Sports
Accustomed to heartbreak, can UCLA's Mick Cronin get his Gonzaga breakthrough?
When Mick Cronin rewatched what might have been the most excruciating loss of his career, doing so only because he needed to scout the same opponent for a rematch the following season, the final sequence was pleasing.
UCLA’s Johnny Juzang extended his right arm to snag a rebound and rose toward the basket for a putback that tied the score against Gonzaga with 3.3 seconds remaining in the overtime of their 2021 Final Four classic.
Around that moment, Cronin pressed pause.
That meant Jalen Suggs never took the inbounds pass, never frantically dribbled just a few steps past halfcourt and never launched the shot that bounced off the backboard and through the net, breaking the heart of every Bruin.
“That shot?” Cronin told The Times this month. “No, I’ve never seen it.”
Two years later, in the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16, the Bulldogs gave the UCLA coach another reason to selectively watch the replay. Only a few moments after Amari Bailey’s three-pointer gave the Bruin a late lead, Gonzaga’s Julian Strawther got it back with another game-winning heave on the edge of the March Madness logo at center court.
What are the chances the same opponent crushes your soul twice in essentially the same way?
“Yeah, I know,” Cronin said when reminded. “I mean, it is what it is. Hopefully, the ball bounces your way sometimes.”
Saturday would be a good place to start against the team that has tormented Cronin the most. He’s 0-4 against Gonzaga with the Bruins — and suffered another bitter overtime defeat against coach Mark Few’s team in 2009 while coaching Cincinnati — heading into a nationally broadcast clash between No. 22 UCLA (10-2) and the No. 14 Bulldogs (9-3) at the Intuit Dome.
By nature, coaches tend to hold on to losses more than wins; it’s what drives them to keep pushing, trying to be the team on the other side of the ledger. Invariably, the toughest losses are the ones that end their season.
“At UCLA,” Cronin said, “I’m 9-3 in the NCAA tournament and all three of our losses were brutal.”
Over a career spanning three schools and 22 seasons, Cronin has won 490 games. Possibly his three most painful losses — two against Gonzaga and one against North Carolina — came within the last five seasons. All were in the NCAA tournament.
Gonzaga guard Jalen Suggs celebrates after making the winning basket to eliminate UCLA in the NCAA Final Four on April 3, 2021.
(Michael Conroy / Associated Press)
Cronin said the 2021 Gonzaga loss was harder to stomach than the 2023 Gonzaga loss because the latter setback came with top defender Jaylen Clark and starting big man Adem Bona sidelined because of injuries.
“It would have been an unbelievable win without those two guys,” Cronin said. “To me, we were a massive underdog and I don’t know how much gas we had left in the tank playing without those two guys. So I don’t know how much further we’d have gone.”
The Bruins might as well have been shorthanded in the 2021 Final Four matchup given that starting guard Jules Bernard woke up that morning with a bad case of food poisoning. Severely weakened, he took just three shots and finished with five points in 18 minutes.
“Those are the things that bother me more than crazy shots or anything like that because the injuries, it’s like, you know, you can’t prepare for it, you can’t plan for it, there’s nothing you can do about it,” Cronin said. “It just happens.”
A year later, against North Carolina in the Sweet 16, forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. missed his final nine shots while playing on a badly sprained ankle that he had injured only days earlier in the final minutes of a victory over Saint Mary’s.
“I was just about to get him out” of the game, Cronin said with a dark laugh.
UCLA remained in excellent position to beat the Tar Heels even with Jaquez basically playing on one leg. The Bruins led by three points with less than two minutes to play, then everything that could go wrong for them did.
UCLA’s Tyger Campbell, left, and Jaime Jaquez Jr. react during the final seconds of the Bruins’ 73-66 loss to North Carolina in the Sweet 16 of the 2022 NCAA tournament.
(Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)
A Caleb Love three-pointer was off the mark, the ball bouncing off the rim and within an inch of going out of bounds before North Carolina teammate Armando Bacot made a wild, over-the-shoulder save directly to Love, whose next three-pointer went in. Love added another three-pointer, Jaquez’s cold streak deepened with three more misses, and the Tar Heels went on to win by five points.
It was a sequence reminiscent of last weekend’s game between the teams, when the Bruins lost a 16-point lead during a 76-74 setback against the Tar Heels in the CBS Sports Classic. Of course, a December defeat never hurts as much as one in March.
“I just think that that team,” Cronin said of the 2022 version that lost to North Carolina, “we were deep enough that we could have won the title.”
Cronin acknowledged the difficulty in processing the repeated heartbreak, saying “you’ve got to grow up and be mature.”
“Yeah, it’s not easy to deal with, but look, I’ve got pretty decent perspective in life,” Cronin said. “I’m the son of a high school coach who rose to be the coach at UCLA. So if I start complaining, I don’t think many people are going to listen, nor should they. Like, nobody’s feeling sorry for me.
“So, I mean, I just think sometimes it’s not in the cards; hopefully, one day it’s in the cards for you. All you can do is keep working at it.”
Besides, one of Cronin’s biggest failures led to perhaps his greatest success. What might have happened if his Cincinnati team didn’t blow a 22-point lead against Nevada in the second round of the 2018 NCAA tournament?
“That one, I kind of put in the can,” Cronin said. “Yeah, it was brutal, but if that didn’t happen I’d probably still be there. They’d probably have given me a lifetime contract or something crazy like that and I’m not here. I probably wouldn’t be the coach at UCLA.”
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An intense brawl broke out during the Eagles-Commanders game in the fourth quarter Saturday night, resulting in three ejections.
The fight began after Philadelphia’s Saquon Barkley scored on a 2-point conversion to boost his team’s lead to 19 points with less than five minutes left.
Washington’s Javon Kinlaw and Quan Martin and Eagles offensive lineman Tyler Steen were disqualified after being flagged for unnecessary roughness.
There was some pushing and shoving and a lot of jawing, and officials threw six flags as the chaos ensued.
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Tyler Steen (56) of the Philadelphia Eagles and Mike Sainristil (0) of the Washington Commanders fight in the fourth quarter at Northwest Stadium Dec. 20, 2025, in Landover, Md. (Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
Eventually, order was restored, and Barkley, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts and Commanders linebacker Bobby Wagner spoke to each other.
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The Eagles won the game, 29-18, to clinch their second straight division title, becoming the first team to win back-to-back NFC East titles since the 2004 Eagles did it.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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UCLA women’s basketball coach Cori Close could not have imagined a better way for her team to wrap up nonconference play than Saturday afternoon’s 106-44 trouncing of Long Beach State at Pauley Pavilion.
Coming off Tuesday’s 115-28 triumph over Cal Poly San Luis Obispo — UCLA’s largest margin of victory during the NCAA era — the Bruins picked up where they left off, leading wire-to-wire for their fifth consecutive win since suffering their lone loss to Texas on Nov. 26.
“We’re growing … we had a couple of lapses today and we’re not there yet, but we’re heading in the right direction,” Close said. “I love the selflessness of this team.”
Senior guard Gabriela Jaquez led the way with 17 points and made five of six three-point shots. Angela Dugalic added 13 points while Gianna Kneepkens had 10 points and 10 rebounds. All 11 Bruins who played scored at least one basket.
UCLA forward Sienna Betts, top, and Long Beach State forward Kennan Ka dive for the ball during the Bruins’ win Saturday.
(Jessie Alcheh / Associated Press)
Playing their last game in Westwood until Jan. 3, when they will host crosstown rival USC, the Bruins (11-1 overall, 1-0 in Big Ten) looked every bit like the No. 4 team in the country, improving to 6-0 at home. They are ranked fourth in both the Associated Press and coaches polls behind Connecticut, Texas and South Carolina.
“I’m really proud of our nonconference schedule. Not many local teams are willing to play us, so I want to compliment Long Beach State,” Close said. “Our starting guards [Charlisse Leger-Walker and Kiki Rice] combined for 17 assists and one turnover. We have depth and balance and that’s a great luxury to have.”
Jaquez scored nine of the Bruins’ first 12 points. She opened the scoring with a three-pointer from the top of the key and added triples on back-to-back possessions to increase the margin to eight points. Her fourth three-pointer, from the right corner, extended the lead to 21-5.
Sienna Betts’ jumper in the lane put UCLA up by 19 at the end of the first quarter. The sophomore finished with 14 points and senior Lauren Betts added 17. The sisters’ parents, Michelle and Andy, played volleyball and basketball, respectively, for Long Beach State. Sienna wears her mom’s No. 16 while Lauren dons her dad’s No. 51.
Rice’s steal and layup made it 46-18 with 3:28 left in the first half and Leger-Walker’s tip-in at the buzzer gave the Bruins a 34-point advantage at halftime. Rice had a complete game, contributing 15 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, four steals and one block.
The result continued the Bruins’ recent dominance against the Beach. UCLA has won six straight head-to-head meetings, including a 51-point blowout in the schools’ previous matchup last December, when Close became the all-time winningest coach in program history by earning her 297th victory to surpass Billie Moore (296-181). Long Beach State has not beaten the Bruins since 1987 under Joan Bonvicini, who posted a 16-1 record versus UCLA in her 12 seasons at the Beach from 1979 to 1991.
The Bruins’ primary focus on defense was slowing down sophomore guard JaQuoia Jones-Brown, who entered Saturday averaging 17.2 points per game. She scored 10 of the Beach’s 11 points in the first quarter but was held scoreless the rest of the way. She has scored in double figures in nine of 10 games. Guard Christy Reynoso added six points for Beach (0-10 overall, 0-2 in Big West).
The Bruins travel to Columbus on Dec. 28 to face No. 21 Ohio State (9-1).
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Despite dropping their regular-season finale to in-state rival Texas, the Texas A&M Aggies qualified for the College Football Playoff and earned the right to host a first-round game at Kyle Field.
Nick Saban, who won seven national championships during his storied coaching career, experienced his fair share of hostile environments on road trips.
But the former Alabama coach and current ESPN college football analyst floated a surprising theory about how Texas A&M turns up the volume to try to keep opposing teams off balance.
A view of the midfield logo before the game between the Texas A&M Aggies and the LSU Tigers at Kyle Field on Oct. 26, 2024 in College Station, Texas. (Tim Warner/Getty Images)
While Saban did describe Kyle Field as one of the sport’s “noisiest” atmospheres, he also claimed the stadium’s operators have leaned on artificial crowd noise to pump up the volume during games.
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“I did more complaining to the SEC office—it was more than complaining that I don’t really want to say on this show—about this is the noisiest place. Plus, they pipe in noise… You can’t hear yourself think when you’re playing out there,” he told Pat McAfee on Thursday afternoon.
Adding crowd noise during games does not explicitly violate NCAA rules. However, the policy does mandate a certain level of consistency.
A general view of Kyle Field before the start of the game between Texas A&M Aggies and the Alabama Crimson Tide at Kyle Field on Oct. 12, 2019 in College Station, Texas. (John Glaser/USA TODAY Sports)
According to the governing body’s rulebook: “Artificial crowd noise, by conference policy or mutual consent of the institutions, is allowed. The noise level must be consistent throughout the game for both teams. However, all current rules remain in effect dealing with bands, music and other sounds. When the snap is imminent, the band/music must stop playing. As with all administrative rules, the referee may stop the game and direct game management to adjust.”
General view of fans watch the play in the first half between the Texas A&M Aggies and the Ball State Cardinals at Kyle Field on Sept. 12, 2015 in College Station, Texas. (Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
Regardless of the possible presence of artificial noise, the Miami Hurricanes will likely face a raucous crowd when Saturday’s first-round CFP game kicks off at 12 p.m. ET.
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