Cal Ends UCLA's Season
Cal defeated UCLA by thirteen points, and with Washington's win over Stanford, the two conference powerhouses will face off in the Pac-10 championship game tomorrow afternoon at Staples Center.
5 months ago
Joey Kaufman
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FOR ALL BBBBBBBBBB NNNNNNNNNNN ers
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Get use to it
LA Sports is what keep me off the streets and out of trouble, thanks to all the teams Rams, Dodgers, Lakers, USC sports and the Love of Tennis.
by so.cal.native1952 on Mar 13, 2010 7:22 AM PST reply actions
I would have to say they will lose M. Lee and Honeycunt to either pros or transfer, so it doesn't look great for them.
Josh Smith the kid coming in is really about 6-8 1/2 and a fat 325, this kid will never make the NBA. He should start playing Football now and could be a jumbo lineman, way to think for basketball. Tyler H. has to be disappointed in playing at fucla no tournament, no organization on offense, no gain in his game. It’s not a pretty sight over at Woodie arena now a days, I would think kids are going to by pass ucla now. Heck maybe they can hire that government paid Blogger to coach the team, but I don’t know he might set a technical foul record. Hey look at it this way they would be great bloggers and internet host, of course the whole team would be under 5-7.
LA Sports is what keep me off the streets and out of trouble, thanks to all the teams Rams, Dodgers, Lakers, USC sports and the Love of Tennis.
by so.cal.native1952 on Mar 13, 2010 9:09 AM PST up reply actions
Well I just read where Moser and BoBO are transferring out, they will have nobody they will suck totally.
LA Sports is what keep me off the streets and out of trouble, thanks to all the teams Rams, Dodgers, Lakers, USC sports and the Love of Tennis.
by so.cal.native1952 on Mar 13, 2010 9:34 AM PST up reply actions
I just read this and I think I said earlier about Ben just being another victim of Woodenidous
Yeah … there is really pressure at UCLA
All we were expecting this year was for Howland to have a winning season (lowering from pre-season expectation of 17-18 win regular season). Yeah, we are really unreasonable. If Howland tries to even think about attacking us that way … either directly or indirectly … we will go nuclear.
LA Sports is what keep me off the streets and out of trouble, thanks to all the teams Rams, Dodgers, Lakers, USC sports and the Love of Tennis.
by so.cal.native1952 on Mar 13, 2010 9:44 AM PST reply actions
With the parity in college basketball these days
You would think that bruin fans would understand that a championship game and 2 final fours is pretty damn good considering players are jumping for the NBA after 1 or 2 seasons. Its hard to be consistent when your team is a revolving door of players. Sometimes the talent is there, and sometimes its overrated.
It's all Ben Howland's fault
He’s just as bad as the anti-Christ (i.e. Steve Lavin). No wonder they had so much trouble all season – they were just outcoached. I knew they’d have so much trouble this year, since CBH would coach them out of the games. He’s such a bad, awful coach. He’s clearly not in the mold of a Rick Neuheisel, who is going to lead UCLA football to the promise land. Only if CBH was as good as CRN. Then, the Bruins could truly realize their greatness! hehe
--Conquest Chronicles, SBNation's USC Trojans blog
by Joey Kaufman on Mar 13, 2010 12:32 PM PST reply actions 3 recs
Well, we do understand parity
and that ‘s why nobody (yes NOBODY) expects UCLA to win 88 in a row, or 7 straight NCAA titles, not even Nestor & Co. Those of us who attended UCLA post-Wooden (in my case, the Hazzard years) have dramatically lower expectations. Howland has received some criticism this year-as he did when we lost to Memphis in the FF-and some of it is merited. Nobody expects perfection, but winning seasons are a baseline minimum for a program like ours. Can’t produce that, you cannot expect to go uncriticized. Howland knows thisand it would be true at any top-flight program. As far as I’m concerned, Howland is a great coach who ran into a lot of problems this year, not all of his own devising. His coaching to some extent helped exacerbate an already bad situation in some places-could have gone zone earlier in the season when it became obvious that our man D wouldn’t work, should have let Dragovich ride the pine and put the kids in earlier, etc. But just because he erred in some ways doesn’t mean he should be canned-I don’t imagine that anyone is looking to see Williams out at Carolina or Calhoun at
UConn. Donovan has hardly brought Florida back to prominence after his kids left.
Next year UCLA will be fine. If we can get just adequate PG play we will be a contender for the Pac-10 title. Contrary to SoCalnative’s fondest hopes, Honeycutt isn’t leaving and while it’s possible Lee could be as dumb as Davon Jefferson and leave with all the flaws in his game still to be worked on, my guess is that he returns. A nucleus of Honeycutt, Reeves Nelson and Malcolm Lee at the 3-4-2, plus the addition by subtraction of Dragovich and the addition of Zeke Jones, Tyler Lamb and Smith, UCLA will be good-I don’t know how good, but we will be back in the tournament. BTW, Smith looks like a fat load because he hurt himself playing football this year and wasn’t able to work out-his coach said that he is currently at about 70% of normal and obviously his conditioning tok a beating. Of course, I remember when Love came into UCLA-and people said the same thing. Smith’s not another Kevin Love, but he’ll be far, far better than BoBo Morgan, who isa major part of what I firmly believe is the single biggest problem ailing UCLA-an incredibly overrated 2008 recruiting class (also includes Jerime Anderson) that was loaded with tools and head cases.
Not too sure about those examples
NC is a .500 team and more importantly they do have some quality wins. On top of that didn’t he just win a NC, that usually gets you some slack. UConn has a winning record and they too have some very good wins. UCLA on the other hand just has some really bad losses. There really is no excuse for a team filled with HS AAs to have played so poorly in a down year for the conference.
by ev on Mar 13, 2010 1:06 PM PST up reply actions
I'm not suggesting that UCLA's cruddy season was equivalent
I cited those examples because they come at the hands of two coaches with NC credentials (unlike Howland) who both have rosters even more loaded (at least on paper) than that of UCLA. And you are also forgetting that while UCLA had no quality non-conference wins, they did knock off Cal, Washington and ASU-the Pac-10’s top 3. We also didn’t have Honeycutt until at least halfway through the year because of injury, Gordon left the team and our leading senior and player is a role player from Orange County. As I said, our biggest problem is with a 2008 recruiting class that was overrated and loaded with head cases.
Look, none of what I had to say was offered up as an excuse-didn’t you see where I wrote that Howland deserved criticism for some of this stuff? But not all of it was his fault. Either way, the guy is a great coach and should stay. If Roy Williams can finish dead last in the ACC with his roster, and Calhoun and Donovan can fail as they have, then I see no reason why it’s inconceivable that UCLA can have an awful year. It sucks to have one, but there it is. As long as this is an aberration, and not a trend, I can stomach it-barely.
Again, not too sure about those examples
USC swept UW, crushed ASU and beat Cal, and the Trojans sucked. The difference is the Pac10 was down this year, way down. To have done so badly in this conference is much different than in the ACC where half of the conference has more than 20 wins. While bad, NC didn’t come in dead last, they tied for 9th. I’m sure UCLA will do better next season, but there sure does seem to be something else wrong than a few personal issues.
by ev on Mar 13, 2010 8:41 PM PST up reply actions
Pick the nit
you’re right: Carolina finished in a three-way tie for next to last. My error. But Carolina was a pre-season Top 10 pick-UCLA sure wasn’t. So even though UCLA has been worse than Carolina, the expectations weren’t as great, either.
That was all on reputation from last season...
Just like FB the polls should wait 4-8 weeks into the season before they make their first poll…
"Mention USC to a Bruin and they get angry; mention UCLA to a Trojan and they laugh."
Concur although pre-season rankings also depend
on who the coach is and also projections based on returning talent and new recruits. For Carolina, I doubt anyone would disagree that Williams in one of the top 5 coaches in the NCAA, but Carolina’s fall demonstrates quite clearly just what can happen when a team loses 3-4 starters, the returning talent doesn’t measure up to what left and the new recruits don’t work out as well as hoped. Carolina’s returning starters were also highly rated and thir recruiting class was consensus top 5 IIRC.
UCLA had the same issues as Carolina-we lost four starters, including two 1st-round draft picks, and we replaced Collison and Holiday at the point with truly awful PG play from Jerime Anderson and Malcolm Lee. We also didn’t have Honeycutt for about half the season because he wasn’t back from the broken back vertebrae and the stress reaction in his leg. If Honeycutt had played the whole season and Anderson played even average as PG (like he did in the loss to Cal in the Pac-10 tournament) I think UCLA probably wins 18-20 games and is a bubble team for the NCAA. If those things had happened AND Howland went to a zone earlier when it became apparent we couldn’t play solid man D I think we win 20 and are a probable lock for the NCAA.
Not sure if I accept the premise of your suggestion
which presupposes something to forgive. Nevertheless, if he wins 20 next year and we’re in the tournament, it lends credence to the idea that this season was an aberration and that Howland is still a premier coach.
As for forgiveness, when Wooden won in 1975 he was supposedly told that it made up for 1974. I don’t know if “forgiving” a proven coach whose kids do well and whose program has had great success overall is necessary after a season like this one. What is necessary is to show us that this season was an aberration. Don’t need a NC, although it would be nice; don’t need a Pac-10 title, although that would be nice, too. Just need to show that this season was that proverbial “perfect storm” of poor recruiting decisions, occasional coaching mistakes and a lack of talent at the PG position. And it can be shown with a return to an “average” UCLA season: around or better than 20 wins and a return to the tournament.
Next season sure will be one to watch.
Howland might not be on the hot seat yet, but it doesn’t take long to warm that sucker up at UCLA.
by ev on Mar 14, 2010 4:02 PM PDT up reply actions
I agree with that suggestion
If he puts up another craptastic season like the last one he will be on the hot seat. My question is always, who would be better?
I'm pretty mad about the season...seemed very Toledo-y to me
but I also have a hard time believing Ben will screw this up again. Not too many guys today can get to 3 FF in a row. Ben did.
If BN is thinking what I’m thinking, I’m more infuriated with how Ben Howland ended up with a losing seasons. Specifically, there was no reason to play Nicola. I never do this, but I turned off almost every game I watched because he was so aweful. Just terrible. No offensive skills and aweful defense. The reasoning to play him is even more glaring in light of Nicola’s 2 arrests.
I can’t pretend like I know more than Ben Howland. I respect him so much that I’m compelled to believe that there was some reason that I can’t think of that compelled him to play Nicola. For the life of me, after so much thought, I just can’t figure out what that reason or what those reasons are. It is beyond perplexing.
I respect Ben
I have no respect for Ricky. Ben is all class. Ricky is no class. Plus, Ben has proven his manhood. Ricky is all bark and no bite.
Wolf reported that Pete Carroll thought Neuheisel was a sham of a coach
Which I took as meaning he didn’t have the chops to run a program. People might disagree with this because of his early success at Colorado and Washington, but both of those programs went downhill in years 3 and 4. He has some good recruits now. The big question is whether or not he can coach them up. So far my jury is still out, but there isn’t any real sign of life just yet coming from Westwood. This is Neuheisel’s “show me what you got” season. If he puts up 7 wins this year, nestornation is going to blow a gasket.
Where was that reported?
I s that a direct quote?
Would love to read that….
"Mention USC to a Bruin and they get angry; mention UCLA to a Trojan and they laugh."
Doesn't mean much
Wasn’t like Carroll saw all that much success before going to USC. Maybe RN will find consistent success at UCLA. We’ll find out by 2011.
It's beyond that.
He was arrested 2 times. I don’t care if the back up was a golden retriever. Play the retriever over someone with that type of record. But to your point, I have a REALLY hard time believing someone could stink more than Nicola. He was pretty awful at times.
Toledo was way better than Weasel
STILL LOCO AFTER ALL THESE YEARS!
CELEBRATING THE DAWN OF THE AGE OF AUGUSTUS
M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIVM·FECIT
We'll See
Toledo played in a vacuum…no USC next door to challenge us for a while. RN is coaching under much different circumstances. I like him though. Met him a couple times. Seems very nice.
When I met Neuheisel he was a kind of a jerk
Ran into him the other day. All I did was ask him for tips on how to fill out my bracket this year, and he told me to go F- myself.
WOW!
Really??
Classy guy…
"Mention USC to a Bruin and they get angry; mention UCLA to a Trojan and they laugh."
Nice
LA Sports is what keep me off the streets and out of trouble, thanks to all the teams Rams, Dodgers, Lakers, USC sports and the Love of Tennis.
by so.cal.native1952 on Mar 16, 2010 8:59 AM PDT up reply actions
For once I agree with Mushroom
That Dragovic guy is a waste of a schollie. Can’t believe he got 30+ minutes every game this year!
Well lets just shed some tears for BN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc69zr_5uH4
LA Sports is what keep me off the streets and out of trouble, thanks to all the teams Rams, Dodgers, Lakers, USC sports and the Love of Tennis.
by so.cal.native1952 on Mar 16, 2010 9:27 AM PDT reply actions
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