How confusing has this UCLA men’s basketball season been?
Just five days after one of its least impressive performances on the road at Oregon, UCLA returned home and cruised to a relatively easy victory over No. 11 Utah.
Huh?
How could a team that struggled so mightily against Oregon State (14-7, 5-4 Pac-12) and Oregon (15-7, 5-4) make a very good Utah team (17-4, 7-2) look so pedestrian?
Obviously, many factors contributed to the differing performances, but 22 games into the season, a clear trend has emerged: UCLA at home and UCLA on the road are two very different teams.
At Pauley Pavilion, UCLA is 11-1, with just two wins by fewer than 10 points and the lone loss coming at the hands of then-No. 3 Gonzaga. Playing anywhere else, the Bruins are 2-8 with 39-, 32- and 22-point losses and just two losses by single digits. Quite the dichotomy.
There are plenty of “reasons, not excuses,” as coach Steve Alford puts it, that the Bruins’ road record is so ugly, and many of them are legitimate.
Four of the Bruins’ 10 games away from Pauley Pavilion have come against ranked opponents and another two came without junior center Tony Parker – a key cog to both the offense and defense. Clearly, those games would have been tough to win.
But at some point, the Bruins need to get past their “reasons” and just figure out a way to shrug off their Jekyll-and-Hyde act and replicate home performance on the road.
It hasn’t just been the final score that separates the performances at Pauley from elsewhere; UCLA also seems to play differently on the road. The energy, faster-paced offense, low-post dominance and swarming defense that the Bruins have regularly put on display at home never seem to board the plane with the team. Instead, UCLA reverts to its bad habits in away games, and its record reflects that.
The lack of consistency in UCLA’s play shouldn’t be blamed on facing tough opponents or missing players. The drop-off in play on the road is something the Bruins have inflicted upon themselves, not something outside forces or adverse circumstances have caused.
The Bruins have played enough games and practiced with each other long enough to know who they have and what they are. Regardless of the various “reasons” that pop up on the road to add more challenges, there is no reason for not playing with the same style and energy that has brought them success at home.
At least the Bruins know they have a problem, and that’s the first step.
“We just have to focus more as a team on the road,” said senior guard Norman Powell, diagnosing what he saw as the main reason for the contrasting performances.
Freshman forward Kevon Looney, meanwhile, attributed the higher success rate at Pauley Pavilion to UCLA’s level of comfort with the pregame routine at home.
Whatever the reason, the Bruins don’t have much time to figure things out with four of their final nine games on the road and their spot in the NCAA tournament uncertain.
The Bruins are running out of reasons to be losing on the road, and this week should be the perfect test to see if they have fixed their problems. With Parker back in the mix, UCLA should be fully healthy in its performance against Stanford and Cal – two teams it has already beaten this season. There won’t be any reasons or excuses for not playing well.