Postgame Talk: UCLA Continues Looking Improved in Rout of Presbyterian, 86-46
The Bruins were without Tyler Bilodeau, but that may have been a blessing in disguise.
The story of this game may be the story of who wasn’t in it.
Hours before the game, news broke that UCLA senior forward Tyler Bilodeau had suffered a left knee sprain at practice and would not be playing in this game, with his status in the future uncertain. Bilodeau is a pivotal cog in what UCLA wants to do this season, and combined with his hot and cold play so far this season, it became an open question of what UCLA was going to look like in this game.
Yes, it’s only Presbyterian, but so far so good.
Inserting Brandon Williams into the starting lineup provided a spark that led to one of the best defensive performances UCLA has turned in all season, as the Bruins held the Blue Hose to 33.3% shooting and 46 points en route to an 86-46 victory. The Bruins also put up one of their best offensive performances of the year, which, again, was still against Presbyterian, but was still an encouraging sign. Skyy Clark put up a season-high 22 points on a wildly-efficient 9-11 performance from the field, while Donovan Dent started to get back on track with a 14-point effort, shooting 5-9 from the field and 4-7 from the free throw line.
The story of this game, however, was Brandon Williams. Williams had an excellent night from the field, scoring 11 points on 4-7 shooting, but his bigger contribution was on the defensive end. Williams makes mistakes, as you would expect from a player who sat all of last season while redshirting, but he’s a much better defender than Bilodeau, and his play led to some of the best defense of the season. If you go by advanced metrics, Williams was one of the best defenders on the court for the Bruins, posting great numbers in defensive rating and net points. Even his +/- (which, again, is a terrible stat) was one of the best ones on the team.
I mentioned it in the game chat, but another reason UCLA was able to have such a good defensive performance was that Williams might be the best rebounder on the team. Williams led the team with seven rebounds and was a monster when it came to cleaning up the many misses of the Blue Hose. Presbyterian finished the game with eight offensive rebounds, but most of those came during garbage time. In the first half, Presbyterian was only able to grab two offensive rebounds, compared to 14 defensive rebounds for the Bruins. Williams’s energy was contagious, and UCLA in general made a concerted effort to clean up the glass, which was a huge boost to their defense.
Perhaps Williams’s best attribute is that he is more of a glue guy. This isn’t a knock on Bilodeau, per se, but more a general observation. UCLA’s regular starting lineup has a ton of offensive firepower, but it also has a lot of mouths to feed, which means there are times when the offense gets bogged down. This is especially true of Bilodeau, who must feel an outsized pressure to produce on the offensive end to make up for his defensive shortcomings. You don’t have to worry about that with Williams. Brandon isn’t looking for his shot and is at his best when he is moving the ball on offense, which opens things up more for guys like Dent, Clark, and Dailey to get their work in.
Now, I will again state that we have to take everything here with a grain of salt because Presbyterian is not a good team, but I think there is something UCLA can take from this game regarding rotations. I had demurred after the last game that Mick Cronin might consider moving Eric Dailey down to the four spot, but perhaps there is a better solution. Putting Brandon Williams in the starting lineup might fix the early defensive issues and give Xavier Booker a good interior partner while he continues learning the post position, while Bilodeau would give the bench a huge scoring punch, as he can feast on backups and have more energy available for close-out lineups. I don’t think Cronin will go for this, but after this game, this is a thought I think he should consider.
Go Bruins!
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