Mick Cronin calls out 'hugely disappointing effort' in loss to Minnesota

The UCLA Bruins returned home on Tuesday for an important homestand late in the regular season. Frustratingly, for head coach Mick Cronin, the Bruins suffered a 64-61 loss to the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

Following the game, Cronin called out his team, sharing that he was hugely disappointed in the effort that UCLA played with.

“I know you guys are going to talk about missed free throws,” Mick Cronin said. “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.”

For the game, Minnesota snagged 33 rebounds compared to 32 snagged by UCLA. They also made two more three-point shots in the game than UCLA did. However, 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.

“That’s all because we don’t rebound the ball,” Cronin said. “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.”

The game against Minnesota could have been Mick Cronin’s 500th career win and he was excited to have his dad in attendance for the game. However, it went sideways on the Bruins. At one point, UCLA even led 29-12 and they ended up taking an 11-point lead into the half, making the game even more frustrating.

“You’ll have to ask them that. 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. 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.”

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