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UCLA Basketball: What the Bruins should look for in a coach

By James Puryear

LOUISVILLE, KY - MARCH 28: John Wooden the former coach at UCLA is pictured after the boys game at the McDonald's All American High School Basketball Games on March 28, 2007 at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LOUISVILLE, KY - MARCH 28: John Wooden the former coach at UCLA is pictured after the boys game at the McDonald's All American High School Basketball Games on March 28, 2007 at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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WESTWOOD, CA – NOVEMBER 27: Chip Kelly speaks to the media during a press conference after being introduced as the new UCLA Football head coach on November 27, 2017 in Westwood, California. (Photo by Josh Lefkowitz/Getty Images)
WESTWOOD, CA – NOVEMBER 27: Chip Kelly speaks to the media during a press conference after being introduced as the new UCLA Football head coach on November 27, 2017 in Westwood, California. (Photo by Josh Lefkowitz/Getty Images) /

Trust the Process

Chip Kelly had quite the run at Oregon. He posted a 46-7 record, multiple conference championships, 4 straight BCS bowl appearances, two BCS Bowl wins and a national championship appearance.

A lot of people attribute that success to some kind of wizardry with his schemes, but the truth is that his process for executing his schemes was more important than whatever game plans he cooked up.

Sports almost always comes down to the fundamentals. Can you catch, block, or tackle? (Football) Can you shoot, dribble, or pass? (Basketball)

In almost every game, winning and losing generally comes down to who does those things better.  There’s no way around it. The best coaches are the ones whose teams most consistently execute on fundamentals.

Well coached teams don’t beat themselves

In a similiar vein, a mark of well coached teams is that they don’t shoot themselves in the foot.

More from UCLA Bruins Basketball

The match ups between UCLA and Stanford in the Mora era highlight the importance of this.

Every year UCLA would be competing part way through the game, but the Bruins (who led the conference in penalties every year) would would stall their drives, or extend Cardinal possessions due to penalties.

Meanwhile Stanford, who almost never gets penalized, would force the Bruins to stop all of their drives on defense, and earn every yard on offense.

In the end, UCLA never won a contest in 7 attempts. Was it because of penalties alone? No, but it played a large factor.

All in all, there’s a fairly simple string of commonalities amongst consistently great teams: they are fundamentally sound and they don’t beat themselves.

If a team does those things, chances are they’ve got a good coach.