Bruins find faults, take blame

Darren Collison was more than willing to take the blame for everything that went wrong for UCLA on Sunday.

For not properly defending D.J. Augustin and allowing the splendidly quick point guard to take a jumper that Longhorns forward Damion James rebounded and jammed home for the decisive basket in Texas’ 63-61 upset of the second-ranked Bruins at Pauley Pavilion.

For not getting the ball in the post enough to center Kevin Love, who took only three shots in each half.

For the Bruins’ continued inability to solve the zone defense, which has long been a problem.

If he’d been asked, Collison might have taken responsibility for the chilly weather outside too.

In truth, only some of Sunday’s miscues could be laid at the feet of the junior guard, who played a too-burdensome 39 minutes in only his second game back after recovering from a sprained knee.

Offensively, his timing was off, as evidenced by his four-for-14 shooting. Defensively, he was beaten early and often by the nimble Augustin, who made eight of 15 shots and shared the team scoring lead with James at 19 points each.

“I thought he played well. He played the game real patient,” said Collison, a second-team All-America selection last season after averaging 12.7 points per game and a first-team preseason All-America honoree this season.

“He’s just one of the many good point guards that we’re going to see this year and I’ll take full responsibility for trying to contain him. I’ve got to do a better job trying to contain him. I thought he played well down the stretch.

“The bottom line is you have to stop the ball and you have to contain him. Coming into this game I didn’t want him to take as many shots as I gave him, but he got the shots he needed. I’ve got to look at the film to see where I could do better.”

In that task, Collison is not alone.

Frustrated by the Longhorns’ zone defense, the Bruins settled for far too many jump shots. Twelve of the Bruins’ 26 field-goal attempts in the first half came from three-point range, and they made only two of those. Overall, they shot 38.5% in the first half and buried themselves during a 17-0 Texas scoring spree.

“The zone really threw us off,” Collison said.

For the last two years, the Bruins have craved a post player to play against the zone. Finally they have one, in Love.

But he took only six shots, for which Collison also took the blame.

“That’s my job as a point guard. That’s something I’ve got to see and hopefully I’ll do a better job next game,” Collison said.

It’s hardly his fault alone. Love is still a work in progress, and Coach Ben Howland isn’t confident enough in Love’s defensive ability to play him down the stretch, when poise and experience can make the difference.

Lorenzo Mata-Real got the bulk of the crucial minutes Sunday and did a decent job that included three blocks. But overall there were too many mistakes by the Bruins, too many misses at both ends for them to maintain their perfect record and extend a home winning streak that had reached 25 games.

“I’ll be in there at the end of the game because I’ll pick it up,” Love promised.

He probably will. Love is smart and coachable and he will learn that Howland values defense above all, above even the terrific passing, sheer size and commanding low-post presence that Love can provide.

But on Sunday, Love wasn’t able to muster a complete effort -- just like the rest of the 7-1 Bruins.

It is far too early to read too much into one loss. Injuries to Collison and Michael Roll have prevented the Bruins from putting their entire team on the floor for as many practices as Howland would like. Collison had practiced only four times and had come off the bench for one game before he was thrown into the fire Sunday against the eighth-ranked Longhorns.

Still, the Bruins were right to be unhappy with their effort. They felt the same sense of shock that struck the crowd of 12,048 like a lightning bolt when Luc Richard Mbah a Moute’s potential game-winning three-point attempt failed in the waning seconds.

“Yeah, it is definitely hard to believe,” forward Josh Shipp said of the loss. “But the way we started off, it’s not surprising. . . .

“We need to take a look in the mirror and see what we need to do better next time.”

And the time after that and the time after that.

“We’re not where we need to be,” Collison said.

“We know we can play a much better defensive game -- me personally, and my teammates feel the same way. We feel like we put ourselves in a hole in the first half and that’s something we were trying to work on this year because it was a problem for us last year.”

Attacking and consistently solving zone defenses is another problem that they’ll have to conquer. It’s not too early to realize that.

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Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.