Men’s basketball continues to fight speed with athleticism

The UCLA men’s basketball team has one clear weakness at this point in the season.

It’s not bench production or team defense, though those are areas of prime concern. It’s not boxing out, either, even though the Bruins rank near the bottom of the Pac-12 in offensive rebound prevention.

Instead, the one clear-cut weakness for this UCLA team is tempo. The Bruins (13-9, 4-5 Pac-12) are 0-4 against teams that rank in the top 25 in possessions per game this year, with their most recent loss coming to the Washington Huskies on Thursday.

Ironically, UCLA isn’t a slow-tempo team itself. As a matter of fact, coach Steve Alford said he wants his team playing fast.

“We want to play that way,” Alford said. “Where the ball is being pushed ahead a lot (in transition).”

The Bruins rank No. 50 in the country with an average of 74.9 possessions per game – a figure they almost matched in their 83-50 demolition of Washington State on Saturday. That game featured 75 possessions on UCLA’s side, and 73 on Washington State’s.

However, when UCLA lost to Washington last Thursday, the pace was slightly outside of the Bruins’ range. Washington, a team that averages 81.8 possessions per game – second-most in the country – met its standard, finishing with 82 possessions. The Bruins were forced to follow suit, finishing with 82 possessions of their own.

Now, coming up on Thursday of this week, UCLA has to face the nation’s eighth-fastest team, a team that handed the Bruins a 14-point loss earlier this season. That team is USC (17-5, 6-3).

The X-factor for UCLA will not only be whether it can control the tempo, but also whether it can control the Trojans’ athletic front court. In the last matchup between these two teams – an 89-75 USC win on Jan. 13 – USC’s versatile 6-foot-11 forward Chimezie Metu went off for 21 points and eight boards. Forwards like Metu – who can move well laterally, stretch the floor and push the tempo – have posed the biggest problems for UCLA this year.

“If you look, through 22 games, I think that’s been our weakness: dealing with really athletic (power forwards),” Alford said. “We’ve been getting beat by athletic teams.”

Alford is right. USC, Washington and Monmouth – all of whom rank in the top 15 in possession per game – have beaten UCLA this year. In Monmouth’s case, the Hawks were outrebounded by more than 20 against the Bruins, but they won the battle of fast break points, 8-0.

“(We were) really getting exposed playing two centers at once,” Alford said.

The hope for Alford is that his recent lineup changes will pay off. On Saturday, the UCLA coach adjusted his starting lineup to include more versatility and athleticism, replacing senior forward/center Tony Parker with versatile sophomore small forward Jonah Bolden. The move was UCLA’s first non-suspension/injury-related lineup adjustment in two seasons, and it yielded immediate returns, as UCLA won by its largest margin all year.

“It’s definitely a big change. (Parker and Bolden are) very different players, for sure, and this was our first time really going into it,” said sophomore center Thomas Welsh. “We’re definitely more athletic with Jonah in the game.”

The insertion of Bolden into the starting lineup has also changed things offensively, said junior guard Isaac Hamilton.

“Offensively, it kind of keeps the lane open for the guards to make plays,” Hamilton said.

The lineup change has certainly proven to be the right move so far. But the big question for the Bruins is the same as the question that’s followed the Bruins all year long: Can they maintain their success?

“That lineup, and the way we played tonight, allowed us to be a little bit more efficient,” Alford said after the win over Washington State. “Now we’ve got to be able to prove that efficiency consistently, but it was a very good start.”