My story today from Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Media Day focused on UCLA guard Norman Powell, but also touched on head coach Steve Alford’s reactions to an offseason that included a campus flood and the loss of not only three NBA draftees, but also two prospective newcomers.
Some more notes from the event:
» Whether or not big man Tony Parker can stay out of foul trouble will affect how successful UCLA will be on defense this season. Alford said he hopes to play the junior around 25 minutes per game this season, up from the 17.2 he averaged last year.
Parker was one of the most foul-prone players in the Pac-12, committing an average of 6.77 every 40 minutes. Earlier this week, he gave himself a D- for his sophomore campaign, citing those foul troubles. He added that he’s in better shape now, and is also learning how to adjust to officials more.
» Based on what Alford has said in recent weeks — as well as the realities of the backcourt depth chart — sophomore Noah Allen appears primed for a significant uptick in playing time. The former three-star recruit only played in 11 games last season, averaging 1.0 point in 3.5 minutes per outing.
Alford said he liked the size that the 6-foot-6 wing can give the team, and said that Allen would have played around eight minutes last season had he not suffered a facial fracture in his first appearance (UCLA’s second game, a 91-60 win against Oakland University). The coaching staff was planning to redshirt Allen after that, but gave Allen a choice. He appeared in nine of the Bruins’ final 12 games, though only once for more than four minutes.
» The linked story above briefly covered how UCLA’s weight room was expanded in the aftermath of the flood this past summer. More specifically, the old weight room has been converted into a nutrition room, and a new weight room has been built by where the media room was before.
Alford said the old weight room was so small that the whole team couldn’t fit in there at once to lift together. This seems like a tremendous oversight in given that new Pauley Pavilion only opened two years ago.
» Pac-12 officiating coordinator Bobby Dibler said that four experimental rules will be applied to the NIT this season: a four-foot restricted area, a foot wider than the present; a 30-second shot clock, which is five seconds shorter; resetting the shot clock to 25 after a defensive foul; using regular timeouts as media timeouts when the former occurs within 30 seconds of the latter.
Dibler said those could be adopted more broadly next season, when the NCAA does its biennial review of the rulebook.
» Pac-12 Networks’ “The Drive” docu-series will also extend to basketball as well, with eight episodes covering all 12 teams in the conference. The show’s schedule will be announced at a later date.