Repetition Key to Shipp's Shooting Improvement
By KS Wong
Bruin Basketball Report
At UCLA's weekly media conference, Coach Ben Howland commented on junior Josh Shipp's recent shooting woes and took some responsibility for it.
"I'm really confident Josh is going to get it going again," Howland said. "Some of his shooting problems is due to my poor coaching. He wasn't doing enough repetitions and shooting is all about repetition. I had him come in this morning and today he made 200 out of 285 shots."
Coach Howland stated part of the reason he doesn't normally work on shooting more often at practices, especially late in the season, is out of concern of wearing player's legs out, especially for starters who have logged major minutes this season.
"We didn’t practice yesterday. Our guys lifted and did some biking and that’s always good to try and get two days off, especially this time of year," Howland said.
Moreover, he felt perhaps Luc Richard Mbah a Moute may had inadvertently benefited from the rest he got from being injured the past two weeks.
"The long season takes a lot out of you and your body takes a physical pounding," Howland said. "I thought Luc benefited from being out 13 days with his injury, he seems to have gotten his legs back."
Howland was unhappy with the team's foul shooting performance against Oregon over the weekend, the Bruins made only 9 of 18 from the line for 50% - although he did state this year's team has been one of his best foul shooting teams. In conference play, the Bruins are making 76.2% of their foul shots. Howland said free throw shooting would certainly be a focus in practice.
Earlier this week, Nikola Dragovic strained a groin muscle and did not practice yesterday. Coach Howland was uncertain if Dragovic would practice tomorrow. His status for Thursday's game against Arizona State is unknown.
Coach Howland was impressed with the play of Lorenzo Mata-Real last week against both Oregon schools, and definitely forsees playing Mata-Real and Love together on the floor for some minutes, especially against bigger lineups such as in upcoming games against California and Stanford.
(photo credit: AP)
Labels: Team Misc News
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8 comments
8 Comments:
I have said all year to put Mata and Love in at the same time. That limits teams to play more on the perimeter where Collison and Westbrook can shut them down. Our defensive weakness is teams giving the ball to whoever Shipp is guarding. They take Shipp off of the dribble and drive for easy points. With Mata and Love in the lane they need to think twice about driving in.
Mata has improved tremendously since his freshman season. He is money from 10 feet and in. He can shoot a baby J with both his left and right and he can take it in strong for a dunk when needed. I have notice that he keeps the ball up above the shoulders, which he used to not do in the past. He used to bring it down and get ripped on a regular basis. With Mata on the floor that adds another scorer on the low blocks.
I think we should all get down and BOOGIE!
Its a tough decision to play them together. I agree it will improve our defense. Mata's defensive presense is stifling. I think the issue with playing them both is on the offensive end. When we are able to isolate K Love down low we get baskets and with Mata in the mix it will be easy for other teams to double down.
@Bruin 2005
Well I have been hoping for Mata and Love in lineup at same time for a long time now. From what you said, I do not see a problem as we just have Mata on the weakside. If his man doubles down on Love, he cuts to basket and get dunks.
UCLAs Defense is lacking consistent ball stops and slow on rotation now and then. I also notice a lot of back cuts working against Bruins the last few games. Shipp just needs to realize that the best outside game is the mid range ones. Those are the most deadly and a lot of players arent good at those nowadays. My post in the this weeks Bruins recruiting also stated this.
Too many players focus on either driving to the hoops or shooting 3s. The art of driving and popping up to shoot a mid range shot is a dying breed.
Ben's got a way of making the team focus come March. I just hope he can continue to do so.
Stay positive Bruin fans. The Bruins are not perfect, but neither are the other top teams in the nation....Tennessee, Memphis, UNC, Kansas, Texas, Duke, Georgetown, Louisville, Wisconsin, Stanford, et. al. Remember that "defense wins championships" and although the Bruins again are not perfect, no one plays better defense than they do! UCLA has as good or better of a chance as anyone to win it all. It's all gonna get down to what team gets hot, gets lucky, and does not suffer an important injury.
did anybody notice that K-love looked really under the weather vs. Oregon? whats that all about?
we got one first place vote in the AP! the guy that voted us 1 said we've got the best starting five in college hoops. he said "Tennessee doesnt have a Kevin Love." then i watched them lose to Vandy.
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