Postgame Talk: UCLA Finds New Level of Toughness in Comeback Victory over Arizona, 57-54
The Bruins played some poor basketball for most of the game, but put on a clinic when they needed to in order to knock off their hated rivals in the Wildcats.
This might be one of the harder postgame threads to write, mostly because I can’t get my hands to stop shaking.
There are a lot of things you could point out for why UCLA should have lost this game. The team shot 7-16 from the free throw line, an abysmal number that was indicative of a whole-team failure from the line. The Bruins went 4-21 from the three-point line, well below their season average and not indicative of Arizona’s defense given how many open looks they were able to generate. The team was outrebounded 34-24, and struggled to generate anything in the way of offense. They scored six points in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Eric Dailey Jr., who has been UCLA’s best player this season, was limited to 22 minutes due to foul trouble.
And yet.
I went back to check if I had talked about this at any point, and apparently, I only made allusions to it, but one of the challenges to this UCLA team was taking a lot of players from losing teams and instilling in them a winning mentality. Having veteran players helps, but unless you find yourself in situations where you need to play at your best late in a game, you’re never going to learn. It was one of my fears throughout the cupcake schedule because UCLA was so much better than their opponents, so they were never tested; the one early test against New Mexico was one that the Bruins resoundingly failed. If this Bruins were going to go far on the season and in the NCAA Tournament, they would need to learn to raise their game against quality opponents and to exhibit the trademark Cronin Toughness that the great Jaquez/Campbell teams had.
I’m not going to say that this UCLA squad has reached that level, but after Oregon and especially after today’s comeback victory over Arizona, there may be something here.
I think there will be time after the Prairie View A&M game on Tuesday to discuss the offensive issues or some of the confounding rotational choices Cronin has made in recent games, but I want to focus on the final nine minutes of this game. With 8:46 left in the game, Trey Townsend made a layup to extend Arizona’s lead to 11 points.
It was the last field goal the Wildcats made all game. In fact, Arizona only managed seven more shots to end the game, including a desperation heave at the buzzer to try and tie the game (quick note: hey Mick, please foul up three going forward. Thanks!). The Bruins, meanwhile, shot 15 times in that final nine minutes. Tyler Bilodeau finally got going late, finishing with a game-high 17 points. Dylan Andrews, who had a miserable game for the most part, finally came alive late, playing maniacal defense and getting four points in the final stretch run. Eric Dailey had his longest stretch of play, playing the final 8:27 with four fouls but impacting the game in a variety of ways, as he tends to do. Kobe Johnson, who again struggled for much of the game, unlocked his best defensive stretch of the season to shut down Caleb Love. The Bruins played with a desperation they had lacked for the middle twenty minutes of this game, and that proved to be the difference in a 57-54 victory.
The charge back to win this game was keyed on the defensive end, and not just by shutting down Arizona’s shooters. The Bruins made it difficult for the Wildcats to even get a shot off; Arizona finished with 22 turnovers on the game, with five of them in that final stretch. Compare that to zero UCLA turnovers in the final nine minutes (and only 14 in the game) and you understand a bit more about how the Bruins were able to fight back. Both teams shot about 45% for the game, but the Bruins were able to get up nine more shots in total, and that was what allowed them to overcome some terrible free throw shooting (if UCLA hits a few more free throws to be closer to their season average, this game probably feels much more comfortable).
I want to quickly talk about Skyy Clark in this one because the much-maligned guard had one of his best games of the year on both ends of the court. Clark finished with 15 points on 5-9 shooting (including 2-2 from deep) but also gave some of his best effort on the defensive end. Sure, he didn’t end up with a ton of steals or anything like that, but he had 13 deflections and constantly made his opponent have to work for their points. At the end of the game, he found himself guarding Townsend on a clear mismatch, but he held his own physically, allowing Kobe Johnson to slide over and force a turnover. This is exactly the kind of game you hope for when you bring in a player like Clark, especially given the struggles of Andrews and Sebastian Mack in this one.
Maybe the most impressive part of this game was that the Bruins did not wilt after getting punched in the mouth. The team has seemingly learned a lesson after the New Mexico loss and rose to the challenge in a way that last year’s team was not capable of doing against a good opponent. Make no mistake: despite their record, this is a good Arizona team with plenty of talent, and I think they’ll end up in the upper half of a ridiculously strong Big 12. But Arizona is also going through the same problem so many teams in the country are going through: with all the upheaval brought on by the transfer portal, teams are having to learn how to play together on the fly, and that has cost them in a few games this year. The Wildcats seemed to treat this one like a must-win given their bevy of early-season losses to quality opponents, and for most of the game, they played with an intensity that the Bruins lacked.
But that’s why these games are 40 minutes long, and why there is something to build on going forward. UCLA went into a hostile road environment and played some of its best basketball when needed. The Bruins were nowhere close to perfect, but there are times when you’ll take anything as long as it leads to a victory over Arizona.
Go Bruins!
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Excellent recap Dimitri. I still feel like the Bruins stole a game here considering the extremely poor offensive sets (if you can call them sets) for 12+ minutes in the second half. A win is a win but I’m not convinced you get away with a W playing this poorly against a better coached team (Gonzaga, Illinois, Michigan State, etc). And I for one have noticed an Andrews really taking a marked step backwards in the last 5-6 games. Thank goodness Clark, Perry and Mack seem to be carrying the load in his disappearance. Seems something is going on there??
Thanks Dmitri, I got to the game at half-time with us up 30-28 and Tyler having a non-existent stat line. The second half started and until 'Zona made its run it was fugly. These are two highly- touted baskeball programs? We were making TOs on lackadaisical passes and couldn't hit a bucket. Even the free ones. No one had any spark finally Tyler started to exert himself on the inside and scored enough to give us hope. We went away from inside and threw up some missing threes. Fortunately our quick hands kept 'Zona from scoring and we locked them down to tie the game and go on to win. Tyler was the spark plug, not our guards. Mick, take note of that.
The life of a Bruins fan: quick flashes of talent and never a complete game.