Maybe Mick Cronin still has something in his bag.
Trent Perry said in a postgame interview that many folks didn't expect the UCLA Bruins to beat the Arizona Wildcats in their season-opening game in Las Vegas today. I’ll raise my hand and state that I am one of them, as I said that Arizona would win 87-78 in my pregame Q&A with our old friends at AZ Desert Swarm.
So let me offer up a mea culpa here, as the Bruins ran out to an early lead and went wire-to-wire, beating Arizona 84-75 and announcing themselves as a team that can make plenty of noise this season.
Full credit to the Bruins at the start here for handling the pressure of an opening-day game with poise, never shrinking against an Arizona team that came into this game ranked 5th in the country and possessing an interior monster in Mo Krivas that UCLA did not have an answer to. UCLA only had seven turnovers for the entire game and did a good job of protecting the ball throughout. In addition, they also did not get flustered when having to deal with…let’s call it a questionable whistle from the stripes. UCLA was called for 26 fouls compared to 19 from Arizona (which, to point out, more than a few came in the final minutes as the Wildcats were trying to extend the game), with Mick Cronin having to juggle foul trouble among a host of players. Trent Perry only played five minutes in the first half after he made the poor decision of touching Krivas’s elbow with his face, and Xavier Booker only played two minutes thanks to similar foul trouble. Arizona entered the bonus at the 14:37 mark of the second half, and it did not get much better from there.
The Bruins also weathered a fantastic performance from Ivan Karchenkov. Arizona always seems to have one guy who just goes off against the Bruins for no reason, and in this game, that happened to be Karchenkov, who scored 38 points on 12-for-20 shooting (2-for-6 from three). Karchenkov was also the beneficiary of that favorable Zona whistle, as he went to the free-throw line a ridiculous 16 times, making 12 of them. Throw in his 10 rebounds, and Karchenkov was a force.
The problem for him, and where UCLA deserves plenty of credit, is that the defense made it impossible for Arizona to do much of anything else. Derek Dixon hit a few threes in the second half that ballooned his point total, but every other Wildcat was kept in check. Mo Krivas had a nightmare game, with UCLA really keying in on him on defense whenever he touched the ball. Krivas did not register a shot attempt in the first half and finished with only eight points on 2-for-4 shooting. Crucially, the Bruins also forced him into four turnovers on his own. Caleb Holt, a potential NBA lottery pick, had a debut to forget, finishing with only seven points on 2-for-7 shooting.
I said in the season preview that I felt this UCLA defense would be improved, and the Bruins rewarded my faith in this one. UCLA held Arizona to 36.7% shooting for the game and forced 11 turnovers from the Wildcats. UCLA seemed more than comfortable with goading the Wildcats into shooting three-pointers, and Arizona was more than happy to keep missing them, taking 30 shots from behind the line and only hitting seven of them (23.3%). Just as crucially, UCLA’s rebounding has improved by leaps and bounds; Arizona only grabbed 12 offensive rebounds compared to 29 defensive rebounds for the Bruins, and was only able to put in nine second-chance points. If you want one of the stories of the game besides the ridiculous officiating, I would point at UCLA’s ability to clean up on the glass.
UCLA’s offense wasn’t special, but what impressed me on that end was that they never got flustered. Trent Perry had himself a great game once he was finally allowed to play, finishing with a team-high 21 points on 4-for-12 shooting (2-for-4 from three). Every time Arizona made a run in the second half, it seemed like Perry was there with an answer, either hitting a big three-pointer or attacking the lane and drawing a foul to calm the team down. Perry also finished with zero turnovers, and I thought he did a great job of making the correct decision almost every time he had the ball. He did struggle with his awareness on defense, which did help spark a few Arizona runs, but when he’s operating at that level offensively, you can live with his lapses on the defensive end.
With Perry sitting due to foul trouble in the first half, Jaylen Petty and Azavier Robinson were called upon to carry the load, and they had a great response. Petty hit a bevy of deep shots, and while he’s going to need to work on his shot selection, you have to love his fearlessness on the offensive end. Robinson did not have an offensive impact, but his defense complementing Petty was tremendous, and those two keyed the initial UCLA run that gave them some cushion in the first half.
A lot of eyes were on Nikola Kusturica and how he would perform in his collegiate debut, and while there were some issues, he mostly held up well. Kusturica’s shot selection was wanting (rushing into five three-point attempts felt very much like a player trying to prove himself), but he made so many small plays that I loved. As the game progressed, he seemed to get more confident and was looking to get teammates involved, such as his great drive and kick-out to a wide-open Petty for a three in the second half. The play everyone is going to remember is his inbound pass to seal the game, when he led a leaking Eric Dailey perfectly for a dunk that essentially iced the game, but his defense and length gave Arizona plenty of problems, and you can’t complain that much about a 17-year-old who played 39 minutes in his debut.
Other Bruin performances I loved: Joe Philon gave a ton of energy and effort when he was in the game, and you can see why this staff is so high on him. His shot is not very pretty, but he does a lot of little things well right now, and his athleticism and length is a problem for other teams. Sergej Macura was an emergency play in this game thanks to an injury to Filip Jovic, and he gave the Bruins some tremendous energy, hitting a few threes and giving the Bruins some much-needed bench scoring (here’s a fun one: UCLA’s bench outscored Arizona 20-6, and all nine Bruins that played got on the board).
On the flip side, Eric Dailey’s play was really frustrating. If you just looked at his stat line, you’d think he had a good game, finishing with 13 points and eight rebounds. But I felt he played way too soft in a game that required physicality, often choosing to fade away on his shots rather than attacking the body of his defenders. He did have a few crafty finishes, but given what this game demanded, I expected much more from him. Similarly, Xavier Booker had a rough game, finishing with eight points and only three rebounds. He had some big plays down the stretch, but if we’re looking at the totality of this game, the struggles he had on the defensive end felt pretty significant. Finally, Brandon Williams did not look great, and I can’t imagine he’ll have many more chances to make an impact if that is the kind of performance you can expect from him; Jovic’s return might shift Williams further down the bench.
Still, if you look at the totality of this game, there was a lot to like, especially on the defensive end. This felt like a game that UCLA would have lost last year, where it played well but could not figure out how to close, but this team showed some poise that was not present in years past. Mick Cronin said in the postgame that he hasn’t had a bad day coaching this group, and after one game, I’m starting to get it. This is a quintessential Cronin team that loves making things as hard as possible on the opposing team, and that’s a recipe that can win a lot of games.
Is this team a national title contender? Not yet, but after this game, I think they can get into the ballpark if things go right.
Hey, it worked for UCLA football, right?
Go Bruins!
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Seems like poise and resilience are spreading throughout the athletic department - what a wonderful thing!
Not only was that quite a gutsy performance but how helpful to have that to build on as an opener (as opposed to crushing the typical Little Sisters of the Poor opening opponents) - overcoming the largely hostile atmosphere and - at best - questionable whistles as well as a very talented opponent by answering every run and never losing the lead that had been built with contributions from the leaders, newcomers, and down the bench. And "happy Cronin" in the post-game interview?! It truly is a great time to be alive and be a Bruin!
Why do we have such difficulty inbounding the ball at critical junctures in the game? If we are able to inbound, it seems as if it’s always to a player trapped in a corner. This is high school 101. This game was way too close due to several inbound miscues down the stretch.