Inconsistency is linked to defense
UCLA has some of the most impressive wins of any college basketball team. It has defeated Kentucky, Gonzaga in Spokane, Wash., and, most recently, Arizona.
UCLA also has turned in some of the most baffling performances of any team in the Pac-12 Conference. It was stomped by Washington State last weekend. It lost to Wake Forest. It played Long Beach State and McNeese State to closer games than necessary.
UCLA’s record is great against the best teams in the country. UCLA’s record is not so great against teams closer to average.
So which is the real UCLA?
Thursday’s win over Arizona may have been one of UCLA’s most significant, but Saturday’s game against a competitive, but not elite, Arizona State team could be more revealing.
“What I’ll use is Saturday as a barometer, because here we go again,” UCLA Coach Steve Alford said. “I want to see where our energy is, where our enthusiasm is, where our excitement is, because we didn’t get that last weekend.”
Alford thinks last weekend’s loss to Washington State was an aberration. His team played without intensity, and paid for it. Any nonconference inconsistency, he said, resulted from UCLA’s brutal schedule.
The difference, guard Aaron Holiday said, is mostly on defense.
“I know we’re going to score on offense, so we’ve just got to get stops,” Holiday said.
UCLA’s inconsistency, several players said, is a symptom of defensive effort. Fix that, they said, and they’ll play every team like they did Arizona.
“It’s just coming out to play hard every time and being enthusiastic, no matter the scene, no matter where we are,” forward-center Tony Parker said. “If we play at a high level with energy, that type of attitude … it’s going to be hard to beat us.”
Ready to be ranked?
Less than two weeks ago, for the first time in years, one voter in the USA Today coaches poll felt moved to write USC into his national top 25.
On Monday, the Trojans had two votes.
USC followed that with a win Thursday over Arizona State, which set the stage for one of the season’s most unlikely questions: If USC beats No. 7 Arizona on Saturday, might the Trojans actually crack the top 25?
USC hasn’t been in the top 25 of the coaches poll or the Associated Press media poll since Nov. 17, 2008. Its roster that season included future NBA regulars DeMar DeRozan, Taj Gibson and Nikola Vucevic.
A win over Arizona would give USC the signature win lacking from its record. But that would require USC to do something that no team has done in two seasons: give Arizona a second consecutive loss.
Guard Julian Jacobs said that last season USC was intimidated by a team like Arizona. This season is different.
“We realize it’s a big game because they are a ranked opponent,” Jacobs said. “But we’re not sweating Arizona, I’ll tell you that.”
He continued: “We feel like we’re just as good as anybody we step on the court with. If not better.”
zach.helfand@latimes.com