March Madness team profile: UCLA Bruins
It’s been more than 40 years since John Wooden last won a National Championship at UCLA. And it’s now been more than 20 years since anyone coached the Bruins to a successful run through the Final Four, with a victory on Championship Monday. That honor went to Jim Harrick and the 1995 UCLA team that featured Ed O’Bannon and the amazing second round save by Tyus Edney, going coast-to-coast in less than 5 seconds. But time hasn’t diminished the legend or dampened the expectations of this storied program. If anything, it’s heightened the sense that any time, this might be the year UCLA returns to the top.
And this most certainly could be that year when you consider the playmaking ability of freshman Lonzo Ball, the inside play of the other great freshman TJ Leaf, and the growing presence of 7-foot big man Thomas Welsh. These Bruins run deep, and they run with talent. And according to statistics analytical guru Ken Pomeroy, who uses a complex formula to judge efficiency at both ends of the floor, UCLA is the top offense in the country. You’ll get no argument from Kentucky on that point, as they game up 97 points to UCLA. Or Michigan, which allowed 102. Or Washington, which gave up 107 points on route to a 41 point loss.
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On the negative side for the Bruins is that Ken Pomeroy, the same guru who ranks their offense as the nation’s best, says their defense is outside the top-100. Not great, if you want to be a Final Four team. The last 40 teams to make to the final weekend of the tournament averaged 16th on defensive efficiency, and only twice was a team outside the top 50. So if UCLA is to taste success in March there must be a reckoning on defense.
Alford has ample tourney experience, having played for an offense-first National Champion in 1987 with the Indiana Hoosiers. That team averaged 89 points during its run through the NCAA Tournament and shot over 50% in five of the six games. And with that kind of efficiency, the 78 points per game that Indiana allowed became a moot point.
Also in UCLA’s favor heading into the tournament is the uptick in quality of play in the Pac-12. Being battled tested after home-and-homes with top teams like Oregon and Arizona, and very good teams in USC and Cal, is going to make inexperienced freshman far less likely to crumble under the pressure of the tournament.
There will of course be more experienced teams in this year’s NCAA Tournament field. There will be teams ranked higher, and with loftier expectations. But when it comes to the single most fundamental element of winning basketball – putting the ball through the hoop – there is no one in the country as talented as this pack of Bruins.
