Well deserved, Mike.

Release from UCLA:

UCLA senior guard Michael Roll was given the Coach John Wooden Award as the Bruins’ Most Valuable Player Monday night at the 2010 UCLA Men’s Basketball Awards Banquet held at the Hyatt Century Plaza.

Roll, a first team All-Pac-10 selection, led the Bruins in scoring at 14.1 points per game, ranking 11th in the league. Additionally, he earned the UCLA Alumni Association Award (team assist leader), averaging 3.6 assists per game (115), which ranked 6th in the Pac-10 Conference. He also ranked 3rd in three-point field goals made per game (2.5), 4th in three-point field goal percentage (.426, 80-for-188) and 2nd in assist to turnover ratio (1.9).

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Sorry for the long absence, tough to be a one man site. Let’s get back into the swing of things!

In what could potentially be the last game of the season, UCLA takes on Arizona at Staples Center at noon pacific time. The Bruins were swept by the Wildcats in the regular season, recently losing in Tuscon after leading by double digits.

The game is officially a “pick ‘em” on various gambling sites. That sounds about right to me. Standout big man Reeves Nelson returns to action, after sitting out due to two laser surgeries to repair a partially torn retina in his left eye. He was missed severely, and could be the difference maker.

This should be another barn burner, but I think the Bruins prevail late. Arizona presents match up problems with the guard trio of Nic Wise, Lamont Jones, and Kyle Fogg. Limiting penetration and open three’s will be key for the defense. With Reeves Nelson back in the line up, UCLA should free up space beyond the arc. Look for seniors Mike Roll and Nikola Dragovic to knock some down from deep.

My prediction, UCLA by 5.

Keys to a Bruin victory:

1) Box out! Second chance attempts will kill the Bruins. I’m looking at you Drago.

2) Limit penetration. Lamont Jones was vital to the Arizona win in Tuscon. His penetration single-handedly killed UCLA.

3) Free throws. UCLA has been terrible from the charity stripe. Knocking down the freebies could be the difference between a victory and a loss.

4) Convert the easy buckets. The high percentage attempts must go down. No highlight reel stuff, just get the two points.

Here’s what they’re saying around the net about today’s game:

Examiner.com – Arizona Wildcats ready for Pac-10 tournament

ESPN.com – Previewing the Pac-10 tournament

Wildcat.Arizona.Edu – Bruins hope third times a charm

NBC Los Angeles – UCLA’s last hope. Three wins in three days

LA Observed – The Pac-10 tournament

Senior forward James Keefe will undergo season ending shoulder surgery, effectively closing out his career at UCLA. This is the same shoulder he had surgery on, and dislocated three times.

A former McDonald’s All American, Keefe seemingly battled injury after injury during his Bruin career, never quite getting on track. A sad way for a hard working local kid to see his playing days come to an end.

Freshman Brendan Lane is expected to get the start tonight against Washington State.

Additional info via LAtimes.com

Here’s some quick hits about our Bruins from around the net.

SI.com writes – UNC? UCLA? Florida? What’s happened to the hoops dynasties?

UCLA, after reaching three straight Final Fours from 2006-’08, has plummeted to 9-10 this season.Clearly, it’s tougher than ever for hoops programs to remain consistently dominant, and it’s easy to see why. The staggering extent of roster turnover from one year to the next requires coaches to bring in monster recruiting classes on a near-annual basis — and heaven help you if even one or two of those new additions flames out.

Ben Howland’s Bruins have also been victimized by a string of one-and-dones. While their 2006-’08 run revolved around several key veterans (Aaron Afflalo, Darren Collison, Josh Shipp, and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute all played at least three seasons), two stars from that last team, center Kevin Love and guard Russell Westbrook, bolted after their only seasons as starters, as did last year’s star freshman, Jrue Holiday. This year, the bottom finally fell out.

“It has definitely been a challenge when you are starting over again,” Howland said.

Full story at SI.com

ESPN.com’s Ramona Shelburne writes – UCLA Bruins, USC Trojans are tough to figure out

In the span of a week, UCLA coach Ben Howland went from telling the media he was “embarrassed” and apologizing, it seemed, to all past, present and future Bruins after an atrocious loss to the Trojans at Pauley Pavilion, to optimistic and sunny after an impressive sweep of the Washington schools.

For a coach who has earned a reputation as one of the best defensive coaches in college basketball, for whom man-to-man defense was previously something of a commandment, not an option, that pill goes down about as smoothly as pine tar.

“It was actually very poor coaching on my part for not recognizing earlier,” Howland said through clenched teeth. “It’s not something we want to do, but it’s something we need to do in order to be competitive and win games.”

Full story at ESPN.com

Abdul-Hamid rolled the dice by coming to UCLA, and spent much of the last three years chasing around Darren Collison, the Bruins’ star point guard. But the connect-the-dots sketch that has UCLA heading into its game at Oregon tonight just a game out of first place in the Pacific 10 Conference leads directly back to the 6-foot-2 redshirt junior from St. Louis.

His buzzer-beating jumper gave UCLA a 62-61 victory over Washington a week ago. He then followed that up with three consecutive jumpers to kick-start the offense in a victory over Washington State two days later. That win moved the Bruins to 9-10 overall, 4-3 in conference play and into a five-way tie for second in the Pac-10 behind California.

“A lot of what he has done is self-made,” said UCLA Coach Ben Howland, who put Abdul-Hamid on scholarship before last season. “He puts in time and a lot of the extra work.”

UCLA ranks last in the Pac-10 this season in FT percentage at 61%.

Terrible.

Sooner or later this will catch up with them and cost them a game or two they should have won. I’m looking at you Malcolm Lee, Michael Roll, and Reeves Nelson. Although, Nelson gets somewhat of a pass since he’s a big man. But still.

Insidesocal.com’s Jon Gold breaks down the Bruins dismal performance from the charity stripe.

The foul struggles have left the players confused and the coaches frustrated, as even extensive work in practice – as much as 200 free throws in a day for some players – has not translated to the games.

“I tell you it’s not through lack of trying,” Howland said. “We had a couple guys who had to hit 200 yesterday. (Sophomore guard) Malcolm Lee made 45 foul shots in a row. We spent a lot of time free-throw shooting yesterday. We’ll spend a lot of time working for it.”

The problem hasn’t cost the Bruins in their last two games, both wins, over Washington and Washington State. But, Howland said, it all adds up.

“The percentage is what’s the key,” Howland said. “Those free throws you miss in the first half are just as important as the ones with five minutes to go. Front ends of one-and-ones hurt you. Some of that also is we’re not playing a lot of guys and there’s more of a fatigue factor.”

Full story at Insidesocal.com.

The Bruins (7-10) find themselves in last place of the Pac-10 as they take on the Huskies (12-5) tonight. Washington comes in at 3.5 point favorites, rightfully so. UCLA received a butt-whoopin’ of epic proportions against crosstown rival USC last Saturday, and hope to right the ship against the preseason Pac-10 favorites.

Coach Howland said he was embarrassed by the effort against the Trojans, and has placed the blame squarely on his shoulders. He met with senior forward Nikola Dragovic during the week and emphasized the importance of boxing out. The Huskies lack size, but make up for it with athleticism, which has been a thorn in the side of the Bruins all season long. Let’s hope Dragovic heeds the advice from Howland and follows through.

The battle I’ve waited for all season long takes place in the back court. Husky guards Venoy Overton and Isaiah Thomas look to be match up nightmares. Overton is a pesky defender, who should cause turnover after turnover against the shaky ball handling of the Malcolm Lee . Thomas may be short, but can get to the basket at will. Especially against slow footed Mike Roll, and the El Matador Jerime Anderson (ole!). If there’s ever a game for Anderson to prove he belongs at a Division 1 school, it’s tonight. Senior standout Quincy Pondexter with his experience and overall toughnes should prove to be too much for talented freshman Tyler Honeycutt.

With all that said, there is still hope. UCLA is longer, leading the conference in blocked shots, and posseses more of an offensive inside presence in freshman Reeves Nelson. The Bruins are coming off one of the most shameful losses in recent memory, and Howland is 2-0 in the Pac-10 on Thursday games, upsetting favorites Arizona State and California.

I won’t make a prediction, but I’ll give you my keys to the game needed for a Bruin victory.

What UCLA must do to beat Washington:

1) Protect the ball. Avoiding costly mistakes and turning the ball over simply can’t happen against the Huskies.

2) Box out. Washington is first in offensive rebounds in the Pac-10.

3) Slow it down. The Huskies lead the conference in scoring, averaging 80 pts a game. The Bruins simply can’t put up that type of offense. This game will need to be won in the 60’s.

4) Nikola Dragovic needs to show up. Love him or hate him, he is averaging 15.6 points and shooting 50% in UCLA victories, but only 7.5 points on 28% shooting in losses.

5) 6th man. The Bruins are playing at Pauley Pavilion, and it should feel like it. Home court advantage needs to play a small part in securing a victory.

There you have it. A tough test for UCLA, but not an impossible one to pass. With nearly a week to prepare, let’s hope they’re up to the task.

Here’s what they’re saying around the net about tonight’s game:

LAtimes.com – UCLA’s Nikola Dragovic has answer to Bruins’ woes.

SGVtribune.com – Romar knows what he’s up against.

Bruinsnation.com – The exciting bruins take on Lorenzo Romar’s road warriors.

Bodoglife.com – Washington at UCLA (for the gamblers out there)

Oregonlive.com – Pac-10 basketball

Seattletimes.com – Bad news for UW: UCLA is angery after blowout defeat. Good news: Bruins are banged up.

6′8 freshman Reeves Nelson has made his mark on this season’s UCLA team with hard work, and hustle. The students have noticed, and since made him a Bruin Den favorite.

ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne writes:

The UCLA student section has fallen for freshman center Reeves Nelson in a head-over-heels, face-painting, tattoo-copying, instant-cult-hero kind of way.

“Oh man, the crowd definitely loves him,” sophomore guard Malcolm Lee said. “The other night I saw people drawing that infinity [symbol] tattoo he has on his arm on themselves.

“I think it’s because he’s just real aggressive. He’s not scared of getting hit or hitting other people. That’s big for us because our shots can go in or out, but his brutality and aggression is always there, night in and night out.”

Usually it takes years to win over “The Den” so thoroughly. But in an up-and-mostly-down season when not much has gone as expected for the Bruins (7-9, 2-2), Nelson’s consistency, attitude and passion for the game have made him a real crowd-pleaser.

Well deserved, Reeves.

Full article at here.

Sophomore center J’Mison “BoBo” Morgan suffered a partially torn quadriceps in his right leg during Wednesday’s practice. He’ll be out two to three weeks.

Freshman Brendan Lane and Senior James Keefe are expected to handle backup center duties while Morgan is out.

via LATimes.com

Upset by the careless play of the Bruins, Coach Howland makes the team run, run, and run some more…

There was a fundamental assessment on how tough UCLA’s practice was Monday.

“[J'mison Morgan] threw up,” forward Tyler Honeycutt said.

Added forward Reeves Nelson: “Everyone else just had their legs sucked from underneath them.

“Coach Ben Howland was unhappy with the 23 turnovers the Bruins had against Stanford on Saturday.

The director’s-cut version is the concern that the Bruins are working on basic fundamentals midway through the season. In a Pacific 10 Conference race that is anyone’s to win, or lose, the basics are going to matter a whole lot more.

“You look at our first four [conference] games and we’re shooting the ball well, but the turnover differential is 69-39,” Howland said. “So 30 more turnovers. That’s a big number.”

Worse, Howland said, was the fact that in the Stanford game, “so many of the turnovers were not forced by the defense but came from bad decisions by us. If we have 15 turnovers instead of 23 we give ourselves a chance to win.

Let’s hope the lesson was learned as UCLA takes on rival USC at Pauley Pavilion this Saturday.

Full article here, courtesy of the LATimes.com

Malcolm Lee

The Pac-10 has clearly been the worst we’ve seen it since the mid 80’s, but SI.com’s Seth Davis looks on the bright side. With every team nearly equal, picking a favorite is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Bashing the Pac-10 has been a sport within a sport this season, but I’m here to tell you something that may surprise you: This is going to be the most fascinating race inside any of the big six conferences.

The first reason I say this is that this thing could not be more wide open. It appears that no fewer than six of the league’s 10 teams have a legitimate chance to win this thing — and I’m not even including UCLA, which may have a little life in them yet.

Then there are the intriguing storylines to tickle our fancy. Can USC still contend for a title even though it is not eligible for the postseason? Will Arizona, which is off to a 1-2 start in the league, keep its nation’s-best 25-year NCAA tournament streak alive? Inquiring minds want to know.

To read the entire article, visit this link at SI.com.