If you have a player blessed with rare traits who can take over a game on both ends of the court, you use him as much as possible, right?
Right?
Maybe not.
Two days after UCLA’s Aday Mara put every inch of his 7-foot-3 frame to excellent use against Wisconsin — making all seven shots, playing lockdown defense, grabbing rebounds and getting repeatedly hacked by overmatched counterparts who had no choice but to foul him — his coach said the sophomore center’s usage would continue to be situational.
“I think it would be great if Aday would average 22 [points] the rest of the year,” coach Mick Cronin deadpanned Thursday of Mara’s breakthrough after having been used sparingly over the first half of the season, “but I also think — you know, look, that just happens.”
Cronin pointed out that forward William Kyle III, also fighting for a larger role, enjoyed a similar breakout during UCLA’s recent victory over Iowa, making six of seven shots, only to cede playing time to Mara against the Badgers because Cronin figured the latter game was a better matchup for Mara.
So, no, Mara’s big showing was not an aha moment for his coach, automatically leading to a larger role for the tallest player on the team, despite Mara’s making every shot and eight of 11 free throws while also grabbing five rebounds and blocking two shots in a season-high 21 minutes.
“It just gives you more options,” Cronin said. “What it does is, be able to reinforce to Aday what you’re capable of — we won two games, we got production from two [big] guys and I was saying that we’ve got to coach them better and get them to play up to their capability.”
Based on his recent pattern, expect Cronin to give Kyle more minutes against smaller, faster teams while featuring Mara more against bigger teams that don’t feature as much athleticism.
Cronin sounded like he was still committed to starting Tyler Bilodeau at the five spot instead of pairing Mara or Kyle with Bilodeau, who has struggled defensively. Wisconsin coach Greg Gard took the unusual step of mentioning Bilodeau by name, alluding to his problems defending ball screens, while discussing his team’s offensive success.
“We were able to knock down some threes early,” Gard said, “with Bilodeau.”
Cronin said going with more size instead of a front line that includes the 6-9 Bilodeau and 6-8 forward Eric Dailey has its drawbacks.
“Some teams play four guards, which makes it really hard,” Cronin said. “But what we have been working on since Will’s been back [from an unspecified medical procedure] that you saw in the Iowa game was Will guarding the perimeter and Tyler guarding the bigger guy because Will’s faster on the perimeter, so we can do that. Tough to do with Tyler and Aday except that we were able to do it against Wisconsin because of their lineup.
“But there’s other ways to try to do some things to be able to play if you want to play those two guys together and the other team’s smaller. There’s some things that we’re working on.”
Neither Bilodeau nor Dailey hesitated when asked how much they liked playing alongside Mara.
Said Bilodeau: “It’s great to have him out there. He’s so dominant in the post. We see it every day in practice. We know we can always go to him and then, too, defensively, he’s such a big presence down in the paint.”
Said Dailey: “I love playing with Aday. I mean, it’s easy to play with a 7-3 player. Easy to throw him lobs. I’ve been doing that all year, just throwing him passes that, you know, he can finish. And it’s been helping us just, you know, it gives a different dynamic to our offense and our defense, as well, just having him be the protector. We just gotta keep him going, that’s it.”
Staying ready
With Mara dominating, Kyle did not play in the second half against Wisconsin until Cronin inserted him for defensive purposes with 30 seconds left.
Trailing by two points, the Badgers had a chance to tie the score or take the lead.
Kyle made sure neither happened.
Measuring Wisconsin guard John Blackwell’s every move, Kyle had the tricky task of defending against both a shot and a lob to 7-footer Steven Crowl.
“He was kind of focused on the rim a little bit,” Kyle said of Blackwell, “so I was kind of waiting for him to jump into the air because, like, when you jump into the air it’s kind of tough to make that pass. … So, once I kind of saw him going into the air, into his shot, I kind of committed to it — and I didn’t expect to block it, I just tried to contest it and then, luckily, blocked the shot and it was just a big play.”
Trap game?
Washington has lost five consecutive games and is 1-7 in the Big Ten.
The Huskies (10-9, 1-7) also may be ripe for an upset, particularly on their home court, heading into their game against the Bruins (13-6, 4-4) on Friday night in Seattle.
Alaska Airlines Arena is the place where Washington defeated Maryland and lost to Illinois only after faltering in the final minute.
Cronin said he expected Huskies guard D.J. Davis to be fully recovered from a recent ankle injury and center Franck Kepnang to play after missing the last 17 games after undergoing a knee procedure.
“They’ve gotten much better,” Cronin said of the Huskies, who lost by 11 points to the Bruins in December at Pauley Pavilion. “If they make some shots, they’re dangerous.”