeared UCLA would lose to the Division II club, Howland put Nelson in, and the Bruins won.
It followed that UCLA played softer basketball. The Final Four teams would rise in the final two minutes to handle any situation. What the '06 team did to Gonzaga, in the West regional semifinal, was incredible. "Somebody tell me how we won that one," assistant coach Donny Daniels said, laughing.
Now, nobody has to tell the Bruins how they lost. They don't guard, they buckle on the road, and their big man obviously thinks a StairMaster has a third rail.
Howland acknowledged mistakes Wednesday but cited his own "body of work," which must have amused Lavin to no end. The body of work decomposes every year at UCLA, as Gene Bartow and Larry Brown and even John Wooden all knew.
But now that UCLA has tried to cleanse itself, Howland should be allowed one more shot.
The old song-and-dance about Howland's cumbersome style of play gets exposed by the number of essential NBA players he has produced, including three point guards on playoff-bound teams. Michigan State plays Studebaker basketball and nobody complains there.
Howland will greet a gleaming Pauley Pavilion re-do, and he will take aim at the same dingy Pac-12 Conference.
How will we know that the old has become new? We will know next November, by the way the jersey hangs – or pops – on Joshua Smith.
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