Mick Cronin’s brand of basketball — tough, relentless, hard to score a point on — would figure to play well in a conference that values those traits.
So how’s it going for the UCLA coach and his team in their new conference?
“We’re struggling with the adjustment to Big Ten basketball,” Cronin acknowledged Thursday.
The Bruins have lost four consecutive games against conference veterans after winning two games against fellow Big Ten newcomers Washington and Oregon.
UCLA’s issues go well beyond not resembling one of Cronin’s better teams because of spotty guard play and a dip on defense. The coach said his players weren’t holding up against counterparts who embraced a more physical style.
They’ve been pushed around, beaten up and worn down by opponents who have been far tougher in beating the Bruins (11-6 overall, 2-4 Big Ten) by an average of 13 points during their losing streak.
“Big Ten basketball is different,” Cronin said. “It’s a much more physical game.”
The Big Ten’s motto — “Dream big” — might be more like “Dream of bigs” when it comes to a team that often uses 6-foot-9 forward Tyler Bilodeau as its biggest player. Could UCLA buttress itself by using more of 7-3 center Aday Mara and 6-9 forward William Kyle III?
“We’ve tried,” Cronin said, noting Mara’s needless fouling and inability to get a rebound against Rutgers and Kyle’s lack of consistent production as reasons for their limited minutes. “It’s not how big you are. It’s how big a guy plays.”
By that measure, 6-6 forward Kobe Johnson can walk tall since he’s the team’s leading rebounder (5.7 per game) despite being its sixth-biggest player. Cronin said the coaching staff has had talks with Mara (3.2 rebounds in 9.1 minutes per game) and Kyle (2.5 rebounds in 10.7 minutes per game) about being more productive but needed players to hold themselves accountable.
“You know, at some point, guys,” Cronin said to a small group of reporters, “you’ve got to have some players that say, ‘Enough’s enough.’ ”
Cronin’s Cincinnati players often tussled with one another in practice, he said, as a way to show they felt losing was unacceptable.
“There’s got to be a standard, you’ve got to fight through things, it just can’t be OK,” Cronin said. “It can’t be OK in the locker room. It can’t just be me thinking it can’t be OK, so we’ll see. … This is a challenge for people in the [transfer] portal era. Do you really care or are you a rent-a-player?”
Johnson, guard Sebastian Mack and forward Eric Dailey Jr. were among those who spoke up this week, Cronin said, but needed to back up their words with their play heading into a pivotal game against Iowa (12-5, 3-3) on Friday evening at Pauley Pavilion.
“We’ve just been trying to keep an emphasis that we gotta stay together no matter what ’cause we were just on the other side of this last year,” guard Skyy Clark said, referring to the team’s success in December. “You know, we were winning a lot of games, we were feeling good. So, we know we can do that ’cause we’ve already done it so we just gotta get back on track.”
Among the fixes UCLA seeks are better defense and less fouling. The good news? One can lead to the other. The Bruins’ recent fouling spree has been sparked by being out of position on defense, prompting players to grab to prevent easy baskets. There have also been some silly fouls such as Johnson whacking a Rutgers player deep in the backcourt several minutes into the game, forcing him to sit out the rest of the first half with two fouls.
UCLA’s defensive dropoff has been reflected in a lack of deflections. The team hasn’t met Cronin’s desired threshold of 40 deflections — defined as tipped passes, steals, blocks or loose balls collected — during its losing streak. Against Rutgers, the Bruins logged just 28 deflections despite pressing the entire game.
Pick and roll defense has also been a teamwide problem, the guards failing to funnel ballhandlers toward the big men and the big men failing to stop dribble penetration.
Almost nothing has looked like the Bruins wanted it to in their new conference.
“We gotta get back to how we started the season off,” Johnson said, “and get back to playing that brand of basketball.”
Injury updates
Clark acknowledged that his shoulder continued to bother him after absorbing multiple blows this month against Nebraska.
The pain started when Cornhuskers forward Berke Buyuktuncel, a UCLA transfer, pulled him to the court, and it was exacerbated when Clark ran into a screen and later fell on the same area. Clark said he sustained a deep bone bruise and a minor sprain of the ligaments connecting the collarbone to the shoulder blade.
“It’s definitely been uncomfortable,” Clark said. “But once adrenaline kicks in [during games] it kind of loosens up a little bit. But, yeah, I’ve been doing a lot of rehab with [athletic trainer Tyler Lesher] and stuff so we’ve been getting to it.”
Cronin said point guard Dylan Andrews, who was limited to five minutes against Rutgers because of severe cold symptoms, was feeling better. Andrews was a full participant in the portion of practice open to reporters Thursday.
Etc.
A team official confirmed the game against Iowa would be held at Pauley Pavilion as UCLA prepared to resume in-person instruction next week after previously vacating campus in the wake of recent wildfires in Southern California.
