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This UCLA team unlike any we've seen before

Bruins now relying on bare-knuckle, bodacious attitude more than skill

NCAA West Kansas UCLA Basketball
Eric Risberg / AP
Coach Ben Howland's Bruins, who last season went all the way to the NCAA final, where they lost to Florida, are back in the Final Four and seem even badder and more bodacious, without a single senior on the roster.
OPINION
By Michael Wilbon
Columnist
updated 3:25 a.m. ET March 25, 2007

Michael Wilbon
Columnist
SAN JOSE, Calif. - The jerseys say UCLA, but these Bruins don't bear much resemblance to what we've come to know over the last 40 years. They don't play with Alcindor's elegance or Walton's precision. There's no pure shooter like Gail Goodrich or Reggie Miller. This UCLA team is more bare-knuckles than élan, a reflection of its coach, quarrelsome Ben Howland, who would much rather shake a fist and clap furiously than stand calmly holding a rolled-up program the way John Wooden did.

There's nothing laid-back or particularly stylish about these Bruins, who play more like they're from Pittsburgh than Westwood. They've got a 6-foot-5 junior all-American straight out of Compton named Arron Afflalo, the Pac-10 player of the year, who can get his own shot like a pro, even if it means firing off-balance without conscience from behind the arc with the shot clock about to hit double-zero. Beyond that, and the slick ballhandling and playmaking of Darren Collison, the Bruins seem mostly loaded with toughies and sharpies who do exactly what the Howland asks, moderately skilled players most teams would be happy to have . . . but nobody that makes you fall off the sofa like Kevin Durant or Greg Oden.

The old Bruins, Wooden's Bruins and even Jim Harrick's Bruins, would skill you to death it seemed, from Walt Hazzard to Lew Alcindor to Henry Bibby to Bill Walton to Sidney Wicks and Curtis Rowe to Keith Wilkes to Marcus Johnson to David Greenwood to Toby Bailey to Jason Kapono. Through 40 previous trips to the NCAA tournament and a record 11 championships, UCLA always seemed to be identifiably better, usually more talented that the other guy.

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Howland's Bruins, who last season went all the way to the NCAA final, where they lost to Florida, are back in the Final Four and seem even badder and more bodacious, without a single senior on the roster, and without Jordan Farmar who graduated to the NBA. We could very easily look back in a few years at Kansas and marvel at how this one roster included Julian Wright, Brandon Rush, Darnell Jackson and a 6-9 freshman named Darrell Arthur and wonder how they got clocked in this region final by UCLA, 68-55.

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Well, as usual in these games, you can start the analysis with defense.

UCLA held Kansas to 41 percent shooting. And when you consider all the layups and chippies Kansas missed from tip-off to buzzer (20 missed shots from within three feet by one unofficial count), you might have to attribute some of that to the Jayhawks hearing footsteps from Bruins defenders coming at them like free safeties. Same goes for the Jayhawks' 25 turnovers.

Meantime, the Bruins shot 53 percent, 59 in the second half, primarily on the strength of Afflalo, who hit 10 of 15 shots and had a game-high 24 points. His pull-up three-pointer just before the shot-clock buzzer pushed a four-point lead to 40-33 and was a bad sign for Kansas. An even worse sign was Collison's three-pointer at the buzzer over two Jayhawks defenders that made it 58-50 with 4:41 to play when Kansas seemed on the verge of reclaiming momentum.

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Jonathan Wallace
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Check out the top images from men’s NCAA Tournament regional finals.
"That was probably," Kansas Coach Bill Self said, "the biggest shot in the game. It kept us arm's length away. In the NCAA tournament, my experience is you've got to make shots. They made some harder shots than we attempted. . . . Collison almost fell down before he threw it in."

The despair in Kansas will be palpable. Rush and Wright are huge talents, sophomores who ought to return to college but might choose to do otherwise once the know-it-alls get in their ears. The loss will also raise questions about Self, who is 0-4 personally in region finals.

Asked about that afterward, Self said, "It hurts. You put yourself in position to be in this game. You get this far you have to deliver. But I'm not going to say, 'Pitiful me.' This isn't about me. I really felt like this was our year. I'm not saying to win it all. But I felt we were the best-equipped team to make a strong run."

ALSO ON THIS STORY

Those are the kind of words, refreshingly candid as they are, that tend to bring out the wolves in places such as Lexington, Ky., and Lawrence, Kan.

The UCLA sycophants, on the other hand, certainly have to be happy with Howland, even though the Bruins are nowhere near as artistically adept as UCLA teams usually are. Howland freely admitted after the win that Kansas so torched the Bruins double-teams on ball screens because, "They're too athletic . . . we could not do it."

CONTINUED : Bruins are playing 'Big East ball'
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