UCLA’s token Walk-on tops Washington

Well that was another one of those “momentum building wins” right? Very similar to ASU and Cal in the sense that UCLA beat a team that they were supposed to lose to. However, after the ASU and Cal games, the Bruins proceeded to throw up duds, multiple duds at times. It was inevitable because either Nikola Dragovic was shooting well, or the other team couldn’t hit a shot.

On the other hand, UCLA played a hard fought, complete effort, spirited game this time around and it payed out dividends. This change of attitude was a surprise… to me at least, because the players went through their usual rounds of saying how much they were going to improve, how much they were going to change their attitude, or how hard they will work, and guess what? They actually did it!

If you didn’t already know, UCLA basically got into a defensive battle, and ended up taking the lead with 7.6 seconds left. Washington inbounded the ball, and blew past Mustafa Abdul Hamid only to score and take the lead 61-60 with 3.3 seconds remaining. Malcolm Lee was having trouble trying to shake free his man to inbound the ball, so Michael Roll pushed the ball up to the walk on Mustafa Abdul Hamid, who has already hit a game winner this year against Concordia. Mustafa dribbled to the 3 point line, did a little shot fake, and then let it loose with about .2 seconds left on the clock. The ball went up, and then through the net–nothing in between–and UCLA won the game.

The students were just overexcited or something, and they rushed the court… well almost rushed the court.

Here’s a quote from Eamonn Brennan about that terrible decision

"[H]ooray for security personnel! UCLA is the most storied program in all of college basketball… Had this court storm occurred, it would have gone on record as the worst, least-deserved court storm of all-time, and this is coming from someone that more often than not doesn’t care about court storms."

UCLA shouldn’t ever rush the court. When teams beat UCLA, they rush the court, not the other way around.

Anyways, analysis after the break…

The real factor, aside from effort, was the ability of UCLA’s flexibility on defense. The 2-3 Zone has never looked so effective for an extended amount of time.

On offense, UCLA did an extremely sufficient job at using their interior passing on overplays and overaggressive traps, and really proved to any doubters that Howland can dish out a good offensive game plan, especially in the first half. In the post, Keefe was given the start as Nelson was getting over the flu this week, and it only proved their respective strengths and weaknesses. Of course, Nelson is the better low post offensive player and Keefe is the better defensive player. Collectively, they form a pretty good duo, but Reeves has the pure opportunity to become a really great low post combination player. Last night, Reeves finished with 9 in the first half alone. Also, Dragovic kept his word and only attempted one three late in the game, and used his size to get closer to the basket.

Honestly, UCLA only had one problem and that was the fact that Washington was just nailing everything they shot. Of course, everything evened out, and it came down to free throws again. Free throws have been, and will always be an issue in close games, and there wouldn’t have ever been any dramatics had UCLA hit more of their free throws.

All in all, UCLA has the opportunity to build some momentum, but not even the most educated UCLA fan can predict how UCLA will react to this emotional win. It’s all about consistency, and it would really help if UCLA can play a good game against Washington State this weekend.