On Wednesday at 7:00 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks, Cal men’s basketball will welcome the UCLA Bruins to Haas Pavilion. Cal comes in at 5-18 overall and 0-11 in the Pac-12 while UCLA comes in at 12-12 overall and 5-6 in the Pac-12. This is the second meeting between the two schools this season. UCLA won the first meeting 98-83 at Pauley Pavilion back on January 5th.
Last time out: On Saturday, Cal lost a hard fought game at Oregon State. Darius McNeill and Justice Sueing each had 16 points for Cal while Stephen Thompson, Jr. led the way for Oregon State with 21 points.
RECAP: Cal unable to finish in Corvallis
On UCLA: Sophomore shooting guard Kris Wilkes continues to pace this Bruins team, averaging 17.4 points and 4.6 rebounds per game on 44.5% shooting from the field. In addition to Wilkes, sophomore point guard Jaylen Hands (12.4 points & 6.5 assists), freshman center Moses Brown (11.0 points & 8.4 rebounds), and redshirt junior guard Prince Ali (10.0 points) all score in double figures, giving this Bruins team a ton of depth and versatility.
As a team, the Bruins love to push the ball in transition and get out in the open floor, averaging 78.1 points per game, which ranks second in the Pac-12 behind Arizona State (78.9 points). With such a potent offense, the Bruins are able to win a lot of games with their offense alone. What’s holding them back is their defense, which gives up 75.8 points per game (10th in the Pac-12). If they were able to defend better and give up even 70 points per game, they would probably be giving Washington a run for their money for the top seed in the Pac-12.
In addition to having a really good offense, one other strength of this UCLA team is their rebounding. They average a solid +5.4 rebounding differential per game, taking good advantage of their NBA level athleticism and size. When you have the type of athletes and talent that UCLA has, you have a shot to win every night you step out on the floor.
Keys to the game: Cal’s defense ranks dead last in the Pac-12 in points allowed per game (79.2), which means UCLA is expecting to put up a ton of points. If Cal can find a way to slow down UCLA’s offense and not allow them to get into as good of an offensive flow as they are used to, that would be huge. One major way Cal can accomplish this goal is do a better job on the defensive glass. Cal is averaging a -7.0 rebounding differential per game, allowing way too many offensive rebounds and second chance scoring opportunities. If Cal can keep UCLA to more one shot possessions, that would go a long way towards getting a victory.
In addition to having defensive woes, Cal’s offense is also struggling, ranking dead last in the Pac-12 in points per game (70.0). The issue with Cal’s offense is it goes through droughts where very little scoring is happening for 4+ minutes. As a result, they get behind and are forced to play catch up. Cal has to find a way to get a more steady diet of offensive production throughout the course of the game as opposed to having bursts where Darius McNeill goes wild and then everyone goes cold a few minutes later. If Cal’s offense is more consistent, that should also significantly boost their chances of a win.
A final key for Cal is to dominate the battle at the free throw line. Cal’s biggest strength remains their foul shooting (74.8%) while UCLA’s biggest weakness aside from defense is their foul shooting (62.1%). If Cal can have a decisive victory at the foul line, that should help them close the gap and make the game close down the stretch. If UCLA wins the free throw battle or at least does a good job at keeping Cal away from the foul line, odds are good they’ll be the ones that come out victorious.
Quotes: Cal head coach Wyking Jones addressed the media on Tuesday. Below are quotes pertaining to the game.
Q: What stands out to you about UCLA?
Wyking Jones: “They’re just really talented. They’re just really really talented. At all positions. They’re deep, their bench. They bring some guys off the bench that could probably play tons of minutes in other programs here in the Pac-12. They’re really good in transition. Really good in transition. Miss or make. They’re trying to score after you score. They’re taking it out of the net and they’re running it up the sideline and trying to get a bucket right away before you can get your defense set. You really have to do a job of getting back in transition and building your defense and you can’t allow them second shots. They’re the biggest team in our conference, most athletic team in our conference, and they’re really good at offensive rebounding, so you gotta to do those two things if you wanna give yourself a chance to win: Get back in transition and limit them to one shot.”
Q: Are their problems on defense pretty much a function of youth?
Wyking Jones: “Some, yeah. Yeah. Just, teams that are young don’t talk as much. I tell our guys all the time you can’t read each other’s mind, so you gotta talk to each other in order to be on the same page. If you don’t communicate then your defense is going to suffer for it and I think they have those problems.”
Q: Is there a commonality in your defense that has made it hard for you to limit opponents’ field goal percentages?
Wyking Jones: “Well, we’re not a great rebounding team. We’re undersized. What I see more than I would like to see is teams getting put backs against us.”
Q: That’s not been a big problem as of late has it?
Wyking Jones: “It has. It has. I mean you’re playing 28 seconds of defense and you get them to shoot a tough shot. Contested shot and they get an offensive rebound for an easy put back or an and and-1. As of late when I really think about it, well yeah, yeah, it’s been a problem. Kenny Wooten got a tip dunk that was pretty impressive against us at Oregon that was an offensive rebound. So yeah, that’s a problem. Being able to contain guys off the bounce so that they don’t get in the lane has been a problem. And so, those two things I think stick out to me as areas that we desperately need to improve in. We work on it every day. We work on box out drills, we work on close out drills to stay in front. I can’t tell you how many times I say make them come through your body. If you give someone an angle at this level, they’re going to get to the rim and it’s a domino effect at that point. Now our big has to step up. Now they may get a dump off to their big on the baseline and they get a lob, our weakside help has to come over so now it’s a long closeout on the pitch, so when you allow teams to penetrate into your zone, which is what we’ve been playing a lot lately, it causes problems.”
Q: Is UCLA a different team from what you saw last time?
Wyking Jones: “I don’t think so. They’re the same team. Same team. They want to get after you. They want to have an up-tempo game. They don’t want to play half-court basketball. They want to get out in transition as much as possible. They’ll take quick shots. They want the game in the 80s, and so against them you gotta slow it down a little bit. In our first game, we had 83 points. We scored enough points, we just didn’t stop them from scoring enough points. They scored 98 points, so they want a high scoring game. They need that because they’re so deep and they’re so talented that for them to feel good, their guys gotta get their numbers. They got so many guys that are NBA prospects and so they’re trying to get their numbers.”
Q: Have their freshmen grown? I don’t mean physically, but have they gotten better?
Wyking Jones: “In watching film, it wasn’t that long ago that we played them. So, they haven’t changed a ton. They haven’t changed much. They’re still a very talented team and you gotta limit their second shot opportunities and like I said before, limit them in transition.”
Q: How does Kris Wilkes get most of his points?
Wyking Jones: “He can shoot it, he’s a slasher, he can post a little bit. I mean, he’s got good size for a guard, but he’s a spot up guy for them, but at the same time he can put it on the floor and create for himself as well.”
Q: How much does David Grace help with preparing for them?
Wyking Jones: “Yeah, him having knowledge of how they do things kinda in the background helps. More than anything just to be able to convey to our guys what the mentality is. The mentality is that they want to score. They want to outscore you. And so, yeah it helps to have David on staff. He knows their personnel inside and out. It helps.”
Q: Darius McNeill has moments where he really heats up, but he can’t sustain it. What needs to happen for him to play more consistently?
Wyking Jones: “Just staying aggressive and looking for his shot. He had 16 in the first half and then I remember on a swing he was wide open right in front of our bench for a three and he passed it to the corner without even looking at the rim and I immediately, I’m like ‘Darius, shoot the ball! Why would you pass up? That’s the shot that we need. That’s the shot that we want.’ So just continuing to stay aggressive. With him he’s a shooter, he’s a scorer, that’s his job. And so, when he turns down open looks, it hurts us. So, just continuing to stay aggressive.”
