Voodoo Wizards of Westwood
"I think we beat ourselves, but I have to give credit to their defense," said Rush, among several Jayhawks soon to be considering jumps to the NBA. "We just did some dumb stuff -- dumb plays on defense and dumb plays on offense. We just had careless turnovers."
___
___
Since hiring Ben Howland to replace Steve Lavin as men's basketball coach, UCLA has not been a fun team to watch. They ruin games. Watching basketball would be a lot more enjoyable if teams like UCLA did not exist. UCLA was arguably the best defensive team in college last year and they are again this season. The interesting thing about UCLA, and the reason why I bother to mention this, is they possess seemingly supernatural capabilities so rarely seen in sports.
Their defense is so intense, so frustrating, that it goes beyond physical realms into the psychological and apparently paranormal. Teams play worse against UCLA than they do normally. I have watched a number of UCLA games the last two years, and I have never seen an opponent of theirs play well. Last year, watching Gonzaga melt down and hand them a game in the Sweet Sixteen, then having Memphis play incredibly poorly in the regional final (0 of 15 3s) I thought this was a coincidence. Now, having watched both Pitt and Kansas blow repeated layups and free throws, I have concluded that UCLA's suffocating defense actually mindfucks teams into missing easy shots. Late in the Kansas game, CBS showed a graphic noting Kansas was 14 for 43 on dunks and layups. Persisting memories of hands in the face, slapping at the ball, and adjusting shots haunt shooters as they try to focus on the simplest of conversions. Players play bad against UCLA, so it's easier for them to win.
posted by GnightMoon @ 1:50 AM
6 Comments:
one of the main reasons why I check your blog so often is your eloquent prose -- keep it up.
I think you need to give Billy Boy some more credit for the loss.
True - Self did submarine the team with poor substitutions and general strategy, failing to get the ball into the hands of their one unguardable player (Rush) and randomly relying on the less skilled and experienced Collins.
I think you're right about UCLA. They don't just beat teams they demoralize them. After seeing UCLA dismantle Arizona at home on Senior Day I began to think that this wasn't just about winning a basketball game, it was about ripping a teams nuts off and showing them to the world by hitting contested three after contested three with the shot clock at 0. And to make matters worse they look terrible doing it, just take a glance at Lorenzo Mata's hideous face.
Mata is not only the ugliest player in college basketball, he might be the ugliest man in sports.
Mata is not only the ugliest player in college basketball, he might be the ugliest man in sports.
Post a Comment
<< Home