UCLA finally decided to press the issue.
That is, they finally decided to use the much talked about but
little
used full court press defense in their 81-58 win over Long Beach
State.
“We wanted to up the tempo and get more steals and
turnovers,” said
forward Dijon Thompson.
After using the press sparingly in the first half, the Bruins
came out with full pressure after halftime. The tight defense
helped expand their lead from seven at halftime to 25 with just
under 10 minutes remaining in the game.
“They really started going off (with the press) after
halftime,” said 49er guard Tony Darden. “And all year,
we’ve been coming out sluggish in the second half.”
Long Beach State point guard Darnell Thompson blames himself for
the
breakdown of the 49er offense in the face of the full court
pressure.
“We didn’t know our spots, where we were supposed to
be, in the second half,” he said. “I’m personally
responsible, because I am the point guard.”
One reason for the success of the press was Bruin point guard
Ryan
Walcott, who made his season debut in the game after being
suspended for UCLA’s first two contests.
“The Waterbug”, as head coach Steve Lavin commonly
calls him, brought the quickness and depth needed to execute the
press successfully.
“We are a quick team, so we used that to try to make Long
Beach State rush,” Walcott said.
“They weren’t very good with the ball,” added
Thompson. “Once we started pressing, they were turning it
over a lot more.”
Long Beach State head coach Larry Reynolds said he expected UCLA
to use the press against his squad, because other teams have
already used it successfully against the 49ers this season.
“I’m sure (UCLA) looked at the film from our games
against Charlotte and Pepperdine, because both these teams did a
good job of pressing us.”
However, multiple Bruin players said that the game plan coming
in wasn’t to press, and that using it was a halftime change
the team felt it needed to make.
“At the half, we only had two transition points,”
Walcott said. “So we got the press going, and we got a lot of
easy buckets.”
Senior guard Ray Young agreed, saying the team went with the
press to try to change the tone of the game.
“It was a gametime adjustment,” he said. “We
tried to throw them off
balance, and it worked.”