Howland Is Unhappy With Week’s Schedule

UCLA needs practice. Anybody can see that after consecutive losses to Arizona, Stanford and California.

But quality practice time will be hard to come by this week. Instead of the usual Thursday-Saturday game schedule, the Bruins face USC on Wednesday, then fly to New York to face St. John’s in a nationally televised nonconference game Saturday morning.

The schedule irks UCLA Coach Ben Howland, who would prefer to play only USC and spend the rest of the week on the practice court.

Howland has made no secret of his disdain for filling the two open dates in the Pacific 10 Conference schedule with nonconference games, especially ones that require cross-country travel. But the schedule is out of his control -- it was filled long before he became coach last spring.

Notre Dame will visit Pauley Pavilion on UCLA’s second Pac-10 open date, Feb. 28.

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After posting consecutive double-doubles in victories over Washington and Arizona State, forward T.J. Cummings seemed to regress during the three-game losing streak that dropped UCLA to 9-6 overall and 5-3 in the Pac-10.

Cummings averaged 10 points in the losses, but made only 15 of 34 shots from the field, a significant drop from the 55.8% he shot in his first eight games since regaining academic eligibility.

Most distressing is his inability to get free throws. Cummings leads the team with an 87% mark from the line, but had no attempts in the last three games.

“T.J. likes to take the midrange jump shot, and he’s very accurate with it,” Howland said. “But we’ve got to get him the ball in the post where he can work a defender and get to the foul line.”

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Stanford and California took a hint from Arizona and used a zone defense against UCLA, daring the Bruins to shoot from outside.

Arizona, in its 97-72 victory over the Bruins on Jan. 17, played zone the entire way and UCLA made eight of 24 three-point attempts. The Bruins weren’t much better against the two Bay Area teams, making eight of 22 three-pointers.

“The biggest thing [against a zone] is being patient,” Howland said. “When you get down, a team has a tendency to lose patience. You want to get it back right away. You are down by eight, then you lose patience and you are down by 18.”

The return of guard Brian Morrison, sidelined with a hamstring injury since Dec. 20, could help against a zone. Morrison, the team’s best three-point shooter, will practice today and Tuesday, and could return against USC.