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Mick Cronin claims UCLA was 'not given any chance to win in the second half'

Barkley-Truaxby:Barkley Truax•01/11/25•

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Mick Cronin was ejected from No. 22 UCLA‘s loss to Maryland on the road on Friday night. As Maryland grew its lead by as many as 24 points, Cronin gave the officials an earful throughout the contest.

After the game, Cronin revealed that he “tried to get thrown,” from the matchup in an attempt to send a message to his team. Despite this, the Bruins dropped the cross-country road trip 79-61 and have now lost their last three games.

“In defense of my guys, I didn’t think we were given any chance to win in the second half,” Cronin said. “I let [referee] Jeff Anderson and I hit the showers.”

Cronin spoke to Anderson for roughly a minute during a break in the second half before he was eventually tossed.

“I told him, ‘You’ve got to give us a chance. You’re not giving us a chance to win,'” Cronin revealed.

While Cronin disagrees with some of the calls the officials made on the floor, the stat sheet shows UCLA committing only two more fouls than Maryland in 40 minutes of action. Maryland, however, shot 21 free throws during the contest compared to the Bruins’ 14.

Maryland also recorded five more blocks than UCLA, six more steals and had five less turnovers. The Terrapins scored 26 points off those turnovers during that matchup, 11 of which came on fast break points. The Terrapins also shot an efficent 54% (27-50) from the flood, including hitting 7 of their 19 3-point attempts during on the night while holding thr Bruins to 41.5% (22-53) shooting.

As UCLA looks to move past its losing stream, Cronin called on his players to step up moving forward.

“I said this on the radio, right now, I’m frustrated with my players and my staff,” Cronin said. “And it’s been this way all year with this team. They’re good guys. The problem, I told them, I said, the toughest guy in the room can’t be me every day. It can’t. It can’t. It’s just, it can’t. You can only do so much.”

The Bruins will look now toook ahead to Monday, where they’ll head back to the east coast for a matchup against Rutgers. Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m. ET and will air live on FS1.