might as well have been pauley mausoleum. sparse crowd, few students, no energy. bruins, coming off a heartbreaking loss at kansas, clearly overlooked us. you expected them to wake up, especially second half, but these bruins remained in hibernation. add a few more montana free throws and subtract two late bruin threes, and this was a 20 point montana win. plenty many reasons for uclans to be upset.
still, despite ucla's lethargy, there's an important point bruin fans are missing: at two key postitions, point guard and center, montana was the better team. they could not stop cherry's drives to the basket, and neither of their young centers was as good as quale. toss in selvig's height, and montana presented a major test for them. unless their young center matures quickly, ucla is going to have the same problems all year long.
other observations:
--hey! we're good! what a treat to have the quickest slickest player on the court, not to mention two talented seven-footers in the lineup at the same time. now that cherry has improved his shooting, i think there'll be a lot of pac-ten teams that regret missing out on him. (saw one last night.)
--we should only get better, especially as jamar and reader improve, and steward adjusts to the college game, but...
--we gotta improve the free-throwing. missed the front end of four consecutive one-and-one's down the stretch. a.j. was a late-game luxury we don't have this year.
--our warmups are ug-LEE! you couldn't design baggy-frumpier if you tried. unlike our football uniforms, no style points at all. and they've been wearing the same ugly duds for years now. can't we do better?
--qualve must learn to pass out of double teams. he'll see a lot of them the rest of the year, and he can't bull his way to the basket. but once he does that, and perhaps develops a 15-foot jumper, he's pro material.
--finally...cherry!!!!
still, despite ucla's lethargy, there's an important point bruin fans are missing: at two key postitions, point guard and center, montana was the better team. they could not stop cherry's drives to the basket, and neither of their young centers was as good as quale. toss in selvig's height, and montana presented a major test for them. unless their young center matures quickly, ucla is going to have the same problems all year long.
other observations:
--hey! we're good! what a treat to have the quickest slickest player on the court, not to mention two talented seven-footers in the lineup at the same time. now that cherry has improved his shooting, i think there'll be a lot of pac-ten teams that regret missing out on him. (saw one last night.)
--we should only get better, especially as jamar and reader improve, and steward adjusts to the college game, but...
--we gotta improve the free-throwing. missed the front end of four consecutive one-and-one's down the stretch. a.j. was a late-game luxury we don't have this year.
--our warmups are ug-LEE! you couldn't design baggy-frumpier if you tried. unlike our football uniforms, no style points at all. and they've been wearing the same ugly duds for years now. can't we do better?
--qualve must learn to pass out of double teams. he'll see a lot of them the rest of the year, and he can't bull his way to the basket. but once he does that, and perhaps develops a 15-foot jumper, he's pro material.
--finally...cherry!!!!
