UCLA Basketball: Mick Cronin Calls Out Bruins Star For Being 'Gun Shy' in Loss to WSU
The UCLA Bruins are back to their late December and early January ways. The Bruins dropped their 15th game of the season and their fourth game in a row.
It's been an ugly display of Bruin basketball in the last handful of weeks, and barring a miracle, this team will not participate in the big dance. Things have seemed to unravel for the Bruins, and their loss against Washington State was a microcosm of that.
The Bruins played scared, which was evident to their head coach, Mick Cronin. After the game, Cronin spoke to reporters and said his team passed up shots, especially UCLA big man Adem Bona, who got 'gun shy.'
“They played good, I thought they scrambled. We passed up shots, we are supposed to throw the ball inside, turn and score, and Adem got gun shy, he kept holding the ball, and we passed up some shots. But give them credit, give their defense credit on that.”
UCLA's play, and especially Bona's, was inexcusable. The team got outrebounded by 15, 39-24. Bona was only responsible for one of the 24 rebounds, and he only shot eight times in 21 minutes.
He was a nonfactor against the Cougars and did nothing else to impact the game significantly. Although the Bruins kept pace with them in the shooting department and turnovers, the Cougars' physicality on the boards was the difference in the game.
The Bruins only have two games remaining against the Arizona schools now. They'll look to finish the regular season strong and head into the Pac-12 tournament like the team we've become accustomed to in late January, or early February.
