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Norman Powell sees defense, rebounding as keys for UCLA

UCLA guard Norman Powell dunks the basket while playing against Tulsa during the second half of a second-round game in the NCAA college basketball tournament Friday, March 21, 2014, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

AP

LONG BEACH, California -- Tuesday night a water main break sent some eight billion gallons of water onto the UCLA campus, with multiple athletic facilities receiving most of the damage. One such facility was Pauley Pavilion, which is home to five of UCLA’s athletic teams and underwent a $136 million renovation that was completed in 2012. With the court and the locker rooms being flooded, head coach Steve Alford’s program will need to make adjustments as the school makes the repairs needed to have Pauley Pavilion ready in time for the start of basketball season.

As a result, the opportunity for five Bruins to participate in the adidas Nations camp this weekend comes at a good time (the flooding of the facilities was not good, obviously).

One of the five UCLA players in attendance is senior guard Norman Powell, who as a junior put together the best season of his career. Always a solid defender and athlete, Powell made major strides offensively for a team that won the Pac-12 tournament title and reached the Sweet 16. Powell scored 11.4 points per game in 2013-14, increasing his scoring output by more than five points per game from 2012-13 (6.1 ppg).

"[This camp] is definitely a positive,"Powell told NBCSports.com. “We’ve got a lot of guys here, five of us in total, so we’re going to get a lot of experience. We’re playing on the same team so we’re able to build that chemistry early, which is what we want to do. We’re just excited to be around a lot of talented guys and also have the chance to be looked at for the next level [by NBA scouts].”

Joining Powell at the camp are junior forward Tony Parker, sophomore guard Bryce Alford and freshmen Jonah Bolden and Kevon Looney (he did not participate in the morning session). And with the Bruins having to account for the loss of four of their top six scorers from last season, most notably Jordan Adams and Kyle Anderson, they’ll all be important figures for UCLA in 2014-15.

Offensively the Bruins were a very gifted group last season, and in speaking with Powell he expects that to once again be the case with sophomore Isaac Hamilton in line to provide added scoring punch after having to sit out all of last season and graduate transfer Jon Octeus (from Colorado State) joining the program. However if there are two areas in which UCLA will need to improve if they’re to once again contend for a Pac-12 title, those areas are defending and rebounding.

Last season UCLA ranked sixth in the Pac-12 in field goal percentage defense and seventh in three-point percentage defense, and from a rebounding standpoint opponents managed to grab 28.6% of their missed shot attempts (sixth in the Pac-12). Despite being a middle of the pack team in those areas a season ago UCLA was able to win 28 games in Alford’s first season. If they’re to have a shot at meeting (or even exceeding) those marks in 2014-15, leaders such as Powell will need to spark an improvement when it comes to getting stops and completing them with a rebound.

Do that and the Bruins will have ample opportunities to get out in the open court, which will in turn ensure that they remain among the contenders in the Pac-12.

“We’d get stops but we didn’t finish them with a rebound, [which would allow us] to push the ball offensively,” Powell noted. “That’s what we’re going to need to work on in the offseason, getting everybody to know what Coach [Alford] wants us to do, being [in the proper spots] help-side, being able to crack down and help the bigs when they need to rotate and just rebounding well.

“There were a lot of games where we lost [due to] defensive rebounding, so we just need to pick that up. We can score with anybody in the country. We proved that last year, and we still have guys who can score this year, so we’re just really looking forward to improving those aspects of our game.”

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