LOS ANGELES — Throughout UCLA’s first season in the Big Ten, Mick Cronin has experienced flashbacks trying to understand the nature of the conference’s treacherous schedule.

“I was in this league before,” he said at practice Feb. 17, “his name was ‘the Big East in 2011.’”

UConn was 9-9 and tied for ninth place in the Big East 2011 regular-season standings before winning 11 straight games to win the Big East Tournament and the NCAA Championship — an example that Cronin used to explain that no opponent can be taken lightly.

“When you’re in leagues like this,” the former Cincinnati coach said Jan. 21, “you just got to win and get to the next one.”

Simply put, in this first iteration of the 18-team Big Ten, any win is a respected victory. UCLA (20-8 overall, 11-6 Big Ten) certainly learned that the hard way in a 64-61 loss to 16th-place Minnesota on Feb. 18, before grinding out a 69-61 win against 10th-place Ohio State on Sunday.

Purdue (19-9, 11-6), who the Bruins will face at 5 p.m. Friday in West Lafayette, Indiana, has found that out recently, too, in the midst of a four-game skid. The Boilermakers dropped seven spots to 20th in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll after a 73-58 loss at Indiana on Sunday. They’re hungry to end that slump in general, not to mention Purdue, UCLA and Maryland are tied for fifth in the Big Ten and the loser could be out of play for a double-bye in the conference tournament.

“Definitely makes them more dangerous,” Bruins guard Skyy Clark said Wednesday of Purdue.

Prior to its recent fall, Purdue was exceeding expectations in its first season since two-time Player of the Year Zach Edey graduated. Junior guard Braden Smith ranked as high as third in Evan Miya’s Top 10 players, but has since slid out during their losing streak. Smith shoulders the load for Purdue, averaging 15.8 points per game and the second-most assists in the nation (8.6). He’s a crafty guard that snakes around ball screens, seeking his shot and finding teammates when the defense pressures him.

Junior forward Trey Kaufman-Renn has stepped up in Edey’s stead, increasing his point total from 6.4 ppg in his sophomore season, to 19.2. He and Smith make for one of the best pick-and-roll duos in the nation.

If UCLA is to beat Purdue, it can’t then overlook Northwestern (15-13, 6-11) on Monday in Evanston, Illinois, as the Wildcats are fighting for a spot in the Big Ten Tournament and can use that as fuel like Minnesota did.

“That’s just life in a great league,” Cronin said Wednesday. There are currently five Big Ten teams in the Associated Press Top 25 and nine within the top 35 of KenPom’s net ratings, which tends to be an indicator for NCAA Tournament qualification.

Nebraska, which is among the four teams tied for 10th in the conference, is part of the “Last Four In” portion of ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s latest bracket projection. The Buckeyes are just above that in the “Last Four Byes.” Minnesota, which Cronin said “plays like an NCAA Tournament team,” has wins over UCLA, Oregon and No. 15 Michigan.

“The Big Ten is full of good teams,” Clark said. “Records aren’t always what they show.”

The Bruins truly embody the beat-anybody-lose-to-anybody nature of the Big Ten. They’ve lost to Minnesota, at Nebraska and at Rutgers, while earning wins over the Spartans and No. 11 Wisconsin.

Playing in a conference like the Big Ten can lead to one of two things for the postseason. A team can run out of energy or it can apply lessons from those tough games.

“You gotta stay fresh-legged and, as a coach, you gotta stay fresh-minded,” Cronin said. “You got to try to keep your team in a mental state of where they’re having some fun and they don’t forget their goal that, here at UCLA, we’re trying to do whatever you got to do to get into March Madness and hang the 12th banner.

“You can’t be so-called limping to the finish line.”

Fortunately for UCLA, it has a coach in Cronin who is experienced at traversing a difficult regular-season schedule, whether it’s the 2011 Big East or 2025 Big Ten, and using that to achieve a 9-3 record in the NCAA Tournament while in Westwood.