The Bruins have won once in their past four games.
Their lone win came when UCLA traveled to Stanford, a road trip that broke up the Bruins’ winless visit to the desert schools and an away loss to crosstown rival USC.
“Sometimes it takes adversity to get people refocused,” said coach Mick Cronin. “Whether it’s in life or in athletics, complacency is always your opponent.”
Over the past two weeks, the Bruins have shot the ball at their lowest clip all season, failed to get enough stops on defense, and battled injuries to members of their rotation. They started the month ranked as the No. 3 team in the nation. This week, they hit a season low of No. 13 in the AP poll.
Following the dip in form, No. 13 UCLA men’s basketball (17-5, 9-4 Pac-12) will begin a stretch of six games in 12 days with home matchups against Washington State (14-10, 7-6) and Washington (13-10, 8-5) on Thursday and Saturday, respectively.
“It’s definitely going to be challenging with all these games coming up,” said redshirt senior center Myles Johnson. “But the whole season is challenging when it comes to balancing school and academics and basketball, so I just got to keep grinding.”
The density in scheduling comes because of rescheduled COVID-19 postponements, as UCLA takes on Arizona State on Feb. 21 and Washington on Feb. 28, with both games falling on Mondays.
Offensive struggles
In its upset loss to USC, UCLA shot a season-low 29.7%. Senior guard Jules Bernard and junior guard Johnny Juzang – two of UCLA’s three leading scorers – shot a combined 5-of-25.
Junior guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr., who has been dealing with ankle injuries, limped through most of the game and missed two layups in the first half. He finished the game 2-of-11 from the field, his worst shooting performance of the season in games that he had attempted a shot.
Since the COVID-19 pause that saw the Bruins cancel or postpone multiple games in December and January, shooting numbers as a team have been on the decline.
“Shooting comes and goes like your old high school girlfriend,” Cronin said. “The way to solve it is the hard (shots) you have to eliminate. If you’re struggling, it’s one thing, but if you’re taking hard ones it’s going to compound the problem.”
Before the pause, UCLA shot the long ball at a clip of 39%. But from games after the new year, it dipped to 30.6%, ranking second to last in the Pac-12 – with only Arizona State being worse – during that time period.
Washington State will bring in a unit that leads the league in 3-point defense, allowing its opponents to cash in from behind the arc at a rate of 30.7%. Cronin said the combination of lengthy Cougar wings, along with prolific shot blockers in the paint, will make scoring the basketball difficult.
“They’re one of the better defensive teams in the country,” Cronin said. “Their field-goal percentage defense is elite. They’re hard to score on.”
Only two teams have scored more than 70 points against Washington State in conference play – Colorado and Arizona, which scored 83 and 72, respectively.
Defense
Despite only scoring 64 points against the Trojans, Cronin said his team was beaten by a lack of defensive intensity – not by its offensive performance.
“Guys, including myself, are just not being locked in all the way on the scouting report,” said redshirt junior guard Tyger Campbell.
The Bruins never gave up more than 65 points during their six-game winning streak through the end of January. In the three-game home stretch that saw UCLA upset then-No. 3 Arizona, the Bruins held their opponents to under 60 points each game.
That script has flipped in the last four games, as the blue and gold has failed to hold its opponents under Cronin’s 70-point benchmark in three of the last four games.
Tipoff against Washington State is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Thursday.
