Ever wonder why Missouri is one of the worst teams in the nation at forcing turnovers...they don't hustle. There were numerous occasions where a UCLA player on offense lost control of the dribble and the Missouri defenders just stood there watching as the player would track down the ball. On one occasion, the UCLA player dribbled the ball off of his foot and it darted forward toward the Mizzou defenders and none of them even made an attempt to get it. Inexplicable.
As annoying as Bill Walton was in the telecast, I completely agreed with his point about stats not being worth a lick when the only thing that matters is the win or the loss. As a result, Pressey's huge night is lost because they couldn't close out the game.
Frank Haith
I normally don't grade the coaching, but tonight I was just floored with what I saw from Missouri. Surely it should have been a no-brainer to insert Oriakhi in the game for UCLA's last possession. But instead, NWC is kept in the game who hasn't made a play on defense all year. Missouri looked like a poorly-coached team in the waning moments of the game and I didn't see a single move that Haith made that helped. That was disappointing.
Haith also figured it would be nice to go to zone, despite looking horrible every time they tried it in the Bahamas. Well, it looked just as bad as UCLA scored a wide-open dunk against it. Why do these guys struggle with defense so much? Grade: 3/10.
Phil Pressey
Phil had a great game, but was visibly tired at the end and made some questionable decisions late that proved to be costly. I hope that he will learn from it and move on. I also hope that he will forgive Bell for blowing what would have been assist number 20. I'm going to give Pressey high marks because he did a lot of amazing things in this game. However, his defense was very poor in this game. He pretty much let Larry Drew II get to whatever spot he wanted on the floor. Grade: 8/10.
Laurence Bowers
Bowers also wilted at the end after making so many good cuts for a good portion of the game. All of Bowers makes were dunks and lay-ups on Pressey assists. But someone has to finish in close. It seems that is harder than we might think. Grade: 7/10.
QUICK OFFICIATING NOTE: Pressey and Bowers shot 36 shots from the field in this game, but only were given one free throw attempt. Hmmm....
Jabari Brown
Brown hit 50% from behind the arc and also made some big shots at crucial times when it was needed. However, he botched the play at the end of regulation which proved to be costly. Grade: 6/10.
Alex Oriakhi
Oriakhi played 19 minutes due to foul trouble. Missouri's defense was noticeably better when he was in the game and I felt like when he was out, UCLA was more likely to get an offensive rebound (which was absolutely the case during the Rosburg-Jank minutes). Now we know that it is better to grab a player with two hands who is driving to the basket than it is to put the ball down on the floor. Grade: 5/10.
Negus Webster-Chan
Webster-Chan was disappointing because he completely loses his mind whenever Pressey goes out of the game. He did an okay job when he was guarding Kyle Anderson, but every other guard who he tried to defend blew right by him. Grade: 3/10.
Earnest Ross
Ross had a very nice stat line, but missed a crucial free throw late and also struggled on defense (really, the whole team did so there's no point in me singling people out in this regard). He made a couple of fundamental errors in this game (like trying to save a ball from going out of bounds that clearly went off a UCLA player and then late in the game, not giving the ball up on a 3-on-1 fast break which would have presumedly led to a Brown dunk). Otherwise, Ross was a very steady contributor in this game. Grade: 7/10.
Keion Bell
It's hard to rag on Bell since he did knock in 17 points and provided some nice energy when Missouri took it's big lead. He also was a force on the offensive boards, converting a number of tips early on and then keeping some balls alive. However, I can't get past that missed lay-up. Unbelievable. Grade: 6/10.
Jankovic and Rosburg
These guys just aren't ready for big-time basketball. UCLA scored on every possession in which these guys were on the floor. They are such a huge defensive liability that it's hard to justify them getting any minutes in a tight game.
Overall Thoughts
Missouri allowed UCLA to score 97 points on 81 possessions by giving up so many easy baskets due to UCLA beating the Tigers down the floor. Missouri's team defense needs to improve. They looked good in the one spurt when they pushed the lead to 9 points, then got lazy (or tired) and seemed to let the Bruins take whatever shot they wanted. Missouri had 17 turnovers, UCLA only had 6.
It would have been nice to win this game, but it's really not a huge deal overall. I just hope they learn and get better.
Next up: Bucknell on the 5th (Saturday).
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