UCLA's Cronin Was 'Sending a Message' With Ejection

UCLA men's basketball has lost the mojo it started the season with, and there don't seem to be any signs of a resurgence right now.

The Bruins lost, 79-61, against Maryland on Friday, taking their third straight loss to fall below .500 in conference play.

Meanwhile, UCLA coach Mick Cronin continues to draw attention, as with less than 5-and-a-half minutes to go in Friday's contest, he was tossed from the game after arguing with referee Jeff Anderson over one of what he believed to be a series of missed calls.

UCLA was down, 60-51, at the time, and the game would only grow more and more out of hand from there.

Cronin had a lengthy conversation with Anderson earlier in the second half.

"I told him that you’ve got to give us a chance," Cronin said after the game. "You are not giving us a chance to win. You’ve got to give us a chance to win.”

Evidently, Cronin didn't feel that plea had proved effective.

"I tried to get thrown out, I wanted out, I had enough," he said. "I'm sending a message. I'm tired of it. I know that we’re the outsider – us, SC and Oregon, but that was ridiculous. And that doesn’t take anything away from Maryland. They’re a very good team at home. But I’ve got to defend my players. If you can just mug guys, chop their arms off and throw them out of the way, it is hard to run any offense.

"That being said, there are other things. Defensively, we have regressed. I kind of addressed that the other night. It’s a mindset, it’s a mindset with all teams and all players. It’s a mindset. You have to be totally -- to be a great defensive team, you have to be totally committed to it. It’s not easy, especially on the road.”

Cronin felt the officiating took a turn after halftime.

"The second half, the game got to a point where nothing was being called and we weren't tough enough. OK? That being said, in defense of my players, OK, I don’t think that we were having much of a chance. You're getting grabbed, thrown, chopped, whatever, it’s hard. So, in defense of my players on that. But I thought in the first half, it was a much cleaner game. It was 40-36 at half, but the game became -- they were just, weren't going to let us run anything, whatever it was. I let Jeff know, and that was that."

Cronin said, "We needed some stronger officials on the game, in my opinion."

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