UCLA Post Game Thread

[Jetskies]

new-ish basketball fan here... this experience has me understanding finally, how utterly unfairly stacked we were in 2024 (and 2023 too i guess, but def 2024). feels like this would be an even sweeter championship, if we make it that far. these wins don't feel the way 2024's tournament wins felt. They feel harder, and so with each one i am happier.

hope they pull it off.

 

[aceboon]

AK has taken 32 shots through 2 tournament games, going off the top of my head I doubt he's ever taken that many shot attempts in a 2 game stretch. He needs to keep firing, no more games with less than dbl digit attempts.

 

[thekollieman]

AK has taken 32 shots through 2 tournament games, going off the top of my head I doubt he's ever taken that many shot attempts in a 2 game stretch. He needs to keep firing, no more games with less than dbl digit attempts.

“He’s not gonna go down without firing all his bullets” -Hurley on AK

 

[Travelman6]

UConn has lost 1 game in the NCAA tournament in the last 3 years. And that was a nail biter to the eventual national champions. That is good for 15-1

All wins has been by double digits

January
February
Hurley..

Oklahoma was 67-59 but yes, all others were double digit.

Now let's beat msu by 10!

 

[Travelman6]

Duke vs. St John's was always going to be prime time. Duke is Duke and St. John's is going to have all kinds of new bandwagon fans by next Friday.

Like him or loathe him, Pitino draws eye balls. He's got a great team going against Duke at the top of their game, season wise. So makes sense.

 

[Travelman6]

Fears had a bad game (2-7, 6 assists, 6 turnovers). No Reed or Mullins for us of course.

Not looking forward to playing him because he's a cheap shot player, in the sense I hope he doesn't make one that injures a player.

 

[Umami Zen]

Subtle change going on with Ross that's certainly timely on offense. Seems to be looking for the ball -in flow of the game-to either get off a shot and or attack the rim rather than just passing the ball to keep the offense running. Vs UCLA- Was immediately recognizing mismatch opportunities for himself- to seek his shot/get off his shot when the team needed him to do so. Maturing into an excellent two-way crunch time player.

Refs did him no favors on a few foul calls last night. Need him on the floor vs Mich St.-Will be a rock fight. Will be a "home game" for him and Solo in DC. Repaying Dan with his play for Danny's confidence in him. Good to see.

 

[upstater]

I am not sure about him starting games or not. Tonights game, however, he should have started the second half. We significantly outplayed them the last 14 minutes of the first half. Built the 5 point lead and felt like we had the momentum (even if we fumbled the last posession of the half.)

Instead we gave them two easy looks and some free throws to immediately erase the lead. As you said, I don't mind sending Solo out there in the beginning to see if he's "got it", but tonight we had enough data that Ross starting the second was pretty obvious.

I mean, Ross did foul out, so... he played as many minutes as he possibly could have.

 

[Deepster]

Feel bad for Solo, he knows he’s hurting the team, but you can tell he cares. Ross stepping into his shoes was the difference today, I was screaming at my TV every time Dan took him out.

Shout out Demary for gutting it out and playing surprisingly great defense. Think he caught the ucla players off guard, they thought he wouldn’t be able to move with them, for obvious reasons. Get some well deserved rest.

The refs were so awful though, the NCAA needs to look into creative solutions to fix their reffing problem, almost everyone needs to be re trained. Watching an NBA game, it’s a night and day difference.

Agreed. You could see Solo on the bench hurting mentally knowing he was hurting them while others tried consoling him.

There’s no question he’s not getting it done on either end but he’s hustling and cares and has never made excuses.

 

[uconntoatl]

Gonna need Ball to break the shooting slump, but the defense and silly fouls…….

Too good a talent to play like that. I don’t get it. If your shots not falling…..dig in on defense and fight for rebounds 🤷

Not trying to be mean, but solo ball is incapable of digging deep on defense. It’s on the backside of his junior year and he continues to be lost and constantly beat.

I’m sure the coaching staff has helped him get to the point he is at but his defense is subpar, and at this point, it is what it is.

He needs to finds his happy place on offense.. if he’s not making shots then Hurley’s hand is forced with sending him to the bench

 

[TheHorde]

Fake fans. Most of you thought we were done going into the game. Same people celebrating same ones who said how bad we were and leaving in round of 32. Same ones on Twitter calling braylon trash. You guys disgust me with the stuff your writing on Twitter and on here. Kids have been playing there hearts out. To MANY MANY unfair expectations to win it all every year or its a lost season.

Can we lump Jeff Goodman into this group even though he’s a hater and not a fan? He said an early exit was more likely than a deep run, right?

 

[TheHorde]

Agreed. You could see Solo on the bench hurting mentally knowing he was hurting them while others tried consoling him.

There’s no question he’s not getting it done on either end but he’s hustling and cares and has never made excuses.

I also don’t think his wrist is 100%. Like Alex’s shoulder wasn’t healthy last year.

 

[dennismenace]

Seriously. We got a tourney W. If anything can we talk about how atrocious that Big East officiating crew was?

Whole crew was BE? Well, that explains a lot of things. Brought in for a special rockfight with Cronin/Hurley. When they announced that Brian O'Connell was one of the officials my heart sank. But it all turned out ok. Malachi and Ross give us high energy and Karaban would not let them win this rockfight.

 

[TheHorde]

Whole crew was BE? Well, that explains a lot of things. Brought in for a special rockfight with Cronin/Hurley. When they announced that Brian O'Connell was one of the officials my heart sank. But it all turned out ok. Malachi and Ross give us high energy and Karaban would not let them win this rockfight.

My understanding is they were but if that’s incorrect I’m open to new information on that.

 

[navery12]

Let’s say Solo plays well the first 4 minutes. Hits a 3, plays above average defense.

So what. Ross seems to hit about 40% of his threes and you are guaranteed good to potentially elite defense.

It’s time to switch up the PT, starter or not. Ross gives us so much more including a guy who is around the basket. Rebounds. Dunks.

Ross 25 / Solo 15
Let Mullins and Stewart hold down the 3

You might be surprised if you look at the minutes from last night. Even the games before that the change was already starting to happen

 

[HuskyHawk]

I’m encouraged by the second half. The defense clamped down, we hit key shots and generally looked like UConn. Still too many mistakes and turnovers. Ball is a sieve on defense so Ross needs more of those minutes. We can live with Solo on D when he’s pouring in 3s. But he’s not. If we get a full Silas level game back and Stewart, we can beat anyone.

 

[dennismenace]

Agreed. You could see Solo on the bench hurting mentally knowing he was hurting them while others tried consoling him.

There’s no question he’s not getting it done on either end but he’s hustling and cares and has never made excuses.

Agreed. He looked anxious and confused. We have the best staff in college bb. He has some time now to rest and get some help from the staff. Even if he were to come in rested as a bench piece for a game or two as a high energy guy. When he is on he can take a game over. Having Malachi and Silas on the floor gives us a much more disruptive presence. We continue to have guys step up just in time. Love to see Mashburn eat some crow. Persists in dissing us a team. Pretty good performance for Tarris in handling the double teaming. Danny doing better on the sidelines and focused on the game instead of the refs. We finally put someone away. Stepped on their neck and finished though they were missing their best player. It's time to arise and shine!!

 

[dennismenace]

When has Ball played defense?

Gets his share of defensive rebounds which often leads to transition baskets.

 

[Magic32]

I have a lot of $$ that says no chance

We get it, you're not a fan of Ball. Do you need to say it multiple times in one thread? Is there really no part of you that is pulling for him?

 

[dennismenace]

Can anything be done this week with Solo? Shooting coach? 2 back to back wide open 3’s then the give up 3 point play other end? When he hits those shots we go to another level.

We have to trust the staff and teammates to help with this. Mullins play was very off but he started to see some light at the end. These guys just need to get their confidence back.

This was a great win for this team especially how the momentum kept building at the end.

 

[Husky Alien]

fans still claiming that Ross is not a starter???. He's the most++++++ on our team.

Make your case. It's not summer 2025.

To be honest, I like Ross coming off the bench right now. He brings that spark exactly when we need it and changes the energy of the game. I’ve got zero issue's with his role, it fits this team. If not for foul trouble last night he probably logs more minutes.
And yeah, I think he’s a starter next year. Right now, this is what helps us.

 

[dennismenace]

Duke vs. St John's was always going to be prime time. Duke is Duke and St. John's is going to have all kinds of new bandwagon fans by next Friday.

That should be a barn burner. Hope the refs let them play. Pitino can get dangerous when he smells a final four.

 

[dennismenace]

Checked the Michigan state exhibition score (didn’t see it). We won and MSU shot 44 free throws. Yikes. We shot 30. Seems like a waste of an exhibition game to just shoot free throws.

Fears had a bad game (2-7, 6 assists, 6 turnovers). No Reed or Mullins for us of course.

Great reminder. We've seen these guys before.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I don’t think he was a +17 over what they rolled out though

I was responding to a post that claimed there was a metric that showed UCLA was one of the 5 best teams in the country over the last few weeks.

We had Demary at 50% for 20 minutes, and won by 17. UConn was clearly the better team.

 

[305Husk]

To be honest, I like Ross coming off the bench right now. He brings that spark exactly when we need it and changes the energy of the game. I’ve got zero issue's with his role, it fits this team. If not for foul trouble last night he probably logs more minutes.
And yeah, I think he’s a starter next year. Right now, this is what helps us.

Tell us again how a college player can be a ten-year vet.