Except for a proven ‘big,’ UCLA mirrors UK’s work-in-progress profile

A team in progress. A team still looking to put together a complete 40-minute performance. A coach who deals with frustration with humor.

Kentucky will not be the only team that fits that description in Smoothie King Center on Saturday. As with UK, UCLA’s season to date has not been completely smoothie.

The Bruins’ latest struggle came Tuesday. A 24-point lead turned into a sigh-of-relief 85-82 victory over South Dakota.

Coach Steve Alford opened his postgame news conference with an attempt at role reversal.

“I’ll ask the question,” he told reporters. “How many of you want to go into coaching?”

Through the first 36 minutes, UCLA played “beautiful basketball,” Alford said. “It was as good (a display) of basketball as we’ve played in quite some time.”

After 36 minutes, a one-time 24-point lead was still a waltz-to-the-finish line 78-58 cushion. UCLA had 22 assists and only nine turnovers.

In describing the game’s final four minutes, Alford could have been echoing comments made by UK Coach John Calipari a few weeks earlier.

“The lesson our guys learned was, like, we’re going to get ours now,” he said. “We talked about . . . unselfishness. And I saw that for 36 minutes. I thought the last four minutes was selfish. It wasn’t smart basketball.”

South Dakota outscored UCLA 24-7. By Alford’s count, UCLA had no assists and four turnovers in the final four minutes.

When told that former UCLA coach Steve Lavin, who worked the telecast of the game, tried to help in the final minutes by showing Bruins players a replay on his sideline monitor, Alford quipped, “If that’s true, Coach Lav gave us the only assist we had in the last four minutes.”

The harder-than-it-should-have-been victory came three days after a discouraging 77-63 home-court loss to Cincinnati. In that game, the Bruins seemed to forget about center Thomas Welsh, who had had six double-doubles in UCLA’s nine earlier games. Welsh did not take a shot until less than three minutes remained in the first half. He did not score until the 15:09 mark of the second.

Kentucky fans may recall Welsh. His 21 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks — all team highs — led the Bruins to an 87-77 victory over UK in December 2015.

That was the game in Pauley Pavilion in which Tyler Ulis gave Skal Labissiere a get-with-it shove in the chest.

No doubt, Calipari remembers. He said Thursday that Welsh, now stronger and more assertive, will test UK’s freshman “bigs” on Saturday.

“It’s a tough matchup,” the UK coach said of dealing with Welsh. “Because he’s going to try to take Sacha (Killeya-Jones) right next to the basket and bang him. And he’ll try to take Nick (Richards) outside.”

Welsh, a master of the pick-and-pop mid-range jumper, burned Kentucky repeatedly with that maneuver two years ago. Now, he’s added range. After taking — and making —– one three-pointer in his first three college seasons, Welsh had made nine of 20 this season.

Welsh modestly tried to downplay his 3-for-7 three-point shooting against South Dakota.

“I think I just got a lot of good looks,” he said. “Just out of the pick-and-roll coverages. And, yeah, when I get opportunities, I’m looking to take them.”

Alford said that UCLA wants to play through Welsh, a senior who needs 24 points to reach 1,000 for his career.

“Good things happen,” Alford said of getting the ball to Welsh. “But it has to be intelligent things in playing through him. . . . The more the ball touches Tom, it creates problems for the defense because he can hurt you in the post, mid-range and he’s a good passing big man.”

In two games against UK last season, Welsh averaged 11.5 points and 7.5 rebounds as a complementary player on a team that included Lonzo Ball, Bryce Alford and T.J. Leaf.

Kentucky’s youth and inexperience limits the options on containing Welsh and UCLA’s pick-and-pop action, Calipari said.

“There’s one way and maybe a backup,” the UK coach said of the strategies his players can execute at this stage. “If those two don’t work, who’s our next game? It’s where we are right now.”

With five of its eight rotation players having not played last season, UCLA knows the feeling.

This story was originally published December 22, 2017 at 12:03 PM with the headline "Except for a proven ‘big,’ UCLA mirrors UK’s work-in-progress profile."