Defense Continues to Be Concern

Even before junior center Jelani McCoy resigned from the team, the Bruins had been allowing opponents an abnormal amount of easy baskets, and his absence from the middle is not likely to improve that statistic.

UCLA, which had been one of the best teams in the league in field-goal percentage defense the last three seasons, has seen opponents make 50.1% of their field-goal tries in the last six games.

On Saturday, California made 29 of 52 shots (55.8%). That raised the Bruins’ field-goal defense figure to 45.6%, well above last season’s 41.4%, which tied for second in the conference.

UCLA had the best opponent field-goal percentage in 1994-95 and 1995-96.

Playing in only 15 of the Bruins’ 24 games, McCoy, UCLA’s single-season and career blocked-shot leader, had 25 of the team’s 84 blocked shots.