UCLA Basketball: Bruins Lose To Professional NBL Team Melbourne United

The UCLA Basketball team had a different result in their second game of their 3-game tour of Australia as they lose to Melbourne United, 89-84.

The game between the UCLA Basketball team and the Australian National Basketball League (NBL) professional squad Melbourne United was not televised or live streamed like the first Bruin contest, so we are going on what the internet has provided us with.

Related Story: Five Takeaways From UCLA's First Game Down Under

Because we did not see the game, it will be hard to thoroughly examine what the Bruins did against a professional team. We will look at the stat sheet provided by UCLABruins.com, which reveals a lot about what happened in UCLA’s second Australia game.

First off, the starting five significantly differed from the Bruin’s first game against Sydney University. Against Melbourne United, Head Coach Steve Alford started with Lonzo Ball, Aaron Holiday, Isaac Hamilton, Ike Anigbogu and T.J. Leaf.

From this we can takeaway that Alford is playing around with the rotation. This team is one of the deepest in terms of talent and getting the right combination is essential when trying to build on the team’s strengths. We saw this in the Bruin’s first game were the lineup would rotate every few minutes. And why not? These are all exhibition games and if Alford takes time to make these adjustments before the games that actually matter, than I am fine with that.

Though these five started, we should put more emphasis on the way the game ended. Of these five starters, only Holiday and Anigbogu played less than 22 minutes. Leaf played nearly 27 minutes while Hamilton and Ball played north of 32. Coming off the bench, Bryce Alford clocked in 29:24 minutes of playing time.

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Form this we can assess that, Coach Alford was looking to his more experienced players to help battle the Australian pros. Even Thomas Welsh, who almost had 20 minutes of game time, was one of the players that had more shots to themselves. He went 5-for-11 for 10 points and added 9 rebounds.

Ball and two other veterans were the only players to shoot in the double digits. Hamilton shot over .500 with 7-for-13 shooting and 16 points. Alford shot 6-for-12, tying a team-high 18 points. Holiday was the other Bruin to notch 18 points, though he was more efficient shooting 6-for-9.

Ball was not as successful as he only made 3 shots on 13 attempts. He might have only scored eight points, but his efforts were put to use elsewhere as he had a game-high 13 rebounds.

Per UCLABruins.com, UCLA and Melbourne had ten lead changes in the game and was considerably close throughout. Coach Alford was quoted as saying, “This was good for us, and it’s a big reason why we take trips like this. We are probably going to get a similar challenge when we’re in Brisbane. Our players are going up against pros, against grown men.”

In order to figure out how to solve the problems of last season, the Bruins need to go through this kind of experience and it is good they are working out the kinks now than struggling with it mid-season.

Next: UCLA Basketball: It is Time to Focus on the Players

So should UCLA Basketball fans worry about this result. Not really. It is in fact an exhibition which is getting the Bruins ready for the 2016-17 season. Though we like to see the Bruins dominate game in and game out, they first need to know how to play with each other. Go Bruins!