HENDERSON, Nev. — Well, at least UCLA’s basketball team now knows what it needs to work on.
Pretty much everything.
What might have been more concerning than the sloppy offense and pliable defense was the lack of fight until the Bruins faced a double-digit deficit against a mid-major opponent.
Wasn’t a second consecutive offseason makeover supposed to fix all this?
It didn’t come close Friday night.
Outside of junior guard Tyler Bilodeau’s shotmaking and freshman guard Trent Perry’s spirit, there were few positives for No. 22 UCLA during a 72-64 loss to New Mexico in the Las Vegas Hoopfest at Lee’s Family Forum.
The Bruins’ defense, supposedly the team’s strength, exerted no meaningful pressure while allowing the Lobos to shoot 51%. Their offense staggered its way to 21 turnovers.
“It’s hard to beat Division II teams with 21 turnovers,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said.
Veterans and newcomers struggled alike. Junior point guard Dylan Andrews reverted to his shaky form from early last season, committing six turnovers along with only two assists. Sophomore forward Eric Dailey Jr. was a nonfactor because of foul trouble. Junior guard Skyy Clark’s active defense was offset by poor shooting, the one constant for a team that made only five of 23 three-pointers (21.7%).
Meanwhile, redshirt senior guard Dominick Harris, the player brought in to add shooting, did not play because he has not satisfied Cronin with his defense in practice.
“I was thinking about defense,” Cronin said. “We were losing. We’ve got to get stops to get back in the game.”
Finally showing some toughness, the Bruins (1-1) made one final push after two free throws from Bilodeau pulled them to within 68-59 with 4 minutes 28 seconds left.
A steal by Clark led to teammate William Kyle III getting hammered under the basket. But Kyle missed both free throws, Clark missed a contested layup while appearing to absorb contact and New Mexico’s Ibrahima Sacko made a layup to extend the Lobos’ lead back to double digits.
What disappointed Cronin most was that his players didn’t heed his warning that they needed to match the assertiveness of a veteran opponent that had played in the NCAA tournament last season and would be looking to make a statement against the Bruins.
“Kids grew up hearing about all the great players at UCLA and they are coming to play and we were not ready for their intensity,” Cronin said. “At the end of the day, that’s what they pay me for. We tried but [the players] don’t listen, they did not listen and they learned the hard way. But ultimately I don’t blame them, blame the coaching staff — we’ve got to make sure they’re ready.”
Bilodeau led all scorers with 23 points on an inefficient eight-for-20 shooting to go with 15 rebounds but didn’t get nearly enough support. No other Bruin reached double figures in scoring, Perry coming closest with eight points off the bench while also looking more composed than some of his more experienced teammates.
“He went in and mixed it up, tried to get some loose balls and some rebounds,” Cronin said of Perry, who had three rebounds, two assists and two steals. “He got in the fight.”
Guard Donovan Dent finished with 17 points and eight assists to lead New Mexico (2-0) while committing an uncharacteristic nine turnovers. The Lobos won in large part by scoring 36 points in the paint and making 16 free throws.
“I think there’s just a lack of discipline throughout the whole team,” Bilodeau said, noting he contributed to the letdown with three turnovers. “I think we weren’t focused on the right things, just not tough enough physically and mentally out there, and so we weren’t ready for it.”
UCLA finally slowed New Mexico’s Nelly Junior Joseph, but only after he scored 14 of his 16 points in the first half. The big man took turns scoring on Kyle, Bilodeau, Dailey and Aday Mara, with no defensive help arriving to increase the degree of difficulty.
UCLA forced 24 turnovers but generated only 15 points as a result, often giving the ball right back to New Mexico. Sebastian Mack committed three turnovers in only 10 minutes, compounding the Bruins’ ballhandling issues.
“Dylan and Sebastian are throwing the ball away for layups, just giving it to them for layups,” Cronin said. “I told them guys, we were better than that last year when we had a lack of talent.”
Cronin imported six transfers in an effort to bounce back from a rare losing season, but it became apparent Friday night that this is no quick fix.
“It’s good to play a game early like this, guys,” Cronin said. “Obviously, for me, to be able to assess where we’re at and what needs to happen, it’s, get a dose of reality.”
The truth is that UCLA has just one player — Kyle — who played in the NCAA tournament last season, and that was for South Dakota State. These Bruins must build winning habits if they intend to forge similar success.
“We’ve all got to come together and we’ve all got to really dig deep and just figure it out, you know?” said Bilodeau, whose teams went a combined 16 games under .500 in his two seasons at Oregon State. “None of us want to have years like we did last year, we’re at UCLA, it’s just unacceptable.”
It could be a lengthy climb back to the national rankings considering the Bruins’ schedule. They will play Boston, Lehigh, Idaho State, Cal State Fullerton and Southern Utah before things take a considerably tougher turn next month with games against Arizona, North Carolina and Gonzaga.
There’s a long way to go for a team that was outclassed by a counterpart from the Mountain West Conference.
“We didn’t follow none of the game plan,” UCLA senior guard Kobe Johnson said. “I mean, coaches told us what we needed to do, they told us how to guard them, how to execute. We just didn’t follow through.”
