With only one win, men’s basketball finishes seventh in the Bahamas
By Kevin Bowman
Nov. 29, 2014 7:17 p.m.
When UCLA men’s basketball boarded a plane last Monday for the Bahamas to play in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, it did so with some newfound national respect, the Bruins’ 4-0 record earning them the No. 22 spot in the AP poll.
Three games later, the Bruins returned toting a very different perception.
After narrowly losing to Oklahoma 75-65 on Wednesday then being torn apart by No. 5 North Carolina 78-56 Thursday, UCLA (5-2) finished seventh in the eight-team tournament with a 88-76 win over the University of Alabama-Birmingham Friday.
With UCLA’s 1-2 record in the tournament, the optimism surrounding the team has faded slightly, its flaws on display to a national audience.
UCLA’s biggest weakness was put to the test in the three-game tournament and it was exposed. With their limited depth, playing three games in three days was always going to be tough, but when shots stopped falling and mistakes piled up against the Tar Heels, the Bruins had no other options to turn to.
In Thursday’s game, UCLA’s starting guards – senior Norman Powell, sophomore Bryce Alford and sophomore Isaac Hamilton – combined for 7-25 shooting and 18 turnovers.
With no other point guard options to bring off the bench to replace the struggling starters, the Bruins just watched the Tar Heels repeatedly capitalize on the Bruins’ mistakes and run away with the game.
“Our plan right now is to just forget about this game, learn what we can from it, learn from the mistakes we made, accept it and move on,” said freshman center Thomas Welsh to reporters in the Bahamas after the loss to North Carolina.
UCLA did that Friday, jumping out to a 16-point lead by halftime and maintaining it for most of the remainder of the game. The turnover problem of the previous game was improved – UCLA committed 12 turnovers against UAB (2-5) compared to its 23 against North Carolina.
After Friday’s game, coach Steve Alford looked back on the loss to North Carolina and admitted his players may have been too wide-eyed coming into that game against one of the nation’s premier programs.
“I’m sure. There is no question, I’m sure that has happened,” Alford said to reporters in the Bahamas. “It affected a lot of them.”
The tournament was eye-opening in another way as well.
Having cruised to four wins against lesser opponents to start the season, UCLA was given more accurate feedback for where it stands as a team against tougher opponents. With two losses, the results clearly were not what the Bruins were hoping for, but with the remainder of its season filled almost exclusively with challenging opponents, they found plenty to learn from the experience.
“That is the first time that a team has played us like that. They were fully denying the wings,” said Powell to reporters after the conclusion of the tournament. “Teams will start to do that now, as our season goes along. We will play teams like North Carolina and Oklahoma.”
