ASU Basketball: 2019 Pac-12 Week 4 Power Rankings
By Trevor Booth
4. UCLA Bruins
Before the season, something special was “bruin” in the Pac-12. Oregon had high potential, Arizona State’s new identity was flying under the radar and UCLA was in play as king of the Conference of Champions.
The first four games of this young season showed that. UCLA upped the tempo and averaged 90.5 points per game while holding teams to 68.5 points.
With high hopes, the Bruins prepared for a week three two-step against No. 11 Michigan State and No.7 UNC. It was a disaster.
Two losses by 20 and 16 points, respectively, tempers expectations and sets UCLA back to our fourth-ranked team in the Pac-12.
Despite their bad luck with injuries (Shareef O’Neal, Cody Riley) the Bruins still have the talent to compete in the Pac.
For now, Kris Wilkes, Moses Brown and Jaylen Hands are leading the charge.
Brown is a behemoth. The 7-foot-1 inch true freshman was rated as the 15th-best recruit in ESPN’s Top 100 list, and is making his mark with averages of 13.5 points, 10 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per contest.
Hands has been steady, but he is yet to breakout like UCLA was expecting. In 27 minutes per game, Hands is scoring just over 13 points, but is shooting an abysmal 37 percent from the floor.
The saving grace for this team is Wilkes. The 6-foot-8 sophomore has been awesome this year and has taken the role of leading man in this Steve Alford production.
Wilkes has made the leap from 13 points per game to 17.8. For UCLA, he has been the star of the team, and will have to up his game even more if the Bruins really want to compete.
Luckily for Wilkes and the rest of the crew, they’ll have a chance to get back on track tonight against Hawaii and then Sunday against Loyola Marymount.