UCLA Basketball is one game away from the chance to play for a Final Four spot. Here are the keys for the Bruins to beat North Carolina in the Sweet 16.
For the second straight season, Mick Cronin’s Bruins are playing in the second week of the tournament. After figuring things out against the Akron Zips, UCLA Basketball played their patented brand of suffocating defense to outlast a hot Saint Mary’s team on Saturday. Cronin’s isolation-heavy offense was able to find quality looks against a Gaels team touted for their on-ball defense and poor-shot-taking instigation.
The Gaels’ defense, which ranked ninth in the nation going into the game, had no answer for the Bruins’ lengthy shooters of Jules Bernard, Johnny Juzang and Jaime Jaquez. The trio accounted for a pretty evenly split 43 points and made it difficult for Gaels point guard Kuhse to find any guys in positions to score on the other end.
The Bruins controlled the game after the eight-minute mark in the first half and held a lead of seven points into the half. Jaquez, maybe the Bruins’ most consistent player this season, dealt with ankle injuries heading into the tournament and re-aggravated it in the second half. Cronin said that he would likely still play on Friday. He worked out in shootarounds.
The Bruins play a red-hot North Carolina team that seems to have figured things out over the last month of the season and beyond. They’re 11-3 since February and are shooting 40% from three in the tournament. Here are some keys for UCLA to take care of business on Friday.
Get Tyger Campbell rolling
If we’ve learned anything from this tournament it is the value of controlling and taking care of the basketball. Campbell has been terrific in this tournament having nine assists to just three turnovers. The Tar Heels rank 347th in the nation in caused turnovers, which should help UCLA control the pace and get into their comfortable looks on offense. If Campbell is able to operate in traffic that frees up Juzang and Bernard to make their preferred shots.
Campbell has had a fantastic tournament, averaging 16 points and 4.5 assists. Campbell punished Saint Mary’s guards with his body control and his ability to hesitate and drive to the basket. When the lead slipped for North Carolina in the second half against Baylor, the young guards were unable to take care of the basketball.
Davis and Love combined for 6 turnovers in that second half and kept the door open for Baylor to chip away 25 points, tying the largest coughed-up lead in tournament history.
Run them off of the three-point line
The reason the Tar Heels turned their season around is not just buying back in on defense but they’ve been lethal from outside. For the Bruins to take care of business they’ll need to play Cronin’s brand of team defense that forces opponents to take and hit tough shots. If the Bruins can force sophomores RJ Davis and Caleb Love out of their comfort zone, the game should be within reach and in UCLA’s control throughout forty minutes.
How Jaquez looks against Manek will likely be a large factor in this game. Jaquez is one of the best on-ball defenders and lane protectors in the country and Manek is likely the hottest hand on this Tar Heel team. He’s a 39.5% three-point shooter and likely that comeback by Baylor doesn’t happen if he stays in the game.
Keep the game in the halfcourt
The main difference between these two teams is the tempo that they like to run at. The Tar heels thrive off of transition scoring and getting guys good looks as trailers once Armando Bacot secures the defensive rebound. The Bruins, however, love to slow it down and make the defense work on guarding them in the halfcourt, living off of defensive collapse with their trio of offense initiators.
If the Tar Heels are in the half-court all game, it may play into the hands of the Bruins and help them punch their ticket to the Elite Eight.