Mick Cronin 'wasn't pleased at all' with Dylan Andrews vs. Idaho State

The UCLA Bruins earned a comfortable win on Wednesday night over the Idaho State Bengals. Despite that, head coach Mick Cronin knows that there is still plenty of room for the team to improve moving forward this season.

In particular, Mick Cronin wasn’t pleased with the play of Dylan Andrews, who came off the bench in the game. The defensive play of Andrews was the biggest place where Cronin admitted he wasn’t happy with his performance.

“Wasn’t pleased at all,” Mick Cronin said. “I thought [Dylan] Darling scored every time on him.”

Darling did have a solid game for Idaho State. In 25 minutes he had 13 points and three assists. That was second on the team in scoring and led the Bengals in assists.

For Cronin, the defense was a major issue for the entire UCLA team, particularly later in the game with the Bruins giving up 43 second-half points.

“I thought for 30 minutes, we played great, and then we got up 28, and a bunch of guys were selfish,” Cronin said. “Their mind wasn’t on defense – just trying to get a steal and get a layup, just go to the other end and get mine. We became everything that I despise in the last 10 minutes. But in the first 30 minutes, we were great.”

Andrews is coming off a left groin injury. That forced him to miss UCLA’s two previous games against Boston University and Lehigh. Both of those ended up being comfortable wins for the Bruins, but it was still exciting to get Andrews back for the Idaho State game. At the same time, given his issues on defense, it’s easy to wonder just how healthy he was feeling.

In 13 minutes, Andrews had three points on one of two shooting. That shot was from three-point range. He also had one defensive rebound, four assists, and two turnovers. All of those numbers are below his career averages for a single game.

Still, it’s been a solid start to the season for Cronin and UCLA. The Bruins are 4-1 to start the season, haven’t lost at home, and are now on a three-game winning streak. The only loss that UCLA suffered this season was against New Mexico in a neutral site game.

UCLA will be back in action on Friday, November 22nd against Cal State Fullerton. That will be another home game for the Bruins, who don’t leave Pauley Pavilion again until a December game against Oregon.