Quote:
Originally Posted by RedKingGold
I think UCLA has pretty much given up. Cunningham got that last rebound completely uncontested.
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I agree. There was a play a few minutes ago where Fisher hit an open, uncontested three, and it pretty much came as a result of Collison and Shipp giving up on the play. They have quit on the team, and it's obvious.
I always knew Shipp didn't have the same sort of moxie and mental toughness of Farmar, Afflalo, Mbah a Moute and Love, but I thought Collison was exactly Howland's type of player. Fact is, he's not either. He's more like Shipp. He's a good auxillary piece, but he's not the take over and dominate type. He's not an in your face leader like some of those others had been on past teams.
And this team, which basically had the three seniors and a super-hyped freshman class, needed the seniors to be there for the frosh, to show them how it's done and get them into the program. But they haven't done that, and this is the result.
As a result, we'll be even worse next year, because the freshmen--sophomores to be--won't know how to act as the new team leaders, and they won't be able to pass it along to the new freshmen class (another top class) coming in behind them.
And that's above and beyond Howland's issues.