Preview:
UCLA is an excellent team this year--certainly better than Cal that almost defeated us in their place. UCLA is 14-2, with one loss being a 9 point loss to South Carolina and the other being at Oregon State with their star Charisma Osborne sitting it out due to injury. They beat Oregon @ Oregon and beat Tennessee easily. They are 8th in the AP, 13th by Massey, and 26th in Net. I trust the AP. In short, their pedigree is outstanding, and they certainly are the best team we have faced this year other than South Carolina--and we get them at their place.
Like Cal, UCLA is led by two superb guards. We Cardboarders wanted both of them at Stanford. Each of these guards also are among the team leaders in rebounds, which I found interesting.
UCLA's leading scorer is 5'9" senior guard Charisma Osborne. She plays 35 minutes a game, scores 17, shoots well enough from 3 (but is not usually an elite long range shooter,) rebounds well, always has a few assists, is a key defender, and shoots 84% of her many free throws. In the past we had elite defenders to guard her, but this will be a new adventure.
UCLA's second leading scorer is 5'11" freshman guard Kiki Rice. Rice is not yet a good three point shooter, but she is scoring 13 ppg on a whopping 47% shooting--clearly she gets a lot of layups and accurate mid range jumpers. She also has 50 assists to 26 turnovers.
Emily Bessoir is a 6'4" sophomore from Germany who gives them real height in the paint but who also shoots 36% of her threes, scores 8ppg. Brink can probably guard her either inside or outside. I expect to see those two battling. On the other hand, against USC in their last game, UCLA started freshman Lina Sontag in place of Emily Bessoir. Sontag is a 6'3" forward. She played 14 minutes and Bessoir came in from the bench and played 30. So Close seems to be experimenting with her lineup and trying to work her freshmen into it.
Gina Conti is a 5'11" grad student guard who transferred from Wake Forest who does a little bit of everything.
The fifth starter has been Camryn Brown, a 5'11" senior guard, but she has not played that many minutes and averages only 3ppg, so I presume she is a stout defender.
UCLA has some outstanding bench players. Londynn Jones, a 5'4" freshman guard has had some outstanding games as she adjusts to college, as has 5'11" Gabriella Jaquez, a 5'11 freshman forward.
As a team, UCLA is smaller and quicker than we are. Fortunately we have played a number of teams that present that kind of challenge, like Cal just did. Close is not my favorite coach, but ever since she shut Chiney down I have learned to respect her defensive adjustments. She is probably pouring over tape from the Cal game as you read this and will take what she can from it. UCLA makes about 6-7 treys a game but shoots free throws very well. They turn the ball over about 14 times a game but make up for a lot of that with a whopping 9 steals per game.
On offense, and coming after the Cal game I think Tara needs to solve our offensive problems, since UCLA poses similar challenges with higher quality players. Given our size advantage she will want us to go inside over and over, where we will have the advantage. But hitting some treys will make that a lot easier.
On defense we will probably guard the paint to prevent the UCLA speedy guards from getting around us for open layups, so UCLA's three point shooting will be tested. Can we guard the mid-range jumpers? Are we quick enough to prevent a 4-guard team from getting layups and doing it without fouling?
We will find out on Friday night.
PS. I went to ESPN Replay to find a previous UCLA game to watch. There isn't a single one available. I do wish Pac 12 networks made replay games available, but they don't.
UCLA is an excellent team this year--certainly better than Cal that almost defeated us in their place. UCLA is 14-2, with one loss being a 9 point loss to South Carolina and the other being at Oregon State with their star Charisma Osborne sitting it out due to injury. They beat Oregon @ Oregon and beat Tennessee easily. They are 8th in the AP, 13th by Massey, and 26th in Net. I trust the AP. In short, their pedigree is outstanding, and they certainly are the best team we have faced this year other than South Carolina--and we get them at their place.
Like Cal, UCLA is led by two superb guards. We Cardboarders wanted both of them at Stanford. Each of these guards also are among the team leaders in rebounds, which I found interesting.
UCLA's leading scorer is 5'9" senior guard Charisma Osborne. She plays 35 minutes a game, scores 17, shoots well enough from 3 (but is not usually an elite long range shooter,) rebounds well, always has a few assists, is a key defender, and shoots 84% of her many free throws. In the past we had elite defenders to guard her, but this will be a new adventure.
UCLA's second leading scorer is 5'11" freshman guard Kiki Rice. Rice is not yet a good three point shooter, but she is scoring 13 ppg on a whopping 47% shooting--clearly she gets a lot of layups and accurate mid range jumpers. She also has 50 assists to 26 turnovers.
Emily Bessoir is a 6'4" sophomore from Germany who gives them real height in the paint but who also shoots 36% of her threes, scores 8ppg. Brink can probably guard her either inside or outside. I expect to see those two battling. On the other hand, against USC in their last game, UCLA started freshman Lina Sontag in place of Emily Bessoir. Sontag is a 6'3" forward. She played 14 minutes and Bessoir came in from the bench and played 30. So Close seems to be experimenting with her lineup and trying to work her freshmen into it.
Gina Conti is a 5'11" grad student guard who transferred from Wake Forest who does a little bit of everything.
The fifth starter has been Camryn Brown, a 5'11" senior guard, but she has not played that many minutes and averages only 3ppg, so I presume she is a stout defender.
UCLA has some outstanding bench players. Londynn Jones, a 5'4" freshman guard has had some outstanding games as she adjusts to college, as has 5'11" Gabriella Jaquez, a 5'11 freshman forward.
As a team, UCLA is smaller and quicker than we are. Fortunately we have played a number of teams that present that kind of challenge, like Cal just did. Close is not my favorite coach, but ever since she shut Chiney down I have learned to respect her defensive adjustments. She is probably pouring over tape from the Cal game as you read this and will take what she can from it. UCLA makes about 6-7 treys a game but shoots free throws very well. They turn the ball over about 14 times a game but make up for a lot of that with a whopping 9 steals per game.
On offense, and coming after the Cal game I think Tara needs to solve our offensive problems, since UCLA poses similar challenges with higher quality players. Given our size advantage she will want us to go inside over and over, where we will have the advantage. But hitting some treys will make that a lot easier.
On defense we will probably guard the paint to prevent the UCLA speedy guards from getting around us for open layups, so UCLA's three point shooting will be tested. Can we guard the mid-range jumpers? Are we quick enough to prevent a 4-guard team from getting layups and doing it without fouling?
We will find out on Friday night.
PS. I went to ESPN Replay to find a previous UCLA game to watch. There isn't a single one available. I do wish Pac 12 networks made replay games available, but they don't.
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