This notion that UCLA is down is patently ridiculous. The UCLA senior class is UCLA basketball. Darren Collison, Josh Shipp, Alfred Aboya, and Michael Roll have been logging serious minutes since UCLA went on this run. They each have three final fours under their belt--Shipp actually having four. Add to that redshirt junior, James Keefe.
The stars like Farmar, Love, Westbrook, etc have come and gone. None staying for more than two years, but the team keeps rolling because of the core I listed above.
You add to them two future lottery pick guards in Jrue Holliday and Malcom Lee and they still have as much talent 1-3 as any team in the country--if not more.
They might be a little light up front, but they also have one of the top four coaches in the country.
Aboya, Keefe and Roll are role players. UCLA lost 53% of their mins played, 58% of their scoring and 66% of their rebounding but you think they're not down. Let me clarify, by down I mean they are more a 10-25 team than a surefire final four pick . . . it is all relative. Yes the frosh guards are good but what they really need is Gordon or Morgan to make an impact as a frosh. A little light up front is a bit of an understatement.
I don't think you are giving those three enough credit. Keefe was HUGE for them late and Aboya and Roll were more than role players, and would probably start at 95% of the schools in the country.
You are exactly right that what they need is Morgan or Gordon to step up, but the signature of Howland's UCLA teams has been defense and guard play. Before Love, they didn't really have a terrific big man.
I think Aboya and Keefe make up a very nice front. Will they have trouble against a frontline of a UNC or G'town? Probably. But their guard play can hang with UNC and outplay G'town by a good margin.
Maybe not but I go to a couple games a year and lots of my friends are season ticket holding alums. And as many agree with me as you.
Yes, Keefe was extremely highly touted out of HS and finally reached half of his potential last year in the tournament, but he hasn't excelled yet this year. Aboya is a role playing big, doesn't do anything tremendously (he's playing over 30 and rebounding less than JB) and Roll is eh, although he can get hot from the outside.
No Howland team is ever going to suck but this team at least in November (kind of makes this discussion pointless but still fun) is nowhere near as good as any of the last three unless Jrue plays up to the standards of Afflalo and Westbrook (he well may but those standards are pretty high and neither of them did it as frosh) and one of the frosh provide an interior presence of some sort. Of course it's early and my opinion has every right to change every Friday through March.
Oh and Collison is shooting 50% from 3 again this year but the rest of the team is shooting 30%.
One more thing I don't like so far is that Collison is the only guy averaging more than 10 pts per game so far. I guess it's fair to say that they're all having a slow start but really he's the PG, someone else needs to step up and score.