Postgame Talk: UCLA Can't Shoot and Cronin Fails His Rotations in Loss to Nebraska, 66-58

Without their best player in Eric Dailey, the Bruins looked lost for too many stretches of this game.

Kobe Johnson (Photo credit: @UCLAMBB)

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There are two things to focus on in the aftermath of UCLA’s 66-58 road loss to Nebraska.

From a more optimistic outlook, UCLA played this game without their best player Eric Dailey Jr., and without backup big William Kyle III. Nebraska had won 19 straight games at home entering this game, and UCLA would need an excellent effort on the road to take the victory. That is not what happened, as the Bruins fell in love with the outside shot and could not hit them with any sort of consistency, finishing an abysmal 14% from three on 4-28 shooting. But, again, from an optimistic standpoint, that number is well below UCLA’s season average, and clearly the loss of Dailey hurt from that perspective. I don’t think you can count on UCLA shooting that poorly from deep in another game this season, so you can rationalize the loss in that manner.

The “fun” part is that UCLA did exactly what they were supposed to do against Nebraska’s defense. The Cornhuskers pack the paint and give up open outside shots, and that’s exactly what we saw here. The problem is that UCLA simply did not hit those open shots. That’s not an offensive scheme problem, just a make-your-shots problem. Again, not having Eric Dailey and his 48.4% from deep available hurts here, but Sebastian Mack and Dylan Andrews were both 0-4, while Kobe Johnson was 1-6. If UCLA shots anywhere close to their season average, they win this game handily.

The more pessimistic outlook is that this was still a game that UCLA should have won had Mick Cronin not made adjustments earlier, instead stubbornly sticking with a gameplan that was not working for much too long in the second half. With Eric Dailey out, Cronin decided to go small, moving Kobe Johnson down to the four and playing with a three-guard lineup of Dylan Andrews, Skyy Clark, and Sebastian Mack to start. Andrews very quickly proved himself to still be unplayable (and more on him in a moment), and Cronin’s inability to get Dominick Harris and Trent Perry a ton of minutes during the nonconference slate came back to bite him in this one as both players only saw sparing minutes. The result was a UCLA defensive lineup that had too many poor defenders (Clark, Mack, Bilodeau) on the court for much too long, and Nebraska was able to pick it apart for easy baskets in their final second-half run that would ultimately put the game out of reach.

More damning is the case of Aday Mara, who played 11 minutes in this game but most of which came too late in the second half. Mara only played three minutes in the first half while Tyler Bilodeau played 17, and given that Mara was the only backup available to spell Bilodeau, meant that the junior forward ended up playing way too much against Nebraska’s big frontline. Mara should have seen more time in general, especially in the first half so that Bilodeau could get some rest, as he ended up being a nonfactor in the second half. Mara, meanwhile, is a much better defender than Bilodeau, especially against the pick-and-roll, and UCLA could have really used his length and ability to alter shots at various points.

The rotations in general were questionable, especially on the road. Only five Bruins played more than 20 minutes in this game, and all of them were above the 27-minute mark. That led to some tired legs in the second half when UCLA’s depth was supposed to be a strength. On the flip side, Nebraska had seven players above 20 minutes, but only one went above the 30-minute mark. That let Nebraska have fresher legs late when it came time to close out the game. I have talked in the past how the continued focus on the core rotation during the cupcake schedule was a calculated risk by Cronin to help that group learn to gel together, but then it leads you vulnerable in games like this where you need to play your bench more.

Lastly, we need to talk about Dylan Andrews.

There’s a huge catch-22 with Andrews at the moment. On the one hand, he is still the best defensive guard on the roster by far, and given how often Mack and Clark were getting picked on in this game, Cronin really needs to play Andrews as much as possible just to minimize those issues. But on the flip side, Andrews is such a negative on the offensive end currently that UCLA almost cannot afford to play him. Andrews finished this game with only two points, scored in the final minute when Nebraska was more than willing to give up a layup in order to prevent a three (it should be noted that when Andrews tried this again a minute later, his shot was blocked to effectively end the game). He had four turnovers, each worse than the last, and this is the second game in a row where he sat most of the second half because having him on the court was not helping.

At this point, I don’t think we can ask Andrews to regain the form from last season. Rather, he just needs to get back to being playable. The aggression is gone, as is the confidence, and that seems to be a wholly mental issue. But if this game showed just how important Eric Dailey is to the team, it also showed how much they need Andrews to be a positive contributor to have any sort of success.

Go Bruins.

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