UCLA beats Cal State Northridge 82-56
By | The
Associated Press – Thu, Nov 29, 2012 3:10 AM
EST
via Yahoo!Sports.com
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- An upset loss and the departures of two players in three days marked one of the rockiest weeks in UCLA basketball history.
Coach Ben Howland said he plans to ''coach my tail off'' to help steady the
turbulence surrounding a team that boasted one of the nation's top recruiting
classes this season but lost to Cal Poly and fell out of the Top 25 this
week.
''It's not fun,'' junior Travis Wear said about the program's recent
controversies. ''I'd like to just be able to focus on basketball and not have
these issues occur. We still have a lot of talented pieces. I think we could go
far this year.''
The Bruins bounced back from a 70-68 loss to the Mustangs by routing Cal
State Northridge 82-56 on Wednesday night, hours after center Joshua Smith said he was quitting the team for
undisclosed personal reasons. Last Sunday, the same day the Bruins were beaten,
guard Tyler Lamb said he was leaving over a lack of playing time.
''I was surprised, shocked,'' Howland said about Smith's departure. ''He
talked to me about battling personal issues. He had made up his mind when he
came to meet me this morning.''
Smith averaged 5.2 points and 4.2 rebounds while playing 13.5 minutes a game
in UCLA's six games this season. The junior started 24 of 65 games during his
first two seasons, which were marked by struggles with weight and conditioning.
In an odd bit of timing, Smith was featured on the cover of the game
program.
''Josh can be a really good player,'' Howland said.
Travis Wear said he was surprised to find out
Smith had quit.
''He struggled with his weight a little bit but I think it was a personal
decision he and his family made,'' Wear said, adding that there was no
dissension among the team. ''We have great team chemistry. We all genuinely like
each other.''
Norman Powell added, ''It does hurt the team and what we want to do this
year.''
Howland said Smith didn't talk to him about transferring, while Lamb ''wanted
playing time and he was worried about that.''
With the departures, Howland said he would go with an eight-man rotation,
with junior Sooren Derboghosian and sophomore David Brown as the ninth and 10th
players. Freshman Tony Parker, who sprained his ankle in warm-ups, will get more
minutes, too.
Powell led four players in double figures with 17 points against
Northridge.
Kyle Anderson added a career-high 15 points and Larry Drew II had a
career-high 13 assists for the Bruins (5-2). On Sunday, Powell lost track of the
score and mistakenly committed a late foul that led to two winning free throws
by Cal Poly.
''I know I made a mistake last game and my thing was to forget about it,'' he
said.
Travis Wear scored 14 points and Shabazz Muhammad had 13 points, nine
rebounds and five of UCLA's 16 turnovers in his fourth collegiate game. Howland
started four guards alongside forward Travis Wear to give the Bruins stronger
ball handling and they played zone.
''UCLA's zone threw us off a little bit,'' Northridge coach Bobby Braswell
said. ''We were expecting it, but we didn't expect that they would use it all 40
minutes. We didn't attack it right. UCLA got out and ran and it's a lot easier
to do that from a zone.''
Stephan Hicks scored 11 points and Landon Drew, the younger brother of Larry,
added 10 points to lead Northridge (6-2), which fell to 1-7 against the Bruins
in a series that began in 1992.
The younger Drew said he prepared to play against his brother by reading
about NFL quarterback brothers Eli and Peyton Manning.
''I have the utmost respect for him because he is my older brother, but when
I got on the court there was no holding back,'' Landon Drew said. ''It was
either him or me.''
Northridge never threatened in the second half after trailing 38-24 at
halftime. UCLA opened the second half on a 13-2 run that extended its lead to
51-26. Jordan Adams and Powell hit consecutive 3-pointers while Powell had two
other baskets in the spurt.
The Bruins shot 62 percent from the floor in the second half, and they
outrebounded the Matadors 47-35 and scored 24 points off Northridge's 16
turnovers. UCLA's largest lead was 28 points with 4:26
remaining.
____________________
Rapid Reaction: UCLA 82, Cal State Northridge 56
November, 28, 2012
11:33 PM PT
By Peter Yoon | ESPNLosAngeles.com
LOS ANGELES -- Playing their first game without center Joshua Smith, who announced he was leaving the program earlier in the day, the UCLA Bruins trounced Cal State Northridge Matadors 82-56 on Wednesday night at Pauley Pavilion.
A quick breakdown of the game:
How it happened: The Bruins shook off an embarrassing loss to the Cal Poly Mustangs by playing with an energy and sense of urgency not yet seen this season. UCLA crashed the boards hard, ran with a purpose in transition and played with a defensive intensity that had been lacking all season.
After a back-and-forth first few minutes, UCLA took control midway through the first half and ended it on a 26-10 run to take a 38-24 lead at the midway point. The Bruins opened the second half on a 13-2 run to take a 51-26 lead, then cruised the rest of the way.
Shabazz Muhammad had 13 points and nine rebounds to pace the Bruins. Norman Powell added 17 points and eight rebounds, and Travis Wear posted 14 points and seven rebounds.
UCLA player of the game: Powell scored 10 of his points in the first five minutes of the second half, including two 3-pointers, as the Bruins sent a clear message they had no intentions of relinquishing their lead. He made seven of 14 shots.
Stat of the game: The Bruins used a 2-3 zone most of the game -- the first time they played predominantly zone this season -- and held Northridge to 33 percent shooting, including 19.2 percent (5-of-26) on three pointers.
What it means: Bruins fans can breathe a collective sigh of relief for the moment and hope that the Cal Poly loss was an aberration. The Bruins might have figured out what it means to play hard for an entire game. They still have to show they can do it on a consistent basis, however.
What’s next: UCLA will face the No. 23 San Diego State Aztecs on Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Wooden Classic at the Honda Center in Anaheim.
A quick breakdown of the game:
How it happened: The Bruins shook off an embarrassing loss to the Cal Poly Mustangs by playing with an energy and sense of urgency not yet seen this season. UCLA crashed the boards hard, ran with a purpose in transition and played with a defensive intensity that had been lacking all season.
After a back-and-forth first few minutes, UCLA took control midway through the first half and ended it on a 26-10 run to take a 38-24 lead at the midway point. The Bruins opened the second half on a 13-2 run to take a 51-26 lead, then cruised the rest of the way.
Shabazz Muhammad had 13 points and nine rebounds to pace the Bruins. Norman Powell added 17 points and eight rebounds, and Travis Wear posted 14 points and seven rebounds.
UCLA player of the game: Powell scored 10 of his points in the first five minutes of the second half, including two 3-pointers, as the Bruins sent a clear message they had no intentions of relinquishing their lead. He made seven of 14 shots.
Stat of the game: The Bruins used a 2-3 zone most of the game -- the first time they played predominantly zone this season -- and held Northridge to 33 percent shooting, including 19.2 percent (5-of-26) on three pointers.
What it means: Bruins fans can breathe a collective sigh of relief for the moment and hope that the Cal Poly loss was an aberration. The Bruins might have figured out what it means to play hard for an entire game. They still have to show they can do it on a consistent basis, however.
What’s next: UCLA will face the No. 23 San Diego State Aztecs on Saturday at 7 p.m. in the Wooden Classic at the Honda Center in Anaheim.
__________________
New-look Bruins adjusting on the fly
November, 29, 2012
1:40 AM PT
By Peter Yoon | ESPNLosAngeles.com
LOS ANGELES -- The first game in the post-Joshua Smith era went much better than expected.
The UCLA Bruins did not look at all like a team in turmoil as they trounced the Cal State Northridge Matadors 82-56 on Wednesday night at Pauley Pavilion, just hours after Smith left the team and became the second player in four days to depart the Bruins.
UCLA showed an energy level and intensity that had been conspicuously absent the past couple of games, especially in a shocking loss to the Cal Poly Mustangs on Sunday, and played a new zone defense that proved quite effective throughout the game.
Now the Bruins must answer the question of whether they can do it on a consistent basis and against a higher level of competition. They’ll get the chance Saturday, when they face the No. 23 San Diego State Aztecs in the Wooden Classic at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
Without Smith, navigating the rest of the season might be difficult. Not only is he a force in the low post who was tabbed as an important piece to UCLA’s puzzle this season, his departure -- along with that of Tyler Lamb on Sunday -- leaves UCLA with only eight scholarship players.
Depth figures to become an issue as the season wears on, especially if injuries crop up.
“We’ll miss a big-man presence inside and some experience,” coach Ben Howland said. “Josh had played two years. Those two things are probably the two biggest things. I was surprised. I really was surprised. Shocked. I didn’t think that was going to happen.”
Howland said Smith left because of personal reasons. It could be that Smith simply didn’t have the desire to compete. Watching him and his body language during the past year or so certainly indicated he wasn’t having much fun.
In the short term, Smith’s departure hampers UCLA’s chances of making a run at a conference title or deep into the NCAA tournament. Howland and the players say they still have the ability to do those things, however.
“I think our identity might change a little bit,” forward Travis Wear said. “But we still have a lot of talented pieces and guys who believe we can win games, and I think we can go far this year and do a lot of great things.”
In the big picture, having two players depart in four days indicates a bigger issue, perhaps such as team chemistry issues or even an inability for Howland to connect with his players.
The loss of Smith and Lamb, coupled with the Bruins’ poor play this season, have turned up the heat on Howland’s seat. Athletic director Dan Guerrero can’t be overjoyed with the direction of the program, especially after a turmoil-riddled last season, during which Sports Illustrated painted an unflattering picture of the way Howland was running the program.
Guerrero was not available for comment after the Bruins' win.
UCLA has had 11 players transfer over the past four years and the current roster has no players who have made it through more than 40 games with Howland at the helm. Still, they say there are no issues with the coach.
“I think Ben is the perfect guy for this team,” said freshman Shabazz Muhammad.
Wear said the timing of the recent transfers is merely a coincidence and that he has felt no locker room rifts on the team.
“We have a lot of new pieces and stuff, but as a group we all collectively like each other,” he said. “We hang out together all the time off the court. Tyler and Josh just made personal decisions that they would be better off going elsewhere and starting something else. But our chemistry was fine.
“Our cohesiveness and stuff like that, we all got along.”
Now the Bruins must keep winning the way they did Wednesday. The team played with the type of fire that indicated the light finally turned on about what it takes to win at this level. With a roster filled with four freshmen and a senior transfer in his first season on the team, it was always going to take some time to click.
But the noticeable lack of effort early on was disturbing and unacceptable. The onus is on the players to pick it up, but it starts at the top and Howland is well aware of that.
“We’re going to work extremely hard with the group we have,” Howland said. “I’m going to coach my tail off here to help this team reach its potential.”
The UCLA Bruins did not look at all like a team in turmoil as they trounced the Cal State Northridge Matadors 82-56 on Wednesday night at Pauley Pavilion, just hours after Smith left the team and became the second player in four days to depart the Bruins.
UCLA showed an energy level and intensity that had been conspicuously absent the past couple of games, especially in a shocking loss to the Cal Poly Mustangs on Sunday, and played a new zone defense that proved quite effective throughout the game.
Now the Bruins must answer the question of whether they can do it on a consistent basis and against a higher level of competition. They’ll get the chance Saturday, when they face the No. 23 San Diego State Aztecs in the Wooden Classic at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
Without Smith, navigating the rest of the season might be difficult. Not only is he a force in the low post who was tabbed as an important piece to UCLA’s puzzle this season, his departure -- along with that of Tyler Lamb on Sunday -- leaves UCLA with only eight scholarship players.
Depth figures to become an issue as the season wears on, especially if injuries crop up.
“We’ll miss a big-man presence inside and some experience,” coach Ben Howland said. “Josh had played two years. Those two things are probably the two biggest things. I was surprised. I really was surprised. Shocked. I didn’t think that was going to happen.”
Howland said Smith left because of personal reasons. It could be that Smith simply didn’t have the desire to compete. Watching him and his body language during the past year or so certainly indicated he wasn’t having much fun.
In the short term, Smith’s departure hampers UCLA’s chances of making a run at a conference title or deep into the NCAA tournament. Howland and the players say they still have the ability to do those things, however.
“I think our identity might change a little bit,” forward Travis Wear said. “But we still have a lot of talented pieces and guys who believe we can win games, and I think we can go far this year and do a lot of great things.”
In the big picture, having two players depart in four days indicates a bigger issue, perhaps such as team chemistry issues or even an inability for Howland to connect with his players.
The loss of Smith and Lamb, coupled with the Bruins’ poor play this season, have turned up the heat on Howland’s seat. Athletic director Dan Guerrero can’t be overjoyed with the direction of the program, especially after a turmoil-riddled last season, during which Sports Illustrated painted an unflattering picture of the way Howland was running the program.
Guerrero was not available for comment after the Bruins' win.
UCLA has had 11 players transfer over the past four years and the current roster has no players who have made it through more than 40 games with Howland at the helm. Still, they say there are no issues with the coach.
“I think Ben is the perfect guy for this team,” said freshman Shabazz Muhammad.
Wear said the timing of the recent transfers is merely a coincidence and that he has felt no locker room rifts on the team.
“We have a lot of new pieces and stuff, but as a group we all collectively like each other,” he said. “We hang out together all the time off the court. Tyler and Josh just made personal decisions that they would be better off going elsewhere and starting something else. But our chemistry was fine.
“Our cohesiveness and stuff like that, we all got along.”
Now the Bruins must keep winning the way they did Wednesday. The team played with the type of fire that indicated the light finally turned on about what it takes to win at this level. With a roster filled with four freshmen and a senior transfer in his first season on the team, it was always going to take some time to click.
But the noticeable lack of effort early on was disturbing and unacceptable. The onus is on the players to pick it up, but it starts at the top and Howland is well aware of that.
“We’re going to work extremely hard with the group we have,” Howland said. “I’m going to coach my tail off here to help this team reach its potential.”
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