In Pac-12 play, home is where the success is for UCLA basketball.
Aside from a tightly contested loss to Arizona on Jan. 9, the Bruins have dominated their opponents at Pauley Pavilion, compiling a 6-1 record in seven home conference games.
More importantly, Pauley Pavilion has served all season as a safe place to hide from losing streaks. After a disappointing loss to Utah in Salt Lake City, UCLA returned home to vent its basketball frustration, producing two double-digit wins over Cal and Stanford.
The Bruins suffered their worst loss of the year to Oregon State in Corvallis less than a month later. UCLA then struggled in a 10-point win over USC. The nonsense once again stopped in Pauley, where the Bruins took down Colorado and Utah with finality.
“I give the players credit,” said coach Steve Alford. “I’ve been there before, when you get knocked down, and that’s not just an automatic whether you’re playing at home or you’re playing on the road. They’ve been able to do it twofold.”
Following a nine-point loss to Stanford on Saturday, the Bruins are once again in need of some home cooking. To continue its trend of Westwood wake-up calls, UCLA (21-6, 10-4 Pac-12) will need to do a better job of defending the 3-point shot against visiting Oregon (18-8, 6-8) and Oregon State (14-12, 6-8).
At Stanford, the Bruins allowed the Cardinal to shoot 55 percent beyond the arc. GuardChasson Randle alone made seven 3s, most on open looks that UCLA failed to close out on. The defensive mistakes, sophomore guard Jordan Adams noted, added up.
“I think they came really well-prepared. From the jump, they knew what we were going to do,” Adams said. “They started off shooting the 3 very well. Threes are better than twos, you know. It adds up more.”
In a high-energy, high-emotion win on Jan. 30 over Thursday’s opponent, Oregon, a late over-the-back foul by sophomore forward/center Tony Parker almost added up to a near-loss for UCLA, but Parker was bailed out by Adams’ heroics in the closing minute.
Parker was visibly upset, fouling out of the game with just 1:14 to play, which continued a trend of useless fouls that put the sophomore big man into foul trouble and on the bench during long stretches of the early season.
But over the last few games, particularly against Stanford, Parker has broken his foul-heavy mold.
On Saturday, Parker made his presence known in the paint without the public address announcer indicating personal fouls against him. Parker was particularly effective, backing down Stanford bigs Dwight Powell, Josh Huestis and Stefan Nastic for 13 points. He also recorded just one foul, with 7:38 remaining.
“He’s learning. He wants to get better,” Alford said. “I think that’s a great trait for players to have. He does a really good job of doing his film work and prep.”
Often breaking down the film with redshirt sophomore guard Kory Alford, Parker is slowly but surely finding his rhythm thanks to two key details: hand positioning and the ability to drive with his legs as opposed to leaning on defenders. Tape also gives Parker a window into understanding which shoulder each Pac-12 big man likes to open.
“I was looking at a lot of tape, not of (Steve Alford at Indiana) – I don’t even know if they had tape back then – but we watch a whole lot of tape,” Parker said. “It’s different when somebody’s telling you than when you actually see it.”
Against an Oregon team whose strong suits don’t include size, the Bruins hope to see a lot of Parker Thursday.