Amari Bailey’s moment has arrived. How far will it take him and UCLA?
His ethos can be found under his right bicep, in large black letters.
“No Vanity,” the tattoo reads.
It would be so easy to indulge in just a little now.
Amari Bailey is no longer an up-and-coming college basketball star. He’s here.
With every slick move to the basket, every defensive stop, every pass that finds a teammate in the perfect spot, the UCLA freshman guard is elevating an already formidable team into a potentially unstoppable force at just the right time.
He’s become so invaluable that his coach lamented not getting him the ball more during the Bruins’ 68-63 victory over Northwestern in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
“What did Amari have?” Mick Cronin said afterward, scanning the box score for the point tally. “Fourteen. I was hoping for 18. But it’s my fault he didn’t get enough shots. Still working on figuring that one out.”
Fortunately for the Bruins, Bailey is more than capable of getting his own shot. He spun around Northwestern’s Boo Buie for a fastbreak layup, nailed a jumper at the end of the shot clock and buried a three-pointer to give his team its largest lead of the game.
Along the way, he showed that UCLA’s offense no longer consists of Jaime Jaquez Jr., Tyger Campbell and whatever scraps the team can find.
“Give Amari Bailey credit,” Northwestern coach Chris Collins said. “Thought he really stepped up and gave ’em great production as a third scorer.”
It wasn’t an anomaly. In the five games since Jaylen Clark suffered a season-ending lower-leg injury, Bailey has averaged 17 points, including a career-high 26 against Colorado in the Pac-12 tournament. That average is nearly double the 9.6 points Bailey had averaged before Clark’s injury and makes Bruins fans understand they better enjoy his presence during what figures to be a brief college stay.
How long might he stick around?
“Really just focusing day by day,” Bailey recently told The Times when asked about going to the NBA or coming back for a second season at UCLA. “You know, I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. Right now, I’m focused on helping win banner No. 12, that’s my No. 1 goal.”
He’ll need to be at his playmaking best to watch that blue-and-gold fabric rise inside Pauley Pavilion, rising to each exponentially harder challenge. Up next for the second-seeded Bruins is a regional semifinal at T-Mobile Arena against either third-seeded Gonzaga or sixth-seeded Texas Christian.
Anyone who thinks Bailey is just a scoring dynamo isn’t watching closely. His lockdown defense on Buie, the Wildcats’ best player, kept him without a field goal in the first half and seemed to make him unusually passive before he got going in the second half. Buie finished with 18 points but made only five of 13 shots and was so out of sorts that he missed a gimme layup with 13 seconds left that sealed the Wildcats’ fate.
Bailey also drove and dished to center Adem Bona for a dunk early in the game, showing his elite passing skills. Yes, his three turnovers were the most on the team, a continuing trend that might make those hoping Bailey comes back next season hold out hope that he wants to fix that issue before going to the next level.
One aspect of Bailey’s game that’s NBA-ready is his competitiveness.
“I love guys that play hard because they get better,” Cronin said. “You can polish up the other stuff if a guy will compete. Like if I was a front-office executive (in the NBA), if I couldn’t get the answer to that, I could care less about length, skill, height, upside. If I watch a guy and he doesn’t have a ticker and he won’t physically compete, I can tell you that guy’s got no shot in the NBA because those guys, for all their drama, those guys play hard, man.”
Fairleigh Dickinson runs out of gas in loss to Florida Atlantic
Demetre Roberts, the 5-foot-8 disruptor at point guard for FDU, kept coming against No. 9 Florida Atlantic Sunday night inside Nationwide Arena. To start the second half, he collected a steal, knocked down a three, pulled up for a jumper, converted two free throws and pulled down a rebound to keep his Knights, the No. 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament’s East Region, alive.
Each time Florida Atlantic attempted to pivot and pull away, Roberts re-set FDU’s offense and responded deep into the final minutes, when the Owls finally subdued the only No. 16 to reach the second round in NCAA history with a late flourish that Roberts and the Knights could not overcome. All Roberts could do was foul to keep extending his collegiate career as he missed an easy layup with 18.6 seconds remaining.
Finally, after the buzzer sounded, Roberts eyed the scoreboard: Florida Atlantic 78, FDU 70.
The Knights’ historic bid fell short of the Sweet 16. Florida Atlantic is heading to Madison Square Garden to face No. 4 Tennessee, and FDU, a team that knocked out No. 1 Purdue Friday night, exited the stage with its place in the history books secure.
Sunday’s results
West Region
(4) UConn 70, (5) Saint Mary’s 55
(3) Gonzaga 84, (6) TCU 81
East Region
(3) Kansas State 75, (6) Kentucky 69
(7) Michigan State 69, (2) Marquette 60
(9) Florida Atlantic 78, (16) Fairleigh Dickinson 70
South Region
(6) Creighton 85, (3) Baylor 76
Midwest Region
(3) Xavier 84, (11) Pittsburgh 73
(5) Miami 85, (4) Indiana 69
Thursday’s games
West Region
(4) UConn vs. (8) Arkansas, 4:15 p.m.
(2) UCLA vs. (3) Gonzaga, 6:45 p.m.
East Region
(3) Kansas State vs. (7) Michigan State, 3:30 p.m.
(4) Tennesse vs. (9) Florida Atlantic, 6 p.m.