UCLA Is Looking for Itself

Washington’s basketball team runs. Washington State defends. Arizona pressures, pressures, pressures.

Think of Stanford basketball and you think of big men who make great cuts and shoot layups. A Rick Pitino team will play fast and shoot threes and it doesn’t matter whether Pitino’s coaching the Boston Celtics, Kentucky Wildcats or Louisville Cardinals.

When UCLA’s Ben Howland coached at Pitt, the Panthers became famous -- and good -- because Howland recruited wide-chested, strong-willed inside players and savvy point guards who could run a half-court offense or run the court. Howland’s Panthers played angry defense and were never reluctant to push, hip check and leave bruises.

But what is UCLA’s identity? As the Bruins (10-6, 4-4) carry a three-game losing streak into Saturday’s game against USC (9-10, 2-6) at the Sports Arena, as they try to shake off the disappointment of losing decisively to last-place Cal at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, they are trying to determine who they are.

Are they the team that ran faster and better than then-12th-ranked Washington and upset the Huskies at Pauley Pavilion? Are they the team that passively passed around the perimeter in a futile attempt to break through Cal’s seldom-practiced zone defense?

“I have no clue,” UCLA senior Dijon Thompson said. “Right now, I guess we want to get out and run. But we’ve got to be able to dictate our own tempo.”

Said freshman point guard Jordan Farmar: “We do like to run. But we can also execute in a half-court game when we have a lead.”

Shooting guard Arron Afflalo said, “It’s really obvious our guards are our strength. But lately, the other teams seem to control the tempo. We have to change that. We have to be tough-minded on defense and push the ball on misses and makes. We’ve got to control the tempo.”

So there’s no easy answer.

The Bruins like to run, want to run and run well when the other teams run. Their two most impressive games were that upset of Washington and a 76-73 loss at Arizona when UCLA played up-tempo better than the Wildcats most of the game and led most of the game. But they haven’t figured out how to impose their own will on a game.

Howland, who coached a more up-tempo pace at Northern Arizona than he did at Pitt, says he wants the Bruins to run. “I want us to push the ball,” Howland said. “But we’ve got to get better in that area.”

And there’s no easy answer as to how the Bruins can themselves push a game into the tempo they want.

They were allowed about five fast breaks, total, in losing to Stanford and Cal last week. Howland said the Bruins didn’t have the depth to press or trap often on defense. They rank ninth in the Pacific-10 Conference in steals and seventh in assist-to-turnover ration.

But Farmar and Afflalo are averaging more than 33 minutes a game, prompting Thompson to suggest that this midseason lull is partly a product of the freshmen getting tired. A team lacking depth can’t put more pressure on rookie guards already pushing the limits of playing time.

As the films of last week’s games get dissected by UCLA’s other Pacific-10 Conference opponents, it seems that, with the exception of Washington, which never seems to slow down, everybody wants to throw zones at UCLA and see whether the Bruins quit moving.

“Both [Stanford and Cal] were aware of what we wanted to do,” Howland said, “and they got back on transition. They knew we wanted to run.”

So how do the Bruins set a tempo?

“Play good defense,” Howland said, “and we missed some open looks against Cal during a cold spell. There were some wide-open shots we didn’t knock down.”

Thompson said if the team wanted to play fast, it had to start fast. In the win over Washington, and against Stanford and Cal, UCLA was behind by at least 12 points in the first 10 minutes.

“We have got to come out in the first five minutes with energy,” Thompson said. “We don’t have the depth to be a pressing team, but we should have quicker starts.”

Afflalo said, “We’ve got to control the boards. And we need to play with a sense of urgency, for sure.”