WATCH: Mick Cronin on UCLA's Homecourt Advantage, Hustle Stats
UCLA men's basketball coach Mick Cronin spoke with the media ahead of Tuesday morning's practice session at the Mo Ostin Basketball Center. Cronin talked about the Bruins' home winning streak, not losing letdown games, Stanford putting the league on notice by beating Arizona, Amari Bailey's success this season, Jaime Jaquez Jr.'s development and UCLA's low free throw rate.
Longest active home winning streak in the country, your last loss at Pauley with fans was against Stanford in your first season – what's gone into that?
I don’t know and it’s not high on my care list either.
How have you gone about building this into a home haven?
You know, good teams win at home, so we’ve got good players, we’ve got good players that care. Like I’ve said many times, our guys on our team have been extremely loyal to the school, to the program, especially, obviously the older guys on our team, so it gives you a chance to build something, and they’re good players. All you’ve got to do is turn on the TV, most teams are constructed with multiple transfers. This team’s special, we don’t have one because we didn’t need one because our guys didn’t transfer, our guys didn’t go to free agency in the open market and all that type of stuff that goes on today, and you’ve got a rare guy like Jaime Jaquez who values the college experience and wants to have a pro career—he doesn’t just want to get NBA socks, that’s my terminology for, you get the socks, you get in the summer league and then you play in the G League, but you get the socks. So a very mature guy, but he really values going to UCLA, the opportunity—there was a time where everybody was like Jaime and going to a prestigious university with a great basketball program was an honor and everybody looked at it that way, where now it’s a vehicle to get to the pros, and that’s just how it is, it’s OK, but we reaped the benefits of Jaime, Tyger, Dave, Kenneth, Jaylen Clark—even Russ helps us, I’ve said that, he does a great job for us in practice, so continuity, there’s nothing special on your question about home this and that—great programs, you’ve got to win a lot of your home games. Bill Self’s been great at Kansas for a long time because look at his home record. We did a pretty good job at Cincinnati, Darren and I and all the kids there, there was a time when we won 43 in a row, so it’s just a byproduct of having a consistent, really good program, but you’re not going to have that without players, so that’s why I talk about the players because in this day and age, loyalty is pretty much a thing of the past and we’re fortunate to have some great kids.
Your dad said you don't lose games you're not supposed to?
I’m sure he’s not allowed on the internet.
Does not having letdown games goes hand-in-hand with building a long home winning streak?
Yeah, look, we’ll see how that goes on Thursday. Look, that’s for Alex to put out stats, you guys to research that stuff, you know, I just say this: There was a time I was a young coach who studied guys who built programs and in college basketball, you have to win at home or you’re not going to build what you want to build if you don’t plant a flag at home. You have to find a way to do it. If you think you’re going to go out and make NCAA tournaments by going undefeated on the road, you’re in trouble. We lost a couple of games in the Pac-12 this year and it’s like everybody wants me to go off on my team, it’s like, well, what’d you think we were going to do? Go undefeated? I mean, those are really good teams, they’re sold-out crowds, we’re the No. 1 team in the league coming to town, it’s going to happen. Those are hard games to win, man. Those are tough games to win because those teams were at home with great crowds in a great environment, so you have to return the favor, is the point of me bringing that up.
Stanford got everybody's attention with what they did against Arizona – you don't have to sell them as much?
Yeah, again, that’s all maybe true, we try to train our guys to look at what teams are capable of on their best night, like Stanford in their last five is shooting over 40% from three. So they’ve made some changes defensively, they’ve made some rotational changes, they’re just a totally different team from when we played them two months ago, totally different. Stylistically a little bit, but definitely defensively and they’ve found a rotation that they’re sticking with. Yeah, and they had a big win against Arizona, so I’m sure they’ve got some confidence from that but we try to train our guys that we’ve got to mow down whoever’s in front of us but we don’t look at their record, we look at what we have to do to win that game.
Favorite part of Amari's game?
I love guys that play hard because they get better. You can polish up the other stuff if a guy will compete. Like if I was a front-office executive, if I couldn’t get the answer to that, I could care less about length, skill, height, upside. If I watch a guy and he doesn’t have a ticker and he won’t physically compete, I can tell you that guy’s got no shot in the NBA because those guys, for all their drama, those guys [in the NBA] play hard, man. You’re talking about some tough dudes that can play and they’re not messing around, they like those big contracts they’ve got. You’ve just got no chance without the competitive toughness and being able to show up and play hard and he has that, so the rest in time, he will get better at—whatever the things we try to polish him up on, decision-making, being more efficient with his dribbles. He has a chance to be an elite defender. I know at Oregon State he had 24 but in my opinion the root of that was his defense, he took on playing Jordan Pope, the challenge of playing Jordan Pope being the leading freshman scorer in the league, he took that on and that was his mindset and see what happened for him offensively and that’s the difference in our defense this year would be him, Dylan and Jaylen Clark, their on-the-ball ability to not just get beat but also put massive pressure on guys on the ball, and look, obviously, you know how I am, there’s been times when we’ve had our moments where I’ve had to put my foot down because some of these kids haven’t had anybody tell them, ‘Look, it’s not an option when I tell you to do something,’ but Amari takes it like a man. He's been great.
Amari – even keeled?
He's very intelligent, very intelligent, very intelligent. The reason why Amari's here is that he saw the big picture. He wasn't concerned... never asked me a question about NIL, never asked me a question about how I was going to use him, what position he was going to play. He wanted to go to UCLA since he came here. Obviously he committed twice. But his big picture, what's best for him to get better, to not skip steps – that was his term to me. Usually an adult, coaches say that. And he knew how I was: we're gonna play to win, you're gonna have to listen. And that's not always easy, man. I'm well aware of it. But it's like eating vegetables though – it's good for you. Which you gotta give him credit that he knows that. That's why I said he's intelligent enough to know that coming here and being coached is good for him. It's like putting money in the bank, as far as for his development for his pro career.
Jaime hustle stats?
Healthy. I would say being healthy.
Rare for a fourth-year guy to up his hustle stats?
Well, I would say we all knew he was playing hurt last year, so that could have some effect. It also could go back to my recruiting spiel of this day and age of, is college a vehicle to just get to the pros? Or would you be mature enough to know you need to improve and what places improve players. So for all those that want to say that, 'He's tough. They're hard. UCLA, they're this, they're that. Also their guys all get better. Just look at it. From Johnny's not playing to national star, to Jaime Jaquez gets better every year. Defensively, rebounding, shooting everything. He's improved in all areas. Jaylen Clark, people want to know why we signed when he committed. Look at him now. So you do get better by being coached. Not just by rolling the balls out, saying, 'Good job guys.' [sarcastically claps] It might be might be good for people to actually be held accountable and to get coached. And I'm well aware it's not always easy. But Jaime, his toughness levels off the charts. But I would say to the bounce in his step for the rebounding is he played hurt all year last year. And he feels... like yesterday, Monday is a light day for us, not for the young guys. The trick is to keep your veterans fresh, your young guys you got to make sure you get them in shape, so when their time's called, when their number's called and their time comes. We got to work them harder while we rest the other guys, and Jaime's like, 'Coach. I'm good. I feel great.' Like he's just so happy that he feels great. I'm like, 'That's good you feel great. Get on the bike.' You're not going as hard as Will and Dylan today, so go shoot some free throws. to go shoot some free throws.
Football uses heart rate monitors?
Yeah we use all that stuff too.
Did game slow down for Amari when he was out?
Tough for me to say. That would be that would be a question for him. I would say no, I would say it hurt him. When you're young, you need all the game experience you can. I would say the fact that he was rusty at USC, but he's just such an elite competitor that he just overcame it. But there's no way it was good for him, in my opinion. But it shows you, the fact that he can overcome that, a lot of guys in that situation as a freshman and miss a month. And it's not like you're playing insignificant games. You're playing on one of the best teams in the country. You got to fit right back in, it's not easy to do.
Is his ankle OK?
Yeah
Jaime's shooting open up the offense?
Huge. I would say he shot it well all summer, all fall, practice numbers. Your strength is your weakness – Jaime's intensity sometimes. You need to be calm when shooting and he's trying too hard at times, pressing a little bit. Knowing people talking about, 'You got to make you better make the 3 and play D to play in the NBA.' You know, he gets too excited sometimes. All we gotta do is slow him down. He's got great form and he puts in the time, he puts in the work. So, there was a stretch though when he was struggling from the 3-point line. And I knew when the tide turned it was going to really help our offense because I get to come in here and everybody's got all the answers for our offense. And sometimes it's real simple: guys gotta make open shots. And that's what Stanford's been doing lately. They really have.
KenPom green across the board except one red...
What's the difference between your green and red?
Green is great. Red means not so good. Free throw rate is red?
Yeah, we don't we don't shoot a ton of free throws, but we don't give many either. And that will be, go back to where I'd love to get to get Adem the ball more. Teams that shoot a lot of free throws, their big guys tend to draw a lot of fouls, or they have a guard that's great at drawing fouls, which goes back to Amari. Something that I still want to work with him on: he's so athletic, he tends to hang in the air and avoid the foul to score. Where a guy like Dave Singleton, maybe not – maybe not – as athletic. Where you see Dave's gonna draw the foul because there's no hanging in the air like a Amari and I used to do. I think that's an area where he can continue to improve. I'd like to see Jaylen Clark do that as well. Because drawing fouls is huge. We got one for Tyger, we got in the bonus, I ran a spread play and just told him to just draw a foul because we were down in the first half at Oregon. And he did it, and walked up and missed the one and one. So sometimes the best (inaudible). But he's a veteran guy, they were being aggressive, we spread it out, and I said to just get the guy to foul you. We're very cognizant of the bonus, the penalty, and when the other team's not in it, where we can turn up the heat, because a foul or two is not going to give them free throws, and also when we are. So I would like to improve that area.
Follow Connon on Twitter at @SamConnon
Follow All Bruins on Twitter at @FN_AllBruins
Like All Bruins on Facebook at @FN.AllBruins
Subscribe to All Bruins on YouTube
Read more UCLA stories: UCLA Bruins on Sports Illustrated
Read more UCLA men's basketball stories: UCLA Men's Basketball on Sports Illustrated
