UCLA Basketball: Mick Cronin Still Sees Room For Improvement In Best Player's Game

On Saturday, your UCLA Bruins managed to snag a convincing 65-50 Galen Center victory against the USC Trojans, improving their 2023-24 season record to a still-underwhelming 9-11.

Even when complimenting his best player, Pac-12 All-Defense center/power forward Adem Bona, UCLA Bruins head coach Mick Cronin still managed to find a way to be critical, per UCLA Communications.

“And he didn’t even play as good as he can play, to be honest with you," Cronin relayed. "We’ve got to work on his face-up game when he’s off the post. We’ve got to give him some more room to operate. Too much power back down. His energy and effort is always – I went to rest him. You saw I had [Kenneth Nwuba] at the table, but then the TV timeout came. He played the whole second half pretty much.”

Backup Nwuba, a 6'10" fifth-year redshirt senior, played for just four minutes, scoring two points on 1-of-1 shooting from the field, thanks to Bona's excellent performance.

Across 32 minutes, Bona notched 10 points on 3-of-7 field goal shooting and 4-of-6 free throw shooting, along with 10 rebounds, two blocks and two steals.

Next up for the Bruins is a pair of bouts against two Oregon-based Pac-12 nemeses with better records: the 11-9 Oregon State Beavers on Thursday and the 14-6 Oregon Ducks on Saturday.