Friday, March 11, 2011

Ben Howland: Once again taking UCLA into the Tourny on a Roll

I hate that coach. (sad sad commentary from the LA Times.
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It's going to be a long weekend for UCLA even though the Bruins will not play again.

They will have the next 72 hours to mull a foible-filled 76-59 loss to Oregon on Thursday atStaples Center in the Pacific Life Pac-10tournament quarterfinals, the second-seeded Bruins playing as if they were somehow owed a victory over the seventh-seeded Ducks.

"They had the mentality that they didn't have anything to lose," UCLA forward Tyler Honeycutt said. "We came in here with a 'too cool' of an attitude."

The nonchalance resulted in another sluggish start and possibly the most mortifying moment of Coach Ben Howland's UCLA tenure, when the Bruins received a technical foul in the first half for having six players on the court after a timeout.

"That was embarrassing," Howland said. "That right there was like indicative of the night. That that could actually happen is unbelievable."

Some people never learn, it seems.

That Oregon (16-16) could hand UCLA (22-10) its worst loss of the season resulted in part from the Bruins' seasonlong habit of slow starts finally catching up with them. The Ducks used a 14-1 surge over a 4½-minute stretch late in the first half to take a 15-point lead.