UCLA Puts Together Most "Complete" Performance of Season, Beats West Georgia 83-62
UCLA was without Donovan Dent for this game, but it allowed for a breakout performance from Trent Perry.
I will say, UCLA head coach Mick Cronin has taken a rather new approach to this season than he has in the past.
In the game thread, I noted that Cronin spent much of the first half seated, offering small bits of coaching but otherwise letting the game play out. Coincidentally, UCLA scuffled throughout the first half, getting a decent offensive performance but failing to show urgency yet again on the defensive end, allowing an undermanned West Georgia squad to shoot 69.2% (9-13) from three, and ultimately ending the half with a scant five-point lead. It followed the pattern I’ve noticed from Cronin so far this season, that he’s being more hands-off during games, allowing guys to play through mistakes and being calmer than normal. There was some yelling here and there, sure, but it was more subdued than UCLA fans have grown accustomed to.
The second half was different, and it was the first appearance of angry Cronin all season, yelling at players and getting in their faces for the mistakes. The result? UCLA played its best half of the season, showing a much-improved defensive intensity and more focus on taking care of the ball, which allowed them to take that five-point halftime lead and balloon it out to the 21-point margin they finished with, beating West Georgia 83-62.
That second half really was the best part of this game, and maybe the most promising thing we’ve gotten from UCLA in this early season. The Bruins were efficient on offense, shooting 56% from the field (though they had seven of their 11 turnovers in the half), but more importantly, UCLA gave some actual effort on defense. The Bruins improved their three-point defense in the second half and gave their best rebounding performance of the season, grabbing 15 defensive rebounds and only giving up two offensive rebounds in the half. This is exactly the kind of performance one should expect the team to have against an outmatched opponent, so it was nice to finally see it happen.
Let’s roll with the positives for now, and you have to start with Trent Perry. Perry jumped into the starting lineup while Donovan Dent sat for precautionary reasons (muscle spasms; he should be fine for Friday), and had perhaps his best performance as a Bruin. Perry finished with 17 points on 5-11 shooting, but more impressive were his nine assists to only two turnovers. Perry looked excellent running as the lead guard, playing more confidently than we’ve ever seen him, and this kind of performance bodes well for the UCLA backcourt in the future. I opined during the season preview that UCLA might look at getting all three of Dent, Perry, and Skyy Clark on the court in closing lineups, and this kind of performance from Perry would go a long way to making that happen.
The other big positive from this game was the continued good play from Xavier Booker. Booker did not score a ton of points (though to be fair, he only had three shot attempts on the night), but he grabbed six rebounds and put up four assists in his 26 minutes of action. Defensively, Booker added two more blocks and had a defensive rating of 98.6, one of the best on the team. This was the kind of performance you should expect from a high-major big against this kind of opponent, which is not something you’d be able to say about many of the players on this team at the moment.
Finally, spare a thought for Tyler Bilodeau, who led the team with 21 points but was deficient in all other areas of the game, especially on defense. Mick Cronin talked about how Bilodeau is essentially learning an entirely new defensive position this year; last year, he had to learn how to play the post and defend pick-and-rolls, but this year, he is learning the perimeter, which involves a lot more switching. By the end of the year, Bilodeau was passable on defense, but right now, he is miserable on that end. Bilodeau is also playing one of the softest games of basketball I’ve seen, as if he is trying his best to avoid contact. UCLA desperately needs him start using his size and play with more physicality if it wants to take the next step.
The early tune-ups are done. Arizona comes on Friday. Let’s see if this team can handle the jump in opponent quality.
Go Bruins!
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