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UCLA Basketball: Bruins Run Out of Gas in the Desert, Lose Big to Arizona

By Mike Regalado

Mar 10, 2017; Las Vegas, NV, USA; UCLA Bruins guard Aaron Holiday (3) passes to forward TJ Leaf (22) during a Pac-12 Conference Tournament game against the Arizona Wildcats at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 10, 2017; Las Vegas, NV, USA; UCLA Bruins guard Aaron Holiday (3) passes to forward TJ Leaf (22) during a Pac-12 Conference Tournament game against the Arizona Wildcats at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports /
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The UCLA Basketball team fails to put up a fight fight fight against Arizona as they lose in the semifinals of the Pac-12 Tournament, putting in jeopardy a high seeding in the NCAA Tournament.

If you have ever been driving through the desert and had your car sputter and slowly come to a stop on the side of the road because you ran out of gas, then you know how the UCLA Basketball team feels right now.

After an impressive 10-game win streak to finish the season, which included a win over USC in the Pac-12 quarterfinals, the Bruins have now accrued their 4th loss of the season.

Arizona looked just like they did against the Bruins back in January at Pauley Pavilion as they ran through the Bruins and exploited their rare offensive slump.

UCLA did not do themselves any favors as they tried to force things from the outside. For the night, the Bruins shot 4/25 (16.0%) from behind the 3-point line. From inside the line, they were 20/34 (58.8%).

Several Bruins were out of sync in this game, especially Lonzo Ball. He had injured his thumb in the first half trying to grab a rebound that was unexpectedly short. That seemed to affect his play the entire game as he had one of the worst performances of his UCLA career. He finished with 8 points on 2/7 shooting.

Isaac Hamilton, TJ Leaf and Thomas Welsh were the few that had a decent game as they scored 20, 15 and 13 respectively. Other than that, the Bruins’ 40.7% shooting did not help.

You have to hand it to Arizona though, they came to play. They came at the Bruins and exploited their weaknesses. Part of that was going at their weak defensive output as Lauri Markkanen put 29 points on the Bruins.

Head Coach Steve Alford, who has been praised for his coaching lately, looked like his 2015-16 self as he did not change this pace and generally had no answer for Arizona’s game plan. Paired with their substandard performance against USC last night, if UCLA continues to play this way, they are not going to have a good time in the NCAA Tournament.

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And speaking of the Big Dance, this loss might have kept the Bruins as a #3 seed. Though UCLA has quite the argument for a #2 see. We shall see come Sunday.