How much do you think Ben Howland is missing Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook right now?
How much do you think John Calipari is missing Derrick Rose and Chris Douglas-Roberts right now?
The answer is the same to both questions: A lot.
How about a whole heck of a lot?
Sure, the preseason polls had the Bruins ranked No. 4 and the Tigers ranked No. 13 to start the year, but both Howland and Calipari know that that their respective rankings are merely based more on the potential of their teams than the way they are playing at the moment.
The Bruins, for one, looked totally confused in their loss last Thursday night in the semifinals of the 2K Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden, letting Michigan coach John Beilein’s 1-3-1 zone eat them alive in the second half after staging a 29-23 halftime lead.
With little inside scoring to lean on (a total of 15 points from Josh Shipp, James Keefe and Alfred Aboya), UCLA struggled in the final 20 minutes against the Wolverines, shooting just 33.3 percent (8-for-24) from the field and 25 percent (2-for-8) from three.
Michigan, on the other hand, burned through the net in that same time, shooting 61 percent (13-for-21) from the floor and 50 percent (4-for-8) from long range to spark what some might point to later on this season as the program-changing win that Beilein needed to turn things around in Ann Arbor.
"It was a great win for our team," Beilein said after his team finally beat a ranked opponent for the first time in 13 tries. "Early season wins are terrific, but you have to put them in perspective."
Howland, meanwhile, knows this isn’t nearly the same kind of team that he had last year, and to be honest, it probably won’t be by the time the calendar turns March, either.
After all, you don’t just replace two NBA lottery picks and a second rounder in a matter of months.
"It's early and we're a very young team," Howland said regarding the loss to Michigan.
But Howland’s teams seem to overachieve more often than they underachieve, in part due to his tough, physical man-to-man defense, and while the Bruins didn’t happen to raise a 12th national championship banner in Pauley Pavilion last year after suffering a third straight defeat in the Final Four, UCLA is still the favorite to win a much weaker Pac-10 this season.
Those sorts of expectations are realistic for a team that boasts arguably the nation’s top point guard (Darren Collison) and top freshman (Jrue Holiday), but it won’t be easy even so.
Likewise, it won't be easy out in Graceland, as the expectations are plenty high and plenty realistic for Memphis, too.
Yet after last year’s heartbreaking loss to Kansas in the national championship game, the Tigers are nowhere near the same kind of team that they were a year ago.
That’s no secret to Calipari, of course.
"This year's team is so different from last year's team and the year before," he said following Memphis’ loss to Xavier Sunday in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off championship game. "Hopefully, we get better as the season goes on. I want guys to make plays and play to win."
Nevertheless, Memphis is expected by most to plow through Conference USA — still thought to be one of the worst conferences, along with the WAC and SWAC, in college basketball — with one of the nation’s top frontcourts (Shawn Taggart, Robert Dozier and Pierre Henderson-Niles) and another potential one-and-done freshman (Tyreke Evans).
Unfortunately for UCLA and Memphis fans, though, believing that either team can return to the Final Four this season might be wishful thinking.
Because even with all the freshmen talent that has come into the college game the past two seasons and into Howland’s and Calipari’s programs, Kansas made it clear last year that a team filled with experienced sophomores, juniors and seniors is really the best prepared to cut down the nets when that clock hits 0:00 in early April.
To check out my latest power rankings, click here.
