Go Joe Bruin
Fansided

UCLA Basketball is on track to have their worst season since 2015-16

By Mike Regalado

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 09: Jaylen Hands #4 of the UCLA Bruins reaches for the ball at half court during a game against the Utah Utes at Pauley Pavilion on February 09, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Katharine Lotze/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 09: Jaylen Hands #4 of the UCLA Bruins reaches for the ball at half court during a game against the Utah Utes at Pauley Pavilion on February 09, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Katharine Lotze/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

After getting swept at home last week, the UCLA basketball team is on track to have one of their worst seasons since 2015-16.

Let us take a quick look at the UCLA basketball team’s last seven games: at Cal, at Stanford, vs Oregon State, vs Oregon, vs USC, at Colorado, and at Utah.

RELATED: Bruins Meltdown in Epic Fashion Against Utah

Now let us look at the Bruins’ record versus these teams this season: 3-4. The Bruins started Pac-12 play at home against Cal and Stanford and thoroughly beat on them. Their next game was at Oregon where they were getting manhandled until the last minute of regulation and managed to pull out a victory in overtime.

More from Go Joe Bruin

Since then, the Bruins have had eight games, winning only two of them. If you shook your head after reading that, youre not alone.

Something is not right in Westwood and it is causing the Bruins to have one of the worst seasons since 2015-16. That was when UCLA finished 15-17, the year before Lonzo Ball and TJ Leaf arrived. Currently, UCLA is 12-12, 5-6. If they are lucky, they will reach 15 wins, but that is nothing to write home about, especially when there is a possibility they don’t.

Looking at the remaining games, I am projecting that the Bruins go 2-5 in the remainder of the regular season. Cal and Stanford are not good which is why UCLA should win these two games (although I would not put it past the Bruins to lose at least one of these as they are on the road and they don’t “road sweep”). But beyond that, I cannot foresee any other games ending with a “W” for the Bruins.

Even though the games after the Bay trip will be at Pauley, with Oregon State playing some solid basketball and Oregon improving, the Beavers and Ducks should get wins in Westwood. USC is not playing spectacularly but they are playing better than UCLA. That is three losses right there.

And now consider that the Bruins just got whipped by Colorado and Utah (who came back from 22-points down to score 61 points in the second half to get the 93-92 win) at Pauley this past weekend and most will agree with me that losses in the mountains are very likely.

If that is the case, UCLA will end the season 14-17, 7-11. That would not only be the worst finish since 2015-16, but that would match UCLA’s worst finish since 2009-10. That season, UCLA finished 14-18, 8-10 under Ben Howland. For those that can remember, that was a tough pill to swallow and it looks like we have to swallow that pill again.

But what can UCLA do? It is what it is, especially since the main problem was removed when the Athletic Department finally fired Steve Alford. These are the remnants. These are the aftershocks after the big one. This is clean up after the party.

Next. UCLA Basketball: The 25 Greatest Bruins of all time. dark

This is not an ideal finish, but things are in motion. Finishing under .500 is never something that should happen at UCLA, but here we are. The good thing is that it will change. This season is pretty much over so now we have to look toward the future, which is promising. It is just unfortunate that we are heading into the darkest part… but as they say, it is always darkest before the dawn.