Men’s basketball sees struggles with consistency, makes lineup change

At this point of the season, with only a handful of games left to play, teams are fine-tuning small details and gearing up for a run at March Madness.

UCLA men’s basketball (15-12, 6-8 Pac-12) is in the middle of an overhaul.

It was just six games ago that the Bruins decided to completely change up their on-court identity, going from a big-big lineup to one that features a stretch power forward by inserting sophomore guard/forward Jonah Bolden into the starting lineup for senior forward/center Tony Parker.

While the results have been mixed with a 3-3 record, coach Steve Alford sounds happy with how his team is playing.

“We’ve been playing some pretty good basketball and hopefully we can keep building,” Alford said.

That 3-3 record could have easily been a dominant 5-1 stretch if it wasn’t for a couple of lapses. In close losses to Arizona and Utah, a four to eight minute window of wildly inconsistent play doomed UCLA.

Consistency hasn’t just been a recent issue with the new lineup change, but an issue that has plagued the Bruins all season. When the switch is turned on, UCLA looks like it can play with anyone – most recently seen in the 77-53 wire-to-wire win over Colorado last Saturday.

But more often then not, there’s that stretch in a game in which the Bruins just look lost, like a whole different team.

“With consistency, its so hard to figure out why you are and why you aren’t,” said junior guard Bryce Alford. “I feel that we were very in tune and very together for the entire game against Colorado.”

One of the many concerns for the coaching staff to address will be to find a way to get the team to play 40-minute games for the rest of the season.

Despite having just four games left in conference play, Steve Alford has shown that he’s not afraid of making changes in search of answers.

When UCLA inserted Bolden into the starting lineup, it saw an immediate improvement in its defense and spacing. However, Parker – the lone senior on the team – was relegated to the bench.

Parker’s statistics dipped across the board from 12.7 points and 8.8 rebounds in 25.7 minutes per game prior to the change to 8.6 points and 4.8 rebounds in 16 minutes a game in the five games since.

Parker bottomed out in the fifth game of the stretch last Thursday, when he only managed four points and three rebounds. After the game, Steve Alford simply said that they need to find a way to get Parker going.

The change came the very next game. Against Colorado, Parker was reinserted back into the starting lineup and sophomore center Thomas Welsh came off the bench for the first time all season.

Parker responded with 16 points and six rebounds on 60 percent shooting in the blowout win.

“He’s just a guy we can build off of offensively and defensively,” Welsh said. “He just brings emotion to our team, if we can get him going early in the starting lineup, that’ll be good for us.”

UCLA will continue to start Parker on Thursday night when it visits Cal (19-8, 9-5) Thursday night.

For a team that has so many issues with consistency, the juggling of the starting lineup this late probably isn’t helping.

But for a team with an outside chance of making the NCAA Tournament, the changes might be necessary to keep its hopes alive.