Ok, full disclosure, I did not watch this game live, which is why the post-game is coming so late. But I did have eyes on the game through a third party, so let’s start with what my friend sent me when I asked about how the game went. These are his verbatim thoughts from inside Pauley:

• Honestly, the defense looked out of sorts on rotations.

• [Abramo] Canka played really really well on both sides of the ball and just looked like he knew exactly what to do.

• [Kenneth] Nwuba was painfully bad. Could not grab a rebound and got lost on rotations about 4-5 possessions in a row. Mac got no run.

• Tyger shot terribly and so did Amari.

Some interesting thoughts to work from! I watched the game with these ideas rolling through my head, so let’s talk about a few of them.

First, let’s start with the defense, and I agree it looked poor for most of the game. Bellarmine plays a solid motion offense with a lot of ball movement, and UCLA just looked slow on many of their rotations. Part of this obviously had to do with missing Jaylen Clark, who sat out this game due to a non-COVID illness. Clark really is the engine that drives the defensive intensity, and with him out the burden fell more on the seniors. Tyger Campbell and Jaime Jaquez have been good this year, but their defensive effort has been lackluster at best this year, and that became a problem for most of this game as they were not great on the defensive end. Jaquez in particular has been lazy on closeouts and in one-on-one situations, and that has hurt UCLA already this year against Illinois and Baylor. It was not a major issue in this game because let’s face it, UCLA just had way too much talent for Bellarmine to handle, but the seniors will really need to step up going into conference play this week.

What was nice to see is that the freshmen are giving much better effort on the defensive end. Amari Bailey, for all his various struggles on offense so far this year (and I thought he was generally fine on that end tonight), has actually looked solid as a defender. Ditto for Dylan Andrews, who has done a good job taking advantage of his speed to make some plays. Even Abramo Canka looked solid on the defensive end. The only freshman who was struggling was Adem Bona, but a lot of his issues seem to stem from poor rotations (especially from the seniors) leaving him to try and bail out poor team defense. I did like that Coach Mick Cronin let Bona get more run to work through things, and he finished with 29 minutes and a lot of film to learn from.

I’m also in agreement on Nwuba and Mac Etienne. I’m going to guess UCLA is taking its time with Etienne making sure he can handle the larger minutes and giving him extra rest days right now, but the more I watch Nwuba the more I am convinced UCLA needs Etienne to be healthy so they have a more reliable secondary big man. Nwuba is a great representative of the university, but he’s just so limited on the court that I can’t really get behind him as the main backup big man.

Offensively, I liked a lot of what I saw from UCLA. There was much more ball movement in general, which led to a lot of good looks that eventually started falling. Yes, Tyger Campbell again did not shoot well (finishing 2-8 from the field) but he was more distributive than he’s been this year, and he finished with 10 assists. UCLA finally looked like a team that knows how to pass to a big man inside, and Bona rewarded the Bruins with 16 points on a highly-efficient 6-7 shooting from the field. Jaime Jaquez was basically unguardable, going 13-17 from the field for 27 points, but I liked that he did not force as many shots as he has this year, and played more in the flow of the offense. UCLA did not shoot well from three but just killed Bellarmine in the paint, outscoring the Knights 54-20 down low.

That’s really the game in a nutshell. UCLA was never in danger of losing despite missing their best player early in the season, and that’s how the game played out.

Jaime Jaquez led the Bruins with 27 points and seven rebounds. Tyger Campbell led the team with 10 assists. Ben Johnson led the Knights with 20 points.

Three Takeaways

1. Player of the Game: Jaime Jaquez Jr. - I don’t think Jaquez has truly played a complete game yet this year, and this was certainly not a complete game by any stretch. Jaquez was unstoppable on the offensive end but unengaged on the defensive end. This isn’t surprising from a senior who knows he has to manage his workload early in the season in order to be effective late, but we are close to the point where Jaquez is going to need to turn things up on the defensive end, lest the Bruins risk hurting their development.

2. The Kids are All Right - A lot has been made of the general struggles of the freshmen early in the season. I think UCLA fans were just spoiled by the tandem of Lonzo Ball and TJ Leaf, who came in and were immediately the best two players on the court for the Bruins. It normally does not work that way, and we’re seeing that this year. Even if a player like Amari Bailey is a potential lottery pick, it is going to take them a little bit of time to adjust to the next level. Fortunately, the young Bruins are starting to show that adjustment, with Bailey, Adem Bona, and Dylan Andrews starting to play solid minutes and be positive contributors. Their next big test comes this week.

3. Clark Drives the Defense - The UCLA player who came out of this game the best might have been the one who didn’t even play, but Jaylen Clark somehow came out of this game looking even more important. Clark’s offense has certainly improved this year, but his biggest contribution to the Bruins remains on the defensive end, and it’s his energy that the rest of the team feeds off of. Hopefully, he feels better and is ready to go for Thursday.

UCLA will kick off the mini-start to the Pac-12 slate this Thursday when they travel up to the Farm to play Stanford. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 PM PT.

Go Bruins!

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