Saturday’s UCLA-St. John’s game was about as
fundamentally sound as a Shaq free-throw.
Yes, it was that sloppy.
“It was an ugly game for both teams,” said forward
Andre Patterson. “I felt like we were trying not to lose
because we needed a big win.”
UCLA has gone through sloppy stretches all season, committing
costly turnovers and exercising careless ball-handling, which has
allowed opponents to go on big runs.
Saturday was no exception, as the Bruins turned the ball over 10
times in the first half alone. That allowed an 18-18 tie to turn
into a 35-23 Red Storm lead at halftime, which St. John’s
never relinquished.
“We start playing wild sometimes,” said forward
Josiah Johnson. “We aren’t letting the game come to
us.”
The UCLA backcourt is primarily responsible for turnovers. Guard
Cedric Bozeman finished with five, and guard Ryan Walcott
contributed four.
“The passer and the receiver have to be on the same
page,” said Walcott. “I made a couple of stupid passes.
We need to not force it in there.”
The Bruins had the same problem in their loss to USC last
Wednesday. Up 50-49 in the second half, UCLA committed nine
turnovers to allow the Trojans to make a 12-0 run.
UCLA was never able to recover the deficit.
“When you come out lackadaisical, it is difficult to be
efficient with the ball,” said center T.J. Cummings, who also
had four turnovers. “Then you start to question yourself and
your confidence goes down. That is when turnovers
happen.”
To most observers, it seems as if UCLA is playing scared.
Instead of being aggressive and playing to win, the team is
tentative and wondering what will go wrong next.
“We have to play more solid and be patient,” forward
Jason Kapono said. “I feel like we are trying to free things
up and playing too fast.”
The Bruins have had at least 14 turnovers in eight of the 11
games that they’ve played this season, and have had more
turnovers than their opponent in seven.
Head coach Steve Lavin knows that to turn this season around,
the team will need to be more careful with the ball.
“When you’re struggling, the tendency is to try to
force the issue and hope something positive happens,” he
said. “We have to go back to work, because we’re not
playing good basketball.”