Kyle Wiltjer was a useful player for Kentucky but rarely a starter.
Now he is at Gonzaga, and he starts, and he went inside and outside and wherever else he wanted as he scored 24 against UCLA on Saturday night.
UCLA lost, 87-74.
Next game, at Kentucky.
That’s more of an amen than an omen.
No, it hasn’t been a great beginning for the Bruins, whenever they poke their heads out of the Cal State portion of their schedule. They have played three teams of note — Oklahoma, North Carolina and Gonzaga — and lost to all three, although very few teams are going to beat or even compete with these Zags.
It’s what happens when three of your 2013-14 players get taken in the first round of the NBA draft, but that happens at the Kentuckys and Dukes, and the tank gets refilled quickly. UCLA seems less of a national factor than it has been in a long time, on any level, including the bright, blue and empty seats in many regions of the new Pauley, and the taken-for-granted nature of a loss like this.
If this wasn’t men against boys, it certainly was young men against much younger men.
Gonzaga starts three seniors, a redshirt junior and a junior. UCLA starts one senior and one junior. Gonzaga also had experience coming off the bench in Kyle Dranginis, and it also had Doumantas Sabonis, a freshman with Olympic DNA.
Sabonis is the son of Hall of Famer Arvydas Sabonis, who distinguished himself on Russian and Lithuanian Olympic teams and was one of the most resourceful big men who ever played basketball. Doumantas scores with either hand, has post moves that supposedly went out with Kevin McHale, and just plain outcompeted the Bruins’ “bigs” on several occasions, particularly when he got a rebound in traffic and pitched it out by Byron Wesley, who put Gonzaga up 71-58.
This is the first time Wesley has come into Pauley Pavilion without playing for USC, which might account for his extra zip. He went 7 for 8 with 20 points and nine rebounds.
Either way, it would be a little scary to imagine how good Sabonis will be when he becomes a senior, except he never will be one.
“But it seemed like whenever they had to make a big play, they recognized time and score,” UCLA coach Steve Alford said. “With them, it’s been there, done that. They’ve been in a lot of those situations. We haven’t. They’ve been in a lot of tough, physical games and they don’t panic. They know where to go with the basketball. And tonight, they had five guys who made 3s.”
The Bruins were always a couple of possessions away from being a couple of possessions off the lead. Gonzaga never gave them that entree. When UCLA cut it to 71-63, senior Kevin Pangos drilled a 3-pointer. When UCLA could have seized a defensive rebound to get closer, Dranginis came from nowhere in the midst of the bigger UCLA bodies, saved the possession and watched Sabonis score two of his 10 points (in 21 minutes).
Gonzaga had a chance to win at Arizona last week and let it get away in overtime. It has already beaten SMU, Georgia and St. John’s. It might be outlandish to predict a 29-1 regular season but it might not be wrong.
“They ran their offense to a T,” said Kevon Looney, the Bruin freshman who was held to 14 points and eight rebounds. “If you gave them an open shot, they weren’t going to miss it.”
Actually UCLA matched the Zags in long balls. The game was lost much closer to the hoop. Gonzaga shot a fanciful 22 for 34 from 2-point range. Combine that with a 17-2 bench edge, and try to beat it.
That is the long-range worry for UCLA, which never led Gonzaga. Trades aren’t allowed in college basketball, so one wonders how the Bruins are going to beef up a bench that got only three shots in 27 man-minutes. UCLA came in with an 81.5 points-per-game average. The non-starters were averaging 10.7.
Thomas Welsh, the 7-foot freshman, battled his heavier elders during his 40 minutes. Wannah Bail did not play.
“We don’t have a lot of guys on the bench who can score,” Alford said.
Eventually, in the Pac-12 season, one can expect some of the Bruin starters to buckle under that load, and nobody wants to think about injuries, at any position.
Remember, Kentucky is the team that began the season playing two platoons.
Some reload, some rebuild. UCLA is just trying to avoid retreat.
@MWhicker03LANG on Twitter Mark.Whicker@langnews.com
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