The State of UCLA Basketball

So here we are…

With 12 games left in the season, including one against a very beatable Utah Utes team tonight at the Sports Arena, UCLA’s basketball team is at a sort of crossroads.

This was a team with high hopes and expactaions, being ranked 17th in the preseason top-25 and chosen by most of the pundits to win the Pac-12 Conference, but…

Let’s put it like this: BleacherReport.com, in a recent article, stated that these Bruins are the most disappointing team in college basketball this year – and I’m sure that there are many folks who feel similarly.

With their record currently at 10-9 and a mediocre 3-4 in the Pac-12, and after having lost their last two games on the road versus Oregon State and Oregon, I have to concur with them.

It’s not my intention to point fingers or to single out scapegoats, but in my view the number one reason why coach Ben Howland’s team is where they are is the underachievements of two players that were being counted on and were the main reasons why UCLA was expected to do so well: center Joshua Smith and forward Reeves Nelson.

As everyone knows, Nelson is no longer on the team, having been dismissed by Howland after the loss to Texas last month due to his general bad attitude, which contributed to his bad play on the court.

One can say that the best thing that the Bruins did this season was to get rid of the 6′ 8″ forward, who was an all Pac-10 player last year and was on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s college basketball preview issue.

No one thought that Nelson would be currently playing on a Lithuanian team when the year began, but that’s how it stands as he was a cancer that had to be removed.

As for Smith, everybody had high hopes for him, but it’s safe to say that he has regressed as his scoring and rebounding averages have dropped; although he says that he’s in better shape than he was last year, he would be so much more dominant if he dropped 15 to 20 pounds to get more mobility.

On the bright side, point guard Lazeric Jones and the Wear twins, Travis and David, have been the most consistent players in Westwood as Jones leads UCLA in scoring with 13.5 points per game, as well as assists, while Travis is sceond on the team at 12.1 points a contest, with David the team’s leading rebounder with 6.4 boards.

Many fans on the UCLA blog sites, particularly on Bruin Report Online, are calling for Howland’s dismissal due to his being seemingly inflexible in his coaching style and philosophy; in a recent Los Angeles Times article, former Bruin guard Darrin Collison compared Howland’s coaching to eating vegetables before the NBA’s “dessert” – one may not like it at first, but appreciates it later on.

While that approach is good for players in the long run, it hasn’t helped the coach in retaining players as guys like UNLV’s Mike Moser and Chase Stanback left UCLA after feeling straitjacketed by Howland and have flourished elsewhere.

Do I think that Howland should be fired?

I’m honestly not sure, and I don’t think that athletic director Dan Guerrero will let him go, but if he is to be fired because of the Bruins’ underachievments – this would be the second time in three years that UCLA has missed the NCAA tournament if they are not chosen – it should be done after this season so the Bruins can move into the new Pauley Pavilion (currently under revovation) with a fresh new start.

Many are saying that in order for UCLA to make the Big Dance in March, they have to win the Pac-12 Tournament.

While anything can happen, at this point I don’t think they will, which leaves the Bruins at that crossroads that was mentioned before.

To sum up, I suppose there’s nothing more to do but to see whether or not this team can step up and play the kind of basketball that was expected of them back in November.