Go Joe Bruin
Fansided

UCLA Basketball: How The Bruins Can Improve in 2016-17

By Mike Regalado

Jan 30, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins center Thomas Welsh (40) gets a high five from head coach Steve Alford as he leaves the game in the second half against the Washington State Cougars Pauley Pavilion. UCLA won 83-50. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 30, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins center Thomas Welsh (40) gets a high five from head coach Steve Alford as he leaves the game in the second half against the Washington State Cougars Pauley Pavilion. UCLA won 83-50. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 6
Next
"Mar
"Mar /

Defense

With the need for improvement on defense, Alford needs to go back to the basics. Before he works on bettering the defense as a whole, Alford has to get every individual back to fundamentals.

Simplicity is the key and Alford has to reteach everything. Keeping hands up, boxing out, playing on the ball, cutting off passing lanes, playing low, rotating, foot work, taking a charge (did any Bruin take a charge this season?), etc.

When individual performance is enhanced, so will the overall performance of the team, but then they have to learn to play defense together.

After the little things are shored up, then Alford needs assimilate those players into their defensive schemes and get others up to speed.

He also needs to stop being predictable. Playing the 2-3 or 3-2 zone defenses are fine, but good coaches have shown to exploit these UCLA defenses.

The Bruins have to mix it up the D, possibly by incorporating several other defensive schemes like the 1-3-1 zones, (sound) man-to-man and box and 1s. Additionally, they need to learn how and when to work the press, that would have helped in games like Utah.

Overall, like so many things with the team, Alford has to keep the defense consistent. They showed early on that they could shut down teams, so it is not a stretch to say they can have a very good defense, it is keeping that energy and effort up that will be the problem.

Next: Rebounding