He ended up connecting on 16 of 24 shots and was the only reason UCLA didn’t run away and hide in the first half, when they built up a 13-point lead and looked to have the game under control. But Timme always had a counter move, a second and sometimes even a third move and eventually he would manufacture an easy shot for himself. Nwuba, who looks like he spends too much time on the buffet line and not enough time in the weight room, was bulky enough and agile enough to stop his first move most times. His logic was solid – prevent the Zags outside shooters from getting open shots on smart passes from Timme – but as the game went on Timme started hitting everything he shot. In particular, how it would have played out if two Bruin starters – PAC-12 Defensive Player of the Year Jaylen Clark, and PAC-12 Freshman of the year Adem Bona, who also made the PAC-10 All Defense first team – had been able to play Thursday night.įirst of all, Gonzaga’s Drew Timme, the mustache-twirling arrogant jerk who will turn 23 later this year and seems like he has been playing college ball since James Naismith first nailed a peach basket to a tree more than a century ago, never would have scored a game-high 36 points or pulled down 13 rebounds.ĭavid Nwuba, the UCLA second-string center who was forced to cover him because Bona had torn up his shoulder in the PAC-12 Conference Tournament and then re-injured it in their second-round victory over Northwestern, did a decent job on Timme.Ĭoach Cronin’s game plan was to avoid the usual mistake of double teaming Timme when Gonzaga got the ball to him on the low post. The reaction among UCLA fans was universal: Oh No, Not Again!!!! Freakin’ Gonzaga is so damn lucky!įor those UCLA fans struggling to process Gonzaga’s amazing, horrible, no good, very bad win on yet another ridiculously long heave to beat the buzzer, here’s how this epic game would have played out if UCLA had its full squad available. The reality that it came two years after Gonzaga beat UCLA in an epic NCAA semifinal on a similar 40-foot buzzer beater just made this year’s loss that much more painful.
I’ll explain why the Bruins lost to Gonzaga 79-76 in an instant classic Sweet Sixteen game Thursday night, and I’ll even make a few excuses in the process. As a general rule, I’m opposed to making excuses for bad things that can happen to any team in any given game.Īs my uncle Alvin used to tell us street kids back in the day, “Never complain, never explain.”īut for this one time only, because UCLA Coach Mick Cronin won’t do it himself, I’ll have to do it.
0 kommentar(er)
