UCLA Basketball: Long Island Head Coach Rod Strickland Offers Frank Review Of Loss To Bruins

After seeing his Long Island University Sharks, still winless now at 0-3, fall 78-58 to your UCLA Bruins on Wednesday, head coach Rod Strickland offered up a still fairly optimistic appraisal of his team's performance, per UCLA Communications.

It's worth noting that Vegas oddsmakers actually projected that the Sharks would lose by more. Per betting aggregator The Action Network, LIU entered the Pauley Pavilion matchup as a 35-point underdog against the Bruins, a team stacked with at least three players considered NBA draft-worthy in freshmen Aday Mara and Berke Buyuktuncel (though Buyuktuncel wasn't playing) and sophomore Adem Bona.

“We did a great job tonight," Strickland asserted. "We fought and competed, but we were absolutely over-matched by UCLA. They started the two bigs. I thought we didn’t execute on offense, but we really competed well on the defensive end.”

Strickland, a former All-NBA point guard while with the Washington Wizards, has been with the Sharks since the 2022-23 season. It's his first head coaching gig, following a three-stint as an assistant at South Florida under Orlando Antigua.

Tonight, the 3-0 Bruins square off against the No. 4-ranked 3-0 Marquette Golden Eagles, at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. Someone's going to collect their first loss of the season tonight.

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