After a hiatus from blogging, here we go after attending the Bruin games from the past month…
Stanford/UCLA:
- First off, since everyone has been talking about the UCLA “luck” and referee “bias” , there has been a perception that we the Bruins are the Duke of the coast. No problem here. That means UCLA is BAAAAAAAAAAAAACK. They hate us. They fear us. I’ll take it.
- All the people drinking the Bruin HATERADE did not watch the whole game. Stanford got some ridiculous calls (ex. a foul on LUC when he was going after the rebound. On the ensuing play, Stanford scores.) The refs gave the Trees multiple extra possessions or momentum crushing foul calls.
- The Hill / Collison call was pretty bad, considering the situation - end of the game, seconds remaining. It could easily be a foul though, there was contact.- Against Stanford, DC is the biggest matchup nightmare for them. Mitch Johnson???!! Cmon now. Anyway, it was nice seeing DC explode and step up. I realize he tries to run the team, but at times, he is too complacent. The guy shoots unreal %’s.
- The Lopez Brothers are good. Real good. Very few NBA teams have two 7 footers who combine their coordination and athleticism.
- After being down 11 with 5 minutes left, THE ANIMAL Westbrook took over again. More needs to me made of this. He attacked the rim with his usual hatred for it, and was involved with the next 8 points. With every game played, the ANIMAL is realizing that noone can stop him.
- KLOVE is a beast. Not the most talented, and so many pundits are saying he will be limited NBA player. I tend to disagree, he can rebound against anyone. He has a natural feel for positioning and going up for the ball. His vertical isnt THAT bad, he is just not very quick to get up there. He has faced multiple future NBA bigs (Lopez, Lopes, Hardin, Gibson) and he has passed with flying colors. Also, night in and night out, the NBA players do not play hard. KLove has a high motor and an insane natural feel for a big man. Im gonna throw it out there - he will average 18 and 10 in the NBA. That is not NBA all star numbers, but he is a winner and he will but up Bogut - esque numbers. And he is a winner. His teams will do better than Michael Beasleys.
- Kevin Love’s biggest weakness - notice above I didnt mention his defense. It has vastly improved, but the #1 problem is his lateral quickness when a player faces up on him. He simply does not have the foot speed to stop the dribble. Plus he looks like he is flat footed.
- LUC - Again, given his intangibles that he brings to the court, UCLA does not win this game without him. Offensive boards, defense, etc.
- Josh Shipp - At this point, he was a negative impact on the team. Missed open 3’s, poor defense, bad passes - he had no mojo and was tentative. Officially it got in his head. (More on this later)
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