UCLA Basketball: Mick Cronin Pinpoints Major Weakness Behind Bruins Offense

At their current 29% (!) three-point conversion rate, your struggling 6-9 UCLA Bruins are currently on the road to the lowest such percentage in school history, Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times.

Because the Bruins aren't currently fielding a natural point guard, the team has struggled at both properly distributing passes to long range tries and at connecting from three-point land.

Fifth-year Los Angeles head coach Mick Cronin wants his club to up its triple attempts, but noted in a recent team presser that the Bruins also need to get better at building awareness of their three-point shooters, specifically their backcourt players.

“Our guards struggle with that, so it’s just an area of coaching,” Cronin said. “We don’t have a guy that’s natural at that, we just don’t, and that’s my fault. … Shooting is a byproduct of passing. We take too many tough twos and it’s the worst shot in basketball.”

The club's best three-point shooter is 6'3" reserve sophomore combo guard Will McClendon, who makes 41.7% of his 2.4 triple tries a game. Only one other player, 6'9" freshman power forward Berke Buyuktuncel, has cracked over 30% shooting (he's making 30.8% of his 1.4 three-point tries per night).