WATCH: Mick Cronin on UCLA Men's Basketball's Return, Jules Bernard's Potential
UCLA men’s basketball coach Mick Cronin talked to reporters about the Bruins’ 96-78 win over Long Beach State on Thursday, breaking down what it meant for his team to get back on the court after an extended COVID hiatus, the underrated nature of Jules Bernard and what Cody Riley’s return means for the lineup.
MICK CRONIN
Opening statement
Everybody vote for these 4:30 games the rest of the year? First of all, I want to thank coach Monson and Long Beach State, they played last night—actually, they were supposed to play the game last night was contracted for today before I got a hold of them and they moved their Westcliff game from today to last night and played us back to back, which gets them a return date here next year for sure, so we really appreciate what they did. We were desperate to get out on the court mentally and physically. You’ve got to start playing games to find a rhythm, especially Cody Riley in his first game of the year. You can only simulate so much in practice. I know you’re going to ask about Jaime—he turned his ankle, hopefully it’s not that bad. He can walk, so that’s a start. So that being said, it’s good to be back out there. It’s going to take us some time to find a rhythm again, it’s really crazy, I mean, I haven’t seen you guys in a long [time], it’s like we’re starting the season over again. I mean, literally it’s like a new season, so Long Beach played great in the second half, I thought they made a lot of hard shots, we didn’t get back on D a few times, but they’ve got fast guys and I thought Jadon Jones played great in the second half. At the time I wasn’t happy with it, but they made some guarded shots and it was good, it made us keep playing for 40 minutes, which we needed. I didn’t think we’d have any chance Saturday if we didn’t play today. I was convinced we were in deep trouble if we try to go play Cal, who’s really playing well, on the road without a game in a month, to me, you would have been really up against it, so other than Jaime’s injury, things really were a go for us tonight in a lot of ways, so it was good to get back out here.
Jules underrated nationally?
Well, you know, look, on the national stage you’ve got to keep winning, right? We’ve got time for that. You keep winning and the more you win, the more people put their eyes on you. But like I’ve told you guys all year, you were with me at media day, right, and someone finally asked me a question about Jules because I had Jaime and Johnny with me there and that’s who the Pac-12 wanted and I was elated. You can’t ask me enough questions about Jules because he deserves to get a lot of publicity for two reasons: One, he is a really good player, he’s a very good player, one of the best wing players in America, and secondly, he’s everything this is supposed to all be about, a guy that’s here four years and has gotten better every year, stuck it out through a coaching change, he’s played for three—obviously Steve, Murry and me—and he’s just a great kid with a great attitude, you know, he’s made a lot of changes to his game, he gets so much more done now with less dribbling, he’s really worked on his shooting, his toughness, his efficiency—his assist-to-turnover ratio is the turnaround of a lifetime statistically when you look at freshman year to now. But he’s a great guy, just so happy for him. He’s going to have a career playing basketball; he will play beyond UCLA. He reminds me a little bit of, he’s a better shooter, but a big wing like Josh Hart that played at Villanova who’s been in the NBA a long time. Jules, because he’s 6-6 and he can make an open shot, he can defend, he’s a tough guy, I think he’ll survive, like, I think he’ll have a career in the NBA.
Thoughts on the defense?
Well, it was our focus. Look, we were great early. I think as fatigue got us some and as Long Beach settled down and kids made a few shots, we had some breakdowns in the second half, so the second half, I wasn’t happy at all with our defense, but that is our focus. What I try to tell the guys is, you’ve got to write down who you want to be as a person and in our case who we want to be as a team, so if we want to win a title, whether it’s a Pac-12 title or a national title, then you’ve got to work back, what’s going to have to happen for us to do that, just telling me realistically yourself, like, I want to coach the best players and live longer and be healthier, so I knew I needed to get to LA. You’ve got to work backward, so if you’re going to be a great team, great teams play defense, they play with great togetherness, they have poise and leadership. If you want to be a great team, you have to break down all the characteristics of a great team because you’re not going to be a great team without those characteristics and you know, the great organizations know that, kids choose to play in those types of organizations because they want to win. You don’t win because of talent level.
New perspective with fans taken away?
Oh, well for me, the students have been awesome since I've been here. And the fans have been great to me, it's been a great time in my life. As we turned it around my first year, the people here have been awesome to me, so I love walking out there with the fans. And the students have been great, so it's all part of the college experience. Can't bring them back fast enough for me.
Jules and Johnny scored 40 – what about their play styles lets them be so successful together?
Uhh, well, they can shoot. But they're not just shooters, they both are very effective with their pull up shot. You can't be a consistent scorer if you only score one way. They – Johnny's gotta – I wish both of them – Jules got to the line seven times tonight, he missed three. But that's whereI was – both of them, they had a combined five missed free throws, which isn't gonna cut it for us in big games. But neither one of them are relying upon one thing, that's why they're able to score consistently and that's been a growth in both of their games. Johnny came to us, I talked to him a lot about being more of a scorer. But they got a great point guard who had 10 assists and no turnovers, that helps.
Playing Cal on the road? Cody's return?
Yeah, Cal got off to a slow start, had some injuries early, practice interruptions, Mark's a good friend of mine. They're playing really well. Arizona State's talented, and they made – and well coached, Bobby knows what he's doing – and Cal dismantled them the other day by 26. I was sitting there watching thinking 'Oh man, we're playing Cal at a rough time. Both us and SC.' So they're a team with eight or nine guys back, so they don't have a bunch of transfers – like Oregon's trying to piece it together on the fly and get better. Cal, Mark's been there, I think this is his third year as well, he's built each year. Kelly is a really good player and Foreman's back, Anticevich, they've got a lot of guys. So I think when you watch them, they look much more comfortable in their identity of who they are. They don't give up easy baskets and they don't take bad shots. They really work the shot clock and that can be frustrating for a team cause they don't run three things, they'll run a fourth thing. They're gonna exhaust the whole clock – they'll shoot it, but if they're not getting a layup or a basket, they'll exhaust the whole clock on you. And they're comfortable in their formula for success, so I got nothing but respect for how they're playing right now. That's why I said we had to get a game before we went to play them. And Cody, it's just a matter of he's gotta get his legs back. He had a lot of good flashes, but he was huffing and puffing at times. It's just a matter of it's gonna take him some time.
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