PULLMAN, Wash. – This isn’t the same UCLA men’s basketball team that toppled then-No. 1 Kentucky and then-No. 20 Gonzaga. That team might have been left back in 2015.
The Bruins came out flat to start Pac-12 conference play. Friday night it was too many turnovers and lack of execution. Sunday night turned into a debacle that had both coach and players calling themselves “soft” after the game.
UCLA (9-6, 0-2 Pac-12) fell to Washington State (9-5, 1-1) 85-78 in a game that the Cougars led from 11:30 left in the first half until the final buzzer.
“If you don’t play this game with effort and passion, you’re gonna get beat, especially in this league,” said coach Steve Alford. “They outworked us and they played with much more passion than what we played with.”
The Bruins entered the weekend ranked No. 25 after some impressive wins in non-conference play. But after falling to Washington State and Washington – teams that were picked by Pac-12 men’s basketball media members to finish last and second to last, respectively – UCLA will travel back home with significant questions about its identity.
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The Bruins allowed the Cougars to shoot 55.4 percent from the field, including 45 percent from the 3-point line.
As the game went on, the UCLA defense couldn’t get stops when it needed to. WSU shot 60 percent from the field in the second half to extend what was a relatively close game to a double-digit lead.
“We gave up too many buckets especially in the paint,” said junior guard Isaac Hamilton. “They just came at us and unfortunately we didn’t respond.”
Offensively, UCLA didn’t have any answers aside from Hamilton, who finished with 27 points and six rebounds.
Junior guard Bryce Alford, perhaps fatigued from his late-game heroics in the double-overtime loss to Washington two nights ago, finished with just nine points on 2-for-10 shooting.
However, Steve Alford would not take tiredness as an excuse for the lack of energy and passion.
“If we are (tired out), that’s just a soft mental approach,” Alford said. “Being fatigued, that’s a mental softness and we can’t have that as a basketball team. We have to be tougher than that.”
UCLA definitely was not soft when it upset Kentucky and Gonzaga. Yet, now that conference play has begun, those wins seem like a distant memory. Somewhere between those wins and this weekend, the Bruins stumbled and slipped.
“We’re going to have to push it as hard as we can because we have a ways to go,” said sophomore center Thomas Welsh. “We’re just soft right now. On defense. On offense. Just a ton of work to do.”