So do we think that Ben Howland has any control over his team right now?
I’m completely serious when I ask that. At this point, how could he?
Not even a week after Reeves Nelson was reinstated following a suspension for being late to a team meeting, Nelson missed the team’s bus to the airport for their flight to Hawaii for the Maui Invitational. He had to take a later plane, a trip on which he apparently played quite a bit of Family Feud.
That UCLA team is a mess. They’ve lost by 11 to a Loyola Marymount that is now 1-2 with losses to Middle Tennessee State and Harvard. They followed that loss with a bigger debacle, losing their date with MTSU by twenty. Nelson, their “leader” and best player, is physically unable to show up to a team function in a punctual manner. Their center, Josh Smith, cares less about being in shape than Renardo Sidney does. Their back court probably is better suited to playing in the WAC than in the Pac-12 even in a down season for the Pac-12.
And this is how the Bruins are marketing themselves as they are trying to land the nation’s most coveted player in Shabazz Muhammad?
Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @ballinisahabit.