Pac-12 Basketball: UCLA Bruins 8-7 Start Has Heads Shaking

Every season there is a team that we see in the Conference that we don’t expect to see in a certain spot in the standings. Every year the UCLA Bruins compete and usually find wins when needed. The season started out well for the Bruins and Head Coach Steve Alford. It has become a family affair in Los Angeles with his son Sophomore Guard Bryce Alford leading the charge averaging eighteen points per game. However, the team is very one dimensional.

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When Alford is not scoring, the team is in trouble. One team to look at that could have had the same blueprint is close to home, the Oregon Ducks. Oregon is 11-3 on the year and have found not only a key leader in Senior Joseph Young, but also role players to support him, many of them Freshman. UCLA still has time to figure it out, but losses are not looking good.

The Bruins fell to Kentucky on December 20th, 83-44 and missed their first eighteen shots in the game. The Bruins are currently on a five game losing streak including two road losses to start Pac-12 Conference play at Colorado and most recently at Utah. The loss to the Utes was almost as ugly as the loss to the top team in the country. The final was 71-39 Utah.

The team shot twenty eight percent from the floor and hit one of eleven shots from beyond the arc. In a Conference where all the games will matter 0-2 is not a good place to start. The Bruins are 8-7 overall and with a fanbase expecting so much every year from their basketball program it may bot be long before rumors start to fly concerning the program.

UCLA hosts Stanford and Cal this week and will travel to Oregon to take on the Ducks on January 24th.