UCLA coach Steve Alford has a mountain of analytics that spells out his team's deficiencies on defense. The Bruins' other recent shortcoming has been harder to quantify but just as significant to a season-worst three-game losing streak.
"I think that's what's being challenged here is just how tough we are," Alford said Tuesday.
Alford wasn't referring to effort so much as the toughness of fighting through fatigue with an eight-man rotation while executing the game plan at a high level. The Bruins' inability to do so has resulted in repeated slow starts and players abandoning the team's defensive principles, with excruciating results.