UCLA Basketball: 6 Things That Can Go Really Wrong For Bruins in 2012

4. The Wears Regress, Horribly

With UCLA being totally stacked at the wings, and Josh Smith and Tony Parker vying for a starting spot at the pivot, there’s room for (maybe) one Wear Twin in the starting line-up. They’ll be rotation players at the worst, and they’re going to be the backbone of any sort of viable second unit for UCLA.

They also make UCLA’s big man rotation a freaking force to be reckoned with, because having Travis Wear rotate in as a center-power forward alongside either Smith or Parker — while having David rotate in as a true power forward — will put a ton of pressure on the opposing bench to guard the Wears on offense, where they were really efficient last season.

If they regress horribly, though? Then UCLA’s depth will be non-existent. The team won’t have viable backups on the interior the way they did prior, and that’ll mess up rotations incredibly.

5. Ben Howland Can’t Adjust His Defensive Gameplan to Fit His Personnel

Ben Howland’s aggressive man defense has been his trademark since before he was born. All four of his Final Four squads at UCLA played stingy, suffocating man defense that was built around great guard play on that end.

Things could get different, though. Larry Drew is a hell of a defender, it seems, but Shabazz’s defense is suspect, Anderson might not be strong or fast enough to guard many college wings, the Wear Twins are a liability on that side of the ball and Smith has potential to be an incredible defender down low, but he hasn’t exactly lived up to all of that potential.

So Howland will have to get creative, instead of trying to put together a half-ass defensive gameplan predicated on his beloved man defense. Fans were upset that Howland was damn near refusing to use zone during games, and though zone is a total cop-out in basketball, it forces the defense to adjust while saving the stamina of the players on the court.

If Howland can’t adjust it, things are going to get ugly and that awesome UCLA defense will crumble.

6. Jordan Adams, Tyler Lamb and the Rest of the UCLA Guards Can’t Buy A Bucket

Outside shooting was a worry last season, and though Shabazz Muhammad was brought in to create his own shots — again, something UCLA sorely missed last season — he isn’t the sharpshooter that fellow freshman Jordan Adams is pegged to be, and isn’t the shooter that Tyler Lamb could become.

With all that size, UCLA needed desperately some perimeter offense, and that was trash last season.

If UCLA’s backcourt guys can’t make shots, this team is doomed.