Mick Cronin deserves credit for the way that he has turned around the UCLA program since he arrived.
He’s instilled a culture that wasn’t there in the years before he got there. There’s a togetherness on that roster. There’s a toughness that permeates every player that is currently in the program. That toughness manifests differently in Westwood than it did in Cincinnati. Those Bearcat teams were built on their ability to defend. They were going to force turnovers, they were going to block shots, they were going to kick your ass on the glass, they were going to make sure you left Fifth-Third Arena with a dead leg, a bloodied leg and an empty bottle of Tylenol.
His UCLA teams are … well, they’re not that. Mick made the NCAA tournament the last nine seasons that he was at Cincinnati. He never had a team rank outside the top 30 in defensive efficiency, according to KenPom, and only once did he had a team that was not ranked inside the top 22. This UCLA team is currently ranked 55th in defensive efficiency. They were 86th on the day the NCAA tournament started.
This group is mentally tough. They can take a punch. They can handle adversity and keep pushing. There is no quit on this roster.
You lose your star point guard to the G League Ignite program? So what. Keep fighting.
You get smacked in the first game of the season by a San Diego State team that lost a first round pick? So what, we’ll win six of the next seven.
You lose Chris Smith to a torn ACL? So what, we’ll win our next six games.
You lose Jalen Hill for the season? So what, we’ll finish 13-6 in the league and 17-8 overall.
You are down 11 to Michigan State at the half of a play-in game? So what. Keep fighting. You’re down by five with 1:29 left? So what. You blow an 11-point halftime lead? So what. You lose your leading scorer to fouls? So what. You give up a three at the buzzer to force overtime? So what.
That’s the story of this UCLA season. That’s the culture that Cronin has instilled. That did not exist in the program before Cronin got there. He should be commended for that.
But the credit for this run to the Elite Eight should fall squarely at the feet of the players. Mick is a really, really good coach, so I feel comfortable saying that he’s smart enough to know that diagraming plays that end with contested, off-the-dribble jumpers is not necessarily ideal. Those are the shots that UCLA is getting right now.
And they’re hitting them.
Johnny Juzang is the guy that caught fire in OT against Michigan State and the first half against BYU. Jules Bernard is the guy that went nuts at the end of the first half of the win against Alabama. Jaime Jaquez is the guy that made three ridiculous jumpers to carry UCLA in overtime to advance to the Elite Eight.
They are the ones that deserve the lion’s share of the credit here.
I think even Mick would tell you the same.
SO WHAT IS A CHARGE?
I’m not going to spend too much time on this because there is nothing less interesting than complaining about officiating.
That said, the only thing that pisses me off more than the NCAA’s insistence on finding a way to pack as many TV timeouts into a 40 minute basketball game as possible is when referees decide a game by swallowing their whistle to try and avoid … deciding a game.
That, I think, is what happened in UCLA-Alabama.
With less than 20 seconds left in a game that where Alabama led by a point, Tyger Campbell was not whistled for a charge on this play, which allowed Cody Riley to score a go-ahead bucket:
But 40 seconds into the second half, this was ruled an offensive foul on Herb Jones:
This was the second offensive foul that he was whistled for in the first 42 seconds of the game, taking Alabama’s point guard and arguably their best player out of the mix for the majority of the first half. He’s their best defensive player as well. Asking him to play the entirety of the game in foul trouble limits his effectiveness.
Those calls had an INCREDIBLE impact on this game. I would love for someone to explain to me why one is a charge and the other is not a charge, because I do not see a difference.
And the fact that these plays were officiated differently played a major role in why Alabama lost.
This should not be acceptable on college basketball’s biggest stage.
JUWAN HOWARD’S MASTERCLASS
I was wondering what Juwan Howard was going to do to counter the length, athleticism and switching that Florida State can throw at you defensively, and the answer was devastatingly simple: He just flashed a forward to the high-post and played a little High-Low:
The man guarding the second big is who Florida State was using to send help to the post. So Howard used the player that wasn’t being guarded as a pressure release, essentially allowing his guys to play two-on-two in the paint against smaller Florida State defenders.
What happened?
In the second half, Michigan scored 18 field goals. Of those 18, 17 were scored in the paint. And of those 17, 14 were dunks or layups.
That, my friends, is the stuff ass-kickings are made of.
I don’t know who had the scout or developed the game-plan for Michigan today, so I’ll just go ahead and say that everyone on that Michigan State earned their paycheck.
USC CAN BEAT GONZAGA
I’ll have plenty more on this coming in the next couple of days, but HOLY SHIT, I cannot imagine a more enticing Elite Eight matchup than this.
USC has the best two-point percentage defense in college basketball, thanks in large part to Evan Mobley’s impact on a basketball game. He should be able to limit the effectiveness of Drew Timme, who is a major reason why Gonzaga has the highest two-point percentage in KenPom’s database.
Gonzaga’s a juggernaut.
USC’s 2-3 zone might be the one defense that can slow them down.
Two top five picks on the floor.
I’m all the way here for it.