From: Sports Network
Darren Collison, Jrue Holiday, Josh Shipp and Alfred Aboya are gone, and with them went over 47 points per contest. Only one starter is back in the fold, as senior Nikola Dragovic brings back 9.4 ppg and a 6-9 frame to the frontcourt. So with all of the losses, how is Ben Howland going to get his Bruins in the NCAA Tournament. Well, while nine of the 12 scholarship players for the Bruins are sophomores and freshmen, there is plenty of young talent. Jerime Anderson replaces Collison at the point, and he played few minutes a year ago. But the 6-1 sophomore has great quickness and is fearless. Malcolm Lee is a young player who may emerge as the go-to guy offensively because of his explosiveness. Michael Roll is a three-point threat who can play both the shooting guard and small forward positions, but a sprained right ankle may slow him early on. UCLA seemed to do everything well last season in regard to scoring, scoring defense and rebounding. Expect these Bruins to start slow and finish strong.
UCLA basketball coach Ben Howland is taking a lot of shit right now form the local media because he's supposedly a really tough defensive minded coach and that he's not focusing enough time on the offense and I'll tell you what. In watching UCLA lose to both Arizona and Arizona State it was painfully obvious...
that both Arizona and Arizona State have more talented players on their teams then does this UCLA basketball team. Plain and simple those teams are more talented then this UCLA basketball team and nobody in Westwood wants to hear it in particular UCLA Bruin fans.
Darren Collison is probably the most talented player on this team and he's above-average at best. Their star freshman this year Jrue Holiday is decent but not spectacular. Alfred Aboya is a joke as a center and Josh Shipp has never turned into the big-time scoring threat that he was supposed to be 4 years ago.
What this UCLA basketball team is missing is size. Well they have size but unfortunately for UCLA their big guys just aren't that talented and they're getting outplayed and outrebounded against any team that has a decent set of forwards.
This UCLA basketball team has also really been affected by players leaving early for the NBA draft. Last year alone UCLA lost Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love and Luc Richard Mbah A Moute. That's three of their starters right there! I think we all knew that Kevein Love was leaving but westbrrok and A'Moute leaving must've been a shock for coach Howland.
If you ask me it's the defensive coaching of Ben Howland that is keeping UCLA in games this year. Their talent level is down this year and this UCLA basketball team has to rely on hard-nosed, scrappy play to stay competitive.
And finally somebody please tell Darren Collison that this is his team and that this is his year. Collison has taken a back seat to either K. Love or Westbrook each of his last three years and it's finally time for him to put this team on his shoulders and start taking the shots when they matter most.
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