UCLA Basketball: Keys for the Bruins against St. Bonaventure
By Bryan Mauro
UCLA takes on Saint Bonaventure in a First Four game to start off the 2018 NCAA Tournament. What are the keys to a Bruins victory?
The 2018 College Basketball season is going to end for the UCLA Bruins like it often does, with an NCAA tournament berth. This year however, has been different for the storied program. Head Coach Steve Alford was still able to secure two of the top recruits in the country in Kris Wilkes and Jaylen Hands to go along with his returning stars. The expectations for a magical season in Westwood were there.
When the season began, UCLA was headed to China to play Georgia Tech in one of the opening games. Some UCLA players who, led by Gelo Ball decided to steal some expensive items in a store in China. Those players brought on a media storm of bad PR for the Bruins program, especially because one of those players fathers was the one and only LaVar Ball. Gelo was then pulled out of the school by his father. LaVar did what he knows how to do, divert the responsibility from Gelo, and placed it on UCLA. LaVar took some parting shots as he left. UCLA has been better off, since this fiasco.
In Westwood, the standard is to compete for Final Fours and titles both in conference and in the tournament. By that standard, UCLA has had a rather disappointing season. The Bruin faithful will forget about all of that if the Bruins are able to make a run in the NCAA tournament. UCLA has favorable matchups in the tournament, and if they can get rolling the Bruins have the talent to make it to the second weekend.
The roll is where the Bruins season has been a head scratcher. The Bruins have been a team this year that at points has been mired by mistakes and scoring droughts. Even though all of the difficulty of the season this year, UCLA finds themselves seven wins away from a National Championship. 7 wins may seem like a mountain to climb in under a month, but with the talent and history of the UCLA Bruins anything is possible.
It all gets started for the bunch from Westwood in Dayton on Tuesday night against a game and sneaky St. Bonaventure team. UCLA will need to play at their best to beat the Bonnies, who are going through a miraculous season of their own. If the Bruins follow these three simple keys to victory, they will find themselves playing again on Thursday against a Florida Gators team ripe for an upset.