Postgame Talk: UCLA Gets a Nice Win in First B1G Game, Beats Washington 69-58
If the Bruins could hit some more free throws, this game would have been over much sooner.
It’s late and I’m a bit tired heading into finals week with a lot of sick kids, so I’m probably going to keep things fairly brief here regarding UCLA’s 69-58 victory over Washington.
First, while watching the game it never felt as if UCLA was in danger of losing the game. Sure, Washington made things close at a few spots throughout the game, but the general feeling I got was that UCLA was the better team and that would be shown over the full 40 minutes, and that’s generally what happened. Every time the Huskies made a run, it always felt like the Bruins had an answer, whether it was Sebastian Mack taking advantage of poor defense to get a layup and the foul, or Dylan Andrews hitting a midrange jumper then turning up the defensive intensity, or someone sitting on the corner to hit a big three-pointer to break Washington’s zone. In the game preview, I said this was a game that the Bruins should win comfortably, and that’s more or less what happened.
If you’re looking for a culprit for why this game looks closer than it felt, look no further than the free throw numbers. On UCLA’s end, the team hit only 50% of their free throw attempts when on the season they’re shooting closer to 73%. And it wasn’t like William Kyle III had a ton of attempts to drag the numbers down; Sebastian Mack, an 88% shooter on the year, was brutal from the line, as were Dylan Andrews and Kobe Johnson. Meanwhile, the Huskies, who were shooting 60.8% from the line on the year, went 10% higher on the night. If both teams shoot closer to their season averages, that adds an extra 7-8 points to the final margin, and then things make a bit more sense. Credit to Washington’s free throw defense, I guess.
I will also point out the play of two players in particular who are becoming active detriments to the team, Kobe Johnson and Skyy Clark. For Johnson, I think the problem is pretty simple, in that he still has a lot of bad habits ingrained in him from playing under Andy Enfield at Southern Cal that need to be worked out of him. Defensively, Johnson is gambling way too much and keeps ending up out of position as he is often ball-watching while hoping for a steal. Johnson was able to gamble under Enfield because their defense funneled everything toward the bigs as-is, while Cronin’s defense stresses good individual effort and communication on the help side, which is where Johnson is putting too much energy currently. Offensively, the only thing that is out of line with his career numbers is his three-point shooting, which is almost 10% off his career numbers currently. Johnson was 1-5 from deep in this game, and if I had to guess, he’s likely pressing to try and justify the position he’s been given. If Johnson can play more in the flow of the team, that would likely go a long way to helping him.
Skyy Clark, on the other hand, I just don’t know. Cronin has an infatuation with Clark at the moment that seems to be hurting the team. Clark is by far the weakest defender among the guards, lacking both size and quickness to match up with most opposing guards, and worse his effort ebbs and flows way too much on that end. I’m not going to go back and check, but in the arena, it felt like every Washington run seemed to coincide with Clark being on the court. As for his offense, again the size and quickness is a factor, but it felt in the first half that Clark was even refusing to shoot when he was open, which was killing the offensive flow (easy way to think about this: if you’re open, shoot it, even if you’re not consistent because it can open things up for the next possession). If Clark is not providing exceptional offense, then he really should not see close to the minutes he is getting, and UCLA should be looking at getting either Trent Perry more minutes (Perry is apparently dealing with a back injury, which may help explain his lack of minutes tonight) or keep trying to get Dominick Harris going, as both players are longer and bigger than Clark and can at least provide a good defensive complement to Andrews/Mack.
This all sounds negative, but in all honesty, I thought this was a solid win for the team and a good sign of growth. The Bruins shot 38% from deep in this game, which is very good, and while they ended up shooting 41.7% from the field overall, they did hit 50% of their shots in the second half. On the flip side, they held Washington to 38.8% shooting and 18.8% from deep, both well under their season averages. The defense was mostly solid outside of a few hiccups, and I think they did a great job keeping the $2 Million Man Great Osobor in check.
I want to highlight Aday Mara and William Kyle III for doing exactly what I was hoping for in this game, which was to provide 20+ minutes of positive play from the post position. In the first half, we got the Mara show, as he was quickly brought in off the bench and produced at a high level, frustrating Washington on both ends with his size and length. Mara has gotten much better about not jumping for blocks, and if not for some questionable foul calls, likely would have played much more in the first half. William Kyle III was more effective later in the game at providing a challenge for Osobor, and as a pair, the two put in a solid, workmanlike performance that UCLA will need more of as we get deeper into the season.
Beyond that, this was a solid performance that the Bruins can hopefully build on. I think Oregon will be a much tougher challenge, especially on the road, but given how Arizona and North Carolina have looked coming out of the gates, I think more than a few of these games in the upcoming gauntlet look winnable. We’ll see how they do when they get there.
Go Bruins!
Thanks again for supporting The Mighty Bruin. Your paid subscriptions make this site possible. Questions, comments, story ideas, angry missives and more can be sent to @TheMightyBruin on Twitter.