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UCLA Basketball: Is There Enough Gas Left in the Tank?

By Mike Regalado

Mar 10, 2017; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Arizona Wildcats guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright (0) drives the ball during a Pac-12 Conference Tournament game against the UCLA Bruins at T-Mobile Arena. Arizona won the game 86-75. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 10, 2017; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Arizona Wildcats guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright (0) drives the ball during a Pac-12 Conference Tournament game against the UCLA Bruins at T-Mobile Arena. Arizona won the game 86-75. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports /
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After losing to Arizona in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals, the Bruins do not look like the high octane team that ended the regular season on fire.

The UCLA Basketball team just had their 10-game win streak snapped by a dominant Arizona squad. In fact, their last three games have been a bit lackluster, considering this is the top scoring team in the nation.

The Bruins, who put up 90.8 points per game, have averaged 76.0 in the last three games against Washington State, USC and Arizona.

In the regular season finale against Washington State, the Bruins seemed to put out less of an effort than their 95-79 win up in Pullman. At Pauley Pavilion, the Cougars managed to keep it close for most of the game and at one point took a one-point lead.

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UCLA eventually pulled out the win after waking up from the one-point deficit. They won that game, 77-68, which seemed a bit slow, but in all honesty, there was nothing to be won or lost so putting in lesser effort is not exactly a bad thing as there is no need to go full out and risk injury with your players with the postseason looming.

But then there was the Pac-12 quarterfinals against USC.  The Trojans were tough, but it also seemed as though UCLA was not fully awake for this contest either. UCLA once again pulled out the win, but the effort didn’t seem to be 100%.

That attitude seem to bleed into last night’s loss to Arizona. There was only a few Bruins that were able to produce, but the team as a whole was off-balance and could not get control of this game against a hungry Arizona Wildcat team.

So have the uptempo Bruins run out of gas? Hopefully it was the desert air that put UCLA in a funk and can somehow return to form next week in the NCAA Tournament. But then again, if a neutral location cannot get the Bruins ready to play some elite-level basketball, then this machine might be running down.

Next: Bruins Run Out of Gas Against Arizona

Hopefully the Bruins can refocus and come out strong like they did after their two mid-conference season loses to Arizona and USC.