The UCLA basketball team has been officially practicing since Sept. 30th, and we’ve been told by various sources how the team looks.

First, and perhaps the biggest news, sophomore post Adem Bona has returned to full practice. He was still held out of the secret scrimmage against Santa Clara over the weekend, but he’s been practicing full-go for a few days.  He physically isn’t hampered by the left shoulder and overall looks bigger, having put on a few more pounds of muscle.

It’s known that Berke Buyuktuncel and Aday Mara also didn’t participate in the secret scrimmage, but they’re expected to be available when the season starts against St. Francis Nov. 6th. The exhibition is Oct. 31st against Cal State Dominguez Hills. 

There are also a couple of injuries, but we can’t elaborate on which players are injured, and the extent of the injuries. There’s a possibility that at least one player might not be cleared physically by Nov. 6th.

Overall, from what we’ve been told, the practices have both been very promising but rough at times. Remember, there are seven freshmen and eight total new players, so there’s just so much that they all don’t know about how to play under Mick Cronin – or just basketball in general. It’s tough for any freshman when he’s making the transition to college basketball – much less seven of them. They don’t know so many fundamentals and techniques, and with international players, almost all of it is new.  For some, like Buyuktuncel or Mara, they’ve never practiced like this – at this level of intensity or detail. The European teams they played on were professional, and pro teams pretty much don’t practice but just play games. Even the American freshmen are swimming. On both sides of the court. You can imagine, for someone like Cronin, who wants precision in his screens, cuts, timing, angles, etc., it’s practically a whole team of players that don’t know any of it. With defense, it’s mostly about experience and knowledge – knowing when to switch, go over a screen, help, rotate, etc., and Cronin is pretty much dealing with a team-full of players who are learning it all from scratch. So, you can understand why the first couple of weeks of practice have been generally rough.