Mick Cronin blames players and fans after disappointing UCLA loss to Minnesota
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As UCLA surged into an early 17-point lead Tuesday, it looked as if the Bruins would make it a nightlong celebration of their coach and everything he represented.
With some inspired play in the opening minutes, Mick Cronin’s players heeded his warning about Minnesota’s being better than its crummy record. They played suffocating defense, forcing four shot-clock violations before halftime. They shut down the Golden Gophers’ top player, holding Dawson Garcia to five points by the game’s midpoint.
Even with some slippage in the final minutes before halftime, the Bruins still led by 11 points and it seemed as if the only thing left to decide would be how to celebrate Cronin’s 500th career victory in the locker room afterward.
What happened next inside Pauley Pavilion was a milestone of a different sort. This might have qualified as Cronin’s most deflating loss since he arrived in Westwood nearly six years ago.
“Hugely disappointing effort,” Cronin said after his team’s 64-61 loss left him stuck on 499 victories. “That’s really all I’ve got to say.”
True to form, Cronin went on to say a lot more after the Bruins (19-8 overall, 10-6 Big Ten) crumbled largely as a result of repeated defensive breakdowns and missing 10 free throws in the second half, including their last six attempts and the front ends of two one-and-one situations.
Mick Cronin is one win away from his 500th career victory, and it doesn’t sound like he’s planning to achieve win No. 600 at Indiana or any other school.
He blamed his players for worrying about shooting and scoring instead of toughness and defense.
“It’s a losing mentality,” he said, “to worry about whether your shot goes in or how many points you have.”
He facetiously took the blame for not preparing his players for one of Garcia’s patented moves.
“We’re so poorly coached,” Cronin said, “we didn’t know Dawson Garcia was going to spin back to his left hand — we had two guys on him and let him lay it in, so I guess we didn’t go over that.”
And in a first, Cronin blamed fans for playing a part in his team’s free-throw woes.
“Our crowd, they make it worse,” Cronin said, going on to mimic fans’ groans. “When a guy misses a free throw, I mean, the stress in Pauley’s crazy when a guy — ‘Uhhh, uhhh.’ I mean, the guy’s not trying [to miss] — how about help the guy? How about cheer for the guy?”
The murmurs were at their loudest after UCLA’s Eric Dailey Jr. stepped to the foul line with the Bruins leading by one with 17 seconds left and missed both attempts. That was followed by stunned silence after Minnesota’s Lu’cye Patterson drove past Skyy Clark for a go-ahead layup with 4.9 seconds left, capitalizing on another defensive breakdown by the Bruins.
“Twenty-five’s a put-his-head-down-and-drive guy,” Cronin said, referencing Patterson’s jersey number, “the guy guarding him acted like he didn’t know it, pressuring him 10 feet outside the three-point line for no reason and there’s no help, there’s no rotation.”
UCLA’s Sebastian Mack, who put his team ahead when he got a few friendly bounces on a driving layup that finally fell through the net with 44 seconds left, tried to make another big play but was called for charging into Patterson with 1.7 seconds to go. The Bruins fouled Garcia on the inbound pass and he made both free throws. The resulting three-point lead held up after Dylan Andrews’ heave from beyond three-quarters-court was well off the mark.
The only thing left to do was examine what went wrong.
Garcia scored 27 of his 32 points in the second half for the Golden Gophers (14-12, 6-9), who are fighting just to make the Big Ten tournament.
“Just stopped following the scouting report on him,” UCLA guard Kobe Johnson said. “You know, I thought we followed it pretty well in the first, first half, but the second half, we kinda just let him get comfortable and let him really do whatever he wanted.”
Meanwhile, several Bruins’ shooting slumps worsened, seemingly putting them into a funk on defense as well. Dailey made only three of 10 shots and Andrews finished one of six.
“You win eight out of nine,” Cronin said, alluding to his team’s success before Tuesday, “and you lose humility and you start worrying about everything but defense, and I’ve got guys in that locker room worried about shooting. You worry about shooting, you worry about your points, whether your shot goes in instead of worrying about playing defense and getting a ‘W’ and that’s what happened tonight.”
Possibly adding to his team’s misfortune, Cronin’s puzzling usage of center Aday Mara continued. At a time when Mara’s putback dunk and dazzling assist on a bounce pass to a cutting Andrews led a highlight package on the video board late in the game, he remained on the bench. He made both of his shots and finished with four points, one assist, one block and one steal in only 13 minutes, his two turnovers undoubtedly contributing to his limited playing time.
There wasn’t much to praise after a loss that will certainly hurt the Bruins for NCAA tournament seeding purposes. A night meant for celebration ended in commiseration.
“It’s unacceptable,” UCLA forward Tyler Bilodeau said, “but you know, nothing we can do about it now. We just gotta focus on the next one.”
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