UCLA Escapes Utah with 63-58 Victory
The Rocky Mountain Road Trip is always hard, but the Bruins refused to make it easier.
I don’t really have it in me to do a traditional post-game piece, so instead, I want to focus on a few points in a bit of detail.
UCLA’s Offense is Broken
I don’t want to speak ill of an opponent, but Utah is not a good team. The Utes are now 1-8 in what is a fairly weak Pac-12, and their underlying numbers are nothing to write home about. What stands out the most about them is their defense, or specifically their lack of defense - the Utes rank 170th in adjusted defensive efficiency according to KenPom, so this should have been something of a get-right game for the Bruins, especially with their best player, the 7’ Brandon Carlson, not playing.
Instead, UCLA had another nightmare of a game. Tyger Campbell had another poor outing, going 2-10 from the field while putting up the same number of assists as he did turnovers (2). Jaime Jaquez was a bit more aggressive than his last outing against Oregon, but that just led to a 3-9 performance (oh, and both Campbell and Jaquez were 0-3 from three). Cody Riley did not score until midway through the second half. Jules Bernard did most of his damage at the free-throw line, which is a good thing because he was abysmal from the field. The Bruins in total shot 38.3% from the field, and that was mostly buoyed by an excellent performance by Johnny Juzang, who put up 28 points on 9-13 shooting.
Increasingly in this game, it did not feel like UCLA had any idea what they wanted to do on offense, with the only consistency coming from Juzang hitting tough shots. The Utes were able to force the Bruins into tough shots and bad turnovers less due to their own ability and more because UCLA was all too willing to let Utah dictate the terms of the engagement. Considering the talent gap between these two teams, that’s not a good look.
Maybe more than the previous two seasons under Mick Cronin, this feels like a UCLA team that plays more individual basketball than any team concept, and thus opens the group up to more volatility in performance if players struggle. When things click the offense looks great, but nothing is truly clicking right now, and it’s a problem.
The Interior Problem
UCLA has a lot of defensive problems (see: UCLA’s three guards doing their best turnstile impressions) but one that has stood out to me is the struggles of UCLA’s big men. Seeing Cody Riley struggle at times is not shocking considering everything we’ve seen from him over his UCLA career (though to give him a shout out, he was by far UCLA’s best defender in this game) but the poor defense we’ve seen from Myles Johnson has been shocking in its totality. UCLA fans knew Johnson was going to struggle on the offensive end, but the book on him was that he would more than make up for that with his defense.
But that hasn’t transpired, and what it looks like we’re seeing is that UCLA’s opponents have a much better idea of how to attack him than teams were ever able to cook up in the Big 10. Specifically, teams have routinely drawn Johnson out to the outside and made him try to guard in space, and this has predictably led to bad outcomes for the UCLA defense. Johnson just lacks the lateral quickness to be a defensive threat that far from the basket, and Cronin has not developed a solid defensive strategy to counteract this. Teams have also utilized this strategy against Riley, which has been relatively effective as well.
UCLA has a general solution to this problem but has been reluctant to go to it. That would be to go with Jaylen Clark at the center spot, giving up some size for much better defensive coverage. Paired with Peyton Watson, they’re a potent defensive combination that can better cover the defensive shortcomings of their teammates. Now, obviously, Clark was not available for this game, but this would have been an interesting opportunity to try Watson at that center spot, and if he held his own there you could then use Clark on whoever is the best offensive player on the opposing team.
Either way, this is something Mick Cronin is going to need to figure out, and in a hurry.
Player of the Game: Johnny Juzang
Seriously, this game is lost if Juzang is even a fraction worse than he was in this game. There seemed to be a conscious decision on the part of UCLA to have Juzang pt less effort in on the defensive end in order to carry the offense, as his net points was barely above zero for the game and he had both the highest efficiency rating and poorest defensive rating for any of the major rotation players in this game.
Still, when Juzang is in his bag like he was in this game, you are absolutely willing to take the good with the bad, and Juzang was way more good than bad in this one.
Johnny Juzang led the Bruins with 28 points. Jules Bernard led the team with seven rebounds, while Jaime Jaquez led the team in assists with three. Lazar Stefanovic led the Utes with 18 points.
The Bruins will need to put this one behind them in a hurry and focus of their next game on Saturday, where they will finish the Rocky Mountain Road Trip against a very game Colorado squad. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:00 PM PT.
Go Bruins!
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I railed heavily on ucla this game and some of the coaching that goes with it. I’ll take a step back by saying that playing Utah at home is not as easy as it seems… ever. Lots of other power teams struggling at this moment with the crazy covid issues we’ve seen. As terrible as the game was to watch, ucla still figured out a way to win, which is definitely something … maybe this can be the wake up call ucla needs.
Juaquez looked extremely out of shape and was gassed the whole game.
Riley had energy at the end of the game because he only played a few minutes being in foul trouble. He played with energy at the end and really was the turning point once he started playing. Some of this has to be the fact he was off for almost 3 months of no game play. He can turn it around but needs to stop the stupid fouls. He also needs to stop switching to cover a perimeter shooter. They need to more quickly switch back on defense and that hasn’t happened at all lately.
Myles has a great heart… he needs a coach that will teach him to toughen up a bit. Put some fight and meanness in him. He’s twice as big as little guards. Just post up, turn around and get nasty on offense. On defense, never get backed down… he’s the biggest guy on the court, no one should be able to back him down.
Nwuba is basically Myles Johnson without the long arms and blocking ability.
Tyger played better once Riley played better. But outside of that, tyger was abysmal with more turnovers than made baskets for most of the game. He’s too slow on defense to produce so poorly on offense.
Juzang played a great offensive game and looks ready to carry the team. I’m ok with that. He is slow on defense, but more than makes up for it when he’s shooting lights out
Jules needs to stop having the ball in his hands when the clock runs down. He’s not the guy, but for some reason they’ve decided he is. He’s also getting burned defensively very poorly multiple times a game.
Watson is still completely lost on offense most of the time. UCLA should try posting him up down low with his size and allowing him to get to the hoop. Instead they are content to let him shoot 3’s… stop it, his shot is sooo inconsistent at this point. On defense his footwork is awful. He gets beat to the basket and the jump shot and he has a foot on most of the guards… that worked in high school but isn’t working at the college level.
Singleton needs more play time. Unfortunately still in concussion protocol I’d assume. His defense is not great, but he opens up the floor offensively when he’s out there with juzang. Take some pressure off juzang to be the only option when Jules is stinking up the joint
What in the world happened to kyman? He looks lost everywhere on the court and looks like he hasn’t been coached at all.
Clark looks a lot better on both ends of the court. Not having him out there last night was probably one of the biggest reasons ucla struggled. He’s a very important defender when the offense isn’t clicking.
The inside game for ucla is crap! The bigs need better coaching. They all struggle to face the basket with good footwork and only Riley can pass the ball to his team when double covered. The rest of the post play is far worse then it’s been in a while
Glad ucla won, need to be better against cu next… a win is a win, hopefully ucla use this game as the turning point of the season
I too have been disappointed in Myles' play. Not the aggressive, interior presence the Bruins need. He was billed as this amazing player, but with the exception of one game, I have not been impressed. Keep hoping for something to click with him...