The Bruins will continue their Desert Trip tonight when they play the Arizona State Sun Devils tonight in Tempe. The Sun Devils have lost their last four games and seven of their last eight.
So, Bobby Hurley doesn’t have his squad playing as well as he has had in the past. In fact, they have played better in their past two games against Arizona and Southern Cal
So, don’t look for tonight’s game to be a cakewalk.
The Bruins will need to come out and play the tenacious defense they played last week and they will need to shoot the ball better than they did on Thursday night.
That could be a tough task considering that ASU is holding opponents to .400 shooting (440-of-1101) from the field so far this season. That is the best defensive effort by the Sun Devils since the 1971-72 team held opponents to .399 (797-of-1997).
Let’s look at the starting five for the Sun Devils.
Starting Five
The Sun Devils are led by sophomore guard DJ Horne. The transfer from Illinois State is averaging 13.3 points per game, but he was virtually silent on Thursday against Southern Cal when he scored just four points. The Bruins will need to take away the three from Horne, who has made 38.3% of his team-leading 133 three-point attempts. That’s more than half of Horne’s shot attempts. So, his propensity is to shoot from long distance.
Forward Kimani Lawrence is second on the team in scoring with an average of 10.6 ppg. The grad student from Providence, Rhode Island also leads the team in rebounds with an average of 7.1 per game.
No other current starter is averaging in double figures for the season. Marcus Bagley, who would be starting, injured his knee and has played just three games this season.
Of the remaining three starters, sophomore guard Jay Heath has been contributing the most. Heath is averaging 9.8 ppg and he is shooting 39.6% from beyond the arc. That’s the best three-point percentage on the team.
While junior forward Jalen Graham has been averaging just 8.2 ppg, he did lead the team in points on Thursday night against the Trojans with 19.
The final starter against Southern Cal was Alonzo Gaffney. He didn’t score anything on Thursday, but is averaging 3.7 ppg.
The biggest Sun Devil threat off the bench looks to be Marreon Jackson. Jackson is a grad transfer from Toledo, where he average 14.3 ppg over the course of four seasons. So far this year, Jackson is averaging just 8.1 ppg for ASU but he leads the team in steals with 22 for the season.
Outlook
Tonight’s game looks like to will be a low scoring affair. Considering the Sun Devils are playing their best overall defense since the 71-72 season and the fact that UCLA has been playing very good defense as well, tonight’s game could be one where the first to 50 points wins.
I do expect the Bruins to come out on top and I think UCLA will play better than they did Thursday night. I’m thinking UCLA will likely win by at least five points, and they very well may win by more than 10 points.
Listen to the Game With TMB!
TuneIn.com now has UCLA’s games listed as “premium” content. So, rather than using TuneIn, you can just listen through the official website like we have done with the small sports for a long time in order to listen to Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray call today’s game, but why would you want to? Yes, you guessed it! National treasure Bill Walton is working the game tonight with Dave Pasch on the ESPN2. How could you not want to listen to Big Red? But if you don’t, just be sure to right-click on it so that you can open up another tab and have it going while you chat in the comments below. Listen to today’s game online.
In the meantime, here’s how to watch today’s game:
This is your #3 UCLA Bruins at the Arizona State Sun Devils game thread.
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I would love to see Bernard develop a quicker release like Juzang. Bernard’s shot is accurate enough but looks like he takes too long to spot up and shoot
U!
C!
A! clap clap clap!
Go Bruins!
Let's go,, Bruins!!
Riley should dominate inside
He moved faster under the basket which is key. Liking that!
Juze hits, let's hope he's on tonight!
Nice effort by Jules trying to force the turnover
1001 points for Bernard!!!
Cody looks ready!
Jaime!
Once again we are not getting the bounce.
Wow just wow! Juzang with the crazy shot and a foul!
When you're hot, you're hot, Johnny-- keep shooting!
Thanks, Juze!
ASU basically throwing up prayers from outside, and occasionally they're answered...
8 of their 13 shots from 3.. this does not bode well for their endgame
Dammit, Myles, put it back on when you grab a board!! He keeps kicking it out! At the very least, he'll likely get fouled on the put-back
Bernard with the 3!
Big first half for Jaime!
Love Jules picking up that charge! Way to take one for the team!! :-)
UCLA shooting well… defense struggling a bit, but now the threes are falling could put this game out of reach for asu fast
Yeah, ASU only shooting 37% from the field right now
7 assists and zero turnovers so far as well
til now LOL
Riley travels but that's because the ASU player is holding by the waist!
Ugh Riley is too talented to fall for a chair pull like that
We need to keep feeding it inside; we can dominate in the paint and put their big in foul trouble
LOL Yup! 2 on Gaffney!
And he is complaining every time!
Yah, I saw that.. like he had a prayer of blocking that last one!
Why do other teams literally flatten Tyger and it never gets called?!
5 minutes scoreless from the field...
Gaffney's replacement, Boakye, looks a little lost on defense; we need to take advantage of some rolls from top of the key
Singleton far better than Watson at this point in the season. ASU goes on this run with Watson on the floor
Bobby Hurley on the court behind Bernard before he shot that 3 should be a technical
Agreed… I thought that was against the rules
Hurley is something special...
especially bad...
TBH the guy drive me nuts. I grew up on UNLV basketball so you know the rest of the story!
It is
I'm sure Cronin pointed that out to the refs after it happened; hoping for a reoccurrence so refs can finally call it
Need to find an answer for Jackson
Watson really hurting ucla offensively and defensively unfortunately
He's been sitting for the last 90 seconds, so let's see what happens
Juzang needs to take more shots
Right on queue! Juzang shoot it
Moving screens also against the rules
I would love to see Bernard develop a quicker release like Juzang. Bernard’s shot is accurate enough but looks like he takes too long to spot up and shoot
Give it to juzang Campbell!!!
Literally half of ASU's shots from 3 pt line; the ultimate "live by the three, die by the three" team
Pretty even statistically, except for made 3s and the fact they are somehow dominating us on the boards-- perhaps long rebounds from their long shots?
We should be ahead with the stats!
Never fear! Mick's got this one. The D will be intense in the 2nd half.
It better be!
Why sit Johnny down for that foul? It was a good shot and good follow
Riley!!
Man… ucla can’t buy a bucket… looking like a letdown game
What a terrible start to the half-- we still haven't scored
Getting out of control!
I thought we’d come out with some fire, but we’re flat and soft.
sigh...
ASU playing the best game of their season. We better put in all out effort to avoid an upset.
Could not have a worse start to the half.
Game over… ucla scored like 4 points in the last 10 minutes. Definite let down game. This should drop them into the teens for sure
Not over. They need to pull themselves together and start playing their game.
LOL Waayy too early!!
He’s baaack!
Good night, Bruin fans, It's late an cold out here on the wrong coast. Go Bruins!