UCLA: Howland's style takes a toll on players

[clevfan]

3/09/2006 12:00 AM


Tournament trap?
Howland's style takes a toll on players
By Brian Dohn, Staff Writer
Inside SOCAL

UCLA knows it must win three games in three days to claim the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament title, but in essence, it means winning three games in 50 hours.
It also means playing through fatigue and pain, and draining one's emotional tank. It can be an exhausting few days, and can have profound long-term effects with a much steeper price.

USC found that out four years ago. The Trojans summoned all their energy in making a run to the Pac-10 Tournament final, then claimed the physical and mental anguish of doing so cost them in an NCAA first-round loss to UNC-Wilmington.

"This is our fourth game in seven days," then-Trojans coach Henry Bibby said afterward. "The Pac-10 took the edge off us."

UCLA opens Pac-10 Tournament play this afternoon against the winner of Wednesday's Oregon State-Washington State meeting, with the knowledge a strong showing could push the Bruins to a No. 2 seed when the 65-team NCAA Tournament field is unveiled Sunday.

But with NCAA Tournament expectations again high at UCLA, the idea of the Bruins burning themselves out in the next few days must be addressed, senior wing Cedric Bozeman said.

"That's something you have to be prepared for," Bozeman said. "You can't tell what it's going to be like until you're actually in it. I think we'll be ready. I think we'll be fine."

Third-year coach Ben Howland scoffs at the notion 13th-ranked UCLA (24-6), the top-seeded team in the Pac-10 tourney, could suffer come the NCAAs if the Bruins make a run into Saturday's championship game, citing similar arrangements in other power conferences.

"We want to win the (Pac-10) tournament," Howland said. "We won the regular season. It's all about what you have done for me lately. You have to prove it all over again, and that's our goal.

"But, no, we're not saving anything, or doing anything, to try to save ourselves for the NCAA Tournament. We want to have momentum. We want to build on momentum we've had toward the end of the season. We won our last four. We want to continue on."

But Pac-10 Tournament history suggests it is different than the Big East, or Atlantic Coast Conference, or Big Ten, or others. Since the Pac-10 Tournament was reborn in 2002, the schools reaching the title game rarely made a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.

Seven of the eight teams to play in the title game went on to the NCAAs, and only last season's Pac-10 runner-up, Arizona, made it past the NCAA's Sweet 16. Three times, a title-game participant lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and one lost in the second round.

"Playing three games in three days at a high level is going to take a toll on a team," fifth-year USC assistant Bob Cantu said. "If you have a game on Thursday, and it's like playing on the road after traveling on Tuesday, there's going to be some affect. If you play on Friday, it should help a little. I felt like (the Pac-10) Tournament took a lot out of us (in 2002)."

Such physical duress, particularly combined with how hard this collection of Bruins play, is something none of UCLA's high-profile players have experienced.

Bozeman, all-Pac-10 selections Arron Afflalo and Jordan Farmar, and league freshman of the year Luc Richard Mbah a Moute said the only time they can remember playing three games in three days is on the AAU circuit, which is basically a step up from playground hoops when it comes to intensity.

"(Howland's) style is definitely more of a grind, but just having your wind, in general, I don't feel should be an issue," Afflalo said. "Definitely, the style of basketball we play is more physically demanding."

Another factor is injury. UCLA already is without wing Josh Shipp and backup center Lorenzo Mata, but more pressing is the health of Bozeman, power forward/center Alfred Aboya and even Farmar.

After playing 28 minutes last Thursday at California, Bozeman was unable to practice Friday in preparation for Saturday's game at Stanford because of knee tendinitis.

Aboya, who is stabilizing UCLA's interior, has been held out of some practices the past few weeks because of a hip flexor injury. And there is Farmar, who, as Howland put it, has suffered five sprains to his ankles this season.

Playing three times in slightly more than two days could create more health concerns.

"If you want to win, if you want to do great things, that's what you've got to do," Mbah a Moute said. "That's what great teams do. I think we'll be ready. We get a couple of days after the (Pac-10) Tournament to get our legs back, and after that we'll be ready to go in the NCAA Tournament."