UCLA Doin' What the Bruins Used to Do

This is not to say Steve Alford's squad hasn't been without distractions this season.

It's beyond question, though, that UCLA's not been making chicken salad in the early going.

The Bruins have had a relatively mellow non-con schedule, and every time they've had a chance to step up in it, they've stepped in it instead.

It must be the Big Baller Brand curse, which even appeared in front of their pop-up shop in the Big Apple:

OG Pops will likely continue to dump on his kids' futures, but at least Alford is getting his dudes pointed in the right direction.

UCLA's string of squandering opportunity against top opposition finally came to a halt in New Orleans at the CBS Sports Classic when they topped Kentucky, 83-75:

That's a much better showing than their efforts in losses to Michigan and Cincinnati.

Their non-con situation was getting dire. Besides stopping an off-year Wisconsin, UCLA's best win has been against 5-6 Georgia Tech.

It might.

The Bruins don't have either Arizona school on their schedule. Aside from USC and maybe Utah, their Pac-12 gauntlet doesn't seem all that imposing. Thus, if they don't win the conference title, they could be sweating bullets on Selection Sunday.

Ironically, the Wildcats haven't exactly been setting the non-con world on fire, either:

• Their only victory over a KenPom Top 70 team was Virginia Tech at home, and
• Believe it or not, beating Monmouth is their only road win to date.

Dudes have a pair of bruising clashes with Louisville at home and West Virginia in Morgantown before getting into SEC play.

At this point, a sweep would be impressive enough to put them in the plus column for this portion of their program, but against those two, that's easier said than done.