UCLA Wins in Return to the Court, Defeat Long Beach State 96-78

An uneventful game only made interesting by the circumstances surrounding it.

Jules Bernard had a strong return to play against Long Beach State. (Photo credit: @UCLAMBB)

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The UCLA Bruins played a basketball game on Thursday.

That in itself shouldn’t have been newsworthy. After all, it is the first week of January, so UCLA is getting to the heart of its schedule. But what made it noteworthy is the circumstances surrounding this game. For one, the opponent was Long Beach State, a team the Bruins had faced earlier this year and was not scheduled to face again this season. For another, it was UCLA’s first game since December 11th.

Yeah, that should be enough to make the game newsworthy.

UCLA had to postpone its scheduled game against Alabama State on December 15th. Since then, the Bruins have been in the clutches of a COVID outbreak that coach Mick Cronin stated affected 10 scholarship players and kept the team from even having seven players available to practice until late last week. And even this game was noteworthy in that it was not on the schedule - the Bruins were set to make their return on Wednesday against Arizona State, but a COVID outbreak in Tempe postponed that meeting and led the Bruins to scramble to try and find some, anyone who was able to play the game. Throw in an almost-empty Pauley Pavilion thanks to new COVID guidelines implemented at UCLA (and other California schools) and you had the recipe for one of the weirder games of the year.

For a good part of the opening half against Long Beach State, the Bruins truly did look like a team that had not played or practiced much in a month. UCLA’s shots were repeatedly coming up short, while rotations and motion felt a step slower than usual. None of it was surprising, and you can understand why Coach Cronin so desperately wanted to get some type of game scheduled as soon as possible to get the team back into game shape. Eventually, the Bruins settled down, and ultimately turned the game into an almost-mirror version of the previous meeting: UCLA eventually built a large lead, and simply maintained it for the rest of the game en route to a 96-78 victory.

There were some differences from the previous meeting, with the biggest one being the return of Cody Riley. Riley has not seen game action since November 9th, when he got rolled up early by a Cal State Bakersfield defender and suffered a sprained MCL that kept him out of action. Riley likely was ready to return a few weeks ago (with constant rumors that he was a game-time decision as far back as the Alabama State game) but the COVID pause essentially gave him more time to recover. Riley looked solid in his return to action, putting up eight points on 4-6 shooting while playing for 20 minutes. Riley’s return was a reminder of how much better the offense functions with him on the court because he is a true low-post threat who can stretch the defense out and provide more driving lanes. His return also allowed Myles Johnson to return to the bench and refocus his role, and Johnson responded with one of his better games in a UCLA jersey, grabbing nine rebounds and anchoring a strong UCLA defensive effort.

The Bruins also suffered some injuries in the course of the game. Tyger Campbell got rolled up on and went down grabbing his knee midway through the first half, but ultimately the injury proved to be minor and he returned to the court that same half. Jaime Jaquez was less fortunate, coming down on a Long Beach State defender following an alley-oop attempt and rolling his ankle. Jaquez walked back to the bench under his own power and appeared to be fine moving around following the injury, but was kept out of the game for precautionary reasons.

Ultimately, the Bruins were able to shake off the rust, and that is the important thing in this game. Jules Bernard and Johnny Juzang eventually got things going offensively, Tyger Campbell had a double-double, and every major rotational piece got at least 15 minutes of action. Considering everything that led up to this game, hard to complain about the end result.

Jules Bernard led the Bruins with 22 points. Tyger Campbell led the team with 10 assists, while Myles Johnson led the team with nine rebounds. Jadon Jones led Long Beach State with 27 points.

Three Takeaways

1. Player of the Game: Jules Bernard - This was a two-player race between Jules and Tyger, but ultimately I went with Bernard simply because he had the most consistent game, and had to step up during the period of the game where it was unknown if Campbell was coming back. Campbell’s injury scare did serve as a reminder of Bernard’s importance going forward, and while it was not perfect, I do want to highlight Bernard’s improvement defensively from the first meeting with Long Beach State this season.

2. Riley Back, Order Restored - This was the first true game all season we got to see the interior rotation work like it was supposed to, as Cody Riley got the start while Myles Johnson split time with him, and it was effective. Riley and Johnson are two different players, but they seemed near their best when allowed to play to their strengths instead of trying to fill multiple roles like Johnson was asked to do when Riley went down with an injury. Both big men had some room to improve, but considering where this rotation has unfortunately been for most of the season, this was an encouraging step back to normalcy.

3. Please Take the Mic Away from Montgomery - At one point in the first half, I asked what was worse: the piped-in crowd noise being utilized at Pauley, or Mike Montgomery on commentary. The crowd noise was eventually turned down to a reasonable level, but Montgomery was allowed to do his best “Abe Simpson Yelling at Clouds” impression for the entire game, which was unbearable. The modern game has seemingly passed Montgomery by, and he spent the majority of the game complaining about the way UCLA plays offense, from the number of threes that they take to the lack of interior play put on by the Bruins. Ted Robinson on play-by-play had to note that UCLA has one of the best offenses in the country currently (they rank 12th in offense according to KenPom) and the Bruins put up 96 points in the win, so this basically just amounted to Montgomery upset that UCLA didn’t play the way he wanted them to. It is bizarre to me that the Pac-12 would trot out Montgomery to trash the top brand in the conference on the Pac-12’s own TV network, but no one has ever accused this conference of being run properly, and I’m not going to start today.

UCLA is currently scheduled to face UC Berkeley on Saturday. That game is still tentatively set to go on, as it looks like Berkeley will avoid any COVID issues after playing Arizona State prior to the Sun Devils shutting things down for COVID protocols.

Go Bruins!

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