Postgame Talk: Defense Again Fails to Travel for UCLA in 78-73 Loss to Minnesota

The Bruin offense was clicking again but hard to win many games when you allow your opponent to shoot 58% from the field.

Tyler Bilodeau (Photo credit: @UCLAMBB)

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The calendar is about to turn to March, and UCLA still cannot defend an opponent to save its life.

If you want a number to focus on following UCLA’s 78-73 loss to Minnesota, it is 58%. That is what UCLA allowed the Golden Gophers to shoot from the field. The Bruins only had one bout of sustained defense in this one, a stretch in the first half where the Bruins held Minnesota to 33% from the field in the final 10 minutes of the half, but they were unable to sustain that in the second half. Minnesota shot a ridiculous 62.5% from the field in the second half, with most of those baskets coming at the rim. And yes, Minnesota shot 52.2% from deep in the game, but most of those came in the first half - the Gophers were a more pedestrian 4-11 (36.4%) in the second half.

This was a case where UCLA simply could not find a defensive stop at any point. Credit to Minnesota for running their offense with confidence, but the flip side is that UCLA was overly aggressive on defense and consistently failed to communicate on switches, allowing Minnesota to generate easy looks. The worst part is that, in so many of UCLA’s defensive failings, you could point to a lack of Aday Mara as being the big problem, but this game was a reminder that UCLA’s perimeter defense is nonexistent. It is exceedingly frustrating that this team still cannot defend at even a baseline competency at this point in the season.

On offense, UCLA was generally good, carried in large part by a tremendous game from Tyler Bilodeau. Bilodeau was unguardable for most of this game, finishing with 32 points on 13-21 shooting, including four three-pointers. Every time that UCLA needed a basket, it turned to Bilodeau, and he usually delivered. The Bruins also got great performances from Skyy Clark (17 points on 6-9 shooting) and, surprisingly, Eric Dailey, who finished with 18 points on 8-10 shooting.

But there were some warts, starting with Trent Perry. The sophomore guard was a major problem today, forcing shots and going an abysmal 0-7 from the field. Perry is already a weak perimeter defender, so if he’s not contributing on the offensive end, it becomes harder to justify playing him big minutes. Xavier Booker was similarly a major problem on both ends, reverting to his unplayable form from earlier in the month (which, credit to Mick Cronin for recognizing that and only playing him 10 minutes).

I’m also going to put this game down as a hit-and-miss performance from Donovan Dent. On the positive end, he finished with 15 assists, which is ridiculous (even if more than a few of those were given because of simple entry passes to Bilodeau on the post). But he was also gambling way too often on the defensive end, which led to a number of easy baskets. And offensively, this was a game that really demanded UCLA be more aggressive attacking the lane and drawing contact; Minnesota is only running a lineup that is six deep, yet the Bruins too often settled for jump shots on the outside. Now, a lot of those jump shots went down, but Dent really needed to force the issue in the paint at times and instead settled for floaters and wild layup attempts. Dent finished with only three points on 1-6 shooting, and they really needed more from him on the offensive end.

My last takeaway at this point is one with two points. First, I don’t think UCLA is in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament at this point. The wins over Purdue and Illinois are good enough to boost them over a very muddy bubble at this point. But on the flip side, this team has too many warts to make a serious run in the NCAA Tournament. This is not to say they couldn’t pull off an upset to make the Sweet 16, but this team has too many problems to realistically make a run.

And that means that we are rapidly reaching a referendum point regarding the Cronin era, one that is going to arrive much sooner than he would like.

Go Bruins.

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