UCLA finally won a game convincingly this year, beating down the Aggies 100-68. It halted a miserable 5 game losing streak and gave us renewed confidence against ND on Saturday, I hope. While it looked like less than half of Pauley was full, I still enjoyed going to this game much more than the one vs Kansas. A win's a win.
Positives:
Malcolm Lee needs to play this way every game. He needs to step up and be our star scorer and main playmaker. Yesterday, he shot 7-8 from the field en route to racking up 20 points. He also seemed to purposefully be attacking the rim for rebounds, gathering in an impressive 8. What's more, Lee could've added to those stats had he not been benched early in this lopsided game. It was an encouraging sight, to be sure.
Jerime Anderson finally played a solid game, putting up 13 points and an encouraging 7 assists, including a memorable wrap-around, no-look pass to Nelson in the first half. He really needs to be willing to take the open shot as he was yesterday. But hopefully this gives him some confidence.
Michael Roll put in a consistent performance on both ends, again.
Tyler Honeycutt showed his athleticism in scoring 14 points and grabbing 7 boards.
Reeves Nelson continued to establish himself as our best big man option as he battled inside for 16 points and 8 boards.
Hard for me to believe this, but I'm giving props to Mustafa, who has been one of our better jump shooters. Plus, he made the crazy layup to push us to 100 points, a great cap to a much needed win.
Negatives:
Dragovic is driving me nuts. At one point, he pulled up on a fast break for a 20 foot jump shot with only defenders waiting for the rebound. At what point during his 4 years here did he learn that Howland would be happy with that shot? He's a senior, he needs to show some leadership, some discipline, some heart, or he can get out. If this man cannot make his shots, he ceases to have any positive impact on the team. Far be it for me to question Howland, but I cannot understand why he gives Dragovic so much slack. Anyone who cannot play good defense and makes such poor decisions offensively should be languishing on the pine over there with Soo.
Bobo is really an inadequately skilled basketball player. He's uncoordinated with the ball and could use a lot more work with his post moves. That said, he's so big that he still gathered in 5 rebounds in just 16 minutes of play. I still think we should give him as much playing time as possible and see how he progresses this season.
James Keefe injured his left shoulder again. Since its the same shoulder that he had operated on 2 years ago, it is worrisome. Not that he was really producing anyway, but you never like to see a senior end his career because of injury.
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