Top Item On UCLA Bruins' 2014 Christmas List

The UCLA Bruins are no doubt familiar with the movie “A Christmas Story” and its most famous line, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!” As a basketball team, UCLA has no danger of that happening right now. The Bruins are 153rd in the nation in shooting percentage at 44 percent, tied with such, uh, powerhouses as Rider and SIU-Edwardsville sitting right behind Arkansas State, James Madison and South Dakota State. Nobody on UCLA is shooting as well as 45 percent, though coach Steve Alford’s son Bryce Alford is at 44.9. If Alford wants anything for the Bruins this Christmas, it’s a major improvement in shooting percentage.

UCLA is a fair-to-middling team right now at 8-4, with all four losses coming to teams that are going to make the NCAA tournament — Oklahoma, North Carolina, Gonzaga and Kentucky. The Zags and Wildcats are notably better than the Bruins and would probably have won those games no matter what UCLA did. But in the losses to the Sooners and Tar Heels, the Bruins shot less than 40 percent both times.

Looking at the other major stats, the Bruins are playing very well. Over 40 team rebounds per game is phenomenal, and the Bruins are No. 8 in the country averaging 41.9. The Bruins are even ahead of undefeated Pac-12 foe Arizona in assists per game, 15.6 to 15.3, as a testament to coach Alford’s Indiana roots.

UCLA’s 77.8 points per game average is also better than Arizona and good enough for 30th in the country. Think about how much higher the average could be if the Bruins shot the ball better. The Bruins. three-point percentage of 36.8 isn’t horrible, considering Duke shoots 37.1, but UCLA’s two-point field goal percentage is 217th in the country, tied with Howard and Elon and lower than New Hampshire, SIU-Edwardsville (there they are again) and Dartmouth. Not exactly a group of Final Four contenders.

There’s no quick fix for bad shooting percentage other than taking better shots. That the Bruins are averaging close to 78 points a game is testament to their ability to get to the basket time and time again. But in order to compete in the Pac-12, the Bruins need to have Santa bring the shooting touch; otherwise UCLA will lose to NCAA tournament teams everywhere but the NCAA tournament this year. To miss out on March, to paraphrase another line from “A Christmas Story”, would be anything but a major award.

Alex Drude is a Pac-12 writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Alex_Drude. “Like” him on Facebook and add him to your network on Google+.