LOS ANGELES — The UCLA and USC men’s basketball teams will finish out the regular season with the second edition of their crosstown rivalry Saturday.
When the Bruins and Trojans last met Jan. 27, fingernails scattered Galen Center after USC nearly upset UCLA with a run late in the second half. The Bruins staved off the comeback effort, benefitting from Sebastian Mack’s late-game heroics. They banded together to overcome a late injury to point guard Dylan Andrews and jeers that rained down on former Trojan Kobe Johnson.
Now on Saturday, the crowd will be on Johnson’s side. His senior night will take place in Pauley Pavilion, ironically, against the team he played with for his first three years in college.
“It’s surreal,” he said at UCLA’s practice Thursday. “Feels like just yesterday I was coming into college, you know, but most importantly, we gotta go out there and get the W.”
The Trojans were stumbling through a five-game losing streak before dominating Washington 92-61 on Wednesday. Forward Rashaun Agee has been a bright spot, averaging 19.7 points over phe last three games. Leading scorer Desmond Claude bounced back with a 25-point performance against the Huskies.
The Trojans epitomize the depth of the Big Ten as they beat the conference’s regular-season champion Michigan State on Feb. 1, yet need a victory Saturday to ensure they don’t miss the Big Ten Tournament altogether. Fifteen teams make the Big Ten Tournament. USC currently sits 13th in the conference, but could drop into a tie for 15th with a loss or rise to 11th with a win.
UCLA knows all too well that, in the Big Ten, no team can be underestimated. The stakes at hand for USC make that all the more relevant.
The Bruins have secured a bye in the Big Ten Tournament and are firmly in the NCAA Tournament. Over the last four games, though, they’ve traded wins and losses. With the NCAA Tournament looming, it’s crucial that the Bruins start to build momentum.
“Michigan State is going to win our league because they’ve been the most consistent, hard-playing team,” UCLA head coach Mick Cronin said at practice Thursday. “We’re worried about becoming that for the NCAA Tournament.”
To propel a postseason push, UCLA needs to stack wins in their remaining opportunities to improve their seeding, use those games to work on the focal points that Cronin believes are correlated to winning in the NCAA Tournament, and figure out which players are ready to push them toward the finish line.
“We’ve had a good year,” Cronin said Monday after the Bruins’ 73-69 victory at Northwestern, “but we’re not gonna be significant and have a chance to make a run in March if we don’t go after the ball like our life’s on the line.”
“And then we gotta play defense with purpose and accountability to each other. I just didn’t think we played hard enough defensively for part of this Big Ten season. We’ve done it at a high level at times, just not consistently.”
Cronin felt UCLA had “complete 40-minute performances” from a rebounding and defensive standpoint in neutral-site wins against Gonzaga and No. 24 Arizona, as well as Big Ten victories over Oregon and No. 8 Michigan State.
Both of those Big Ten programs have been surging recently and seem primed to make their mark in March Madness. The Bruins, on the other hand, have struggled to produce “complete 40-minute performances,” Cronin said, even in recent wins over Ohio State and Northwestern.
When it comes to the NCAA Tournament, UCLA could land anywhere between a six and a nine seed, depending on how the rest of the season plays out. Being on the lower side of that would be a tough draw as the No. 1 seeds – teams like Auburn, Duke and Houston – are as strong as ever.
The Bruins résumé did improve as the Ducks’ six-game win streak and the Trojans’ win against Washington pushed UCLA’s victories over those teams back into Quad 1. That means they’re one of seven teams in the NCAA with nine Quad 1 wins.
Regardless of where they fall on the seed line, though, it’s important that the Bruins are at their best in the NCAA Tournament.
Cronin touched on pick-and-roll coverage, winning the turnover battle, and making free throws as points of emphasis for the Bruins to improve on. Individually, players have to build on past performances and others who have been struggling have to get hot.
Tyler Bilodeau and Aday Mara have been humming. Bilodeau is averaging 15.2 points over the past six games. Mara has shown his value on defense after Cronin challenged him on that side of the ball, averaging 1.6 blocks in just 13.8 minutes over the past five games.
On the other hand, Dylan Andrews has averaged just 5.0 points over the past eight games.
“Dylan hasn’t played up to his standards, at times,” Cronin said. “We’re clearly a better team when he’s playing well.”
When asked about Andrews, Cronin mostly avoided criticizing his point guard. It’s too late in the season for him to simply go away from someone so integral and bench him. Rather, Cronin is trying to instill confidence in Andrews because he’s vital to UCLA’s contention hopes. Cronin, though, has been sifting through different lineups, including playing Mara and forward William Kyle together against Northwestern.
The time for experimenting, though, has come and gone, so UCLA will have to rely on the defensive and rebounding habits it’s built, and that its stars shine throughout the postseason.
USC (15-15, 7-12) at UCLA (21-9, 12-7)
When: 5 p.m. Saturday
Where: Pauley Pavilion
TV/radio: FOX (Ch. 11)/AM 570