Bruins Fall Short To Kansas In Hawaii, 72-56

It wasn’t like anyone really expected UCLA to beat a ranked team who’s a traditional power.

And that’s exactly what happened as Ben Howland once again started badly against the 14th ranked Kansas Jayhawks with 11 turnovers and Lazeric Jones and Travis Wear missed all of their shots, 0 for 8 combined, as the Bruins had a 17 point deficit in the first half.

To their credit, UCLA made a game of it in the second half before losing to Kansas, 72-56, in the semi-finals of the Maui Invitational. The now 1-3 Bruins will next play Michigan in the third place game tonight.

Tyler Lamb and Jerime Anderson led UCLA with 15 and 14 points, respectively, and Reeves Nelson came off the bench to score 12 points of his own. His five rebounds led the team.

Josh Smith had his absolute worst day as a Bruin, as he scored only one point – a free throw – in 13 minutes before fouling out,  grabbing one rebound, committing two turnovers, and making no field goals in the process.

Now everyone say it with me:  PATHETIC!!!!

I could have done better than what Smith did against the Jayhawks, and I’m in my mid-forties!

Howland said that Smith’s conditioning was, and is, an issue; “It’s evident,” he stated after the game.

For the game, the Bruins shot 36.4%, putting up a nice pile of bricks.

There’s not much more to say about this fiasco, except that I truly hope this is not a precursor of things to come.