Mick Cronin addresses UCLA's case for a No. 1 seed in NCAA Tournament
Mick Cronin has talked on and off about UCLA‘s NCAA Tournament projects for the last few weeks after his team was projected as the eighth-ranked team in the initial tournament projections. But as his team finished its standout regular season Saturday, Cronin decided to stay away from the debate.
When asked by Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times if this win has secured a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament after defeating Arizona, Cronin stayed away from directly answering the question.
“That’s for you,” Cronin said. “I told you I threw you a lay up man. You got to slam it down. Like I said the other night, Bill, I said all I want is for my team to be treated fairly. That’s all you can say. But there’s games left. We’re all going to conference tournaments.”
The Bruins ended the regular season with a 27-4 record and 18-2 record in conference play. They also went 17-0 at Pauley Pavilion.
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UCLA is currently riding a 10-game winning streak that stretches back to January. Their four losses all were to teams projected to make the NCAA Tournament by ESPN, including two teams projected to finish as No. 2 seeds.
“You watch it and you think, well, these guys can win a lot of ways,” Cronin said. “They got great seniors. Obviously we got to see what’s up with Jaylen Clark, but like I said, we got other guys. They’re on a scholarship for a reason. It’s a hard accomplishment. The sad piece of college basketball is that three weeks from now, nobody is gonna care about the regular season.
“You’re either in the Sweet 16 or you’re not. That’s just how it is. It’s sad. It’s sad because there was a time. The hardest thing to do is have sustained excellence, go 18-2 in a league with a top-10 team. That’s not easy. Versus getting hot for two weeks on a neutral court. A lot of teams do it. But that’s the life we lead as college coaches. It just is what it is. But you follow us all the time so you understand how hard it is to grind it out and dominantly win a league like this, which would make you think we should be higher seed.”