UCLA Basketball Notes: Is Bryce Alford as Good as Norman Powell & Zach LaVine?

Steve Alford met with the reporters after practice on Tuesday to talk about UCLA's two upcoming road-games against Colorado and Utah. Couple of weeks ago Bruins were probably looking to get a split in this road-trip but now with Spencer Dinwiddie being out for the season with an ACL injury, Bruins are well set up to sweep the road trip and coming home with a nifty record (15-3, 4-1) built on much discussed cupcake schedule.

So needless to Steve is feeling pretty good even though the program hasn't done anything notable on the court:

If folks don't want to listen to the guy - the key bits that stood out:

• Discussed how unfortunate the Dinwiddie injury is for the Buffs but said that it wouldn't change Bruins' approach to Colorado.
• Steve is anxious because his team doesn't have much experience with true road games. Bruins have had only true road game this season. That was against Missouri when Bruins imploded in second half.
• He called Colorado and Utah two difficult places to play bringing up his experience as the head coach of New Mexico. We shouldn't put too much into that given Colorado is now without their heart and soul and Utah just doesn't have the talent of Bruins.
• Steve lavished praise on his son Bryce Alford as he described his play as "incredibly steady." Uh hum.
• Steve discussed how Norman Powell, Zach LaVine and Jordan Adams have been rotation at the 2-3 spot. That means from his perspective he has been rotating Kyle Anderson and Alford at the 1-2 spot.
• Steve bizarrely kept equating Balford with Powell and LaVine as if he was as talented as those two athletic guards.
• He talked about how Powell's experience is "invaluable" to the program. So it will be interesting to see whether he keeps taking mins away from Powell and allocate them to his son when the Bruins are on the road this week.
• Steve gushed about David Wear's defensive performance against Arizona State.

Based from those comments it's pretty apparent that Steve Alford thinks his son is playing at the same level as Powell and LaVine and deserves as much playing time as the two most athletic players in our program.

I miss football season.

GO BRUINS.