Men’s basketball’s recent wins due to rebooting of mental game
Junior center Thomas Welsh had eight rebounds and a block in UCLA men’s basletball’s comeback win over Oregon last Thursday in Pauley Pavilion. (Jintak Han/Assistant Photo editor)
By TuAnh Dam
Feb. 14, 2017 11:40 p.m.
The reboot worked.
After four straight weeks of league play and consecutive losses to Arizona and USC, No. 6 UCLA basketball (23-3, 10-3 Pac-12) needed the week off.
They were the first team to start conference play up in Eugene against Oregon and didn’t get its week off until a month later, a stretch of games that coach Steve Alford said left players gassed.
“Our team didn’t play good basketball against Arizona or ‘SC,” Alford said. “We had spurts in the Arizona game, but you could just see a tired team. That break after the ‘SC game has led to four games of good basketball and improving in some areas.”
The Bruins rebounded with four wins over the past two weeks, including an upset over the then-No. 5 Ducks at Pauley Pavilion on Thursday.
[Related: Men’s basketball defeats Oregon in rematch upset.]
Now with just five games left in the regular season, UCLA is looking to maintain that freshness heading into the Pac-12 and NCAA tournaments.
Less hours on the court and more hours watching video have been the key to staying sharp without wearing down their bodies.
“One, we want the practices to be really good,” Alford said. “But two, we want to maximize the rest time. In February and March, those practices really get reduced. It’s about monitoring the guys’ legs and minds more than anything and I think it’s one of the reasons last year didn’t happen.”
Last year, the Bruins had just two wins in February and ended the regular season losing six of their last seven games, including to the USC Trojans.
[Related: Bruins’ subpar season ends with third loss to the Trojans.]
The team’s performance last year and the current four-game losing streak to USC haven’t weighed on the team. The focus is simply continuing their four-game win streak.
“We just want to continue our win streak,” said junior center Thomas Welsh. “The adversity hit us and we had to come together and do what we had to do.”
A team meeting after the loss at the Galen Center refocused UCLA.
“The USC game woke us up and put us back in place and we’ve been playing better basketball ever since” said freshman point guard Lonzo Ball. “But we’re not going to live in the past, we just know we have to get in here and get the win.”
The Bruins aren’t where they want to be yet on the court – focusing on their defense and taking care of the basketball – but they’re already in a better place mentally.
And that’s already a step further than they were last season.
