Published: March 25, 2014 Updated: 6:46 p.m.
MICHAEL GOULDING, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
UCLA vs. Florida
Thursday, 6:45 p.m.
KCBS/2
LOS ANGELES – It seems like a distant memory now, lost in the redemptive narrative of UCLA's first Sweet 16 in six years. But it was a mere 17 days ago that the Bruins returned from Pullman, fresh off their worst loss of the season, with as little momentum and hope as a team could carry into the postseason.
It was the same team, in the middle of its postseason renaissance, whose players stood nonchalantly in the locker room at San Diego’s Viejas Arena on Sunday evening, confidently assuming that they could beat anyone – including top-seeded Florida, which awaits Thursday.
“We’re playing outstanding basketball,” Travis Wear said.
At the root of that dizzying, two-week turnaround has been an outstanding and confident defense, which – before UCLA’s five-game win streak, Pac-12 Tournament title and Sweet 16 berth – hardly had been the calling card of Steve Alford’s first team in Westwood.
“I just think it’s taken them awhile to execute the emphasis on the defensive end,” Alford said Tuesday, just before the team left for the South Regional in Memphis. “Whether that was losing to Washington State or whatever it might’ve been, we went to the Pac-12 Tournament, and we left there a much better defensive team.
In the five games since, UCLA has allowed 62.4 points per game — down from 71.4 in the previous 31 contests. The Bruins won four of those five games by 17 or more points.
That focus has proved most effective against their opponent’s top scoring options. Stanford's Chasson Randle scored just 11 points against the Bruins in the Pac-12 semifinals. Tulsa's James Woodard was held to a single point in the second half of their round-of-64 game. And Stephen F. Austin’s Jacob Parker, the Southland Player of the Year, was just 1 of 7 from the floor Sunday.
“Early in the season,” Alford said, “it was more, let’s try to either get it out of the net or off the glass if they miss. Now, it’s a really deep demeanor and attitude of getting the defensive stop.”
The numbers, impressive as they are, can’t quite illustrate how drastically UCLA’s energy has shifted. A once offensive-minded group of scorers has locked down defensively and jump-started the transition game that made UCLA so dangerous to start the season.
“We’re talkative,” Wear said. “We’re helping one another. We’re getting in gaps. We’re rotating. We’re trying to limit teams to one shot.”
“Our hands are up,” Alford said. “We’re being more active with our feet. It’s a demeanor.”
Against one of the strongest, most physical teams in the country in Florida, it’s going to take all of those things clicking at once to advance. But in the midst of a postseason resurgence, UCLA’s suddenly outstanding defense finally might have the chops to clamp down.
BONUS ROUNDS
Public opinion on Alford is trending upwards these days. With his resurgent Bruins rolling into the Sweet 16, it's been quite the lucrative two weeks for UCLA's first-year coach.
As stipulated by his contract, which pays him an annual base salary of $2.6 million, Alford has earned $65,000 in bonuses during the Bruins’ run through the postseason.
For UCLA's Pac-12 Tournament title, also its first since 2008, Alford received a $15,000 bonus. For qualifying for the NCAA Tournament, Alford earned $25,000. Punching his ticket to the Sweet 16 was worth another $25,000.
There are plenty more bonuses to be had if UCLA can upend Florida. An Elite Eight berth again would net Alford $25,000. A Final Four would mean another $50,000. And a national championship, which would be UCLA's first since 1995, would add $75,000.
In total, Alford stands to make $215,000 in bonuses this postseason if all breaks right for his Bruins.
KENTUCKY IN 2014-15
Details are being finalized for a matchup that would pit UCLA against Kentucky at the United Center in Chicago next December, giving the Bruins a marquee opponent to highlight the 2014-15 nonconference schedule. The two titans of college basketball would be part of a doubleheader that also includes Ohio State and North Carolina. News of the event was first reported by the Columbus Dispatch.
Contact the writer: rkartje@ocregister.com
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