UCLA Goes Winless in Vegas; Loses to Baylor, 80-75

The Bruins showed promising growth in their second loss in Las Vegas.

Jaime Jaquez was efficient but limited due to foul trouble. (Photo credit: @UCLAMBB)

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There are two ways to look at this 80-75 UCLA loss to Baylor.

You could wallow in a lost weekend for the basketball team, with two losses to ranked teams showing a team that isn’t quite ready for prime time. This would be an understandable way to think, especially if you were under the impression that UCLA was going to do special things right from the jump.

Or, you could look at this as a learning weekend for a team that is light on experience compared to the other three teams that went to Vegas. UCLA was by far the least-experienced team in this mini-tournament, and it showed in various ways throughout the weekend, yet I came away from the entire affair much more hopeful about how this season will go.

I talked about it Friday, but this UCLA team is surprisingly inexperienced. I think the return of Jaquez and Campbell lulled people into a false sense of how this team would play. The fact remains this team is relying on two players in their starting lineup who were in high school last year, and a third who came off the bench. Jaylen Clark rose to the challenge in this game, leading the team in points and rebounds, but this game was more of a struggle for Amari Bailey and Adem Bona. Bailey continued his poor weekend showing in Vegas but started to figure some things out at the end; he finished with five points on 2-5 shooting. Adem Bona found himself limited by foul trouble for most of the game, with the fouls ironically coming on the offensive end where he is much less developed. He settled down for the final 10 minutes of the game, but he only finished with 2 points on 1-3 shooting and only three rebounds.

That said, we did get to see the development of the bench in this game, which is a major move forward. Jaime Jaquez also got into early foul trouble, so we saw a lot more David Singleton and Dylan Andrews than people might have expected. Singleton was his normal dependable self, but Andrews had a solid game that made me more confident he could play at least 10+ minutes a game without the Bruins seeing a major drop-off. He had seven points including an impressive Euro-step layup and played tenacious defense the entire time. Also encouraging was the play of Mac Etienne, who is still working his way back from a knee injury but saw more minutes in this game and played well. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the lineup that got UCLA back into the game featured those three playing next to Jaylen Clark and Tyger Campbell.

Also encouraging: UCLA was in this game despite a poor showing from Tyger Campbell. Campbell did a solid job of distributing the ball, but I’m hoping this is the end of Tyger hunting for his shot offensively. When he did that, the Bruins stagnated as he kept missing shots; when he settled down and played more within the flow of the offense, UCLA was able to figure things out. Last year’s trip to Vegas featured the end of Cronin’s experiment with UCLA as an up-tempo team, so I’m hoping a similar change happens here.

UCLA struggling this weekend seemed inevitable in hindsight, but that’s why you play tough early-season games. They’re not going to hurt you in the grand scheme of things, and they give your team legitimate tape and experience from which to learn and grow.

Jaylen Clark led the Bruins with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Tyger Campbell led the team with six assists. LJ Cryer led the Bears with 28 points.

Three Takeaways

1. Player of the Game: Jaylen Clark - I don’t think Clark is ever going to be an iso scorer like Jaquez and Campbell, but he does so many things right that he should be able to put up these kinds of numbers as long as the offense functions the way it is supposed to. 23 points and 10 rebounds are nothing to sneeze at, and if I had to guess at the percentage of offensive rebounds and second-chance points that Clark had for the Bruins, it might be near 100%.

2. Area of Concern: Three-point defense - UCLA had a major advantage when it came to points in the paint - 42-20 on that front - but Baylor more than made up for it with their outside shooting. The Bears went 10-28 from distance but probably could have shot much better considering how many of their shots were open looks. UCLA was slow and lackadaisical on close-outs, which wasn’t a good look and something that will need to change going forward (biggest culprit here: Jaime Jaquez).

3. More Mac, less Nwuba - At this point in his career, Nwuba is what he is: a serviceable big man who can play solid against lesser opponents but will struggle against high-major teams. Etienne, however, is more of an unknown; we don’t know how he’s going to hold up in major situations because he’s never really had the opportunity. If he’s healthy enough, I’d like to see Etienne get more of the backup minutes in the post just to see how he develops. It can’t hurt at this point.

The Bruins will get a few days off before taking on Pepperdine on Wednesday. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 PM PT.

Go Bruins.

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