In every basketball game, there is usually at least one moment of isolation. Things slow down, the crowd dulls its cheering, the coaches stop yelling instructions and eight of the 10 players on the court briefly turn into spectators.
During these times, the ball handler looks at the defender, both making a silent agreement that the possession will be determined by who is the better player in that moment. It is very personal, and entails just as much individual pride as it does team competition.
With coach Cori Close’s emphasis on “person-to-person” defense this season, UCLA should be anticipating a lot of moments like these.
“My style as a coach, I’d rather just be ‘you and me’, player-to-player, ‘let’s get after this,’ ‘let’s take responsibility,'” Close said, “But I like to win even more, so whatever defense is going to help us have the best chance to win, we’ll go with that”.
When the Bruins were forced to play person-to-person defense against St. John’s, they were successful, even when facing highly-touted guards Aliyyah Handford and Danaejah Grant, who struggled to get clean shots throughout the game and together shot just 35.7 percent.
On the other side, although the players hope to move the ball on offense and not fall into stagnant isolation play, Close believes they still have the ability to win one-on-one matchups when necessary.
“Every ball handler is better at their drive after the ball is moved, after the defense has had to make choices and change their angles,” Close said.
The Bruin backcourt of senior Nirra Fields and 2014-15 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year Jordin Canada are the most likely to benefit from this ball movement when taking on defenders off the dribble. Canada in particular has looked especially lethal offensively this year.
“If they’re playing me up close, most likely I’m going to be able to drive and if they’re sagging off I know I have to shoot my jumper,” Canada said. “So it’s just being able to read the defense.”
The sophomore had a game-high 23 points against St. John’s, largely from a flurry of midrange jumpers in the first half.
“Last year a lot of the teams we played sagged off of me,” Canada said. “I thought that was very offensive to me, so that was just something that I just needed to work on, so over the summer I just continued to work on it.”
Defensively, Fields – who has been tormenting opposing Pac-12 guards for the past three years – has seen the benefits of playing person-to-person on defense.
“We’re more up-tempo,” Fields said, “I think that’s one of our strengths is we’re a very athletic team so we can play man-to-man and really just stay in front of our player, makes the offense for the other team harder.”
Slowing down the backcourts of fellow Pac-12 rivals Arizona State, Oregon State and Stanford will be difficult, but – luckily for UCLA – those teams are looking at the Bruins and thinking the same thing.