UCLA Gets Defensive With DePaul For Win In Wooden Classic
By Bruin Basketball Report
At the 15th Annual John R. Wooden Classic on Saturday afternoon, the Bruins turned to what has gotten them to three consecutive Final Fours under Coach Ben Howland - defense!
UCLA held DePaul to just 19 points on 38.1% shooting in the first half on its way to an easy 72-54 victory.
The Bruins used their overall speed and talent advantage to pressure the Blue Demons into bad and hurried shots and turnovers.
UCLA went on a 22-8 run to end the opening half to take a commanding 35-19 lead into the locker room and the game never got any closer than 13 points the rest of the way.
Josh Shipp and Jrue Holiday each had 14 points while Nikola Dragovic tacked on 10 off the bench to pace the Bruin offensive attack.
With DePaul playing a rather soft zone defense most of the time, UCLA did a good job moving the ball around and attacking the zone for easy baskets throughout the game.
The team had 19 assists in the contest led by Darren Collison's 6 assists and Holiday's 5 hand-outs.
The Bruins shot 55.2% for the game despite only hitting on 3 of 17 from beyond the arc.
UCLA dominated the boards by outrebounding the Blue Demons 35-25 including 12 offensive boards leading to extra scoring opportunities. They had 12 more shot attempts than DePaul.
The Blue Demons started the game with their top scorer on the bench. Dar Tucker was benched as a result of disciplinary action by the coaching staff. He ended up playing 25 minutes and shot a horrific 3 of 13 from the field.
The win was UCLA Head Coach Ben Howland's 300th career victory which included years at Northern Arizona and Pittsburgh. His career mark now stands at 300-146.
Former UCLA Coach John Wooden watched the game from a private box and was recognized by the crowd with a long heart-felt standing ovation. He later appeared on the court to present UCLA with a trophy from the tournament.
Freshman walk-on Tyler Trepani, Wooden's great-grandson, played his first minutes of the season when he was inserted late in the game. He missed his only shot attempt, a three-pointer.
No. 14/16 ranked UCLA improved its overall record to 6-2. They return to Pauley Pavilion to play Loyola Marymount on Wednesday night.
(photo credit: AP)
BBR :: Article Link :: 3:03 PM ::
24 comments
24 Comments:
Good game! Whay does Bobo Morgan play so few minutes?
Is that a championship trophy that Roll is holding up? Did St. Mary's get one for defeating San Diego State?
Is that a championship trophy that Roll is holding up? Did St. Mary's get one for defeating San Diego State?
Nice to win, but I'm surprised BBR didn't mention the following stats:
Shipp: 0-4 from three-point land
Team FTs: 10
Team FT %: 50%
These are all terrible.
Perhaps we had only 10 FT because DePaul was so slow they couldn't catch us to foul.
True, his FTs need work, but Gordon is a great rebounder.
Coach will figure out what to do about Josh.
wow, Holiday:
14 pts, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 blk, 2 steals
that's a complete line -- he was the best player on the floor this game.
wow, Holiday:
14 pts, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 blk, 2 steals
that's a complete line -- he was the best player on the floor this game.
wow, Holiday:
14 pts, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 blk, 2 steals
that's a complete line -- he was the best player on the floor this game.
Nice to see The Wizard's grandson get in the game. Class act by Howland as usual!!!
We have 3 cream puffs, 1 semi-formible, and two underachieving PAC-10 opponents before we head into the Galen Center in January. We had better use these games to tighten up, perfect our game and not get too overconfident!
This schedule will do nothing for our power ranking but would kill us if we lose one of these:
*Loyola Marymount 0-9. Enuff said!
*Mercer 11-18 last year, 6-3 this year but I can't give credit to a team that loses to someone like East Tennessee St.
*Wyoming 7-1 and 1st in the WAC. They might provide some competition but again they are in the WAC.
*Louisiana Tech 5-4 with losses to teams like Alaska-Anchorage and Western Carolina???
*Oregon State 2-5. We play them there but they are probably the PAC-10 cellar-dwellers.
*Oregon 4-5. Thought this would be a battle and MacArthur Court is always tough to play in, but Ducks have been a bust this year losing to teams like Oakland and San Diego at home no less...
We better not look past these teams but also need to not feel complacent racking up these victories going into the USC game!
For the sake of UCLA sanctity, we CANNOT lose to the Trojans this year, either game!!! Everyone with me on that?
Alan,
Such an important post you had to get it in 3 times?
Looking at the box (we couldn't even see the game on TV up toward the northern part of the state,) I see that Holliday also had 4 turnovers. Collison, on the other hand had 10 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, a block and a steal, and ZERO TURNOVERS!
Let's make them co-MVP's for the game.
We were forced to go to San Jose to see an amazing womens game where Oklahoma trailed Cal 52-26 at the half and came roaring back to win 86-75. They used a very effective 1-3-1 halfcourt zone press (sound familiar?) to totally disrupt the Cal offense which reacted by trying to throw virtually every pass backward away from the bucket. The Bruins have been bothered by the 1-3-1, but at least have tried to move the ball forward to get some decent shot attempts. I have full confidence that Coach Ben will have them much better prepared to attack it by the end of the season - I hope a few teams will try it against us, so we can get more game practice trying to solve it.
Seems OK now - BBR, you're off the hook too.
Alan,
I forgive you. The BBR site seems to be having problems. I was unable to get my post on, and in trying to screwed up my computer which took several hours to straighten out.
BBR, check it out.
Strangely Drogovic looked comfortable scoring inside. Rolle looked good. Alfred looks confident able to pull-up and hit 10 foot jumpers. These things seem like simple observations but something is taking shape here. BoBo is at some point going to need 20min. a game. The only glaring weakness is interior defense. Jrue needs shots I view him as unstoppable.
This game was a one of those games that UCLA was suppossed to win. I watched the game and Depaul was pretty bad, so I don't believe this was the most accurate measuring stick for the Bruins. Meaning don't get too excited about Holiday's complete stat line; we, as fans, need to wait and see how he performs against pac-10 teams. I'm not taking anything away from him though; I'm just stating the fact that Depaul wasn't very good. But a couple weeks ago I had said that I believe Roll should be inserted into the starting 5 in place of Jrue Holiday. After watching the game I see why Holiday is there.
While watching the last 5 mins. I had a chance to see Drew Gordan and Jmison Morgan play. Honestly, I'm not impressed w/Morgan's play. He plays poor defense and shows poor footwork on offense, while Gordon has a much more refined offensive game. I'm not sure how Gordan plays on the defensive end, but it can't be any worse than Morgan falling to the floor and almost pulling his defender down. Morgan is still too raw to be getting serious minutes; I believe though that Coach Howland should give more minutes to Gordan, who i believe can contribute on the offensive end.
Just curious, is there anything to be taken away from the photo regarding people's heights? Gordon looks to be only about an inch taller than Roll. Isn't Gordon supposed to be 6'8"? Dragovich looks to be about a hair taller than Gordon. On the plus side, Anderson only looks about an inch shorter than Roll.
I'm partial to Gordon, too. He's a monster athlete.
Nah, don't believe what you see in pictures. Looks like Trepani is shorter than Wooden in a wheel chair!! ha ha! Just kidding!
It was a nice win, but it's hard to know how the team is progressing, playing against the many pushovers we've been playing lately. We'll probably have to wait a little while before playing a decent team.
All I have right now is "Guarded Optimism". I can see how this team can be good by the end of the year, but at this point, I'm not so sure about the four freshman (outside of Jrue). At times, they look dumbfounded on defense and out of sorts on offense. The lack of interior defense concerns me. Depaul had a lot of easy looks in the nd half, but I'm sure the Bruins were probably already thinking about happy hour.
But, I've got faith. Coach Ben will work his magic. He'll have them ready by league (hopefully).
On another note, has anyone heard anything about Renardo Sidney being pursued (and offered) by CBH? It's on the rivals.com website.(http://rivalshoops.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=41967&sport=2). BBR- Is that right?!!
Tim - Gordon ready to contribute on the offensive end? So far he couldn't fall out of a boat and hit water! Let him learn defense and rebounding first. I also disagree on Morgan. He has the biggest upside and will only improve by playing. Lee has the best upside offensively of the other freshman after holiday). I like the running style better for this group right now, but the defense MUST improve or there will be some bad losses to inferior teams.
Sidney --- No
- BBR
I don't want to second guess the coach, but Roll for Shipp would make sense. Shipp has the attitude but no game to match. I can't believe he thought about leaving early.What a joke. He will struggle in the D league. Holiday is the truth, as the season moves forward we will see a great one in the making. Collison needs to learn how to run the squad or move over to the 2 spot. Drago has to let his offense be his defense. It's the only way. The youngsters have to play.They have to plan now if they are to help in the tourney.
I welcome all comments.
BNR,
Gordan is the only post man that can turn around a shoot the ball. Like I said earlier I haven't noticed his defense, but his offense is much better than keefe's and morgan's (not sure about aboya though).
I never said that Morgan isn't going to be good. I definately agree that he'll be better than Gordan in the long run, but that might be 2 or 3 yrs. The only thing i've noticed about Morgan, so far, is that he is extremely raw (w/alot of athletic abilities)
Holiday looks really good.
BBR- Thanks for setting the record straight! Thank goodness, that's all I have to say! We defintiely don't need the attitude of the father! I'm sure the kid has some talent, but somewhere I read that Sidney wants to be the one bringing the ball up on a fast break. Yikes! Talk about dreaming!
Sorry Renardo, our sights are now set on Josh Smith. If we do get him, there would surely be a lot of centers and power forwards on the team! Great to have the size though.
Anybody know about James McAdoo? We're supposedly after him too. It's a couple of years away, but what the heck! No better time than the present to start talking about future recruits!
I'm with you Bare Gunner, a split with the SUC Condoms (USC Trojans) is NOT acceptable! We need to sweep those fools and pull that thorn from our sides. We need to get up for their game as much as they do for us!
Everyone with us on this?
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