I love this part of the college basketball season. UCLA is in that part of the schedule where the Bruins are playing a team they don’t play very often or, in the case of tonight’s game, a team they’ve never played before. I enjoy that because it forces me to dig for some tidbits of info you may not know about the opponent.
Tonight, the UCLA Bruins host the University of North Florida. The North Florida Ospreys have lost their first four games of the season. It’s the final game of a five-game road trip for the Ospreys who opened the season against Texas Tech. Since then, North Florida has played Texas A&M, Grand Canyon University and Arizona State.
For what it’s worth, I find it interesting that the Ospreys lost to GCU by 14 points, 65-51, yet only lost to the Sun Devils by nine points, 72-63. Of course, that doesn’t mean a thing, but it does suggest that either the Ospreys are getting better or, perhaps, Bobby Hurley’s team may be the third best team in the state of Arizona.
North Florida was founded in 1965 but it didn’t open until 1972. So, it’s worth mentioning that by the time North Florida opened, UCLA had already won eight of the school’s eleven NCAA basketball titles.
The Jacksonville-based school has an enrollment of 17,304 students and they play in the ASUN Conference (formerly the Atlantic Sun Conference). Their all-time record as a Division I school is 213-297.
So, while Joe Bruin won’t hand Ozzie the Osprey his 300th Division I loss tonight, Mick Cronin does have the chance to hand North Florida head coach Matthew Driscoll his 199th loss at North Florida. Driscoll is 192-198 at the school and he is 218-274 overall. So, Cronin can also give Driscoll his 275th loss as a head coach.
From 1993 until 1997, Driscoll was the head coach at LaRoche University in McCandless, Pennsylvania. Since his time there, he has been an assistant at Wyoming, Clemson, Valparaiso and Baylor. He played his college ball at Greensboro College, but got his degree in 1992 while he was an assistant at Slippery Rock.
Junior Carter Henderson leads the team in scoring with an average of 15.0 points per game and Jose Placer is second with an average of 11.5 ppg. Dorian James leads the team in three-point shooting percentage with 42.1%, but he’s averaging just 6.5 points per game so far.
In other words, the Ospreys don’t look to be much of a challenge tonight for the Bruins.
Prediction: This game will be over in time for Law & Order: SVU.
This is your North Florida Ospreys at UCLA game thread.
UCLA Men’s Basketball (2-0)
Opponent: North Florida Ospreys (0-4)
Series Record: First meeting
When: 7:30 pm PT, Wednesday, November 17, 2021
Where: Pauley Pavilion, Los Angeles, CA
TV: Pac-12 Networks National and Los Angeles with J.B. Long and Don MacLean
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Definitely! He seems a lot more secure with the ball too. Some of it is getting older and more experience, but he's also had a coach who can develop his talent, too.
LOL
Yes. Fuck $c! Go Bruins!!
Love that guy
JFC! It has a nice ring to it
I agree. I hate to see those seats empty.
He must be pissed about that easy layup. We won’t be beating Gonzaga with this defense
He had some choice quotes in the LA Times about the defense in the Long Beach game!
Miles!
Great rebounding!
Great drive for Jaquez
Jules!
Nwuba with the block!
Looks like Juzang needs to give a little better effort getting out to their 3-point shooters.
I like that Watson has gotten going though!
Tyger Campbell is 9-16 on 3s so far this season including in todays game after shooting 25% last year
Now 10-17
AND the Bruins showed up.
North FL hasn’t scored since the under-8 TO I think.
And I think Campbell is the best Bruins PG since Collison and Westbrook were here.
He has really developed, hasn't he?
Amazing improvement from behind the arc
Definitely! He seems a lot more secure with the ball too. Some of it is getting older and more experience, but he's also had a coach who can develop his talent, too.
Thanks for the background stats!
UCLA scores 55 and is up 22 at half. This is against a team that played Texas tech and ASU relatively close
Thx for the updates! The Avs are in the third so I've missed the first half
Let's practice Full Court and Half Court presses. Let's hold them under 50 points. Lets play D D D. The entire 2nd half! Go Bruins!
Number 34, David Greenwood!
Jaime seems more aggressive ob D again. G'night, Mighty Bruins! Go Bruins!
Good night!
We need to get you some East coast friendly starts. G'night!
UCLA should be working on defense this half… they’ve clearly won, but they need to work on defending this half
Yup. Turn it into a practice and just drill those fundamentals
Tyger with the 3 from the pass from Johnson
About time to get some starters out.
Last game the crowd was chanting Stong's name until Coach put him in near the end
They are chanting we want Russell again!
Watson back in
Kyman has looked way off this season so far.. his shot is off
UCLA also going to be lucky to get 100 with the current line up in there
In comes Stong!
Singleton!
Now Singleton with the jam!
Holding the ball at 98...I'm absolutely good with that. Solid win, Bruins!!