LOS ANGELES — Yes, UCLA’s first men’s basketball season in the Big Ten has been a grind of major proportions. But Mick Cronin’s teams do develop a survival instinct — you either learn to adapt or go home — and maybe that’s blossoming before our eyes.
The Bruins started January with four straight conference losses — on the road at Nebraska, Maryland and Rutgers and at home against a Michigan team that had been lying in wait, in town for three days after playing USC while the Bruins were flying back from Nebraska.
The Bruins’ struggles with their crazy-quilt schedule have been well chronicled. But things might be starting to turn. They’ve followed that four-game losing streak with four straight victories, the most recent an 82-76 victory over USC in their annual visit to Galen Center. That one, at least, seems to be familiar territory and a familiar game day in a season of change.
And maybe there’s room for further optimism. UCLA (15-6 overall, 6-4 Big Ten) does have tough appointments still to come, at No. 17 Illinois and at No. 11 Purdue and at home against No. 15 Oregon and No. 8 Michigan State. But starting with Thursday’s game against the Ducks at Pauley Pavilion, the Bruins will play six of their final 10 regular-season games at home.
“We just got sick of losing, honestly” sophomore guard Eric Dailey Jr. said. “Like, you know, we got sick of people talking about us, talking about the way we play and things and media and all that stuff. So once we got sick of that, we just came together as a team and just said, ‘Forget it, we going to just hoop.’”
It works best when the players take the initiative.
Going into Monday night, the Bruins were 33rd in both the NCAA’s NET — a key component for the NCAA Tournament selection committee — and the KenPom.com metric. USC was 73rd in the NET and 67th on KenPom.com.
But this was not going to be a breeze, by any means. The Trojans (12-8, 4-5) stayed within striking distance and seemed in position to steal it late in the game, pulling within 73-72 with 1:54 left, but four of their eight missed free throws came in the final 3 1/2 minutes, and UCLA pulled away by making its free throws at the end.
And consider that the Bruins played the final five minutes without starting point guard Dylan Andrews, who cramped up, and the whole game without leading scorer Tyler Bilodeau, who injured his ankle early in Friday’s victory at Washington.
Bilodeau tried to convince Cronin during Monday’s shootaround that he felt well enough to go, without success.
“(TV analyst) Bill Raftery was here and Raf said, ‘What do you think?’” after watching Bilodeau, Cronin said. “I said, ‘Raf, he looks like me and you, and that’s not a good thing.’ I’m 53, and Raf’s 83.”
This meant more minutes for Spanish sophomore Aday Mara, whose game and physique are still developing. He has good moments and not so good moments, but he made 6 of 11 shots for 12 points and added 11 rebounds and five blocked shots. And the sight of the 7-foot-3, 240-pound Mara, with his pipe-cleaner arms and legs, taking the ball in the post late in the game and bullying his way to the basket had to be heartening.
It’s a matter of a 19-year-old still learning and still searching for confidence. Cronin said he’s told his players to encourage Mara to keep shooting.
“They know he’s a scorer because they see him every day in practice,” Cronin said. “But, you know, he’s a young kid and he hadn’t been in that type of role taking a lot of shots. So I needed his teammates to tell him, you know, when you get it, just go up, keep going up.”
See: Players, initiative, etc.
Cronin also added this: “He’s a young kid in an old players’ era.”
This is not to be understated. The transfer portal has changed college basketball roster construction dramatically, and the makeup of the USC team is a perfect example.
“I got the UCLA job (in 2019), and part of the reason I took it was we played (them), so I knew, ‘Look, they got all these guys,’” Cronin said. “Jules Bernard, Dave Singleton, Cody Riley. Tyger (Campbell) was sitting out. They signed Jaime (Jaquez Jr.), who I tried to recruit.
“I got the UCLA job and didn’t sign a player. Nobody transferred, pre-portal. Coach (Eric) Musselman gets the (USC) job and everybody’s gone except (Harrison) Hornery, who’s smart enough to get a USC degree. Or maybe two. I mean, imagine you got to get a whole new team. That’s crazy. So I think that they’re having a hell of a year for the situation.”
With all the transfers on the floor for both teams Monday night, the one who had the most challenging night was the one most familiar to USC fans. Former Trojan and current Bruin Kobe Johnson was often booed when he touched the ball, had seven points, two assists, two steals and a turnover and fouled out with 1:54 left. That delighted most of an energetic crowd of 7,532, but the Trojans fans’ happiness was brief.
While UCLA’s home schedule is back-loaded, USC has five home games and three significant trips — at Northwestern and Purdue, at Maryland and Rutgers and at Oregon — before its regular-season finale at Pauley Pavilion on March 8. (Then again, the Trojans are 3-1 on the road in conference play so far.)
The top 15 of the Big Ten’s 18 teams will qualify for the conference tournament in Indianapolis, with the top four receiving a double-bye and the next five getting a single bye. Currently, UCLA is sixth in the conference standings and USC is 11th.
And all it takes is a hot streak at the right time. For programs throughout college basketball, that’s enough inspiration to keep going.
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