UCLA Basketball: Can the Bruins get a road sweep this season?

The UCLA basketball team is playing some inconsistent ball right now and need to get it together before this weekend’s road trip. Can the Bruins get the sweep despite this being a difficult feat for head coach Steve Alford?

In the six seasons that Steve Alford has been with the UCLA basketball team (13-5, 4-2), he has had 21 road trips heading into this weekend where the boys in blue will head to the state of Oregon. Just for clarification, these road trips do not include the away game UCLA plays across town at USC (because there are usually more Bruins fans in attendance than Trojans fans, yes that was a slight dig).

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But seriously, the two-game conference road trips are vital to the success of the Pac-12 basketball programs and if a team can win on the road consistently, they should be in the running for conference champion.

As stated before, Alford has had 21 two-game conference road trips. Do you know how many of those trips he has swept? Only four. The first sweep came during his very first Pac-12 road venture against the Washington schools in his inaugural year. His next would not come until four years later.

Alford has had 21 two-game conference road trips. Do you know how many of those trips he has swept? Only four.

Last season, the Bruins were rolling through the season, which included multiple road sweeps. The Lonzo Ball-led Bruins had won three that season as UCLA took out Colorado-Utah, the Washington schools and even got a sweep on the Arizona journey.

But like last season, a lot of expectations have been lowered and that, unfortunately, involves getting road sweeps this season.

UCLA has already been up to the Bay Area and as you might know, they lost a heartbreaker to Stanford (instantly killing any chance of a sweep). They upped their effort two days later with a beating of Cal, but the damage had already been done by the Cardinal who exposed the Bruins’ lack of depth.

The Bruins still have three more road trips remaining this season, all of which give UCLA the chance to stay any the top of the standings, but that is easier said than done.

Starting Thursday, UCLA takes on Oregon State followed by Oregon. This is not a fun trip and one that could have the Bruins being swept themselves. Neither the Beavors nor Ducks are impressive this year, but both will rise to take on the Mighty Bruins. But it gets worse.

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UCLA plays Arizona and Arizona State once during the regular season and both games are away from Pauley. In even worse news, both Arizona teams have been playing excellent basketball despite a few bumps in the road. It seems the Bruins will not get a sweep in the desert and in fact get swept in this one.

That leaves their final road trip to the mountain schools as their best chance for a road sweep. The only problem is that despite a win over Utah already, the Utes will be a bigger challenge at home. And then there is Colorado who shut down UCLA at Pauley this past weekend, which means the Buffaloes should be even better on their home court (Colorado started Pac-12 play with a home sweep of the Arizona schools).

With all of this in mind, it does not look as if the Bruins are destined for a road sweep. What is even worse is that it seems UCLA has the potential to lose all of their games on the road, USC included.

This is the path UCLA needs to avoid, especially if they want to be in contention for a Pac-12 regular season title, which Alford has failed to achieve in his previous five seasons. The funny thing is, UCLA can make wining a possibility. The problem is consistency. They can have a great offense. They can play decent enough defense. They have had good free throw shooting games. Alford has made good coaching decisions. Now they need to do it consistently.

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UCLA can win the majority of games at home, but they also have to put emphasis on the road games. At this point, it is not just about getting a sweep, but survival on the road, in general. Though there is still time to change things up, time will quickly run out.