The kid has played 3 games and he is 2-1 with a loss against a very solid Georgetown team on a neutral floor and some are already writing off his entire career at UCLA and Ben Howland is already fired.
You can't make this stuff up sometimes.
Ben Howland has been doing a horrible job for several years now. You can't make that up.
Not sure "several" is the right word. Most folks regard "several" as more than a "few". and within a "few", you find a a final four. Within "several", you'll find 3 final fours, five 23+ win seasons, three 30+ win seasons. The last two years he's 42-25 with a 2nd round Tourney appearnance, + a 3-1 start to this season. And for recruiting, he's got 7 McDonalds All Americans on this years squad, and 3 blue chips signed their LOIs last week for next season.
As for Kyle, he's was injured early in his second game - deep bone bruise on the wrist of his shooting/passing hand. Right now he can't hit the broadside of a barn. But he IS leading the the in rebouding with over 9 a game. 2nd on the team in assists (he can pass with Either hand). The reason he's not leading the team is that senior transfer Larry Drew is is setting a pace in assists that if he maintains, will shatter the UCLA assists record - getting 8 1/2 a game, on pace for over 300 assissts. Bruin records are 7.6 a game, 236 in a season. And Drew has an ungodly 5.5:1 assist to Turnover ratio (8 assissts, 1 turnover vs Starks last night). Kyle was 6 assists 3 turnovers vs Whittington.
And Ben got rid of a lot of the crazies from last year. Things have stabilized a bit, but I was a bit surprised by Kyle Sr's comment. He usually plays it tight to the vest.
What I don't get about Srs. comment is that Kyle got 3 1/2 assists and 6 rebs for Hurley last year. He's getting 3 1/2 assists and 9 rebs for Howland. The only place he's down is scoring, and that has more to do with his 24% FG, 0% 3s and 47% FTs (which, again, I attribute to his injured wrist) than to how he's being "used"....
Right now, Kyle's value is his rebounding - far and away the best on the team. Drew's ability to handle the Passing duties is allowing Kyle to work the boards - which with the personell as it is, is where he's needed most. With Shabazz back, that may change - if he takes up some of that rebounding slack, that could free up Kyle for more pg responsibily. The team is certainly going to evolve as the season progresses.
Lost in all the "Shabazz is back" and "Kyle sucks" hoopla is that frosh Jordan Adams again led the team in scoring. The first frosh in UCLA history to start his career with 3 straight 20 pt games,stretched the streak to 4, with 22 last night. Fan board geeks are checking to see if any Bruin freshman has ever had 4 straight 20 pt games....