Mick Cronin shares how UCLA addresses loss of Jaylen Clark

Injuries often come at unfortunate times, but few could have been worse than the timing of UCLA guard Jaylen Clark suffering a season-ending injury in the regular season finale.

The loss of Jaylen Clark took out a massive chunk of the Bruins’ backcourt, with Clark widely regarded as a terrific defender and contributing plenty to the scoring efforts as well.

Prior to his injury, Clark was averaging 13.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 1.9 assists per game, absolutely stuffing the stat sheet for one of the nation’s best teams out West.

Yet the Bruins have been nonplussed.

“It’s because the way we operate all year. Our other guys, you got a scholarship for a reason,” coach Mick Cronin explained. “And we operate under it’s never OK to lose. So doesn’t matter who’s playing.”

UCLA is sticking to that mantra so far, having weathered the storm following the Clark injury.

The Bruins went 2-1 in the Pac-12 Tournament, then have won back-to-back games in the NCAA Tournament, first over UNC Ashville and then second over Northwestern.

No injury excuses for UCLA

Of course, those wins won’t make the loss of Jaylen Clark sting any less. He’d be quite the piece to have as the NCAA Tournament gets deeper.

“Now, maybe a little bit harder to win. Might have to make some adjustments,” Cronin said. “But we’re going to tell you how to win and we’ve got to be tough enough to figure it out. That’s just what it boils down to. You’ve got to be tough enough to do whatever you’ve got to do to win the game.”

The going is about to get a whole lot tougher with Gonzaga coming up. The Zags are the No. 1 team in the KenPom.com’s adjusted offensive efficiency rankings.

And they’ve got an elite scorer.

“So somehow we’ve got to find a way to contain Drew Timme and not give up a lot of threes regardless who plays for us because we’ve got some guys day to day,” Cronin said.

But UCLA will make no excuses, win or lose. Cronin doesn’t allow his team to play those games.

“If it doesn’t go our way, I’m not going to come in here and say we lost because these two guys weren’t playing or these three guys weren’t playing,” Cronin said. “We’re still going to get to play 5-on-5. You’ve got to be tough enough to figure it out if you want to win.”

UCLA and Gonzaga are slated for a 9:45 p.m. ET tipoff, with the game slated to be nationally televised on CBS.