[uknationParticipant]

Vandy beat Oregon. Watch a little bit of this game and liked  a little bit of what i saw out of Oregon playing against a better Vandy team that was missing their big man. They got blown out but Woods looked pretty good. Jabari didn’t play as well as i thought he would though.

 

Stanford beat Central Ark.  Only watched 7-10min of this game and i must say they looked pretty good. later i realized they were beating a team that only won 5 games last year so i got a little more skeptical. They have 8 players who can drop 10 or more points but i didn’t get to see the Powell kid because he was hurt (NBA prospect from what i hear). The Chasson Randle kid is the truth though

 

 

UCLA loses to Loyola M. UGLY is all i can really say. Loyola finished 11-21 last season and lost their leading scorer but still beat UCLA who was ranked #20 by 11. They didn’t look like they had anyone who could score more than 15 maybe because lack of talent maybe because of the offense either way they should have scored more than 58 points against a team as bad as Loyola.  The Wear twins looked pretty good. Should be a good 4th 5th option on a very good team. Nelson didn’t lead like i though he should have and J.Smith was just terrible. So much talent but so lazy (i say this because he put on 10pounds during the summer when he knows he needs to lose weight and it wasn’t muscle). Only early in the season so they have room to improve.

 

Cal beat UC Irvine

Good lord that Crabb kid is good, conference player of the year good. Love the hustle of the Spanish guard with the hair and like the potential of the long Solomon kid.

Arizona st won as well as Colorado and USC. didn’t watch any of those game but they did what they were supposed to do and that’s beat lower level opponents to help let people Known the Pac-12 is a better conference than people think

[Sasha4MVPParticipant]

 I was at the UCLA game.  They were absolutely terrible.  They played with no urgency.  They deserved to lose that game.  If they keep playing like this, it’s gonna be a long year.

[llperez]

Ucla was awful. Lazaric jones was garbage and they couldn’t buy a jumper. Nelson was the only guy playing well.the bruins barely went inside to smith at all. Hopefully jerime Andersen coming back changes some things and this game wakes them up. Give credit to loyola as well. They were a very athletic team and were draining all their open threes.

[uknationParticipant]

Pg play might be a issue this and next year

[llperez]

Well they have the number 1 pg in the nation coming in plus Larry drew to play backup so hopefully pg will be fine

[JNixonParticipant]

 UCLA doesn’t have a single true jump shooter on the team and that did worry me earlier when I was doing my projections, but I didn’t think that would show its head until the NCAA tourny or maybe like the Pac-12 slate. But the perimeter attack has to come together for them. Jones has never shown to be spectacular, and Lamb, Anderson and those guys haven’t either, but I thought they would go from the inside out, to work the ball into a deep frontline. Josh Smith being out of shape doesn’t help, but it’s not surprising that he’s out of shape. Coach HJowland spoke on that over the summer, and he’s not exactly a guy I would expect to just up and lose 30-50 pounds in the matter of a few months. Their guys have to step up

[llperez]

As for Josh smith, I read all summe as well about how out of a shape he was. But he is clearly in better shape then he was last year. Much more toned body. He had some nice defensive plays blocking some shots and dived on the floor for one of his 3 steals. Still not in anywhere near the shape u want but much better then last year. The bruins just never gave him the ball. The perimeter shooting though is so bad the bigs are gonna get doubled constantly.

[providencefriars1Participant]

College basketball is won with good guards. Teams in college can use 3 or even 4 at once, but no team can use 4 bigs at once. That’s UCLA’s problem, they cant play their 4 best guys at once, Wear(x2), Nelson, and Smith. This team could go far next year with Kyle Anderson running the point and Wear(x2) and Smith at the 3,4, and 5.

[uknationParticipant]

Kyle Anderson can’t guard a PG though. They better hope Bazz comes because if the Wears is one of the 4 best guys on that team they won’t be going too far. Good role players but my guess is UCLA fans want final 4 and beyond

[scoutguruParticipant]

Damn. Tough loss for UCLA. When is Jerime Andersen returning though llperez? Although he’s unspectacular as well, I just think Lazaric is not good at all man. Jerime makes better decisions in the half court and will probably be their best and only capable perimeter shooter based on some solid games I seen him play last year, in addition to the added year experience. I think they should start Jones, Andersen, Lamb, Wear, and Nelson.  Then Smith coming in off the bench for whomever Howland sees fit based on the flow or who’s not playing well etc…

[Sasha4MVPParticipant]

Argh it just makes me so upset that Honeycutt and Lee left.  

Clearly, Tyler Lamb just doesn’t have it.  His ball handling is atrocious.  When Zeke was out of the game, he was forced to play point guard and just looked so uncomfortable with the ball.  Likewise, he would come off screens and be wide open, but not look to shoot.  It wasn’t until he realized that he was wide open, then decided to shoot.  He needs to be looking to attack more.  

As for Josh Smith, it was a mix of poor entry passes and poor post position.  The guards would try to lob the ball into Smith but the defender kept coming over the top and would deflect it to force a turnover.  Smith didn’t help himself by getting lazy position.  He needs to seal his defender.

Zeke and Reeves looked really uninspired throughout the game.  Zeke’s body language made it seem as if he didn’t even want to be there.  He would casually push the ball up the court when UCLA had numbers on the break.  When Howland took Reeves out, Reeves would put his arms in the air, seemingly shocked that he was being taken out.  Maybe there is some underlying tension between them, I don’t know.  I think both of these players will be fine as the season progresses.

UCLA lacks two major things: shooters and athletes.  Zeke has proven that he can make it from long range, but other than him I think UCLA’s best shooters are the Wear twins.  Neither of our primary shooting guards, Lamb and Powell, have been known to be good long range shooters, in high school or college.  Their inability to hit the three allowed LMU to collapse more on defense and focus on UCLA’s inside game.  As for UCLA’s athleticism, I don’t think they had one dunk the entire game against LMU.  In addition, UCLA does not have many quick players on their team.  Their lack of athleticism limits the amount of easy baskets for the Bruins.  It’s just a terrible situation for UCLA.  They had to work incredibly hard or rely on 1 on 1 basketball to get their points.  Oh yeah, I forgot.  The playcalling was absolutely terrible.  Zeke would have the ball in his hands for like 20 seconds and they’d be trying to call a play but nobody knew what was going on.  Josh Smith looked really confused out there.  

As critical as I am on UCLA, I still have high expectations for them.  They just need to learn how to take advantage of their size.  If Smith can establish the low post game, then things will open up nicely.  I think for UCLA to win the Pac-12 and advance to at least the Sweet 16, one of their wings, Lamb, Powell, or Parker, need to step up and provide balance to their offense.  

 

 

[Sasha4MVPParticipant]

 Looks like there is some tension between Nelson and Howland after all.

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncb/story/_/id/7235670/source-ucla-coach-ben-howland-reeves-nelson-meet-attitude-issues

[Sasha4MVPParticipant]

 Looks like there is some tension between Nelson and Howland after all.

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncb/story/_/id/7235670/source-ucla-coach-ben-howland-reeves-nelson-meet-attitude-issues

[HaleParticipant]

 Not sure where else to put this…can Tony Wroten learn how to make FT’s? He gets there at an awesome rate but 8/22 as a guard?

[uknationParticipant]

Anyone watching Fresno St vs Stanford?  This is agood game

[HaleParticipant]

 Josh Huestis for CPOY.

[uknationParticipant]

Aaron bright on that team is nice. And that guard from Fresno st

[uknationParticipant]

Pac-12 just might be deeper/better than i first thought

[Author]

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