SACRAMENTO — Thursday, and the first round of the NCAA tournament, was little more than a throat-clearing exercise for UCLA. Now the real competition begins.
The Bruins’ 86-53 rout of UNC Asheville sent them into a second-round assignment against Northwestern on Saturday at approximately 5:40 p.m., and this is where the so-called Road To The Final Four starts developing those twists and turns. Northwestern was 22-11 and finished second in the Big Ten at 12-8, and the Wildcats have beaten four AP Top 25 teams in conference play alone, including then-No. 1 Purdue at home on Feb. 12, 64-58.
The Wildcats, a No. 7 seed, have a dynamic senior backcourt in Chase Audige – the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year with 80 steals all told and 47 in conference – and Boo Buie. And they also hang their hat on defense, which should sound familiar. Northwestern is 17th in kenpom.com’s defensive metric … but UCLA (30-5) is first.
“It’s like we’re playing against each other in practice,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said, noting the teams’ similar defensive philosophies. “You better be ready for it.
“… Schematically, their coaching, what they do defensively, I really like it. I like what they do because they know who they are and they’re never confused. They know what they’re going to take away. They know how they’re going to take it away regardless of who they’re playing.”
The difference in the teams: Northwestern’s conference defensive player of the year is playing. UCLA’s, Jaylen Clark, is unavailable because of injury. And yet the Bruins’ defensive play hasn’t missed a beat since Clark was hurt in the regular-season finale against Arizona on March 4.
It might even be better, as accomplished as Clark was at creating turnovers and causing havoc. UCLA gave up 69 points in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament against Colorado, but has allowed 56, 61 and 53 in its past three games.
“The Big Ten is known for how physical they play,” the Bruins’ Jaime Jaquez Jr. said. “Northwestern is no exception to that. They’re a very physical team. But I think we’re also a very physical team. It’s just going to be a big matchup down low, the rebounding battles are going to be intense.”
Given that the Bruins are actually going to be a Big Ten team the season after next, it’s never too early to get used to that physicality. As Cronin noted after Thursday night’s game, the second-seeded Bruins were able to get out in front early and stay ahead comfortably against UNC Asheville because they were able to establish physical dominance from the start.
That the Bruins were able to do so without needing to use freshman center Adem Bona was a plus. Bona, who injured his left shoulder against Oregon in the Pac-12 tournament semifinal last week, was dressed but did not play Thursday. Cronin indicated his availability against Northwestern might hinge on what he showed in Friday’s practice, including “some things I hadn’t asked him to do up until (Thursday). I’m getting ready to test him out more than I have.”
Unless there was a setback in that practice, which was to take place after Cronin’s session with the media, the guess here is that Bona will play.
Meanwhile, big men Kenneth Nwuba and Mac Etienne had positive outings Thursday. Nwuba had 10 points, four rebounds and two blocked shots in 18 minutes. Etienne had 10 points, three rebounds and a block in 11 minutes. Neither missed a shot, and Etienne tossed up a couple of surprisingly effective jump hooks during his stint.
“Shout out to Kenny,” Tyger Campbell said. “All the rebounds and the blocks that he had, I think it just shows that we’re a little deeper than people might think.”
The tournament experience factor, of course, favors UCLA. Northwestern is 2-1 all-time in the NCAA tournament and hasn’t participated since 2017. Meanwhile, Jaquez, Tyger Campbell and David Singleton each have played in 10 tournament games the past three seasons. That experience in this atmosphere has to be an edge.
“It’s a great core that they have,” Northwestern forward Robbie Beran said. “Developing their guys, seeing improvement every single year. Hats off to that.
“Kind of, at the same time, I feel like we’re an old team as well. Of our rotation, we got one freshman playing. Other than that, I feel like we’ve had a lot of minutes together on the court in meaningful basketball, in close games. Early in our career, early in my career, we would lose close games.”
But elimination games are different.
“When it gets down to the crunch time of the game, I think we’ve just developed a trust over the years, a trust in one another, a trust that we can take care of the ball and get a great shot or get a defensive stop as well,” Jaquez said. “A lot of that experience is going to be crucial in times like (Saturday), where we’re expecting a really good fight.”
Tournament experience might also have an effect on the day between games, in the preparation process for an often unfamiliar opponent.
“What we do well is we pay attention to detail in film,” Singleton said. “It really just goes hand-in-hand … We just have to watch film, get our strategy together, do what we do as a team.”
It isn’t a completely foreign process, as Cronin pointed out, because during the season Pac-12 teams are accustomed to playing Thursday and Saturday and having one day to prepare. Then again, in those cases, they’re preparing for schematically familiar opponents.
But “our guys don’t know anything else,” Cronin said.
“Look, experience always helps,” he added. “If you can have talent and experience, you got a better chance. But I’ll take talent. I’ll take talent. I’ll take Amari Bailey getting 18 tomorrow if he can get it for me.”
Cronin’s got both talent and experience on his side, actually. At this time of the year, that’s a good start if not necessarily a guarantee.
jalexander@scng.com