Ex-Player Confident Howland Will Thrive

This is not where Coach Ben Howland or many others expected UCLA to be as his first season draws to a close, with the Bruins still trying to clinch a spot in the Pacific 10 Conference tournament and licking their wounds at 11-14.

Despite the lack of progress -- so far, UCLA has won only one more game than in Steve Lavin’s final season -- there are still those who are confident UCLA is headed upward.

Among them is Pittsburgh guard Julius Page, one of Howland’s former players.

“Right now, they’re down, but it’s not going to take long for Coach Howland to get some players,” Page said. “These are not his guys right now. Once he gets some players that are his guys, he can coach them.

“So a couple of years from now, UCLA will be back on the map.”

Howland has at times seemed a little too eager to make the transition from the current players to “his guys.”

But another mark of a good coach is one who can make players better. Page said Howland can do that too.

“Coming from high school, I basically shot the ball every time I touched it, and I was a little reckless, jumping in the air to pass all the time,” Page said. “He’s such a great coach, there are certain things you just pick up.

“The first thing they’re going to have to do there in order to start winning is to buy into the scheme that he has. A lot of coaches are good coaches, but if your players don’t buy into what you do, you’re going to struggle.

“I think that’s the thing, we all bought it. Me, Brandin [Knight], the whole team bought into the thing, his whole scheme, the plays he was calling. And they worked.

“That’s what it comes down to. If your players respect what you’re doing, which is going to happen with him, it’s only a matter of time.”

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UCLA is in a three-way tie for fifth in the Pac-10, not yet assured of a spot in the eight-team conference tournament.

The Bruins could still finish as high as fourth or as low as ninth.

“The best thing we can do is get a win Thursday at Oregon State,” Howland said, thereby clinching a tournament berth by making it impossible for ninth-place Oregon State to catch UCLA.

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T.J. Cummings, a senior Howland notes has been a key player in six of the Bruins’ seven conference victories, was benched at the start of the second half of Saturday’s loss to Notre Dame and played only 21 minutes.

Howland met with Cummings before practice Monday.

“I explained very clearly that his defense was really lacking -- suspect at best,” said Howland, who generally de-emphasizes steals but pointed out that Cummings had only three steals in 618 minutes this season.

Cummings responded with three steals during practice.

“I just tried to go to practice with the mind-set I have every day, which is to work hard,” Cummings said.

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Guard Brian Morrison will test his right ankle in hopes he can play this week, but Howland is pessimistic.... Forward Josiah Johnson, out because of a sprained left knee, probably will not play again this season.