Basketball kaleidoscope: 'The thing that amazes me is they don’t foul'

After the Bruins whipped Xavier, 76-59, to win the West Regional, Musketeer Coach Sean Miller was asked what makes UCLA so tough. His answer was instructive:

"The thing that amazes me about UCLA’s defense is they don’t foul. I mean, they are physical, they blitz and trap every pick and roll you set, they trap the low post, they pressure the ball, they sometimes have four players on the court who are 6-7 or taller and they don’t foul. I’m telling you, if you play as hard as they do and have the size that they do and the strategy and that offensive team can’t put fouls on them, it’s really, really hard to score.

"We got one foul on Kevin Love in the first four minutes and I got excited. If we’d have played 200 more minutes, he would not have picked his second foul up. He doesn’t foul. It will be interesting in San Antonio as the best of the best goes there because, again, when you play that hard and you’re that physical and you trap; [for example,] transition defense, they fly back in transition defense like all teams do and if you set a ball screen, that 6-9, 270-pound player stops, runs dead opposite to half court and blitzes the ball screen, turns, runs full speed to the hoop and a lot of action is happening and they don’t foul. And you have to make field goals and I like the way Derrick [Brown] answered it, we can play better than we played today and at the same time, UCLA’s defense is obviously outstanding. The team that cracks it will probably be hitting on all cylinders and I would be curious to see if they can put four more fouls on UCLA and get to the foul line more themselves and to me, that’s the key against playing their defense because the things that they are able to do without fouling are against all odds."

The Bruins have been among the national leaders all season in fewest fouls called against them, ranking fifth at 14.2 per game. UCLA actually had more fouls than Xavier yesterday: 19 to 15.

>> The All-West Regional team included Kevin Love (Most Valuable Player), Darren Collison and Russell Westbrook, plus Tyrone Brazelton from Western Kentucky and Josh Duncan of Xavier.

>> Bruin Coach Ben Howland was on the CBS pre-game show today before Memphis’ 85-67 win over Texas. Highlights:

"Our team is really doing a good job of playing well down the stretch of games. Obviously, we’ve been in some close games. We had a very difficult game against Texas A&M in the second round. Western Kentucky gave us a great game and came back on us when we had a big lead. We played very well against Xavier yesterday, but no question, we’re playing good basketball right now and I feel good about our team."

Asked about the impact of Love, he said, "First of all, Kevin is a great competitor. He really, really brings a competitive spirit that I think is special for a young man his age. He’s playing his best basketball during the NCAA Tournament and he’s had an unbelievable year, an All-American year. He’s a great rebounder, a great outlet passer, an outstanding post force inside offensively, which is something we’ve lacked our previous two Final Four runs, on a consistent basis. So he’s had a great all-around game."

Asked if he was happy not to see Florida in San Antonio, Howland said: "They had a great team the last two years, one of the best teams you can say over the last 10 years, maybe more. But this year is no exception. When you look at today’s game between Memphis and Texas, who would you rather have? Each team is great. Texas beats us here at Pauley Pavilion earlier in the year, so we’re familiar with them. [John] Calipari has done an unbelievable job with Memphis, they’ve only lost one game all year, so this tournament is so tough, there’s no easy team. So whoever wins it, it’s truly going to be a great team."

Asked if he planned to change his Final Four preparations after losing in the Final Four the last two years, Howland said: "No, not really. I really believe this is our best team in the last three years and the reason is because we have six players who played on either both of those teams who went to the Final Four or at least last year’s Final Four. So we have all that experience returning and then we add the best post player coming out of high school in the country, Kevin Love, who’s lived up [to] and beyond all the hype and all the expectation. He’s absolutely terrific and it’s just amazing; you think about all the pressure he’s dealt with from the media and all the attention, all the expectation and yet he’s delivered more then anybody expected . . . except, of course, for himself and my view. I knew Kevin would be this good."