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DEL.ICIO.USAfflalo assumes leadership role for UCLA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
San Jose, Calif. — You had tradition against tradition Saturday night at HP Pavilion, where there was enough college basketball history to spread from here to John Wooden’s house to James Naismith’s grave. That was significant only until the opening tipoff. Then it became UCLA against Kansas, with the opportunity for one of them to become the team of now along the way to the Final Four.
That team wasn’t Kansas, an impressive bunch, but one without something that UCLA clearly had.
A main guy.
While UCLA had Arron Afflalo again and again when the Bruins needed him most, Kansas tried to have Brandon Rush, the Jayhawks’ gifted sophomore. Instead, he joined the rest of his teammates in a desperate search for a leader down the stretch that they didn’t have.
The result was an Afflalo-led explosion midway through the second half that produced a 68-55 victory for UCLA and a reality for Kansas: You still need leadership with talent. Despite the Jayhawks’ overwhelming number of McDonald’s All-Americans, they nevertheless played like what they are, and that is a collection of freshmen and sophomores.
“We played young when we got behind,” said Kansas coach Bill Self, delivering his version of saying that the Jayhawks hadn’t anything close to a main guy.
As a result, Kansas was clueless against a team with more than a few players back from a group that reached last year’s championship game. Those UCLA returnees begin and end with Afflalo, a first-time All-America guard, who scored 15 of his 24 points in the second half. He also willed the Bruins to a record 17th trip to the Final Four.
“He’s been our leader, and we go to him in big games, and he was feeling it today” said UCLA’s Josh Shipp, with Afflalo squirming nearby.
We’re talking about a humble leader. So despite Afflalo’s splendid ways throughout the evening, which included a 3-pointer at the end of the shot clock and another while falling awkwardly toward his left, he deflected credit.
“You know, it really wasn’t me individually. It was the whole mind-set of our entire team,” Afflalo said. “I was just fortunate enough to make the jump shots tonight, but we went into the locker room [at halftime] talking about playing for 40 minutes, playing together, and we just kept that aggressive nature, and it proved to be effective for us.”
Twenty minutes. That’s all that separated the Bruins from Atlanta after they surged near the end of first half for a 35-31 advantage. Afflalo was the catalyst to it all, and such also was the case when he began the second half with a fastbreak layup after a rousing block by Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and that 3-pointer near the end of the shot clock. Before long, UCLA was rolling at least toward the outskirts of Douglas County with an 11-point lead (46-35), and Kansas was stumbling back toward Lawrence.
The Jayhawks were in desperate need of something.
Rush, to be exact. He was fine at the start for the Jayhawks by doing all sorts of things to make Afflalo look ordinary by comparison. When Rush wasn’t scoring from up close or from afar, he was blocking shots. In contrast, Afflalo sort of disappeared for a while.
Then Afflalo surfaced near the end of the first half. With UCLA shooting away Kansas’ momentum that became a 29-23 lead inside the final five minutes before intermission, Afflalo scored from the corner and then from the lane. More impressive, he dribbled patiently at the top of the key with the clock ticking and ticking before shoveling to Shipp for a 3-pointer and that 35-31 lead for the Bruins.
That’s when Rush vanished for the rest of the evening. He scored just seven of his 18 points in the second half, and many of those seven came long after UCLA unofficially had completed its trip from Douglas County to the Georgia Dome.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Final Four, Terence Moore
Comments
By gdg73
March 25, 2007 8:13 PM | Link to this
Who cares about UCLA? How do you feel about the Matt Schaub trade? Do you believe we traded the wrong QB too? We’ve already heard from Jim Crow, Jr. (Bisher) on the topic. What’s your take?
By mdl
March 25, 2007 9:22 PM | Link to this
To all you stupid guys who are still worried about Mike Vick’s water bottle,get over it .The guy did’nt say there WAS jewelry in it , he said he HAD jewelry in it. He was wearing it when he came through. Stop worrying about stupid misdemeanor stuff and try falling asleep in your house while a rape is taking place and not revealing who was there.