They had UCLA uniforms, but they weren’t playing UCLA basketball. They ran beneath the bright lights at Pauley Pavilion, but they didn’t look like a Bruin team. The game was an exhibition ““ it won’t even count toward their record ““ but they made it feel like a Pac-10 thriller.
As it unfolded Wednesday night, UCLA’s wild 62-61 win over Concordia didn’t really make much sense.
It was a completely confusing scene.
Concordia was confident. The team from the small, NAIA school in Irvine arrived here with swagger. They frustrated the Bruins with their defensive pressure. Offensively, the Eagles knew which players to pick on. Their bench erupted with each bucket. A small section of their fans jumped and screamed.
And the Bruins were sleepwalking. As a team, they committed 20 turnovers and missed 10 of their 19 free-throw attempts. Down the stretch the Bruin offense struggled to execute its basic sets, coach Ben Howland said.
Sophomore Malcolm Lee suffered a serious case of brain cramps. Lee, considered the team’s rising star at shooting guard, fouled out on a silly play with four minutes left.
When the whistle blew, he dropped to his knees and buried his head inside his white, stretched jersey.
“How stupid could I be?” was his only thought, he said.
Those last four minutes after he left were even more bizarre.
Point guard Mustafa Abdul-Hamid nailed a 3-pointer to put the Bruins ahead with 16 seconds left. It was the same Abdul-Hamid who had committed seven turnovers earlier in the game.
“We were lucky to win this game,” Howland said.
I’m not trying to push the panic button. This was November college basketball. The Bruins are trying to run complex schemes, and they’ve had little time to master them. They were also shorthanded, playing without starting point guard Jerime Anderson and sharpshooter Michael Roll.
I just thought it was a really weird night, and one that makes the regular season harder to predict.
I don’t know about Lee, I don’t know about the big men, and I don’t know about the freshmen, who Howland said were too flustered defensively down the stretch.
After this wacky game, only one thing was certain. The Bruins have a lot of work to do.
Afterward, as I wrote, one UCLA player’s father walked up past the press box. He stopped and said jokingly, “it wasn’t a Syracuse,” referring to the No. 25 Orangemen, who lost Tuesday to a Division II school.
And he was right. The Bruins did survive. It’s just hard to be certain they will again next time.
E-mail Allen at sallen@media.ucla.edu.