Men’s basketball prepares for rematch with top-ranked Kentucky
Junior guard Bryce Alford said that the UCLA men’s basketball team tried to hype up last year’s Kentucky game too much. The Bruins fell by 39 points, and failed to score a point until the Wildcats had already taken a 24-point lead. (Aubrey Yeo/Daily Bruin senior staff)
Men’s basketball
No. 1 Kentucky
Today, 6 p.m
Pauley Pavilion
ESPN
By Claire Fahy
Dec. 3, 2015 1:09 a.m.
Forty-one to seven.
That was what the scoreboard read at halftime the last time UCLA men’s basketball took on Kentucky. The Bruins trailed by 34 points heading into the locker room, having shot 8 percent from the field compared to the Wildcats’ 46.
“Last year, obviously we got shocked right from the beginning, and I think it was 24-0 before we even scratched,” said coach Steve Alford.” Going back and just kind of looking at that, we were on our heels very early, and we can’t be on our heels. If we get on our heels to the No. 1 team in the country, similar things happen.”
The matchup at the CBS Sports Classic last December was easily the low point of the 2014-15 UCLA season. This year, Kentucky is still No. 1 and still poses major threats on both ends of the court entering Thursday’s game. The Wildcats are averaging 80 points per contest to go with 41 rebounds per game.
Luckily for UCLA, Kentucky coach John Calipari said his team does not bring the same level of relentless ruthlessness as it did last year. Add to that the fact sophomore guard Tyler Ulis, who averages 13.2 points per game, is questionable for Thursday’s matchup and the game is less predictable.
“Last year was an outlier,” Calipari said in a press conference Monday. “I had a ridiculous team. And they would go into a game like that to smoke somebody … They would go in with that mentality. This team is, we don’t have that mentality.”
The Wildcats easily outmatched the Bruins last year with their depth and strength, factors UCLA has improved over the past 12 months with quality recruits and a new lineup. The Bruins are consistently going big-big with senior forward/center Tony Parker and sophomore center Thomas Welsh, creating a much more impressive post presence.
“I think maybe last year we weren’t necessarily expecting what happened,” Welsh said. “I just think we weren’t ready for the moment … I think we know what to expect this time around.”
UCLA (4-3) will rely heavily on its guard play Thursday night, which has been a make-or-break element of the Bruin offense this season. Kentucky (7-0) hits almost 50 percent from the field in a fast-paced offensive scheme, so UCLA will have to keep up to have a chance of making the game close.
“(We need) to make it like any other game. We did a bad job of that last year,” said junior guard Bryce Alford. “We tried to hype it up a little bit too much. We knew going in how good of a team they were and I think that we kinda let it get to us and we didn’t know how good we were.”
With contributing reports by Matthew Joye, Bruin Sports senior staff.
