In Reply to: Anyone worried that UCLA is not thumping their opponents like the posted by atrojanedbruin on March 24, 2026 at 06:29:23
Very concerned. Not really about not blowing people out, but more that our defensive rotations have been extremely slow, and both CBU and OkSt out quicked us most of the time. Also some sloppy passing/ball handling by Kiki and CLW.
The 2 weeks off has left our defense flat-footed (CBU seriously ran out of gas in the 2nd half). Not too much of a problem against CBU and OkSt due to our rebounding (and not Minnesota either, I don't think), but when we play LSU, then probably Texas and UConn, those teams will punish us if we haven't fixed our hustle and effort and response to speed by then.
The way we have played slow defense (and sloppy offense) in the tourney is a recipe for getting blown out as soon as we run into one of those teams. Just like our past 4 losses (Last year - SC 2x, UConn and then Texas this year). We do NOT look ready for that type of game at all.
Additionally, what we are seeing is that the Big Ten teams are underperforming their seeds, with some top teams losing on their home courts, which indicates that maybe the Big Ten teams overall aren't ready and didn't prepare us.