Where can the UNC basketball exploit UCLA in the Sweet 16? We talked to a Bruins expert to get his answer.
The UNC basketball program might be clicking at the right time as they have played really good down the stretch this season. Going from being a bubble team to spoiling Coach K’s finale at Duke and now wins over Marquette and Baylor.
But the Tar Heels are going to have to bring their A-game on Friday in the Sweet 16 matchup against UCLA.
The No. 4 Bruins entered this year as a preseason favorite along with Gonzaga, who took down UCLA in the Final Four last season, and rightfully so. UCLA returns every starter from that team last year and have really found their groove as of late.
Carlos, host of the Pac-12 podcast, No Truck Stops gives us the rundown on the Bruins offensively:
I’m a true Pac-12 sicko in that I watch Pac-12 hoops almost exclusively. However, I bet if you took the top-15 teams in offensive efficiency this year, UCLA would have one of the ugliest, most gruesome offenses of the bunch. But it’s also brutally, soul-crushingly efficient and very rarely turns the ball over. When UCLA‘s offense is clicking and dominating, it doesn’t feel quite like an avalanche the way it does when offenses like Arizona’s or Gonzaga’s start to take over. It’s more like having a small rock thrown directly at your face over and over again at 30 second intervals. It’s a mid-range jumper here, a post-up there, and then eight straight painstakingly-long possessions have gone by, and UCLA‘s just scored on every single one of them. And because they take care of the ball so damn well, it’s impossible to shorten their possessions unless UCLA wants them shortened.
I’ve recently been comparing UCLA‘s offense to the 2016-17 Houston Rockets. If you watched them in the playoffs, they screened you to death, hunted mismatches, and then let a couple players work in isolation while everyone patiently and methodically waited around until they got the green light to do something. And guess what? That offense owned and the entire team dragged one of the most beautiful offenses we’ve ever seen into the mud for seven games. It’s ugly, it’s brutal, but when every other elite offense is playing beautiful, fun, energetic basketball? It’s cool as hell when you’re the one team who wants to ruin everything.
However, every team is beatable and UNC can exploit a the Bruins in some areas:
As for what North Carolina can exploit, I’ll say this: Tyger Campbell helps make this UCLA team go. Some of UCLA‘s worst offensive games have come when teams have honed in on him and figured out how to make Tyger seemingly disappear. Campbell isn’t UCLA‘s best scorer or even their best offensive player, but he’s their most important offensive player.
I’d also be remiss to leave out Jaime Jaquez, who is in fact UCLA‘s best player and, at the moment, their best scorer. Jaquez is incredibly crafty, especially in the post, and his craftiness enables him to get buckets even against players who are much larger than he is (as was the case against USC’s 6’10” power forward Isaiah Mobley, where Jaquez was giving up four inches and about 20 pounds). That said, some longer players have had a lot of success against Jaquez. One of his worst offensive games came in the Pac-12 title game, when Arizona’s big adjustment was to stick 7’1″ Pac-12 defensive player of the year Christian Koloko on Jaquez. The result was a horrific 6-for-17 shooting night to go along with three turnovers and what felt like a bazillion blocked shots for Koloko on Jaquez. Does North Carolina have a Christian Koloko on roster? I guess we’re about to find out!
It’s no secret UNC is going to have to play one of their best games of the season both on offense and defense. If they do, they should find themselves in the Elite 8 this weekend.
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