As I start writing this postgame, there are 6:54 left in the game. There is a commercial currently on the screen, as the officials have decided to review an out-of-bounds call in a game that, as of this moment, has a 66-point differential between the two teams.
I write all of this to emphasize just how over this game is. In fact, I probably could have written this postgame at halftime, or after the first five minutes, or even before the opening tip-off. There was never a moment in time when it seemed like the University of Arkansas Pine-Bluff, which came into this game as the #356 team in the country per KenPom, was going to provide any sort of meaningful competition to the #9 UCLA Bruins, and the team clearly agreed. UAPB did not score their first points until the 14:32 mark. They did not hit double digits in scoring until the 19:18 mark of the second half.
Let me repeat that: UCLA held their opponent to single-digit scoring in the first half.
And yes, Arkansas Pine-Bluff is not good - they are by far the worst team UCLA will play this year - but UCLA made it very clear from the word go that this was not going to be a typical early-season Mick Cronin game where the team is still working out some kinks and allows a bad team to stick around well past the point of good taste. UCLA started the game with a 13-0 run, and then followed a small spurt by the Golden Lions with a 20-0 run that effectively put the game away early. And, in a continuation of UCLA doing great team things, the Bruins did not come out flat in the second half, continuing to extend their lead with the bench en route to a 106-37 victory.
The individual performances were great, as you would expect from the largest margin of victory in school history. Phenom freshman Nikola Kusturica had a team-high 17 points on 7-9 shooting in just 22 minutes of play, while Jaylen Petty put in 16 points on 6-12 shooting (3-9 from deep). Trent Perry recorded his first career double-double with 11 points and 11 assists, while Azavier Robinson came off the bench with 15 points of his own, hitting three deep shots. Eric Dailey had 13 points on his most efficient shooting night of the year (5-for-9 from the field) and tied for the team lead in rebounds with Joe Philon (10 points of his own), with six rebounds apiece.
The scoring wasn’t the story of this game, however; it was the defense. Again, the Golden Lions are bad, but the Bruins made sure UAPB was in hell every time they held the ball. UCLA forced the Golden Lions into 30 turnovers in the game, which is an insane number, and got 19 steals. UCLA was aggressive right from the start and did a great job of flying around defensively, filling passing lanes with their length and athleticism. UCLA also worked on a few different defensive looks, trotting out a 1-2-1-1 press at one point, but it was really the effort and intensity on defense that stood out. Equally impressive was how that intensity never wavered; you might expect the team to slow down when the bench started to come in, or when the lead got over 20 points, but that isn’t what happened. If anything, the team somehow got more aggressive the later in the game it got, until UAPB was finally able to take advantage of that overaggression to get a few baskets.
If there was something to monitor, it was the amount of turnovers UCLA had against an inferior opponent. That said, I was ultimately fine with it, as many of the turnovers were not careless but rather had the look of some players testing their limits and seeing what they could get away with in an actual game. I would expect that to tighten up against a real opponent.
Anyway, UCLA beat a cupcake really badly, as you should expect.
Go Bruins!
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