Mick Cronin shares key to keeping players motivated to end the season

No. 4 UCLA is coming off its longest road trip of the season with visits to Utah and Colorado and the Bruins are just trying to make sure they power through the finish at the end of the season.

It’s been an incredible season, one in which UCLA is well-positioned to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament so long as it takes care of business in the final two games of the season. Both are at home, against Arizona State and Arizona.

“We talk about it, but they’re not rookies,” coach Mick Cronin said. “They know. They know it was a long road trip with the extra day. Our furthest one. It’s going to be our shortest one in a few years.”

The focus on earning a No. 1 seed in the Big Dance is not a new one for the Bruins, who have had that in mind most of the season.

In fact, one of the visitors to practice earlier this season helped the guys cement it as not only a realistic goal, but a necessary one.

“We talked earlier in the year,” Cronin explained. “Ben Howland came to practice and he said, ‘Look, you guys got to do whatever you gotta do to get the one seed in the West, and you can do it.’ He was talking to Tyger (Campbell) and Jaime (Jaquez Jr.) and David (Singleton), he goes, ‘You guys are great players,’ he watches practice and he’s like, ‘You guys are great leaders. You’ve got to try to get the one seed in the West.’

“That’s what he just, he was pounding it to those guys in his talk after practice. They’ve been focused on that. I told them to do it you’re going to have to win the Pac-12. But reality is we’re going to have to win this week. If we’re going to do that we have to win two this week. I don’t have to sell them on that, they’re well aware of that.”

UCLA ready to end the season on high note

The Bruins are currently riding an eight-game winning streak and they’d certainly like to extend it to double-digits.

There’s plenty on the line, like a home winning streak and Senior Day come the weekend.

“We’ve got our home winning streak and, like I alluded to, you’ve got some guys that have had great careers at UCLA that this is their last week playing in front of their students and fans, at home, obviously,” Cronin said.

UCLA will take on Arizona State on Thursday night at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN before hosting No. 8 Arizona on Saturday at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Needless to say, there’s plenty at stake.

“They understand this week’s big for them,” Cronin said.