UCLA Basketball: Friday Night Season Opener, PAC-12 Scores, NBA Bruins & More

Bruin Basketball will be in full swing -- two games per week - starting Friday when Montana State visits Pauley for the season opener (uclabruins.com) followed by Coastal Carolina, a tournament team, on Sunday. The schedule's already more challenging than last season. BN's barrage of basketball posts begins tomorrow with DCBruins preview of Montana St.

Steve Alford made it pretty clear that the team's bench is still very much in question. Alford: "There'll be nights where we say, 'Uh, oh.'"

— Ryan Kartje (@Ryan_Kartje) November 11, 2014

Meanwhile, Steve Alford held a press conference Tuesday afternoon:

• Thought there was growth from the exhibition to the scrimmage (report here). Thought they had "great" tempo, the defense kicked up a notch and the board play turned around from the exhibition game.

• Not sure the freshman "get it" yet, and we may have some "uh-oh" moments.

• Will get Noah, Wannah, GG and Thomas early season minutes.

• Kevon still "getting healthier." So he's not 100%.

• Will run Bryce off-screen and pick and roll compared to iso's with Kyle.

Mission #1 for Friday night is to get over the nerves -- Sunday is a potential trap disaster.

Here (and here) are the other PAC-12 exhibition scores thus far:

• Utah 98, Pacific 38
• California 74, Cal State San Marcos 52
• Stanford 79, Cal Poly Pomona 76
• Arizona 67, Cal Poly Pomona 51
• USC 87, Cal State LA 68
• Washington 88, St. Martin's 65

My main takeaways:

• Utah is the most ready today. I'm particularly surprised by their 7'0" freshman center from Austria.

• Arizona didn't start Stanley Johnson, and their bench may be shorter than originally thought (but 7'0" freshman center Dusan Rustic from Serbia is a surprise we hadn't counted on).

• Stanford had a messier game than we did for the same reasons -- the new faces. That said, CPP had two good outings.

• Jordan McLaughlin scored 18 points for USC.

Speaking of point guards we wish we had:

• The OC Register really likes McLaughlin.
  
• Josh Perkins was "solid" for Gonzaga .
• Jon Octeus made #4 on Sportcenter five nights ago.
• Baylor hasn't played a game yet, but analysts are mixed on whether Allerik Freeman starts (it won't be at point guard).

We should have been all-in on McLaughlin. I don't know if that would have done it, but he's the one we wanted. For one year, Octeus was big and fast with nice handle - I'd take it.

NBA recap:

• Zach LaVine is starting for the Minnesota Timberwolves -- Ricky Rubio is out with for eight weeks with a severe sprain.
• The Travis Wear hoopla has dies down, but he's played in every Knick game averaging 8 mpg.
• Jordan Adams was sent down to the D-League for one game to get some PT, put on a show, then got called back up to the Grizzlies.
• Kyle Anderson had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction, but he had 31 minutes that game and seven more in a win over the Clippers.

In other news:

• Here's a nice overview of the "Early Signing Period" from Scout. UCLA's hot prospects will be dragging this out until the spring.

• Sean Miller has been lamenting his team's slow start and questionable chemistry.

• UNC's Athletic Director "thanks God" that he has a chance to work with Roy Williams. I thank Roy Williams and UNC for giving UCLA a shot with Brandon Ingram, Ivan Rabb and Stephen Zimmerman. (No one would really go there now -- would they?)