UCLA Basketball: It’s Bad, But Not Nikola Dragovic Bad

The UCLA Basketball team is 6-8 in the Pac-12 and tied for 8th place. Though things look bad, it is not as bad as when Nikola Dragovic was a Bruin.

Things are not going very well for the UCLA Basketball team. They are sub-.500 in conference, in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament and Head Coach Steve Alford‘s seat is getting hot.

RELATED: UCLA Basketball and the Oscillating Hot Seat

Still, that is not as bad as the era in which UCLA forward Nikola Dragovic graced us with his presence. Please note the sarcasm.

Right now, the UCLA Basketball program is going through some tough times, but at least none of the players on the roster have embarrassed the Bruins off the court (insert joke about embarrassing them on the court now – use USC as a reference if you must).

UCLA Bruins

One thing that Steve Alford has done a fine job of as the UCLA Basketball head coach is reeling in the non-basketball hijinks, something that was not done consistently in the Ben Howland era. Though Alford has not had that much off-court trouble with his players, when it happened, Alford was swift to bring down his hammer of justice.

Remember late in the 2013-14 season when Kyle Anderson and Jordan Adams were benched because they broke team rules? Alford did not hesitate to remove his top two players from the line-up of a key game despite needing a late season win at home against a spry Oregon team (UCLA lost that game). Anyway…

Let us go even further back to the 2009-10 season. Let us call it, “The Start of the Fall”.

It was Nikola Dragovic’s last season with UCLA and though he did not pan out like Howland (and Bruin fans) had hoped, he was still the “star” of the team. The unfortunate part of having that role is that it seemed those players got preferential treatment from Howland.

Case in point, early into the 2009-10 season, Dragovic was arrested for assaulting a man at a Hollywood night club. It was his second arrest in two years as Dragovic was detained the previous year for a domestic dispute with his girlfriend. In December 2009, after his second conviction, Dragovic was suspended by Howland… FOR ONLY TWO GAMES! Howland did not even wait for all the information before reinstating Dragovic.

“Based on what we know right now, we thought it was the right decision.” It wasn’t Coach Howland, but thanks for waiting for all the details.

Getting Dragovic back on the court did not help either. UCLA finished 5th in the Pac-12 and the Bruin’s “star” only averaged 12.0 ppg (3rd on the team). His overall field goal percantage was down to .372 from .451 and his 3-point shooting (which was his specialty) dropped from .382 to .281. Additionally, he played no defense and still averaged 32.2 minutes per game (on a Howland team no less, weird right?).

On top of all of that, there was also a very smug and awkward picture of him in a hot tub (which you can see HERE) which seemed to irk many Bruin fans. To that I say, “you are no Josh Rosen, sir!”

So even though the current state of Bruin hoops is on the descend, it is not as bad as that 2009-10 season with Dragovic (which eventually got worse with the likes of Reeves Nelson).

Next: The UCLA Basketball All-Time Team

Right now, Bruin fans only have to worry about UCLA Basketball becoming irrelevant. Not the law, not attitudes and definitely not egos. And if there are these sort of shenanigans going on at UCLA, Steve Alford is doing everything he can to not let it get out into the open.

Now if he can only teach defense.