Team #88 - UCLA

On Saturday December 11th, 2021, I saw my 88th Division One College Basketball team. On this occasion, I saw the UCLA Bruins take on the Marquette Golden Eagles. UCLA is the 1st team that I have seen out of the Pac-12. UCLA is 7-1 on the season with the lone loss coming to Gonzaga. They are currently ranked #4 in the polls. To my knowledge, UCLA is the highest ranked team I have ever seen. The Bruins last played December 1st when they beat the Colorado Buffaloes 73-61. They were scheduled to play Washington on December 5th. However, Washington had to forfeit the game due to COVID-19 issues. Johnny Juzang has been the heart and soul for the 4th ranked Bruins this season, averaging 17.1 PPG. Marquette comes in off a thrilling 64-63 road win against Kansas State. The game came down to the final seconds and was decided after Oso Ighodaro bloeked a layup attempt by Ismael Massoud at the buzzer. Justin Lewis continues to be the leading scorer for Marquette, averaging 15.4 PPG. 

This game also featured something I have never experienced before. A time change. The game was originally scheduled to tip off at 1:30PM Central. However, about 10PM on Friday night I saw a tweet that said the game had been moved to 8:30PM Central. This was later confirmed in an email by the Marquette Athletic Department. Due to a broken windshield on the team plane. UCLA was forced to land in Denver and stay the night. So much for the originally scheduled 8PM Central landing on Friday night. As it turned out, UCLA would not arrive until Saturday morning at 9AM. Leaving no choice but to move the game back. The game started at 8:30PM Central, seven hours after the original planned start time. What a bizarre start to the game. With travels issues and a long time between games. Many wondered if UCLA would come out flat. 

What an electric atmosphere at Fiserv Forum. This game ranked right up there with Duke-Notre Dame and Villanova-Marquette as some of the loudest games I've been to. I really thought this crowd would provide issues for UCLA. Boy was I wrong. The first half was absolutely dominated by UCLA. Marquette lead early 3-1 but that would be the only lead that they would have for the entire game. Jaime Jaquez Jr led the charge in the first half from the start. I thought that UCLA moved the ball very well. Most times UCLA plays with four guys who can handle the ball. They would put Marquette in many mismatches on defense and get some easy buckets. Marquette struggles with two things, size and shooting. Both came into play in this first half. To me this is a big reason why at one point they found themselves down 33-10 with five minutes to play in the first half. Marquette started 1-15 from the three point line. That one made three was a three by Darryl Morsell in the opening minutes of the game. I will give Marquette credit, they had a lot of open looks at the three in the first half. None of them would drop. I am not sure it if it was the nerves of a big game or they just aren't a good three point shooting team. Justin Lewis and Tyler Kolek are both very solid players. However, some days I wish they would never take three pointers. This game would have been ugly very quickly if it hadn't been for a 11-2 Marquette run to end the first half. Greg Elliott came off the bench and hit three huge three pointers. Additionally, he threw a nice lob to Kur Kuath for a slam dunk. This trimmed the UCLA lead to 35-21 at the break. Jaquez was the leading scorer for UCLA at the half with 14 points and Elliott lead the charge for Marquette with 9 points. The Marquette defense had no answer for Jaquez. He was a perfect three for three from the three point line. When he got in the lane, he would back his defender down and get an easy basket. 

Marquette really tried to make it a game in the 2nd half. It felt like every time that the crowd got back into the game, UCLA would hit a big shot and stop the run. From time to time, it felt UCLA was toying with them. Marquette's size issue came into play in the 2nd half. They simply aren't big enough to rebound well. Kur Kuath is a good shot blocker but struggles to grab defensive rebounds. Myles Johnson caused a lot of problems for him in the 2nd half. Kuath is never going to move someone out of the way, he's just too small. If you read any of my writing I am big on Oso Ighodara. Unfortunately, he just didn't have much of a fit in this game. He will be good one day but today is one of those days as a Freshman where you take the lumps of riding the bench. Giving up 13 offensive rebounds in the 2nd half was certainly a big issue for Marquette. In a three minute span, I counted ten second chance points for UCLA. If you are going to pull an upset, you can not give multiple chances to a team. Johnny Juzang, Tyger Campbell & Jaime Jaquez are all far too good of players to allow for second chance opportunities. 

Being UCLA is a West Coast team, I really don't get to watch many games. The one thing I came away impressed with was their defense. Last year they road this all the way to the Final Four. This year it seemed to be their offense in which everyone was talking about. They came out with a great defensive game plan. They were daring Marquette to shoot the three. UCLA knows that Marquette isn't a very good shooting team. They love to shoot the three ball but they probably shouldn't. If Marquette makes a couple more threes, the game certainly gets more interesting but that was the card UCLA was playing. Anytime the ball went inside the arc, the lane was cut off and Marquette was trapped. I thought UCLA played great team defense in this game. UCLA dominated this game from start to finish and would win by a score of 67-56. Jaime Jaquez who was a matchup nightmare for Marquette and had his best game of the season. He finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds. For Marquette, Greg Elliott tried his best to single handedly beat UCLA. He had 22 points. If you are Marquette you have to be happy to see a new player get hot off the bench. UCLA improves to 9-1 on the season and Marquette falls to 8-3. UCLA is certainly a lock for the Elite 8 in my eyes. They have all the pieces to make a return trip to the Final Four but it really all depends on match-ups. As for Marquette, I have a feeling they may struggle to score in Big East play. Big East play is just a different animal. A lot of the teams in the Big East strive on the weaknesses of Marquette. A couple of weeks ago, many thought this was an NCAA Tournament team. If I was a gambling man, I will say that Marquette misses the NCAA Tournament in the First Year of the Shaka Smart era. Overall, I came away very impressed with UCLA. 

My next game is Monday December 13th, as the Rhode Island Rams take on the Milwaukee Panthers.