UCLA Basketball: 5 things we learned from the Bruins’ exhibition game

The UCLA basketball team ran through NYIT on Saturday night with a 125-73 win and showed us a few things that foreshadowed the Bruins’ season in 2018-19.

The latest edition of the UCLA basketball team has been unveiled and on Saturday night we saw a lot of good things (and one questionable thing) that should tell us about the Bruins’ path to success during the 2018-19 season.

RELATED: UCLA’s 125-73 Exhibition Win Shows Their Depth

UCLA could be successful, and there are many things that will help them to achieve that. But for now, GJB looks what worked this past weekend as we present five things that we learned from the Bruins’ exhibition game…

1. Defense Continues to be Questionable

Before I get into the four good lessons learned from UCLA’s win, let us get the bad out of the way and I think you already know what it is (besides reading the title above).

When you score 125 points in a game, the defense isn’t really a big issue especially when your opponent is only able to score 73. The New York Institute of Technology Bears only shot 37.5% from the field, but a lot of that had to do with the fact that they are not an elite offensive scoring team. The Bears were only successful 26.3% of the time from behind the arc (5/19) and went a paltry 62.5% (20/32) from the free throw line.

That still did not excuse the Bruins from playing several feet off their man, allowing numerous players to drive the lane, and (though it was not abundant) allowing points in transition. These are the things that will burn UCLA when they play tougher competition.

In addition to this, the Bruin bigs need to box out. UCLA won the rebounding battle, 58-31, but the Bruins had the clear size advantage so there should be no reason a team like NYIT grabs 12 offensive boards. Also, how hard is it to stick out your rump/hips and create space? Not very, I can tell you that from personal experience.

Ok, rant over. Let’s get to the good stuff…