Postgame Talk: UCLA Wins a February Classic Over Michigan State, 63-61

The Bruins won a defensive slobberknocker against Tom Izzo in a game that resembled March basketball.

Trent Perry, Lazar Stefanovic, and Aday Mara (Photo credit: @UCLAMBB)

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And exhale.

I think it would be fair to say this game between the UCLA Bruins and Michigan State was a defensive affair. Both teams hang their hat on their defense and complement it with an efficient offense, and that’s essentially what we saw, as both teams got after it on the defensive end and made each other work for every point they scored.

That might read like apologia for UCLA’s offense in this one, but both teams really were on point defensively. Michigan State held UCLA to 35% shooting from the field and kept the Bruins off the boards the entire game (one of the Spartans’ biggest strengths is their ability to rebound the ball, and it showed in this one). In the second half, Lazar Stefanovic hit a jumper with 10:47 remaining in the game, and the Bruins would not hit another non-free throw until the 2:50 mark when Stefanovic nailed a three-pointer to give the Bruins the lead late. Michigan State’s defense locked in down the stretch, keeping UCLA off-balance and denying everything on the inside. This was not a problem of UCLA going iso-ball - outside of a few Tyler Bilodeau misses - but rather a passive perimeter offense settling for threes (six of UCLA’s 10 missed shots in a row were three-pointers) and Aday Mara missing a few point-blank shots. Credit to Michigan State, which may be the most Tom Izzo team in a long while, taking a bunch of unheralded players and making them into a miserable team to play again.

Fortunately, the Bruins are also pretty fierce on the defensive end, and that ended up being the difference. UCLA held the Spartans to 37.7% shooting, but a few things stand out here. For one, despite Michigan State holding a decisive advantage in rebounding by a final of 45-27 (including 14 offensive rebounds), the Spartans were only able to score three more second-chance points than the Bruins did. UCLA’s three-point defense was also stout, holding Michigan State to a miserable 5-22 shooting night from beyond the arc.

The biggest stat that explains this game was the turnovers. UCLA was able to force 16 turnovers by the Spartans while only committing three turnovers themselves. That all meant that UCLA was able to take seven more shots than Michigan State, and that made all the difference in the world, especially in a game where free throw shooting was so even.

It’s hard to talk about the individual players because, generally, it was an off night for most of them. The Dylan Andrews resurgence took a pause in this one, with the junior guard only scoring three points on 1-6 shooting (though it should be noted he played his cleanest game of the season and managed zero turnovers). Skyy Clark led the team with 14 points but did most of his damage at the free throw line, as he was 3-10 from the field. Tyler Bilodeau was similar, and he looked like someone who is not truly back to 100% after his ankle injury. Sebastian Mack was kept in check (this was about the time last year when the book was written regarding how to limit Mack offensively) while Aday Mara really struggled at finishing his shots, going 3-9 from the field. That said, he’s also had a major impact on the offensive flow and his length completely negated what Michigan State wanted to do offensively, so he was still a major positive in his 24 minutes.

Lazar Stefanovic had a good game, which was a welcome sight since he’d been in a slump since the turn of the calendar. Stefanovic’s three late in the game swung momentum towards the Bruins for good, and that’s exactly what you want from a veteran like him. Hopefully, he can build on this game going forward because UCLA could really use a sharpshooter off the bench to expand their offensive repertoire.

I saved him for the end, but today was Eric Dailey Jr.’s turn to play hero late. After forcing yet another turnover, the Bruins set up for a last shot, and after a few seconds, Skyy Clark gave the ball up to Dailey. It was an interesting choice given how the game had gone for Dailey up to that point, as the sophomore had a rough game up to that point. But no one remembers every shot Dylan Andrews took up in Oregon this year, they only remember the last one, and that’s the same in this case, as Dailey muscled his way inside and was able to hit a floater to give the Bruins the lead. Michigan State had time to try and tie or win the game, and they ran a play similar to the one Gonzaga ran for Jalen Suggs in the Final Four, but the shot hit rim and the Bruins prevailed.

There is something to be said for winning a major game against a quality opponent when you aren’t playing at your best, and that’s exactly what we got tonight. There’s something to be said for Mick Cronin publicly challenging the team’s toughness in the middle of the January losing streak, but the results have spoken for themselves. These players knew that Cronin would push them and sought that out, and the results are paying off with a team that has discovered the toughness required to win these kinds of games when they aren’t at their best. It’s a lesson that many of these players had to learn after transferring in from losing programs, and it’s a lesson that should pay dividends in March.

Go Bruins!

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