Buffs Take Aim At First-Ever Win At UCLA
January 12, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Neill Woelk
LOS ANGELES — Still searching for their first road win of the season, the Colorado Buffaloes head to UCLA on Saturday for an 8:30 p.m. matchup with the Bruins (Pac-12 Networks) at Pauley Pavilion.
It is not the optimal place for the 10-7 Buffs (2-3 Pac-12) to end a skid. Colorado has never won at UCLA, an 0-8 streak that includes four losses at Pauley since CU joined the Pac-12 in 2011. Equally disconcerting is the margin of defeat in those losses, an average of 18 points.
Neither is this a good time to catch the Bruins (13-4, 4-1), who are are among the hottest teams in the Pac-12 at the moment. UCLA has won six of its last seven games, including an 83-64 win over Utah on Thursday, with the only loss in the stretch a double-overtime defeat at Stanford last week.
Still, the Buffs figure they have to end the streak at some point, and getting the program's first-ever win at UCLA would be a nice way to do it.
The question is whether they can cure the ills that have plagued them on the road this year, particularly in Pac-12 play.
In three conference road games, the Buffs have averaged 20 turnovers per game, with opponents reaping an average of 23.6 points off those miscues. That includes a 22-turnover effort in Wednesday's 70-58 loss at USC, when the Trojans scored 25 points off of CU's turnovers.
The issue has been especially vexing for head coach Tad Boyle and his team because they know what the issue is — zone defenses. Opponents have settled back into zone defenses and forced CU turnovers by the handful.
"The good thing is we know what our problem is," Boyle said after Wednesday's game. "The bad thing is we haven't been able to fix it. We'd better be able to fix it because UCLA is going to watch this film, they're going to play zone on Saturday and we have to be ready to handle it. We have two days of practice to figure that out and get better."
Steve Alford's Bruins are playing some high-caliber offensive basketball in Pac-12 play. Led by junior guard Aaron Holiday (19.4 points per game), UCLA is second in the conference in scoring, averaging 85.5 per game. The Bruins are also getting double-digit scoring from freshman guard Kris Wilkes (13.9 per game) and senior big man Thomas Welsh (12.4 ppg), while Holiday is averaging 5.3 assists and Welsh 10.8 rebounds.
The Bruins are holding opponents to 76.7 points per game, but have held two Pac-12 opponents — Washington and Utah — to under 65 points. In Thursday's win, UCLA held Utah to just 41 percent shooting from the floor and 33 percent from 3-point range.
That is also another place the Buffs would like to see some improvement Saturday — field goal percentage. CU is shooting just 38 percent from the field in Pac-12 road games, including a 20-for-55 performance Thursday against the Trojans.
The Buffs did have some solid individual efforts against USC. Senior George King, who had scored in double figures just once in his previous four games, finished with 21 points and nine rebounds.
"George was active," Boyle said. "I really liked how he rebounded the ball and blocked some shots and altered some shots."
But Colorado freshman point guard McKinley Wright IV, the reigning Pac-12 Player of the Week, struggled against USC's defense. Wright finished with just seven points on 2-for-9 shooting and had five turnovers and only four assists. It was only the second time this season Wright failed to score in double figures.
Colorado returns home next week for a pair of games, beginning with a Thursday matchup with Washington State at 6 p.m. at the Coors Events Center, followed by a 4 p.m. Saturday game with Washington.
THE SERIES: UCLA leads the all-time series 11-2, including an 8-0 edge in Los Angeles and a 7-1 edge since Colorado joined the Pac-12 in 2011. The Bruins won last year in Boulder in their only meeting, 104-89.
BROADCAST: The game will be televised by the Pac-12 Networks with Roxy Bernstein, Don MacLean and Lewis Johnson. KOA 850 AM radio will broadcast the game with Mark Johnson and Scott Wilke.
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
