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The Bruins end KU's run

By Patrick Quinn
March 25, 2007

A single-elimination tournament is a town without pity. The Jayhawks' storybook run came to an abrupt end Saturday night in San Jose at the hands of a hot-shooting UCLA team. Kudos to Bill Self and his team for a spectacular season: 33 wins, the Big XII regular season title (again), the Big XII tourney title (again), a one-seed and a delightful tournament run to the regional final against UCLA. File 2006-2007 under "Success."

I've heard a lot about how badly we shot the ball in defeat. Nineteen missed gimmes is distressing, but I'm inclined to attribute a lot of that to the Bruins' outstanding interior defense, which was much better than I expected. I thought KU would win the game in UCLA's paint, but as it turned out UCLA won the game in UCLA's paint, and it wasn't the first time. I don't know of a convenient metric by which to gauge gimmes, but surely one indicator is how well teams shoot two-point shots, and lately teams don't do that vy well against the Bruins. Per the box score data available on Sportsline.com, KU was 19 of 48 on two-point shots, or about 39.5 percent. In their previous game against Pitt, UCLA held the Panthers to 13 of 37 on two-point shots--about 35 percent. In the second round, UCLA held Indiana to 12 of 36 two-point shooting--about 33 percent.

Just as telling, KU shot four of eight from beyond the arc. The percentage is gratifying, but the low number of attempts speaks to UCLA's excellent perimeter defense; I didn't see a lot of uncontested KU three-point attempts, and I saw a lot of possessions in which UCLA simply denied any long-range shot whatever. The Bruins were the best defense on the floor Saturday.

And Aaron Afflalo was clutch.

It's always a downer when KU loses, but this wasn't Kokomo Normal A&T in the first round. This was UCLA in the regional final. I'm disappointed, but nothing that happened Saturday can tarnish a fantastic season. Next year, w/ multiple returning starters and incoming freshmen Cole Aldrich and Tyrel Reed, we'll be even deeper and faster than this year. UCLA has some players coming back, too--I hope we get 'em in the regional final again next year.

My bracket now officially blown to bits, I'm picking the Gators to repeat. More tomorrow.