Postgame Talk: UCLA Locks In, Runs Over Utah State 72-47

The Bruins had an impressive defensive run to end the 1st half and never looked back.

Mar 21, 2025

Kobe Johnson, getting to celebrate success in the NCAA Tournament for once. (Photo credit: @UCLAMBB)

In hindsight, we should have known UCLA would win this game as soon as Seth Davis made his prediction.

The CBS analyst has earned a bit of a reputation around UCLA circles for his predilection for picking against the Bruins in the NCAA Tournament. He loves to view the Bruins as an easy upset candidate, and every time the Bruins show up and make him look stupid. As soon as the brackets were announced and Davis let loose his prediction of an Aggies upset, we should have all gone ahead and penciled UCLA into the Round of 32.

Of course, they also have to play the game, and on that front, UCLA started out firing and never really took their foot off the gas pedal. UCLA’s defense carried the day throughout while the offense was as unselfish as ever, leading to a comfortable UCLA victory over Utah State by the final score of 72-47.

My biggest takeaway from this game is fairly simple: UCLA is a Power Five team with Power Five talent while their opponent is a mid-major with a bad statistical profile for March Madness. As long as the Bruins came out with the right focus from the jump, it was hard to see the game going any other way than it did. You have to be able to score in a variety of ways in the NCAA Tournament, and Utah State is a team that shoots a lot from the outside and plays below-average defense. That can get you a bunch of wins in the regular season and give you a chance in the tournament if you get hot, but as soon as you face a team with some actual talent it can fall apart in an instant.

Which is basically what happened. Utah State was able to stick around in the first half thanks to a bevy of offensive rebounds (seriously if there’s something to nitpick, it is how bad the Bruins were at securing rebounds, but much of that had to do with long rebounds from the jump-shooting Aggies) but as soon as the Bruins locked in on defense, the game took on an air of inevitability. UCLA held the Aggies to 30% from the field, including an exceptionally poor 4-31 from deep, and if you’re a mid-major hoping to pull off an upset, you need to hit those kinds of shots at a much better clip. This was an opportunity for the Bruins to wipe away the stain of the Wisconsin game, especially on defense, and the team took it with gusto.

The offense was also pretty smooth, which has been the case more often than not this season. UCLA went 26-54 (48.1%) from the field, including 10-24 (41.7%) from three, but more impressive was the 22 assists the Bruins racked up, indicative of how unselfish the team was. Dylan Andrews had his best game in a few months, being more judicious with his shot after hitting his first few three-pointers (he finished the game with eight points and only took three shots after the first few minutes) but he led the team with eight assists, doing a great job of breaking down the Aggies’ zone and finding an open shooter. Skyy Clark was the beneficiary of a lot of those passes, as he finished tied for a team-high 14 points on 5-8 shooting, while Eric Dailey got in the act in the second half to tie him in points (though on a less-efficient 5-11 from the field). UCLA legend Kobe Johnson did so many of the little things, as usual, though the most important thing is that the ankle injury he looked to suffer early in the second half did not appear to be that serious. Still, you have to feel good for him finally getting to experience some success in the NCAA Tournament for a change.

The Aday Mara report for today is pretty simple: thanks to some early foul trouble from Eric Dailey and uninspiring early play from Tyler Bilodeau, Mara was called upon early and often, and as is often the case, Mara completely changed the game when he was in. Mara played 20 minutes in total and finished with 10 points on 4-5 shooting, but it was his five blocks that really highlighted his importance on the defensive end, as he completely shut things down on the interior and forced Utah State into a bevy of bad jump shots. This is not to say Bilodeau played badly the entire game, and this was the most comfortable he has looked playing alongside Mara this season, but it is so obvious how much better the team looks when Mara is on the court.

Most of the post-game Mara focus will be on his ankle, as Mara rolled it again early in the second half and played sparingly as a result, but he did return with a few minutes remaining, which is a good sign going forward. The good news is UCLA was in cruise control for most of the second half, so he was not needed and was able to rest for Tennessee.

Which, let’s finish up this postgame with a statement: the UCLA team that showed up tonight is eminently capable of beating Tennessee on Saturday. Tennessee is an excellent basketball team but they are by far the most volatile of the #2 seeds, and they did not look particularly inspiring against Wofford in the game prior. UCLA will definitely be playing in front of a hostile crowd, but when has that not been the case this season? I’m not predicting a victory, but this team can absolutely put up a fight.

You’ll hear from us more tomorrow, live from Pauley Pavilion.

Go Bruins!

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