Postgame Talk: Another Listless Effort Still Ends With UCLA Defeating Pepperdine 74-63

On a positive note, Eric Dailey Jr. is back!

Eric Dailey Jr. (Photo credit: @UCLAMBB)

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There are two ways to look at UCLA’s production against Pepperdine, and really their play in general through the first two official games of the regular season. On the one hand, this is still a team getting used to each other as it integrates a new interior and, more importantly, a new lead guard, which means players are spending a lot of their time on the court learning each other’s tendencies and how to play off each other. There are moments of brilliance (the fast break where Eric Dailey grabbed a loose ball with one hand and, while falling, shoved the ball towards Donovan Dent, who threw a great look-ahead pass to a streaking Trent Perry, who finished the fast break with a layup), but there are also moments of sloppy play where you can see the team is still working on their communication, and that means they are simply beating their outmatched opponents instead of blowing them out of the water.

Then there is the other way to look at this team, which is that it is a UCLA squad with clear deficiencies that may not be addressed in time to make for a truly elite season, and the lackadaisical effort on display is indicative of a team that thinks it is much better than it actually is. I lean towards the former, but your mileage may vary.

In any case, UCLA’s 74-63 victory over Pepperdine was, much like UCLA so far, very up and down, as the Bruins were never in real danger of losing this game, but allowed Pepperdine to play a competitive basketball game for far longer than was reasonable to expect. There were some positive performances and some negatives, and the question going into next week is whether this team is the one that won exhibition games against San Diego State and UC Irvine convincingly or the one that has struggled to put away Eastern Washington and Pepperdine.

I’m going to talk about the negatives first, and you have to start with the effort level, which was again lacking. UCLA is very much sleepwalking through these first few games, which is understandable if you consider the talent disparity between the Bruins and their opponents, but not what you would ideally like to see from a Top 25 team (then again, I watched Purdue struggle with Oakland earlier today, so maybe first-week results don’t truly matter all that much?). Nothing speaks to that more than the shooting numbers Pepperdine put up; the Bruin defense actually held Pepperdine to 34% shooting, but the Waves put up nine more shots than the Bruins in large part because UCLA did not give enough effort on the defensive glass. Pepperdine grabbed 15 offensive rebounds on 40 missed shots, which is a ridiculous amount, and that led to 17 second-chance points. I’ll come back to the defense more in a second, because outside of Tyler Bilodeau, it was much improved, but rebounding is about effort more than anything, and UCLA was much too passive in that regard.

Speaking of Bilodeau, he had his second-straight disaster game, finishing with only nine points on 4-9 shooting while being the biggest problem for the Bruins defensively. Bilodeau should, theoretically, be a better defender this season thanks to moving back to his more natural position at the four, but he looks even more lost than last year, and is having all sorts of issues understanding the switching aspect of the defense. Ironically, Bilodeau might be a better big given his lack of athleticism, but his size betrays him at that spot. And the offensive performance from him today was not nearly good enough to support his poor defense; +/- has Bilodeau as the best performer for UCLA at +11, but when you get into the other advanced stats, you find that Bilodeau was by far the worst Bruin that logged significant minutes. He has to be better in general.

I thought the defense was improved in this game, in large part because Xavier Booker continues his excellent growth. Booker was by far UCLA’s best player in this game, scoring a team-leading 15 points on 5-8 shooting (and 4-4 from the free throw line) while also tying for the team lead in rebounds with five and chipping in five blocks. Reports about Booker from practice are that he is incredibly coachable, and he seems to be getting more comfortable playing the five defensively, using his length and athleticism to challenge offensive players. He still has some flaws on that end, particularly against bigger bodies that can move him off the spot, but given the talent level at other spots in the lineup, UCLA just needed a big man that could be a contributor on both ends, and Booker is on the right path to providing just that. Similarly, I thought Steven Jamerson was fine in limited action; he only played nine minutes thanks to Booker’s exceptional play, but managed four rebounds in that time. I thought he got jobbed by the refs a bit in the second half, but again, if Jamerson can provide a solid backup big role while Booker provides solid starting minutes, that would go a long way towards raising the ceiling on this team.

The other player that I thought had an excellent night was Trent Perry. He might have only finished with nine points, but he was efficient with the ball on offense and was a big problem for Pepperdine defensively, as his size and physicality gave the Waves all sorts of problems. In fact, it was Perry’s insertion into the lineup that sparked the first big run by the Bruins, and he is earning more and more of Mick Cronin’s trust, which will be important as the season progresses.

Speaking of guys with Mick Cronin’s trust, Eric Dailey Jr. is back! The junior wing sat out the exhibitions and UCLA’s opener against Eastern Washington while working his way back from a leg injury, but he looked fine in this game, scoring 10 points on 3-4 shooting and grabbing four rebounds. You could see that Dailey was definitely playing a bit tentatively, as he is readjusting to playing against real opponents and alongside some new faces, but this was a good first outing back. Cronin said after the game that Dailey played more minutes than he initially wanted, but that does speak to how indispensable he is to the team. There were the usual moments where Dailey’s effort slips, but I think you can forgive him for at least one night.

Donovan Dent had an off night shooting but still finished with 12 points and four assists. His assist numbers would have been much higher if anyone could hit an open three tonight, but UCLA as a team shot just 23.8% (5-21) from behind the arc, with Dailey and Skyy Clark hitting two three-pointers each (and Bilodeau and Perry each going 0-4). UCLA is a much better shooting team this year, and Dent gave everyone plenty of open looks, so I would not look too much into those numbers.

The Bruins have one more tune-up game next week against West Georgia before the big matchup against Arizona. Here’s hoping there are more tweaks in the future.

Go Bruins!

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