Mick Cronin dismisses defensive statistics, not satisfied with effort

UCLA rates as one of the top defenses in the country by all of the analytical measures. Yet, Bruins head coach Mick Cronin is furious at his team’s defensive effort in the last couple games against Arizona and USC — both losses and UCLA’s first since November. The reason for breaking such a long winning streak? Defense, according to Cronin.

UCLA only gave up 58 total points against Arizona, who otherwise averages 82 points a game and is a huge matchup problem for a Bruins squad without much size. Still, after that performance last Saturday, Coach Cronin was furious at the defensive effort, and says he doesn’t care what the numbers say about it.

“I still think our defense was really bad,” he shared bluntly after the Arizona loss. “I don’t think we played the way we play at UCLA. At UCLA, we try and play with heart and intestinal fortitude, and I don’t think we played that way. I think we were offensive-sensitive all day. I’m not impressed with our defense at all today. I couldn’t care less what the final score was, I didn’t think we played hard until the game was over.”

UCLA did make a late push after trailing heavily for most of the game, but as Cronin notes, it was already far too late to complete a comeback.

The next time out for the Bruins, they fell to USC on the road — a Pac-12 rival that has simply had UCLA’s number since Cronin took over. In that contest, UCLA played even worse defense, allowing 77 points to a Trojans team that isn’t nearly as dangerous on the offensive end.

Mick Cronin wasn’t quite as angry over the defensive performance vs. USC as he was with the Arizona game. Instead, he credits the Trojans for making shots and playing great defense of their own, which in turn, led to easy transition opportunities off turnovers and missed shots.

“I have to look at the film. They made shots. Again, I’m trying to say you have to give the other team credit. They made some great shots. You have to give them some credit. Now, it’s hard to guard turnovers for layups. Your defense starts with your offense, especially on the road. Take care of the ball, get a quality shot, get fouled, and set your defense. It’s nothing new, we just didn’t get the job done. Again, give them credit. They turned up the heat, they created deflections, we didn’t handle it. Then they got going, and once they got going the crowd got behind them and they made some guard-able shots. They won the game. We’ll get back to work.”

UCLA was riding high, having won 14 in a row heading into the last two games. They were knocked off their block a bit but Cronin’s club is still sitting in prime position for a one-seed if they take care of business down the stretch of conference play.