Don’t be fooled; UCLA did improve this year

  BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Bruin starters
celebrate a lead early in the second half of their eventual 82-73
loss to Missouri in the NCAA Tournament’s round of 16. UCLA
finished its tumultuous season with a 21-12 record.

By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Staff

To the untrained eye, the UCLA men’s basketball team
finished its season appearing to be the same squad it was at the
beginning: the gold standard of inconsistency, the frustrating
product of poor coaching.

After tearing through their half of the West Regional bracket in
Pittsburgh, the Bruins were chopped down by Missouri, a team that
was, put simply, superior to them.

Players immediately deemed the season a disappointment, even
though UCLA finished the season 21-12 and reached the Sweet 16 for
the fifth time in six years.

“You come to UCLA to win the Pac-10 and the national
championship,” team captain and senior guard Rico Hines said.
“I never got a chance to accomplish that.”

Calls to fire head coach Steve Lavin soon began to fill the talk
show airwaves again.

Fans seemed more interested in discussing the prospects of next
year than the accomplishment of this season’s squad, for
they felt nothing had been accomplished between November and
March.

Another Sweet 16 but no Final Four or national championship.

Yet, regardless of what was said ““ by the players or fans
““ the Bruins made progress throughout this season. They may
not have put up better results at the end of the year, but it is
clear that UCLA was a better team in March than it was at
November’s Maui Invitational. They may not want to admit it,
but they may have even overachieved.

Forget about the preseason hype; the Bruins, undoubtedly, were
overrated.

Even at the midway point of the conference season, the team was
one with countless problems.

The Bruins were too slow to play man and too undisciplined to
play zone.

They lacked a point guard who could take care of the ball and
distribute it properly.

Opposing teams were able to collapse on their leading scorer,
forward Jason Kapono, and not have to pay the price.

Senior center Dan Gadzuric couldn’t keep himself out of
foul trouble.

Given its multitude of faults, it is rather impressive that UCLA
was able to regroup during the final stretch of the regular season
and eventually defeat Cincinnati, the West region’s No. 1
seed, in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Some may argue that the squad never regrouped, that it continued
to play poorly toward the end of the year.

Not so.

The Bruins didn’t suddenly learn how to rotate within
their defense zone come NCAA Tournament time. They didn’t
suddenly learn to compensate for their lack of foot speed. Cedric
Bozeman and Ryan Walcott didn’t suddenly become solid point
guards. Dan Gadzuric didn’t suddenly learn to avoid
fouling.

These developments took place over the last month of the
season.

The Bruins didn’t become the perfect team, but they
improved enough to take out Ole Miss and Cincinnati come tournament
time.

Don’t be fooled by the rhetoric of lazy sportswriters.

The Bruins weren’t any more “inspired” than
their opponents in the NCAA Tournament. It makes for easy-to-read
print, but the perception that they won games simply because they
started playing harder is ridiculous.

They won because they had become a better team. They won games
by aligning their Xs and Os correctly, by executing more
efficiently.

True, UCLA had heart, but in March, so does everyone else.

The Bruins had been playing hard all season. The squad, after
all, had looked “inspired” at certain points earlier
this season, such as when it beat Kansas and Stanford. But after
each of their big wins, UCLA dropped to the ground with loud
thuds.

Did they lose their heart?

No.

Hines was still diving for loose balls and Gadzuric was still
huffing and puffing down the court.

The Bruins just weren’t that good.

The wins they earned were results of favorable matchups.

And Lavin, for all his faults, should be given some credit
making more matchups favor his team.