UCLA’s Last Hope: Three Wins in Three Days
UCLA needs to win the Pac-10 tournament to get a Big Dance invite. Don't bet on it
It’s been a hard season to watch UCLA basketball. Not just the disappointing 13-17 record — everyone knew going in this was expected to be a down year — but because of how they got there. Slow, uninspired play with a dreary offense most nights. An offense that has players complaining about it as much as fans.
Maybe it’s best to just put this season out of its misery.
But sports fans are bred with hope, the belief things can turn around in a New York minute. And so UCLA fans come into the Pac-10 Tournament today wanting to believe. Knowing that three wins in three days to get the team an NCAA invite is not likely, but hoping.
UCLA takes on Arizona at noon today at Staples Center in the first game of the Pac-10 men’s basketball tournament for both teams. The winner advances to face Cal — the only Pac-10 team that legitimately belongs in the Big Dance. Get past them and there will be one more game on Saturday.
But the Bruins need to get past Thursday first. UCLA lost ugly both times they faced the Wildcats this season. But then again UCLA has racked up a lot of ugly losses this season — Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, Butler, to name a few. There were big losses to, such as to Kansas and Notre Dame.
For UCLA to have any chance they are going to have to get a big game out of senior Michael Roll. The sharpshooter is hitting 42% from three and will need to be hot for UCLA to make a run. Same with another senior, Mikola Dragovic, the guy who was supposed to be the inside to Roll’s outside.
But UCLA’s offense and its dreary nature has been the problem — not only on the court but off it. Current players have expressed frustration with it, including the family of Tyler Honeycutt in the Los Angeles Times today. Players feel stifled. NBAers Jrue Holiday (now playing well in Philadelphia) and Aaron Afflalo, among others, have said coach Ben Howland’s system is too restrictive.
It worked for a while, when NBA talent like the Lakers Jordan Farmar or the Thunder’s Russell Westbrook were making it work, and defending hard to get the wins. But the word that it was no fun to play for Howland reached the top recruits and they started to go elsewhere. UCLA is not attracting the talent needed to get back to the Final Four year after year.
Winning could fix that. Three wins in three days in the Pac-10 tournament would be a start. There is always that hope.
Kurt Helin lives in Los Angeles and is the managing editor of NBC's NBA blog Pro Basketball Talk (which you can also follow in twitter).
