Pepperdine Basketball: 2020-21 keys to pull off the upset over UCLA

3. Ball Security

Taking care of the basketball is always important, but in this game, the turnover margin will be increasingly important. A major reason why San Diego State faired so well against UCLA is how many turnovers and mistakes they caused. UCLA had fifteen turnovers, which led to a few key three-pointers to seal the game.

The Bruins will shoot the ball better in this one, which makes the turnover margin even more important. If you can limit the quality post touches, the Bruins seem to get flustered offensively and force things.

The Waves had ten turnovers themselves against UC Irvine. Seven of those came from Ross and Edwards; not the numbers you want for your two stars. Last season, Mick Cronin’s team drew a lot of enthusiasm and fire from creating mistakes while on defense.

If Pepperdine can limit these momentum-swinging turnovers, it’ll likely lead to Waves’ win. When playing a more talented team like UCLA is, you cannot do things like losing the turnover battle. This is where Pepperdine needs to gain some possessions.

Although a better performance tonight is expected, UCLA simply is not a great shooting team. If you force the Bruins to work for every single bucket, they’re not going to put up crazy numbers. So, limiting those transition buckets off of turnovers really limits how much the Bruins can put up on the scoreboard. Putting points up is something we know the Waves have no problem doing.

The UCLA – Pepperdine game tips off at 12:00 pm PT and will be televised on Pac-12 Network.