SHANGHAI — The baggage claim area at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport offered just
enough room for Tyus Edney to conduct a quick basketball clinic.
The UCLA
assistant was trying to show players why they had been called for traveling
during an exhibition the previous night in Beijing.
Under international
rules, he explained, officials won't let you take a first step without
dribbling.
Adams
had been called for traveling no fewer than three times against Tsinghua
University.
"Look," Edney told him, demonstrating the move amid travelers
already curious about the towering Americans in their midst. "You've got to
dribble right away."
With the Bruins scheduled to play Shanghai Jiao Tong
University on Monday night — their second exhibition in a three-game swing
through China — adjusting to a different set of rules has been a minor but
occasionally annoying problem.
A wider lane keeps big men farther from
the basket. The 24-second clock speeds things up and players can inbound a dead
ball immediately.
The definition of goaltending is looser too, allowing
defenders to swat the ball directly off the rim.
Though Coach Ben Howland
mentioned these nuances to his team, he chose not to focus on them for the sake
of three games against opponents that UCLA could probably defeat under any set
of rules.
On Sunday, with his
team coming off a night game and catching a two-hour flight the next morning,
Howland decided to cancel a scheduled afternoon practice.
The coach
preferred that his players hang around their downtown hotel for a few hours
before heading out for dinner and a nighttime boat cruise on the Huangpu River.
That way they might be better rested for the game Monday.
Shanghai Jiao
Tong ranks among China's elite universities and has one of the world's best
engineering schools. It also has something of a basketball tradition.
The
men's team has competed on the international scene for years, winning Asian
tournaments along the way. The women's program has been equally
successful.
Still, the college game in China remains largely undeveloped,
with most top athletes funneled into the sports academy system when they are
young. The best prospects end up playing for the national team instead of
enrolling at a university.
As evidenced by the 116-68 victory over
Tsinghua on Saturday, UCLA's greatest concern this week could be those pesky
rules.
Even as the bigger, faster Bruins ran past their opponents for
easy baskets, they grew frustrated by traveling calls. At one point, Adams
looked at the bench and raised his hands in the air, bewildered as to why the
official had blown the whistle on him yet again.
"I wasn't mad," he said.
"I just didn't know."
The former Bruins star
is famous for the 4.8-second dash he made against Missouri in the second round
of the 1995 NCAA tournament, a game-winning basket that propelled his team to a
national championship.
After several years in the NBA, he played for
almost a decade overseas, making stops in Italy and Greece among other
countries. It took him awhile to adjust.
Now serving as UCLA's director
of basketball operations, he seized the opportunity to educate several of the
Bruins while they waited for their luggage in Shanghai.
He showed them
how to use jump stops and crossover moves as an alternate way to start toward
the basket. It was an abbreviated demonstration, given the crowds of people
standing around.
"International
rules can make a big difference," he said. "You've just got to figure it
out."
SHANGHAI — Workmen scurried onto the court just before tipoff. A stanchion
had broken loose from one of the baskets, and the nets were slipping off both
rims.
It was hardly an encouraging sight for Jordan Adams, a UCLA
freshman who was eager for the start of his team's exhibition game against
Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
"I was like, 'Can we hurry up and get this
thing going?'" Adams recalled.
By the time Monday night's game finally
started — an hour late — the Bruins had come to expect the unexpected during
their weeklong swing through China.
When they arrived Thursday, their
practice court in Beijing desperately needed mopping. The locker room for their
first game, at Tsinghua University, was actually a conference room with padded
chairs and a long wooden table.
There have been schedule delays and a
minor bus accident over the last few days. When they finally started playing at
SJTU, the game clock kept skipping ahead.
"It helps us deal with
adversity," Coach Ben Howland said. "We're just rolling with it."
Adams
certainly adjusted, scoring five of the Bruins' first seven baskets in a 72-31
victory. His game-high 20 points made up for a disappointing debut against
Tsinghua several nights earlier.
"My first college game wasn't so good,"
he said. "I didn't want to have another bad one."
Once again, UCLA
rebounded and ran the court at will against an opponent not skilled or quick
enough to keep pace. Sophomore guard Norman Powell scored 13 points and forward
Travis Wear had 12.
The outcome was all but decided with a 12-0 run in
the final minutes of the second quarter, a string of fastbreak baskets
contributing to a 44-14 halftime lead.
"I'm just really pleased with the
way we shared the ball," Howland said. "It even got to the point where we were
over-passing."
The coach has remained relatively calm through all the
glitches, somewhat surprising for a man who — to say the least — likes things
orderly.
He might have reacted differently if this were a trip to the
Oregon schools in the middle of the conference season. But here in China, where
basketball is wildly popular, the college game is still
developing.
Officials with the Federation of University Sports of China
have been eager to make a show of UCLA's visit, giving speeches and arranging
for cultural performances before each game.
When the Bruins showed up at
SJTU, a police car with flashing lights led the team bus across a vast campus
where colorful banners hung on either side of the road.
"You can see this
is important to them," Howland said. "And the fans have been
great."
After two games against university teams, the Bruins will face
the Shanghai Sharks — a professional club co-owned by former Houston Rockets
star Yao Ming — on Tuesday.
With a history dating to the early 1950s, the
Sharks won China's national championship in 2001-02 and reached the semifinals
of the Chinese Basketball Assn. playoffs two seasons ago.
Against UCLA,
they could be somewhat depleted, playing without several Americans and Chinese
national team members normally on their roster. Still, the matchup should be
tougher.
"They've got size and length and they can execute," Howland
said. "They're well-coached."
The game will be played at Shanghai
Yuanshen Sports Center. Another pregame show is on the schedule and another
boisterous crowd is expected to attend.
Beyond that, the Bruins have no
idea what to expect.
david.wharton@latimes.com
twitter.com/LATimesWharton
_________________
UCLA basketball players take home something valuable from China
In challenge from pro team the Shanghai Sharks, the Bruins show they can
turn key stops into fastbreak points in last game abroad. More important,
veterans and newcomers bond during weeklong trip.
By David Wharton
D' Los Angeles Times
8:45 PM PDT, August 28, 2012
SHANGHAI — Less than six minutes remained as the UCLA players huddled on the
sideline.
For the first time since arriving in China, they were locked in
something resembling a real game, their lead dwindling against a team of
professionals called the Shanghai Sharks.
With the crowd growing louder
and the public address system pumping rock music, Coach Ben Howland hollered at
his players about defense.
"Let's finish this," he said.
Over the
next few minutes, the Bruins turned key stops into fastbreak points, running
away with a 92-63 victory at Yuanshen Sports Center. In the process, they
concluded what players and coaches called a valuable one-week swing through
China.
"I think we know a little bit more of how we can play together and
what we are capable of when we play a whole team effort on defense," guard Tyler
Lamb said. "These three games helped us to see where we stand."
If
nothing else, after two relatively easy victories against college teams in
Beijing and Shanghai, Tuesday night's matchup provided something of a gut
check.
The Sharks came into this game without their two best players,
guard Liu Wei and former California center Max Zhang. Their coach was gone too,
off shopping for the two American players that Chinese Basketball Assn.
franchises are allowed to carry on their rosters during the
season.
"Right now, we're working with the guys who will be our role
players," said Shanghai assistant coach Rory White, a former Clipper.
But
those role players showed discipline, physical defense and an ability to knock
down three-point shots, keeping their team in the game for most of the
night.
With former Houston Rockets star Yao Ming watching from the stands
— he is a part-owner — the Sharks pulled within seven points in the second
half.
That's when the Bruins turned to a formula they hope will carry
them through the coming season, using their athleticism to make stops and push
the ball upcourt.
"As soon as we started locking up on defense, we got
easy buckets in transition," forward Travis Wear said. "It just started clicking
for us."
Wear led all scorers with 26 points. Freshman Kyle Anderson
continued to impress with 21 points and 11 rebounds.
"I definitely
learned you've got to play hard every possession," he said of his week abroad.
"Every time you're out there, you've got to give it your all."
Coaches
and players talked about their adventure in terms that extended beyond
basketball statistics. The long plane flight and unusual food, the hotel rooms
and all-day sightseeing tours — much of it was fun, some was
not.
"Everything's a part of that, even the stuff you don't like," Wear
said. "As long as you're going through it together, it all helps."
The
experience could be significant for a roster that blends returning veterans with
a highly touted incoming class that figures to contribute
immediately.
Though freshman Shabazz Muhammad had to stay home while the
NCAA continues to investigate whether he received improper benefits while in
high school, Anderson, Jordan Adams and the injured Tony Parker had plenty of
time to bond with their new team.
As for Howland, he was happy with the
Bruins' play and relieved to survive the trip — and an extra 10 practices the
NCAA allows for teams that play internationally in the preseason — without
injury.
"You always worry about that," he said. "Last year, USC lost one
of their best players down in Brazil."
The coach was so pleased that he
let his players and assistants go to a nightclub after the game, everyone waking
up a little bleary-eyed for buses that departed for the airport early the next
morning.
The Bruins will get a few weeks to rest before the start of
individual workouts and then practices beginning in the fall. They feel as if
they have a head start on the season.
"This whole thing was huge for us,"
Wear said. "We feel like we already know ourselves as a team."
david.wharton@latimes.com
twitter.com/LATimesWharton
