UCLA Basketball: Jekyll and Hyde Bruins Finish Second in the Pac-10

The UCLA Bruins clinched second place in the Pac-10 on Saturday with an impressive come-from-behind win against a determined Washington State Cougar team. Arizona had beaten Oregon State earlier in the day, ensuring the Wildcats would retain the top seed for the upcoming Pac-10 tournament.

UCLA was in a must win situation to keep second place as a loss would open the door for Washington to jump the Bruins and take the No. 2 seed.

As it turned out, USC held off the Huskies 62-60 in Seattle to make a strong bid to get themselves noticed by the NCAA selection committee.

The game in Pullman did not start well for the Bruins, as they could not score to save their lives.

It took them three and a half minutes to get their first basket and another three and a half to get their second. Midway through the first half, the Bruins had amassed just five points and were trailing by seven. That lead would be extend to 13 points by the time the whistle sounded to end the half.

To call that first 20 minutes a poor performance would be the understatement of the season for the Bruins. To call it a performance at all would be an insult to poor performing teams everywhere.

It was not a performance. It was a debacle, a travesty, an absolute miserable display that only in the slightest way resembled basketball at all.

In much of the loss to Washington two days earlier and especially in the first half against Washington State, UCLA looked like a team that had never played together, ever.

After watching them get outclassed by two teams with arguably inferior talent, you had to realize just how selfish the Bruins looked.

They couldn't pass to each other, period. 

They had absolutely no synergy, no chemistry, and no teamwork.

They had no clue what to do on offense other than relying on their individual athleticism and going it alone each and every time down the court.

They didn't know how to find the open player when double or triple teamed, instead attempting to go it all alone once again.

All they could do against the zone defense of WSU was take ill-advised three-point attempts without even having any forwards under the basket ready for potential rebounds. Invariably, these out-of-control, desperation plays turned into fast-break layups for the other team.

There was no post-up, no kick out, no pick and roll, no back door passing, no alley-oops, no movement without the ball, no offensive half-court tactics at all.

When you look at how out of sync this team was, how blatantly unprepared they were, you had to wonder just what Ben Howland does in practice.

It didn't appear that the team had a single play they could call out of a timeout to get them a good look at the basket—and the team was getting plenty of opportunities to practice their set plays as Howland was calling timeouts left, right and center.

In fact, Howland had used all of his timeouts with 12 minutes remaining in the UW game and it cost the Bruins. UCLA had a four-point lead with five minutes to play but could do nothing to slow the momentum of the Huskies down the stretch when the Bruins really needed a timeout.

Many pundits were justifying Howland’s use of the timeouts early, saying that the Bruins wouldn't have even been in the game had he not used them all. That kind of thinking does nothing but attempt to cover up some pretty poor coaching tactics.

First, the team should be able to stay focused for more than a minute after a time out such that you don’t need to call another one so quickly.

Second, the team should have a leader that can slow the tempo down and calm his teammates when the momentum is going against you so as to save a few timeouts for the end game.

The Bruins did not appear to be able to do either, not even close. 

During the intermission, I started to write this article and put the Bruins down for their second straight loss in the Evergreen State. There did not seem to be anyway back for the Bruins. They looked as inept and beaten as any team could be.

Boy, was I wrong.

UCLA came out in the second half and was a completely different team.

Perhaps aliens had abducted the real Bruins and replaced them with makeshift clones in the first half. Then, after finishing with them, they let the real Bruins play out the second half. I can’t explain how the two halves of this game were played by the same players in any other way.

It was a tale of two teams. It was the return of Doctor Jekyll and the end of Mister Hyde.

All of a sudden, the second half Bruins were finding each other in the paint. They were using their heads and looking for quality shots. They were moving without the ball. They were kicking the ball out when double teamed down low. They were supporting each other on defense. In other words, they looked like a team again.

In just eight minutes, the Bruins outscored the Cougars 16-3 and had tied the game at 35 all. The teams would battle back and forth for the remainder of the half and finish regulation tied at 48.

In the overtime period, the Bruins showed why they are the No. 1 defensive team in the Pac-10 as both Tyler Honeycutt and Reeves Nelson stole the ball from the Cougars in the final six seconds while Malcolm Lee hit four of four free throws to extend the Bruins winning streak in Pullman to 18 games.

Next up for the Bruins will be the Pac-10 tournament on Thursday, March 10.

They will face the winner of the first round playoff between No. 7, Stanford and No. 10, Arizona State. The game will be played at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, so there should be plenty of UCLA supporters around to cheer the Bruins onto glorious victory.