Men’s basketball looks to fill in defense, guard early season success
This season, UCLA is looking to run the ball as much as possible to power its fast paced offense. But the Bruins also have to limit their turnovers after throwing the ball away 20 times against Cal State Northridge. Freshman guard Lonzo Ball had five of the turnovers to go with 13 points and six assists. (Ken Shin/Daily Bruin)
By TuAnh Dam
Nov. 17, 2016 1:52 a.m.
Unlike the football team, No. 16 UCLA men’s basketball (2-0) plans to run the ball.
A lot.
The Bruins averaged 110.5 points over their first two games, utilizing the 3-point line against Pacific and then driving to the bucket and going to the free-throw line against Cal State Northridge.
It’s the kind of pace coach Steve Alford ran his first two seasons in Westwood when UCLA reached the Sweet 16 but wasn’t able to run last year with a shorter bench.
Sunday night, the Matadors tried to keep pace with the Bruins – even leading the home team at halftime – before eventually fading down the stretch and falling 102-87.
[Related: UCLA basketball defeats CSUN 102-87 with strong second half.]
Against San Diego (0-2) on Thursday night, UCLA will face a team that is, as Alford described, craftier and more deceptive with the basketball.
“San Diego’s a little bit different style than CSUN,” Alford said. “We’ll be seeing some zone, some man – trying to get us in a slower tempo. Our challenge will be to keep that at a high level.”
The key to maintaining that fast pace and having 90-plus possessions a game is cutting turnovers and limiting opponents’ points in transition.
The Bruins averaged 15.7 assists to just 12.3 turnovers last season, but gave up 20 turnovers for 22 points Sunday.
Cleaning up their game on the offensive end will facilitate gameplay on the other end of the court.
[Related: Men’s basketball’s high-scoring wins leaves gaps on defense.]
“We do get a lot of possessions offensively, but because of that we do give them the ball a lot more,” said junior center Thomas Welsh. “We can score, we can push the ball, but if we want to be great, we have to play defense. That’s where it’s going to start. That’s where it’s going to finish for us.”
The UCLA defense will square off against a San Diego team that runs a Princeton offense, emphasizing screens and ball movement.
Freshman forward/center Ike Anigbogu, who is back running after suffering a slight tear in his meniscus, could supplement the Bruins’ defense in the future with his interior presence.
Alford stated that the forward/center was not available yet, but was projected to be back as early as the Long Beach State game Sunday and hopefully in time for the DirecTV Wooden Legacy that same week.
No matter what offensive scheme the opponent runs or how spotty its defense can be, the rest of the team knows the offense and the run will be the the central part of their game.
“We gotta answer some questions on defense, but we’re pretty much set on offense so we’ll just take it from there.” said freshman guard Lonzo Ball.
