Steve Alford pulled freshman forward TJ Leaf out with a little under four minutes left in Wednesday’s 102-62 win over UC Santa Barbara. About thirty seconds later, he subbed out freshman guard Lonzo Ball. The UCLA coach’s decision – to sit his two stars out for the final minutes of a 40-point blowout – wouldn’t […]
Author Archives: Matt Cummings
Men’s basketball to face new challenges against UCSB
As well as No. 2 UCLA (10-0) is playing, coach Steve Alford is glad his Bruins have three more games to tune up for Pac-12 play, which starts with a road matchup against returning Pac-12 champion and Elite Eight team, Oregon. “We’ll take as many as we can get before we get into conference,” Alford said […]
Men’s basketball’s shift to motion offense key to season’s success
The Golden State Warriors set the world on fire last year, and they did so while shunning the modern darling of the basketball world: the pick-and-roll. En route to their record-breaking 73 wins, the Warriors ranked dead last in the NBA in pick-and-roll usage, getting just 15.6 percent of their offense with ball screens. By […]
No. 2 UCLA men’s basketball looks to keep up pace against Michigan
How does Steve Alford ensure his players aren’t swallowed up by the newfound hype around UCLA basketball? “We schedule Michigan,” the coach said. “We know that if we believe all that stuff, and we don’t improve this week, we’ll get beat.” The No. 2 Bruins (9-0), whose road win over then-No. 1 Kentucky on Saturday […]
UCLA football’s season of misfortune and disappointment
Flash back to Oct. 8, when UCLA football suffered a tight 23-20 loss at Arizona State in a game that, at the time, seemed meaningful for its effect on the Pac-12 South division race. That night would end up having zero impact on the conference playoff picture, but it stands as a meaningful point in […]
Football seniors look fondly on careers despite disappointing end
These past few weeks will stand as a complicated memory in the mind of Mike Fafaul, the redshirt senior quarterback whose long-awaited opportunity came amid UCLA’s painful slide to its worst record in coach Jim Mora’s tenure. “It was a tough season. It didn’t go the way I wanted it to go, but I got […]
UCLA football ends disappointing season with 36-10 loss to Cal
This post was updated Nov. 27 at 12.50 p.m. Perhaps it was a fitting end to a season that’s seemed to serve up greater depths of disappointment each week. UCLA fell 36-10 to California Saturday night, the ugly loss erasing any chance the Bruins had of securing a bowl bid. Though UCLA entered halftime down […]