UCLA Basketball Crashes and Burns Against UC Berkeley 75-63

It's not rocket science. When you start off the first five minutes of a game by letting your opponent score 13 points to your one point, you are going to have a hard time winning.

That is exactly what happened tonight as the UCLA basketball program has started to resemble a dumpster fire.

The first five minutes was reminiscent of last year's Kentucky game in which UCLA only scored 7 points in the first half. Yeah, it was that bad.

But, that said, the team managed to stay within striking distance throughout most of this game and was never down by more than 12 in the first half and 15 in the second half.

In the first half, they got as close as five when Thomas Welsh hit a free throw to make the score 30-25 with about two and a half minutes to play. But, UC Berkeley closed out the half by scoring the final three points and went into the locker room up by eight, 33-25.

The Golden Bears started the second half much the same way they started the first half -- by going on a run. This time, it was a 9-2 run that put UC Berkeley up by 15 after Jabari Bird's three-pointer which made the score 42-27 Golden Bears.

But, the Bruins never let it get worse than that. They managed to chip away and cut the lead to only four points after a jumper from Jonah Bolden made the game 59-55.

That was as close as UCLA would get as the Golden Bears would push the lead back into double digits and win the game by twelve points, the same point differential that the Bruins found themselves down by after the first five minutes.

At this point, in the season, it's safe to say that this team isn't on the Road to the Final Four. They are on the road to nowhere and they are getting there fast.

Forget the NCAA Tournament. Forget the NIT. Forget the CBI.

Can someone please just grab a fire extinguisher and put this year's team out of its misery?

Go Bruins.