If the UCLA men’s basketball team was looking for a silver lining in its fourth consecutive loss, the latest to No. 1 Kansas at Pauley Pavilion on Sunday, it would be that it could have been a lot worse.
The Bruins were coming off a weekend in which they were the only team in the 76 Classic in Anaheim to not win a game. On Tuesday, sophomore forward Drew Gordon left the team after coming to a mutual decision with coach Ben Howland, forcing freshman Reeves Nelson into the starting lineup.
Add in a high-scoring Kansas (7-0) team with plenty of size and an inexperienced Bruin team struggling on both offense and defense, and the Bruins seemed destined for a lop-sided defeat.
While it was still a loss ““ a 73-61 defeat in front of 10,451 at Pauley Pavilion ““ following the game the Bruins (2-5) took solace in the fact that they showed a marked improvement.
“We had a really good week of practice, and as you guys can see, we improved a lot,” senior guard Michael Roll said. “If we just keep sticking with it, I’m very confident that we’ll be where we need to be come Pac-10 time.”
Roll led the Bruins with 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting, while senior forward Nikola Dragovic contributed 14 points and sophomore guard Malcolm Lee scored 12 points.
Leading the way for the top-ranked Jayhawks was sophomore forward Markieff Morris, who led all scorers with a career-high 19 points. Morris proved to be a handle for Dragovic throughout the game, making 8-of-11 from the floor while also pulling down six rebounds.
“They had such good size they really did a great job of getting it inside,” Howland said. “They exposed our post defense a little bit from the four spot.”
Morris’ 19 points were just part of the 36 points Kansas scored in the paint, compared to UCLA’s 28.
“We probably should have doubled him,” Howland noted after the game.
Coming into the game, one of the questions surrounding the Bruins was how Nelson would play in his first career start. Based on the job he did on preseason All-American center Cole Aldrich, the early returns have the Bruins feeling confident.
Nelson’s defense helped to limit Aldrich to just seven points on one-of-six shooting from the field. Nelson also contributed nine points and nine rebounds, providing a number of hustle plays that drew giant cheers from the UCLA fans.
“He’s real scrappy,” Aldrich said of Nelson. “He’s one of those guys you just got to keep hitting on the boards, and he’s one of those guys that you love playing against. But you also hate it at the same time because you love guys that go after the ball really hard but you’re like, “˜I got to keep boxing him out.'”
Unfortunately for Reeves, a scary moment happened in the second half. Down 48-38 with 14:01 left in the game, Nelson drove and was poked in the eye. Nelson made his way to the baseline where he laid down on his stomach covering his face.
Nelson sat on the bench getting medical attention from the medical staff for several minutes until he returned to the game wearing bright orange goggles with 8:56 left in the game.
When Nelson checked in, a clip of Nelson’s heavily swollen right eye was shown on the Bruin Vision screen.
After the game, Nelson was taken to the Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Center for further evaluation.
“I like how he plays,” Howland said. “He got some big rebounds in there today. He’s playing against a first-round pick in Cole Aldrich and competed well.”
Freshman forward Tyler Honeycutt made his UCLA debut after missing the first six games because of a stress reaction in his right tibia. Honeycutt scored three points on one-of-six shooting and grabbed six rebounds in 19 minutes.
Following the game, Honeycutt said he felt great on the court and was not held back by his injury.
“The only thing we had to lose was a loss,” Honeycutt said. “We just came in here as we got to get better, and this was a game that if we would have won, it would have turned a lot of things around, especially our last couple of losses.”
After trailing by seven at halftime, the Bruins cut the deficit to four, 38-34, on a Roll layup with 17:21 left in the game. Yet a 12-4 Kansas run put the Jayhawks back up by 12, effectively putting the game away.
“I thought our guys showed a lot of fight,” Howland said. “If we keep doing that we’re going to end up winning some of these games as we move forward.”