Why Bruins’ Response Bothered Cronin at Michigan

The UCLA men’s basketball team’s quest for a second top-five win this season fell short on Saturday, by a long shot.

The Bruins went into Ann Arbor to face the No. 2-ranked Michigan Wolverines and got run out of the building, losing by 30 points. UCLA knew it was going to be a tough game, and the Bruins are far from the only team to suffer that kind of loss against Michigan this season. Still, head coach Mick Cronin was bothered by the way his team responded.

“I’m searching and begging for guys who will play for the team and not for stats,” Cronin told the media postgame. “I thought we took some horrendous, horrendous shots today, and the whole game plan was, ‘Do not take a bad shot, but do not turn the ball over.’”

Stalling Offense

The Bruins did not execute very well on that game plan. They shot just 38% from the field overall and were six-for-21 on three-point attempts. Those stats alone should tell you that they weren’t taking good shots, and while there certainly could’ve been more than 13 UCLA turnovers, that number is still too high, especially for facing this particular opponent.

It’s hard to beat a top-five team on the road at any time, but that lack of execution makes it even harder. UCLA executed well enough in the first half to only trail by two points at halftime, but it all fell apart in the second half.

“We were awful in the second half. We were God awful,” Cronin said. “We missed eight unguarded threes. UNGUARDED. If you’re going to come in here and win, you’ve got to score.”

Defensive Collapse

The Wolverines outscored the Bruins 46-18 after halftime to cruise to another easy win. Often, that’s a product of execution for both teams, and UCLA clearly didn’t deliver. The Bruins started missing shots, and Michigan took advantage of their moments of weakness to gain full control of the game, making 62% of its shots in the game overall and scoring 42 points inside the paint.

“It’s the worst second-half defensive shooting percentage of my career,” Cronin said. “Twenty-three years. They shot 78-percent, worst of my career, and I don’t need to look it up. And it’s not like I forgot how to coach defense now. They’re really good, but I would be really good, too, if I was shooting layups.”

No matter what shots Michigan was getting, it all came back to UCLA’s lack of executing the game plan. If they had better shot selection , they likely would’ve made more of them, limiting the easy chances Michigan had.

“When we went bad offensively, we weren’t tough enough to continue to defend or good enough defensively to stop them, to keep us in the game until we could make a shot.”

Instead, it’s another loss and a lesson for UCLA.

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