Swept in the season series
jans, and the Bruins might have to win the conference tournament to keep playing meaningful games.
Then again, improbable history could repeat itself. UCLA’s resume is fairly similar to the one that got the Bruins into the NCAA tournament during the 2014-15 season when some didn’t even consider them on the bubble. That team got in with a 20-13 record after going 11-7 in the Pac-12 and advancing to the semifinals of the conference tournament.
These Bruins share a more unsettling similarity: Their defensive efficiency entering the game Sunday was No. 118 nationally, according to analytics guru Ken Pomeroy, the same ranking UCLA held when it last missed the NCAA tournament in 2015-16.
It didn’t figure to improve after the Bruins became the first team to allow Colorado (16-13, 8-9) to reach 80 points since Washington State in mid-January. The Buffaloes shot only 41.4% and made the same number of threes (14) as the Bruins, but won because they took 25 free throws and made 18; UCLA took 12 and made eight.
The Bruins also expended lots of energy with their first big comeback, leaving little in reserve.
“When you’re down 12, 13, 14 ... and you battle all the way back, that takes a lot out of you,” Alford said.
UCLA took a 56-54 lead midway through the second half after a 16-4 run. It wouldn’t last. Some of the lowlights as Colorado went on a 17-1 push included a Chris Smith turnover leading to Dominique Collier (19 points) making a three, the Bruins watching as guard McKinley Wright went in for a transition layup, and UCLA’s Aaron Holiday committing a turnover seconds after a timeout.
Big games from Holiday (21 points, six assists) and Wilkes (20 points) weren’t enough to keep the Bruins from being swept in the season series.
UCLA fell to 2-6 in Pac-12 road games this season and 18-26 in conference road games in Alford’s five seasons, largely because of a lack of sustained urgency and defensive lapses that the team doesn’t seem to know how to fix.
“That effort, that mindset that we’re about to lose this game that we had in that last three to four minutes, we’ve just got to play like that the whole game,” Wilkes said. “I just think it kicks in too late for us a lot of times.”
UP NEXT
Saturday at USC, 7:15 p.m., Galen Center, TV: ESPN — The Bruins toppled the Trojans 82-79 in the first game this season.