Post Love, UCLA still has something Bruin'
Posted: Saturday, April 19, 2008 4:27 PM
Filed Under:
Freshmen, Pac-10
If there’s ever a time to feel sorry for UCLA – 11 NCAA titles? Share the wealth, Westwood! – this week was the time. For about 5 seconds.
Losing Kevin love and Russell Westbrook on the same day is par for the course in college hoops today. Star players bolt for the NBA. That’s the nature of today’s game. (Bruins fans should appreciate they even got to see Love.)
But having your starting power forward declare a day later just aggravates the wound. Waiting to see if your starting point guard is also leaving may mean some amputation.
Unless, of course, you’re UCLA. Ben Howland was prepared for this eventuality.
The Bruins may not reach their fourth straight Final Four next season, but they’re going to be in the hunt for the Pac-10 title and will be one to watch in the NCAA Tournament because of their incoming recruiting class and their top-flight coach. Forget anything you read about struggles in 2009. Won’t happen.
Ben Howland has put together perhaps the nation’s best recruiting class, and may have the nation’s best player in Jrue Holiday (think Derrick Rose and how crucial one player can be to March success). Also, the odds of Mbah a Moute staying in the NBA draft are as good as Coach K refraining from cussing. The odds of Darren Collison also playing next year are probably 50-50.
That means the Bruins will still have their sturdy frontcourt, just without Love’s skills and possibly an upgrade from Westbrook.
Sigh. At this point, please refrain from any thoughts about a localized earthquake on the Bruins campus. It won’t do any good. They’d just figure out a way to re-build and keep winning.
