SoCal College Game Report

UCLA Loses to UNC. Big. Really Big.--(November 27, 1997)

In a reprise of their record setting loss to Stanford in the opening game, UCLA got confused and thought they'd just do it again. Except this time it was to UNC in the Great Alaska Shootout. They got shot. Got drilled. With a fully loaded Uzi. They lost by 41 points. Shootout? This was a firing squad.

Yeah, you read that correctly, 41, Forty-one, Four Zero plus 1. Huge loss.

Why? Because UCLA right now is just a so-so team, that does not deserve to be ranked. And because UNC is a great team, that deserves to be ranked as high they can get.

Final score: UCLA 68, University of North Carolina, 109. What a wipeout.

Well, at least the Bruins avoided equaling the Great Alaska Shootout record of 116 points for the worst loss and greatest point differential.

Some random thoughts: Starters--Bailey, Watson, Henderson, Davis, Loyd--too small against Ndiaye, Carter, Okulaja, Shammond, Cota and Jamison. But we already knew that. And so does Lavin. But what's he supposed to do? He's really got no one else, except maybe starting Reed, Dailey or maybe Farnham (who didn't play more than a couple of very ineffective minutes in garbage time). At least Lavin's hair didn't move tonight. How does he get it to shine like that?

Doesn't anybody playing for UCLA besides Baron know how to play defense? Ok, Watson can play a little D also. But you'd think Toby never did a slide drill. We made a point of watching him during the third and fourth quarters on the defensive end of the floor. You'd have thought he was guarding Earl Watson's back, or Kevin Dailey, or anyone besides a Tar Heel. Seemed like everyone else had a man to guard except Toby, who did his best to plug up the middle at the free throw line by occupying the space, but not much else. Maybe Lavin was running a variation of the classic "box and 1" park league defense, and Toby's job was to just stand there. We don't think so, but that's what it looked like. Somebody tell Toby though that the "1" in this type of defense is supposed to go to the ball and stay on it. God, this has got to be frustrating for him. And now he's got a hurt shoulder. What else?

Baron proved why he's one of the best, scoring 13 points. Hope he decides to wait for Young and Barnes next year. But he can't do it alone. He tried to feed the ball to J.R. a lot, who was like a foul magnet. That is, he couldn't avoid fouling. Reminds you of . . . yeah, Elden Campbell. That's it! I knew I'd seen that guy somewhere before.

Well, in fairness, there wasn't much that J.R. could do against Ndiaye, who was shooting hooks and soft touch short jumpers over him at will. Cota and Jamison are human highlight-reels. And Gutheridge is Dean Smith now.

So the Bruins manage to keep it close during the first quarter, only behind by 4, at 20-24. And they managed to stay in it at the half, only behind by 21. Only. Maybe the Journal of Basketball Studies should look at this interesting phenomenon from a statistical point of view. Is there a way to predict a teams final score by looking at the number of points the loser is behind at the half, and simply doubling it? In other words, did UCLA really play two very similar halves even if it looked like they didn't? Just double their half-time deficit and you'd be within one point of their final scoring deficit of 41. And double UNC's 53 points which they had at the half, and you'd be within 3 points of their final score. Hmmmm. We think it really means that UNC and UCLA just kept doing the same things, and it was working for the Tar Heels and not working for the Bruins.

But then we could have predicted that. Oops, we did.

UNC shot a very good .627 from the field. UCLA shot only 40.7%. Only three Bruins were over 10 points: Bailey with 10, Baron with 13, Henderson with 12. Compare that to the Big 6, who shot a combined 91: Ndiaye 12, Carter 22, Okulaja 12, Shammond 8, Cota 14, and Jamison 23.

Just remember, it's only the first game of the season. It's UNC's fourth, and they're 4-0, winning by more than 23 points in each outing.

How do the Bruins feel about now? Ask the Cal Bears. They can empathize. The big difference is that the Bruins can still turn it around and have it mean something, they can still go to the dance.

Oh, well. Happy Thanksgiving.

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