UCLA’s fans didn’t see much offense played last
night.
Nor did they see much defense, energy or heart from the Bruin
squad.
In fact, the most passionate and entertaining performance given
for the 3,379 fans at Pauley Pavilion last night was probably by
the UCLA marching band.
In an embarassing display of sloppiness and disunity, the UCLA
men’s basketball team dropped its second straight exhibition
game last night, losing 70-64 to an EA Sports team that came into
the game with an 0-12 record and was playing for the fifth night in
a row.
“The family grade of this game was a
D-,” UCLA head coach Steve Lavin said.
The game started off on a bad note right away for the Bruins.
Before tip-off, Lavin decided to sit out senior Jason Kapono, their
team leader and best player, because of a sprained right thumb.
The news didn’t get much better after that. Without their
top scorer, UCLA’s offense looked disarrayed for much of the
game, going only 1-for-11 from the three point line and missing
easy shots in the paint.
“We made it a point to get the ball inside,” said
freshman center Michael Fey, who finished with two points in nine
minutes. “But we didn’t make jump shots in the paint.
Me and a couple of other guys weren’t finishing.”
In fact, out of EA Sports’ 12 previous games, no opponent
had scored less than 72 points, and six teams racked up over 90
against the squad.
“They needed to get out in transition and make baskets on
the fast break, which they didn’t do,” said Brian
Jones, a guard for EA Sports. Jones scored 17 points in 26
minutes.
The one semi-bright spot for the Bruins was on defense, where
they showed a slight improvement from their 92-67 loss to Branch
West last week.
“We got a little better, but we’re not there
yet,” Walcott said.
For much of the first half, the Bruins went with the full court
press they had been working on in practice. But UCLA abandoned that
in the second half after EA Sports hit seven of 14 from beyond the
arc in the period, going to a zone defense.
“What we need to work on is identtifying the
shooters,” said junior T.J. Cummings. “Guys were
nailing one or two three-pointers in a row, and we still
weren’t finding them. We kept playing the same guys and not
cheating towards the hot guy.”
Senior Ray Young tried to lead the Bruins to a comeback in the
second half, scoring 17 of his 26 in the period. But his efforts
proved to be futile.
UCLA couldn’t overcome its 16 turnovers, 20 personal fouls
and, most importantly, an apparent lack of passion.
“They’ve got a lot of work to do,” said EA
Sports’ Bennett Davison. “We were just messing around
out there.”