UCLA men’s basketball has had seven days to figure things out.
Last Wednesday, the Bruins struggled mightily on defense while also failing to shoot well from the field – allowing the USC Trojans to easily win 89-75 in Pauley Pavilion.
This Wednesday, UCLA will take the court in Corvallis to face an Oregon State team that is 9-2 at home and looking to be a Pac-12 contender.
“USC … came, took it right at us and we didn’t defend,” said coach Steve Alford. “We’ve had really good practices and I think we’ve had growth defensively but as I’ve told the team you only see that growth if it happens in game play.”
However well the past week of practices have gone, the proof will be in Wednesday night’s play. The Bruins have struggled on the road so far this season, suffering big losses to the Washington Huskies and the Washington State Cougars to start conference play and getting blown out by the Kansas Jayhawks in November in a neutral-site matchup.
“I think it’s just consistency throughout … every aspect of the game,” said junior guard Bryce Alford. “Especially on defense. I think we go a couple possessions in a row, or even a couple games in a row, where we play pretty decent defense and then all of a sudden … you have a lot of shutdowns, a lot of places where you break down.”
Senior guard Gary Payton II, the son of NBA Hall of Famer Gary Payton, has led the Beavers with an eye-popping stat line of 17.3 points, 8.3 rebounds and 5.1 assists a game this season. The reigning Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, Payton has also added 2.4 steals per contest and should test the UCLA guards.
Despite upsetting then-No. 7 Arizona two weeks ago, UCLA is not without its offensive woes. Bryce Alford, although he’s put up several sparkling displays, has struggled to find his consistency in the early season while adjusting to his role as a scoring leader. He’s averaged a hefty 16.9 points a game but, for the third straight year, shot a shade under 40 percent.
Even when he dropped 30 points in UCLA’s double-overtime loss to Washington, he did so on 21 field goal attempts, of which he converted just five. And against USC, his 4-13 performance contributed to the Bruins’ collective 44 percent shooting.
“We didn’t score for long stretches in that SC game and that’s not us,” said senior forward/center Tony Parker. “So we had to figure out that drought.”
With contributing reports from Matthew Joye, Bruin Sports senior staff