Whicker: Bitter ending for Muhammad ... and Howland?
Published: March 22, 2013 Updated: March 23, 2013 4:38 p.m.
AUSTIN, TEXAS – For Steve Lavin it essentially ended the day Dan Guerrero was hired as athletic director.
For Jim Harrick it ended with a dinner at Monty's, involving the Collins twins.
UCLA coach Ben Howland hugs Larry Drew II as he comes out of the game in the closing minutes of Friday's NCAA Tournament loss to Minnesota.
GEORGE BRIDGES, MCT
For Walt Hazzard it ended when Chancellor Charles Young angrily witnessed a spiritless Pac-10 Tournament loss to Washington State.
Friday night Ben Howland buttoned his sport coat with a minute left in an eyesore loss to Minnesota, standing in front of his bench as usual, removing senior Larry Drew II from the game and hugging him, coaching to the end.
Shortly we will learn if he will frequent that UCLA bench again.
We already are pretty sure Shabazz Muhammad's drop-in season is over; it adjourned when the Las Vegas freshman watched a layup roll off the rim, a tick before the buzzer sounded in UCLA's 83-63 loss to Minnesota, its most decisive of the season.
It has the feel of a flawed construction project that needs to be scrubbed, or a well-dug hole that needs no more shoveling.
It was supposed to be better, before all the transfers and injuries and assembled weight on the rooftop.
The Bruins have won one NCAA Tournament game since 2008. At this school, 38 years after John Wooden's farewell, the only shining moment remains a championship.
Excuses were available. Jordan Adams is UCLA's best all-around player and he broke his foot last weekend. With the skeleton crew, UCLA did not need a strictly officiated game, but it got one, with 38 total fouls, and Travis Wear drawing three in the first half.
"We missed Jordan's scoring," Muhammad said. "We made a lot of turnovers, and their bigs got downcourt and hurt us on transition, and we couldn't really do much about it. I tried to pick up the scoring but it wasn't enough."
It certainly wasn't. Muhammad got his first field goal with 18:39 left. In the game. He salvaged his stat line at the end, with 20 points and 10 trips to the foul line, but he missed 12 of 18 shots and all six from deep range.
Muhammad also had one assist, giving him 27 for the year. That would rank third in the National Hockey League, behind Sidney Crosby and Martin St. Louis.
Muhammad's eligibility was delayed, and a sprained ankle also restrained him early. He was valuable, but no objective judge could say that Muhammad ranks high on the list of Howland's best players over the years at UCLA.
Maybe the NBA will allow him to catch up to the hype.
"I'm going to talk with my parents about it," he said, referring to his pro decision. "I don't know when I'll decide."
He was also serenaded with "Happy Birthday" by the Minnesota band, possibly because a newspaper story on Friday revealed that Shabazz is actually 20 years old, not the listed 19.
"I've always told people I'm 20," he said, with slight irritation. "I haven't read any of that stuff. I don't know why that makes any difference to anybody. I'm still one of the youngest players in college basketball."
Do the players expect Howland to be dismissed?
"I can't speak on that," Muhammad said. "He's a great coach. I think he did a good job and I think we had a great season."
That opinion will not be shared throughout the Bruins community, but Howland was still spinning furiously, past midnight.
"Our conference got a bad rap," he said. "I think Cal, Oregon and Arizona are going to the Final 16. We won the conference, with all those great players and great teams.
"We played great against Arizona last week (in the Pac-12 semifinal). Then Jordan gets hurt on the last play in the game. I think that's the reason we're here instead of being sent to Salt Lake City."
As if that made any difference – the Bruins were matched up against an ice-cold team that had been cuffed around in Big Ten play and had not reached 80 points in 14 of its 15 previous games. The Gophers did not have that problem Friday, hitting 9 of 16 3-pointers and shooting 50.8 percent, its best showing since Jan. 29.
Drew, who transferred from North Carolina and revitalized his career, needed to play flawlessly and went 1 for 7 with five turnovers. He and the rest of the Bruins were paralyzed by the Gophers' zone.
Kyle Anderson, who is thought to be returning for his sophomore year, demonstrated why he should with a 2-for-11 night and four turnovers.
Tony Parker was a force in the middle until the fouls got him, and why Howland didn't nurture him more will be one of the hanging questions.
Guerrero didn't want to deal with the biggest question. "Tough game," he said, speaking for all those who were forced to watch it.
Contact the writer: mwhicker@ocregister.com. Follow on Twitter: MWhickerOCR
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