Rapid Reaction: UCLA 59, Washington 57
February, 7, 2013
FEB 7
8:41
PM PT
By Peter Yoon | ESPNLosAngeles.com
LOS ANGELES -- Larry Drew II made a 15-foot jump shot at the final buzzer to give UCLA a 59-57 victory over Washington Thursday night at Pauley Pavilion. It ended a two-game losing streak for the Bruins.
Here's a quick recap:
How it happened: The game was tight all the way, with neither team taking a lead of more than six points, so to have it come down to a game winner was no surprise.
Washington tied the score at 57-57 on a driving shot by C.J. Wilcox with 10 seconds to play. UCLA had a timeout left, but did not use it. Drew, the point guard, took the in-bounds pass, dribbled the ball up the court, broke out to the left wing and swished the game winner as the final horn sounded.
Washington's 36-32 lead with 16:44 to play was the largest lead for the Huskies in the second half. Shabazz Muhammad made a 3-pointer to cut Washington's lead to 36-35 with 16:16 to play, and neither team led by more than two points until Jordan Adams scored on a fast break to give UCLA a 47-43 lead with 7:06 remaining.
The Bruins extended their lead to 49-43, the largest lead of the game for either team, butAbdul Gaddy made a pair of 3-pointers down the stretch to tighten things back up.
Muhammad had a game-high 22 points on 8-of-23 shooting and added eight rebounds. Wilcox had 15 points for the Huskies and Aziz N'Diaye had 11 points and a career-high 18 rebounds.
Player of the game: Drew's game winner trumps Muhammad's point total. Drew had nine points on an efficient 4-of-7 shooting. The game winner was his third of the season, adding Washington to a list of victims that includes UC Irvine and Utah.
Stat of the game: The Bruins shot a season-low 33.3 percent (22-of-66) and were outrebounded 46-36, yet won the game. It is the third consecutive game the Bruins have shot below 40 percent, and the third consecutive game they have been outrebounded -- but the first of those three they have won.
What it means: The Bruins keep their Pac-12 title hopes alive, but their rebounding and shooting woes the past few games are a major concern.
What’s next: UCLA plays Washington State on Saturday at 7 p.m. PT at Pauley Pavilion. Washington heads across town to play USC on Saturday at 7.
Here's a quick recap:
How it happened: The game was tight all the way, with neither team taking a lead of more than six points, so to have it come down to a game winner was no surprise.
Washington tied the score at 57-57 on a driving shot by C.J. Wilcox with 10 seconds to play. UCLA had a timeout left, but did not use it. Drew, the point guard, took the in-bounds pass, dribbled the ball up the court, broke out to the left wing and swished the game winner as the final horn sounded.
Washington's 36-32 lead with 16:44 to play was the largest lead for the Huskies in the second half. Shabazz Muhammad made a 3-pointer to cut Washington's lead to 36-35 with 16:16 to play, and neither team led by more than two points until Jordan Adams scored on a fast break to give UCLA a 47-43 lead with 7:06 remaining.
The Bruins extended their lead to 49-43, the largest lead of the game for either team, butAbdul Gaddy made a pair of 3-pointers down the stretch to tighten things back up.
Muhammad had a game-high 22 points on 8-of-23 shooting and added eight rebounds. Wilcox had 15 points for the Huskies and Aziz N'Diaye had 11 points and a career-high 18 rebounds.
Player of the game: Drew's game winner trumps Muhammad's point total. Drew had nine points on an efficient 4-of-7 shooting. The game winner was his third of the season, adding Washington to a list of victims that includes UC Irvine and Utah.
Stat of the game: The Bruins shot a season-low 33.3 percent (22-of-66) and were outrebounded 46-36, yet won the game. It is the third consecutive game the Bruins have shot below 40 percent, and the third consecutive game they have been outrebounded -- but the first of those three they have won.
What it means: The Bruins keep their Pac-12 title hopes alive, but their rebounding and shooting woes the past few games are a major concern.
What’s next: UCLA plays Washington State on Saturday at 7 p.m. PT at Pauley Pavilion. Washington heads across town to play USC on Saturday at 7.
Drew's game winner can't mask UCLA's issues
February, 7, 2013
FEB 7
10:48
PM PT
By Peter Yoon | ESPNLosAngeles.com
LOS ANGELES -- Yes, Larry Drew II can shoot.
After two weeks of seeing opponents sag off of him and daring him to beat them, Drew did exactly that.
His jump shot from just outside the left elbow swished through the net as the final horn sounded and lifted UCLA to a 59-57 victory over the Washington Huskies Thursday night at Pauley Pavilion.
He calmly stroked the shot in a high-pressure situation and did so for all the world to see. The game was televised by ESPN, and his shot was sure to make the nightly top 10 plays. That clip ought to make its way around to future opponents, who have recently stayed away from Drew like he was a playground kid with chicken pox.
And this wasn’t Drew’s first time winning a game for UCLA. His driving layup with 17 seconds left in overtime gave the Bruins an 80-79 victory on Nov. 13, and another drive to the hoop with nine seconds left sealed a 57-53 victory at Utah.
But Thursday was the first time Drew hit the winner in such dramatic fashion, and it was also the first time he did so with a jump shot instead of a drive -- something opponents in recent games did not believe he could do based on the way they hadn't been guarding him on the perimeter.
“I definitely feel like I can put the ball in the basket when I need to,” Drew said. “But with a team like this we have so many horses and so many guys I can give up the ball to to fill up the basket. I feel like my playmaking ability for others is equally -- if not better -- than my ability to put the ball in the basket myself.
“That’s the type of player I am. I’m a pass-first point guard. Old school if you want to call it that, but at the end of the day I just want to do whatever it takes to get my team the [win].”
Thursday it took a jumper. Drew took the inbounds pass with about 10 seconds to playafter Washington’s C.J. Wilcox made a layup to tie the score at 57. Drew dribbled up the court, cut out to the left wing, elevated and made a smooth stroke.
“Obviously, I knew I had enough time to get to the basket or create a shot for myself or one of my teammates,” Drew said. “I think the defense pretty much dictated it. My eyes were on the rim, and I just found an opening and I have confidence in my jumper and it went in.”
Thank goodness for that. The basket put a merciful end to an ugly display of basketball and added some excitement to what otherwise was a snoozer of a game. UCLA shot a season-low 33.3 percent (22 of 66) and had more shot attempts than points.
Washington had 19 turnovers -- the most by a UCLA opponent this season -- and missed its first 13 3-point shots before Abdul Gaddy made two in the final five minutes. At halftime, the teams had combined for almost as many turnovers (21) as made baskets (22).
Winning ugly is better than losing, but the Bruins have been playing ugly for a while now. They have shot 34.7, 38.2 and 33.3 percent in their past three games and have been outrebounded, 143-105, in those games.
Two of those three have been losses to Arizona State, a decent team, and USC, a team with a losing record. Thursday’s win was UCLA’s first since Jan. 31 and first at home since Jan. 23. Winning is always good, but playing poorly on national television is not going to win over anyone on the NCAA tournament selection and seeding committee.
“We have plenty of wins on our résumé that are important for us,” said forward Shabazz Muhammad. “We definitely need another win where its solid and just to build off of our chemistry. The SC loss was so bad, and coming here with an ugly win -- we’ll take it, but we definitely need to look for a really solid win.”
Muhammad might look in the mirror to help the cause. Yes, he is a dynamic scorer, and his defensive effort is improving, but the rest of his stat line leaves a lot to be desired. He’s averaging five rebounds a game (tied for third on the team), has only 13 steals (seventh on the team) and one blocked shot (10th on the team).
Yet the most glaring stat in his line is 17 assists in 20 games. Thursday was his eighth game with zero assists, and he’s had only three games this season with more than one. Opponents are clearly planning to stop Muhammad, but he keeps firing away even over double-teams, and is averaging 18 shots a game over the past four games. Once the ball is in his hands, it’s going up no matter how many of his teammates are open or how poor the shot selection is.
And Thursday he showed that when the ball isn’t in his hands, he will pout. As Drew dribbled the ball during the 10 seconds before hitting the game winner, Muhammad curled up to the top of the key and adamantly clapped his hands and stomped his feet calling for the ball.
After Drew’s shot went in, most UCLA players dog-piled on top, but Muhammad casually walked past the pile with the look of a lover scorned, not even bothering to glance at the proceedings.
“Oh yeah, I wanted the ball,” said Muhammad, who had a game-high 22 points but took 23 shots and had zero assists. “But Larry is such an aggressive player, and as soon as the ball went up I knew it was going to be good.
“Everybody was on him and attacking him and I knew Larry was going to have something broken or some scratches, so I was going to wait until he gets up to congratulate him. That was a big-time shot and we’re all so happy that we won the game.”
That’s because Larry Drew II can shoot. And thank goodness for that.
A month when the Bruins must seize the day
Forget the frenzy of postseason play in March. UCLA must make it February Madness to make next month relative, and possibly save Ben Howland's job as coach.
By Bill Plaschke
February 7, 2013, 11:10 p.m.
February Madness. Larry Drew II dribbles to his left, throws up a jumper, it drops down just as the backboard lights up, glowing red, dancing blue, swish, buzzer, game.
February Madness. Pauley Pavilion is half full but roaring loud, fans bouncing in a giant mob, Drew disappearing into a mass of teammates, new month, last gasp.
February Madness. It once carried Ben Howland's UCLA teams to three consecutive Final Fours. It must now save his job.
The Bruins won their first game of their coach's most historically revealing month Thursday with a 59-57 victory over Washington on Drew's chaos-causing buzzer beater.
They won even though Bill Walton was questioning them on television, Washington was obliterating them on the boards, and many of their own students were abandoning them, with empty seats that could have been filled for this 6 p.m. start by simply walking across campus.
And, oh yeah, even more amazing than any of that, they won with Drew taking the final shot on a final possession in which Howland did not use his final timeout.
"This is perseverance," said Howland, and he knows this month is going to require exactly that, every game, if his Bruins have any chance to dance before he disappears.
February is when Howland's players, having endured several months of his tough love, traditionally either buy in or check out. February is when Howland's grip either empowers or suffocates.
During Howland's three Final Four seasons, his teams went 18-4 in February. During their most recent two seasons in which they didn't make the tournament, they were 8-8 in February.
In 2006, February is when Jordan Farmar and Arron Afflalo learned to play together, the Bruins once outscoring three consecutive opponents in the second half by 66 points combined.
In 2007, February is when Darren Collison first discovered himself while leading the Bruins over three ranked teams.
In 2008, February is when Russell Westbook went 22 of 35 in a three-game stretch while Kevin Love brought the Bruins back on to the national stage with a double-double in a 22-point win over Arizona.
"February is huge, we're coming down to the wire here," said Howland, and that wire is a tightrope.
The Bruins have five games left his month and probably need to win four of them to reach 22 wins and ensure themselves a spot in the tournament before embarking on the dangers of March.
That might be enough to keep Howland employed here, but who knows? Some fans probably hope it is not. Some fans, much like those who once cheered against Steve Lavin, hope the Bruins lose now so they can benefit from a coaching change later.
If Thursday's victory was any indication, Bruins players aren't among those. A week after a demoralizing loss to USC that could have ended their season, they lost the rebounding battle by 10 and shot a season-low 33%, but goodness, they played hard.
Shabazz Muhammad sank just eight of 23 shots but he was flying everywhere, stealing rebounds and winning 50-50 balls and finally starting to talk the Southern California talk.
"We've got some good karma," he said.
Drew, the team's only senior, not only had the game-winner, but a giant midcourt steal moments earlier that led to a Muhammad dunk.
"It just shows if you just stick with it, keep playing as hard as you can, have some heart, good things can happen at the end of the day," said Drew.
They are still badly undermanned inside, with the Josh Smith defection increasingly becoming as giant as the player himself. They still don't play consistent team defense — just moments before Drew's decisive shot, the Huskies' C.J. Wilcox drove past two Bruins for an open layup to tie it.
Make no mistake, with Kyle Anderson unable to score and twins David and Travis Wear unable to dominate and Tony Parker still unable to get off the bench, UCLA is still an underachieving team with a coach on tenuous footing.
But it's February ,and they are 1-0, and for one night, new Pauley felt like old Pauley, despair being momentarily benched by hope.
"They're going to doubt us and say we can't play with anybody, but we
know we can," said Muhammad.
It's February, and now maybe everyone will find out.
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