Mick Cronin after Minnesota loss: 'If I say anything, I throw players under the bus'

The UCLA Bruins suffered a frustrating loss to the Minnesota Golden Gophers 64-61 on Tuesday night. For head coach Mick Cronin, it was clearly a frustrating night.

At times, earlier in the season, Cronin received some criticism for comments he made where he seemed to be throwing the players under the bus. That included calling his players “delusional” and saying their minds are on other things. So, he was careful not to make comments directly about the players following the game.

“You’ll have to ask them that,” Cronin said. “I feel like we didn’t play well, and if I say anything, then I throw players under the bus. We didn’t play well, we were poorly coached. That’s why we don’t play well.”

Instead of pointing to any players, and avoiding that criticism for throwing anyone under the bus, Cronin was deliberate in putting the loss on coaching.

“We were so poorly coached that we didn’t know that Dawson Garcia was going to spin back on his left hand, we had two guys on him,” Cronin said. “And we let him lay it in. So, I guess we didn’t go over that. I guess we didn’t go over ‘Don’t let him just stand there and shoot it’ we didn’t go over ‘converge on him like everybody else in our league does’. I guess we didn’t go over it, so it’s all on me. If you let the other team’s leading scorer get 32, you deserve to lose.”

The biggest difference ended up coming on the free-throw line. There, the Bruins only made 47.4 percent of their free throws, missing 10 shots in a three-point game. Minnesota went 12 for 13 from the line.

Cronin could have earned his 500th win as a college head coach had the Bruins beaten Minnesota.

Mick Cronin calls out ‘hugely disappointing effort’ in loss to Minnesota

Beyond anything he chose to put on himself, Cronin also made it clear that he was frustrated with his team’s effort in the loss.

“I know you guys are going to talk about missed free throws. So, I really don’t know what you want me to say about that. It doesn’t help. But, our defense, even the last play, 25 [Lu’Cye Patterson] put his head down and drive guy. The guy guarding him acted like he didn’t know it, pressuring him 10 feet outside the three-point line for no reason, and there’s no help, there’ no rotation,” Cronin said.

“That’s all because we don’t rebound the ball. We get out rebounded — they get outrebounded on the season. They’re a negative rebounding team. They outrebound us. So, hugely disappointing effort. That’s really all I’ve got to say.”

UCLA will look to bounce back on Sunday when the Bruins are set to host Ohio State.