UCLA Basketball: Bruins Suffer Embarrassing Home Loss To Rival Arizona
This has been a trying time for Mick Cronin and the Baby Bruins.
Between a tough non-conference schedule and the expected ups and downs of a long year, this has not been the year UCLA was hoping to have.
However, the despair officially hit rock-bottom Thursday night, as the chants of "U of A!!" echoed throughout Pauley Pavilion by the loud contingent of Arizona fans in attendance of the Wildcats' 88-65 shellacking of the Bruins.
From the jump, UCLA (14-16) looked lifeless -- there's no other way to put it. The body language this team has right now is visibly poor. Arizona (24-6) played with an edge, and far more effort/energy/enthusiasm/any other objective you'd like to use in the realm of performing with a pulse.
Arizona got out in transition and forced UCLA's defense to spread out rather than bunker down in an organized and stationary form (the preferred style for a Cronin-coached team).
The Wildcats won every loose ball, led the game in deflections, and ultimately outplayed a team that appeared to be checked out.
There's no other way to say it...this was the most embarrassing loss of the Mick Cronin era at UCLA. The Utah loss earlier in the year was horrid -- though this one came at home versus the program's biggest rival. You'd THINK a team looking for something to rally around would come out and try to upend a Top 10 squad on its home floor.
Instead, they watched as the Arizona bench clowned the team after virtually every bucket. Richard Jefferson -- an Arizona alum -- was gleefully enjoying the result as the color commentator for the contest. Things got so bad that he was beyond unapologetic and brazen in his favoritism of the Wildcats on air.
UCLA will try to put this defeat behind it to wrap up its regular season with a win against Arizona State on Saturday, before embarking on the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas. At 14-16, the Bruins are now doomed to finish a regular season below .500 for just the fifth time in the last 75 years.
