Bruins Win Big, But Cronin Sees Room for Growth

The UCLA Bruins secured a crucial road victory over Indiana on Friday night, edging the Hoosiers 72-68 in their first-ever game at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The win marked UCLA’s eighth in its last nine contests, continuing the team’s late-season surge in Big Ten play.

While the result was favorable for the Bruins, Coach Mick Cronin’s postgame comments made it clear he saw plenty of room for improvement.

Cronin was direct about one of his biggest concerns: rebounding. Despite coming away with a win, he warned that continuing to get beaten on the boards could be a fatal flaw come March.

The Bruins built a 10-point halftime lead but saw Indiana claw back into the game, reducing the margin to just 2 points in the final minute. A pair of missed free throws, coupled with costly second-half turnovers, allowed the Hoosiers to stay within striking distance.

“We make it interesting,” Cronin said. “We’ve had this happen to us several times. I complain about free throws and missing the front end of the 1-and-1, and I look down, and those are the only three we missed. I know two for sure were the front end, Dylan [Andrews] and Sebastian [Mack]. … Today, we just uncharacteristically turned the ball over in the second half. We don’t do that. I give [Indiana] credit, they were at home, their kids kept fighting. We had nine second-half turnovers, and we don’t turn the ball over nine times in entire games.”

With UCLA in the thick of the NCAA Tournament conversation, Cronin made it clear that every game is an opportunity to refine the team’s play for the postseason.

“I go through the same thing every game. We try to win, then we evaluate the film, and think about what we need to do to get better,” Cronin said. “Because for us, it’s about the NCAA Tournament. That’s just the way it is. I told these guys for the last two days [that] Illinois was good practice for us to try to execute when we’re down and make a comeback. You’re in that situation in March.”

Despite UCLA’s recent success, the head coach remains cautious about the team’s overall standing.

“Ultimately, we’re playing in a one-and-out tournament,” Cronin said. “Everybody thinks that they know who’s going to win it and that we have no chance, but that’s not the way that we approach it. We will not approach it like that when the day comes, because we practice under 11 banners. Nobody else does that.”

With UCLA now adjusting to life in the Big Ten, cross-country road trips have become a major logistical challenge. The Bruins left for their Midwest swing on Monday and won’t return to Los Angeles until early Saturday morning, a stark contrast to the Pac-12’s former travel schedule.

“For this trip, we left Monday morning and we’re going to get back Saturday morning. It’s too much class missed," Cronin said. "I want one day off in between," Cronin said regarding the conference travel schedule. "Now, some of my Big Ten coaching brethren said, 'Oh, you got to have two days of game prep.' To my answer, my main man, Coach [Tom] Izzo, was: 'You're the greatest one-day prep guy in history; you've never lost an Elite Eight game.' He's 8-0. 'What the hell does it matter if you get an extra day? You don't need an extra day's prep. And in fact, with your [Izzo's] record, I wouldn't want one.'"

Cronin remains vocal about his preference for fewer days between games, noting that his team has already endured three of these extended road trips, plus the upcoming Big Ten Tournament.

With a critical stretch ahead, UCLA returns home to face Minnesota on Tuesday, hoping to continue its strong play while addressing Cronin’s concerns. If the Bruins can tighten up their rebounding and late-game execution, they could find themselves making noise in March.

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