Coach Steve Alford was in the middle of his pregame speech when Russell Westbrook walked into the UCLA locker room. Immediately, Alford sensed that his players had tuned him out to pay attention to the ex-Bruin and current NBA star.
“The man had arrived,” Alford said.
Westbrook, who was honored at Thursday’s game for his donation to UCLA, talked to a Bruin team that was desperately in need of a spark – and a win. They came out flat last Sunday against Washington State to fall to 0-2 in conference play. After the loss, coaches and players were questioning their own toughness, knowing that the energy they brought wasn’t even close to their standards.
Westbrook’s speech seemed to work – UCLA jumped out to an early 5-0 lead over No. 7 Arizona and led for most of the first half. Although the Wildcats took a brief one-point lead with just under three minutes left in the half, the Bruins responded with a 10-2 run to head into the locker room up seven.
“Tonight, I saw a group of guys that have their step back,” Alford said. “They have some of their mojo back that we needed to have.”
READ MORE: Full game wrap from the Arizona takedown.
What was most glaring about the Bruins’ winless road trip was the struggle of the team’s two leaders – junior guard Bryce Alford and senior forward/center Tony Parker. Alford shot 22.6 percent in the two losses, while Parker only managed 28.6 percent.
After the Washington State loss, Steve Alford sent Bryce Alford a text message as the team was boarding the plane, telling him that Bryce needed to get his toughness back, that he had to play with energy, enthusiasm and swag.
Bryce Alford sought out Parker before the game to tell the senior to put the team in the right mindset. So after starting lineups were announced, Parker was in the middle of the huddle, saying what he needed to say to get the Bruins ready for tipoff.
“I think our guys responded a little better to that, not so much something against me, but that’s who Tony is,” Bryce Alford said. “He’s the personality of the team, he’s big time like that.”
Parker also turned in a big-time performance once the game started, with a 14-point, 12-rebound effort that he attributed to a couple inventive attempts to escape the two-game funk.
“I went to yoga, just ran a lot on my own,” Parker said. “Just doing little things and going harder because when you’re in a slump you got to do anything possible to get out of it.”
Bryce Alford busted out of his shooting slump as well, knocking down nine of 18 shots for 25 points, including the game-winning three in front of a screaming Westbrook.
PHOTO GALLERY: Relive every moment of Thursday’s upset win.
Steve Alford had pulled aside his four veterans – Bryce Alford, Parker, junior guard Isaac Hamilton and sophomore center Thomas Welsh – to tell them that they had to bring the energy every night.
“You do that and these young guys, they’ll feed off that,” Steve Alford said.
Sure enough, it was freshman guard Aaron Holiday who led the team out of the gates with a team-high 12 points in the first half.
After the game, Holiday said it was great for old Bruin players to come back and watch the games, which had Parker wondering about Holiday’s brother Jrue Holiday, another NBA point guard and ex-Bruin.
“Yeah, where your brother at?” Parker asked.
Now the challenge for UCLA is to follow up the thrilling upset with equal effort and equal energy Saturday against Arizona State. This time, the Bruins won’t have an NBA All-Star coming in for a pregame speech and watching from the sidelines.