Irrespective of how UCLA was seeded, the place it was despatched or who it might face in its NCAA event opener, maybe the most important consider its postseason destiny wouldn’t change.
The Bruins will seemingly go solely so far as their guards take them.
That may make for a brief keep in Lexington, Ky., except they get much more out of this group.
March is all about guard play. They’re those who run the offense, dictate the protection, handle late leads and spark comebacks.
Collectively, Dylan Andrews, Skyy Clark, Kobe Johnson, Sebastian Mack, Trent Perry and Lazar Stefanovic should considerably elevate their stage of play if the Bruins have any hope of creating it to the event’s second weekend.
Their manufacturing might compensate for an off night time by one of many staff’s main scorers, forwards Tyler Bilodeau and Eric Dailey Jr., or offset restricted minutes for middle Aday Mara due to conditioning points, matchup issues or coach Mick Cronin’s reluctance to play him alongside Bilodeau and Dailey.
“When we get good guard play, we can beat anybody,” Cronin stated final week after his guards performed considered one of their most full video games in main the Bruins to a 27-point rout of USC.
UCLA’s guards will get one other probability Thursday in a first-round sport towards Tenth-seeded Utah State (26-7) after the Seventh-seeded Bruins (22-10) had been positioned within the Midwest area on Sunday. Ought to UCLA prevail in its opener, it might face both second-seeded Tennessee (27-7) or Fifteenth-seeded Wofford (19-15) within the second spherical on Saturday.
USC guard Desmond Claude (1) watches as UCLA guard Sebastian Mack (12) leads a quick break that ends in a layup at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday. UCLA guard Trent Perry (1) and ahead Tyler Bilodeau (34) run alongside Mack.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Instances)
It’s no secret that higher guard play begins with Andrews, who hasn’t recaptured his sturdy play from the second half of final season. The Bruins don’t want the junior level guard to carry out at an all-conference stage to win a few video games within the NCAA event; merely initiating the offense at a excessive stage, making a couple of photographs and persevering with to play his sturdy model of protection can be sufficient.
Andrews’ seasonlong capturing hunch continued throughout the Large Ten event quarterfinal blowout loss to Wisconsin, when he made two of eight photographs to go together with solely two assists. He’s making 38.2% of his photographs, 32.3% of his three-pointers and 66.7% of his free throws, effectively beneath his preseason targets of 50-40-90 in these classes.
A part of the issue is inconsistency in Andrews’ mechanics, his launch level various from one shot to the following. One other difficulty is the reluctance to make use of his velocity — maybe his best asset — to drive towards the basket. That is evidenced in his 21 free throws taken this season, which ranks Tenth on the staff. He’s additionally struggled to get the 7-foot-3 Mara the ball within the put up, although that has been a teamwide difficulty.
In a extra optimistic improvement, Clark has emerged as maybe essentially the most regular guard on the staff. He’s a savvy ballhandler who has additionally change into a high shooter. Over his final 16 video games, Clark has made 41.5% of his three-pointers, main some to imagine that he must shoot greater than his common of three.3 makes an attempt from lengthy vary per sport on the season.
“He’s really, really improved at taking care of the ball and I’m trying to keep his mind on being aggressive with his shooting because we do drills and stuff for numbers at full speed and he’s an elite shooter — and I’m not talking about a couple of drills, I’m talking about five months of this, OK?” Cronin stated. “So you’re talking about a sample size of over 100 times going through a timed shooting drill and you can’t get the numbers he gets without really being able to shoot, so trying to keep him” capturing.
Johnson largely has been the defensive stopper the Bruins envisioned on the perimeter this season, even when pockets of foul bother have saved him off the court docket at instances. He’s made a team-leading 53 steals whereas additionally averaging a team-best 5.9 rebounds to go together with a capability to sink well timed three-pointers.
However he can typically drift defensively and disappear on offense — he averaged simply 3.8 factors over the 4 video games previous his 14-point breakthrough towards Wisconsin on Friday.
Mack’s attacking fashion has its followers and detractors. On the one hand, he’s received a couple of video games with relentless drives and is fearless in his efforts to place factors on the board. On the opposite, he’s repeatedly barreled into opponents for charging calls in vital conditions and will most likely go greater than he does every time the ball’s in his arms.
Perry has proven some promise in spot minutes over the past month or so, the freshman wanting far much less timid than he did earlier within the season. However he’s struggled to shoot — making 36.6% of his photographs and 32.4% of his three-pointers — and has been repeatedly overwhelmed on protection.
That leaves the regular Stefanovic, who willingly ceded his beginning spot to Johnson as soon as the latter participant introduced he was transferring from USC. Stefanovic has made essentially the most of his 16.5 minutes per sport, averaging 4.7 factors and persevering with to be virtually unguardable curling round screens for soar photographs off inbounds passes.
If the Bruins have a late lead and have to put the ball in somebody’s arms to make sure they’ll make their free throws and avert one other collapse much like their losses to North Carolina and Minnesota, Stefanovic is their man. He’s made 21 of twenty-two free throws (95.5%).
That’s the kind of consistency the Bruins will want from their guards the remainder of this month.
