Steve Alford lost the game against Michigan not because his coaching generally but because of his in game coaching. A few key decisions made from the bench by Alford doomed UCLA.

A number of people are screaming for Alford's Head after the loss or blaming Aaron Holiday. The fact is UCLA played a great game on defense for 33 minutes. Alford has the Bruins well prepared and quite possibly had the best defensive effort of the Steve Alford era under UCLA. This was not a fluke as Alford has been preaching defense and recently (admittedly against cupcakes) UCLA's defense has look better.

Alford's effort in practice and preparation led to UCLA winning and dominating 3/4 of the way through.

But his bench coaching cost us the game in a narrow loss that just a couple things done better would have led to a win. Here is my thoughts on Alford the bench coach critical errors.

1. The Utter Stupidity of the Wilkes-GG Lineup up with a one point lead and 18 Seconds Left

With 18 seconds left Steve Alford had GG inbound the ball to Kris Wilkes who passed back to GG. GG was promptly fouled.

This was so wrong on so many levels. First off where the hell was Jaylen Hands? Hands shoots 73% from the free throw line compared to 53% for Wilkes and 47% for GG.

Hands is also a good ball handler. This is a time it makes perfect sense to have Hands in as you could use two point guards. Also Hands, Holiday and Ali are used to playing together. There is no excuse for not having Hands in the game.

The only possible question is GG or Wilkes? And I think that is the wrong question. The answer is both. I think it should be Hands for Wilkes and Alex Olesinski for GG.

The problem with Alex is he is not an experienced inbounder. I say so what? GG can't shoot free throws and choked on the inbounds against Wisconsin in a similar spot with the game on the line when he threw the ball away. To review GG choked a similar situation, sucks at free throws, and is a turnover machine.

The foul call on GG at the end was almost a legitimate poke away.

On the flip side Alex has played his role and made the few errors. He shoots 71%.

If he has Jaylen and Alex in, we may very well have been up by 3 and escaped with a win in regulation.

2. Holiday can play point but a Tired Holiday Sucks

Yes I should be more articulate. Holiday running completely out of gas was why we lost the game. Stats bear this out and you have to realize Holiday is important to offense and defense.

Holiday had 6 Assists and 3 Turnovers after the first 32 minutes of the game. (Good numbers and 2 to 1 assist to turnover ratio.) The Next 13 minutes (8 regulation and 5 in overtime), he would have 1 assist and 4 turnovers (the latter is generous).

Holiday was not having a horrid point guard game until he was gassed at the end. So many in the comments were condemning Holiday. This was unjust based on his play for most of the game. He was the best or second best player on the floor for the first 32 minutes and clearly winning the point guard battle.

The Holiday effect on offense is easy to see but the effect on defense is just as important. It should not be forgotten our defense turned around in the UCI game when Aaron Holiday stepped up and shut down a hot player. Holiday is the key to our defense too. For the first three quarters of the game Holday made it tough for Michigan to start their offense and get in sync. Michigan was shooting 12-39 (30.7%) to start the game and the rest of the way they shot 72% including a 100% in OT.

After trailing UCLA by 15, Michigan finished 18 of 25 from the field, including making all five shots in overtime. The Wolverines made their final seven field-goal attempts.

Since this post is about game management, the question becomes how do you rest Holiday and not something like "coach up" Hands. The simple answer is timeouts. Unlike some coaches (cough cough Ben Howland), Steve Alford does not use all his timeouts. Take one or even two of these between the under 12 and close to the under 8 break. Do them so you can call plays without Holiday on the floor as he is the point guard.

One thing is for sure, a tired Holiday is not an elite player and not a good point guard. Holiday has to rest even if it costs UCLA when he is out. That is better than costing us for a longer time when Holiday is in and too tired to play effectively.

3. Welsh is your best option but a well coached team will stop it if they know it is coming

"Get Welsh the ball" was the comments and Holiday sucks for not getting him the ball. Welsh scored 11 points in a row over a 5 minute period in the first half to give UCLA a lead. UCLA went from down one to up five in that period. Get Welsh the ball at the end was the cry

Guess what? Michigan was not stupid. They knew this too. That was UCLA's offense. Here is UCLA possessions on the after 4 timeout starting at 2:44 left.

• Welsh Free Throws
• Welsh Free Throws
• Welsh high screen Holiday dishes to wide open GG who misses three pointer
• Welsh makes a layup
• Welsh high screen, Holiday fumbles the ball off the high screen Ali gets in a tangle for a jump which we lose and Ali (not Holiday) gets credit for a turnover.
• Off high screen by Welsh Holiday tries to pass back to Welsh and it is either a lazy/bad pass or steal that Holiday watches go the other way.
• GG 1-2 Free Throws
• Welsh high Screen Holiday fumbles/gets ball poked away. Ali recovers and shoots a desperation shot at the buzzer.

At the end of regulation, we ran the high screen play to Welsh every time. A tired Holiday screwed it up and/or everyone on Michigan knew it was coming.

Then came OT.

• First possession. Wilkes tries an entry pass to Welsh in low post, knocked away. Holiday pass to Welsh up high. Welsh passes back. Possession finishes with Ali attempting an ugly shot and air balling off a Welsh screen.
• Holiday gets his pocket picked just walking down the court setting up the offense.
• The best play of the last 4 minutes and OT, Michigan collapses on Welsh; Holiday Drives and dishes to GG for a dunk
• Welsh gets the ball in the low post. He is double teamed and throws a bad pass for a turnover.
• Welsh and Holiday pass the ball back and forth three times at the top of the key. Michigan is all over them. Hands dribbles into the corner and throws the ball out of bounds. On the inbounds play Holiday goes on a long circle drive to the hoop and a basket. "Holiday slow to get up" and limps back.
• Holiday dribbles aimlessly and turns it over again.
• Holiday and Welsh pass back in fourth up top for nothing. Then Hands shoots a long three.
• Holiday makes a steal and misses an uncontested layup that they don't even count in the box score.

Some thoughts on the rewatch. Holiday was awful and should have had three or four more turnovers at the end of the game and OT. But for the purposes of this point there were two plays in the last 8 minutes that did not involve Holiday or Welsh, both for GG. One was a Holiday drive with a dish for a dunk to GG. Ali shot three times but two were off Holiday fumbles of the ball and one was late clock off a Welsh screen for an air ball. Hands also forced a desperation three and the only other time he significantly touched the ball he dribbled in the corner. Wilkes did not look to shoot and hardly touched the ball (maybe twice).

Michigan realized they only had to play Holiday and Welsh. They knew the pick and pop to Welsh was coming. It was ugly and terrible as it was so predictable and Holiday was so tired.

So what game management decision should UCLA have done? Anyone else to the basket! Michigan was not leaving Welsh. There was no rim protection or big man help. Wilkes/GG's men were barely playing them as they were coming to double and/or help. One or both should have rolled to the basket. Alec Wulf touched the ball as much in his one minute of play as Wilkes did in the last eight minutes. Wilkes could have posted up since he would be playing a guard and Michigan's big was not helping off Welsh.

Yet we basically stuck to the high screen pick and pop option with Welsh with a break to feed into Welsh. Maybe if Holiday was not so tired it would have worked. But maybe taking advantage of Michigan overplay of Welsh; GG or Wilkes who are both far superior to their Michigan counter parts could have scored.

It was ugly and it did not need to be.

Alford did not lose the game by failing to prepare the team.

1. He lost the game because he exhausted Holiday to the point were he could not even elevate for a layup or play, let alone run the offense and pressure the other teams point.

2. He may have lost the game by having his two worst free throw shooters in and touching the ball with a one point lead and the game on the line.

3. He lost the game by running the same play over and over. He did not try to take advantage of the fact UCLA had favorable matchups with GG and WIlkes or having those guys dive to the basket when their men helped.

We lost because Steve Alford did a terrible job as a game coach.