The UCLA Basketball team will be without three Bruins who were arrested for allegedly shoplifting. So what will the lineups look without them?
It’s not horrible, but it is not great either. The UCLA Basketball team is going to have to be without three key players who were arrested earlier this week for allegedly shoplifting $700 sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store in Hangzhou, China. So that happened
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LiAngelo Ball, Jalen Hill and Cody Riley will not be playing in this Friday season opener against Georgia Tech in Shanghai. They might even miss the first seven games while they are being detained by authorities in China.
That means head coach Steve Alford has to do some shuffling as he will be out be without the outside shooting of Ball, the athleticism of Riley and the much anticipated defense of Hill. What this mainly does is thins out the front court. Ball was expected to see 5-10 minutes a game, but the other two could’ve played up to 10-18 minutes.
Let’s first look at the lineup potential lined up to start the season:
Starters: Aaron Holiday, Jaylen Hands, Kris Wilkes, Gyorgy Goloman, Thomas Welsh
Off the bench: 1. Prince Ali, 2. Chris Smith, 3. Alex Olesinski, 4. Ikenna Okwarabizie
Instead of swapping position player for position player, Alford is going to have to swap some players around. In the back court, Prince Ali will come off the bench to relieve one of the two starting point guards. From then on I can imagine Holiday and Hands coming in for each other.
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Smith will most likely back up Wilkes at the small forward position, now making him one of the more important wing players. Although, because of the thinned out depth chart and his height, I can see him being asked to take up power forward duties, pending injuries or foul trouble.
Now this is where the arrests really hurt UCLA. Riley and Hill were going to bring a lot of length and skill into the paint. Instead, substitutions are going to have to come from Okwarabizie and Olesinski. The former played 2.6 minutes a game and averaged 0.2 points last season while the latter is returning from injury.
With no legitimate back up for Welsh, UCLA will be forced to occasionally play two forwards down low. I can also imagine Alford trying to go faster and smaller at certain points playing with fou guards and one forward/center.
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The Bruins could essentially get Riley and Hill back, but for the time being they are going to have to face the fact that it is very thin among the big guys. And the roster in general.