UCLA Basketball: 3 keys for Bruins in Round of 64 match up against Akron

Perimeter Defense

As was mentioned earlier Akron may have the best defender in this entire tournament in their big man Enrique Freeman. Not to worry though Bruin fans, as UCLA has one of the best perimeter defenders in the tournament in point guard Tyger Campbell. Campbell and his ability to stop Akron and their set is going to be important, but the most important is going to be the defense out on the perimeter as Akron plays slow and works for the best open shot, and often that is a three or a cut to the basket.

The Zips are a great three-point shooting team, and they focus their offense on it, it the Bruins are good enough to take that away and make them work the ball inside they are going to win.  UCLA has been successful this year taking away the three holding teams to only 32% shooting from deep.

The Bruins block a lot of shots inside with Riley and Johnson and keeping Akron off the three-point line is the best method to keep them from burning you on offense, especially from deep. The battle of who can hit the most threes and who has more success with perimeter defense and funneling things to your rim protectors is going to win the game.

UCLA does block a decent number of shots and they are a great rebounding team.  The shots they don’t block their big men alter.  The big men are active and athletic and thrive on playing defense.  It is also built into the defensive scheme for UCLA to filter things inside. The Zips are very good on the offensive glass and it will make it much easier for UCLA if they can hold them to one and done on most possessions.  It is important for the Bruins to funnel things inside as they have the height and size advantage and could make it hard for Akron to score consistently.