There is no way to know if the outcome of the game would have been different with Aday Mara playing a lot more. That being said, his lack of playing time was a result of Mick Cronin being extremely stubborn and having tunnel vision. Let's be clear, Aday Mara did not look good in the few minutes he played in the first half. And, had someone else been able to guard Kaufman-Redd, I might look at the situation differently, Given that the guy scored 29 points, perhaps Mick should have given the 7'3" tall Mara some additional instruction and playing time? Perhaps he would have played better and perhaps not. Perhaps we could have forced Kaufman-Renn to guard Mara more at the low post and commit some fouls. None of this can happen when one of the keys to your team's success this year sits for about 34 of the first 37 minutes of the game. I'm not a "fire the coach" kind of guy. That being said, if Mick chooses to go to Indiana, I'm not going to lose any sleep. His stubbornness and inability to adjust his approach and playing rotations to this group are somewhat astonishing to me. It's probably most astonishing because I think he's a good basketball coach. I just don't understand his decision making when it comes to Aday Mara.
I think he's still haunted by the Mara from last season tbh, and even early season Mara was a struggle more often than not. The light has seemingly come on for him in recent weeks, but I think the PTSD of last year is still nagging at him. Maybe a sports psychologist in the offseason?
The good news is that I expect Mara will be here next year and possibly will even be on campus this summer, unlike the previous two, where he played some international ball and came back needing to reacclimate. Mara's camp is more than happy with his progress under Cronin (don't yell at me, this is what I keep hearing) and Mara himself seemingly loves being a student on campus, so outside of a random NBA team throwing him a 1st round promise, I expect him to be back next year and likely as a starter (I'd guess at Dailey and Bilodeau moving to the 3/4 next year as well).
I think he's happy at UCLA and know that he attends soccer games regularly on campus. But, he is not getting the playing time and patience in games he deserves. The quick hook without a quick re-entry can be demoralizing and demotivating. I was hoping Mick woke up. Tonight shows he hasn't. Stubbornness in the extreme.
Unless you don’t know, why not name the officials who are calling a bad game? If all bloggers and writers did this, and not just the coaches, maybe home town refereeing would at least stand a chance of being at least toned down?
Why not just hand out their home addresses and phone numbers while you're at it? Personally, I think the refs had a better game than our coaches tonight.
I don’t agree in the 2nd half a Purdue player pushed Bilo a good 5ft. Under the basket toward the end line. Rebound went over where Bilo just was. No foul the Bruin just barely touched Purdue who got ball and was called for foul. It was like that all game. Purdue pushed went unchecked by refs.
The Mara issue is very strange to me. Mick trusted him enough earlier this year when Mara had a good run of 5-6 games where he played 20+ minutes.
That ended when he got the food poisoning going around the team though. Did Mick forget about the "good Mara"? Or is his conditioning not up to snuff right now?
I still think ucla loses one of their next two, bounces early in conference tourney, and a first round loss in the big tourney. Cronin has become too predictable.
The support of Cronin is quite frankly baffling. I’d compare it to what many started to label as the Alford apologists. That’s what ucla has now. A bunch of cronin apologists. Blaming it on the refs, on Mara’s inability to be in game shape at this point in the season (a clear coaching problem to me), on Andrew’s inability to handle the ball, on the complete lack of 3 pt defense (isn’t Cronin a defensive genius?)… I could go on, but you should get the point.
The reason ucla lost this game is because they went on a 5 minute scoring drought in the second half. They were up by a point at the 8:43 mark and then went on a very predictable mode where they passed it to Mack or bilo to dribble down the shot clock. Then throw it out to Steph for a prayer shot. That’s not good basketball, that’s not entertaining basketball, that’s how you lose a game. If at this point into the season, a coach can’t recognize that his offensive game plans are so awfully predictable, then I don’t see the Hope.
All of the cronin apologists have access to hopium and keep saying oh, but next year will be better!! The whole team is going to stay! Are you kidding me? This is the transfer era where any players jumps at more money. There’s no commitment to a coach, to a team, especially when cronin dropped his entire team last year but now everybody’s gonna be loyal to this guy!?! Give me a break. Use your head and see that cronin is who he is. He’s reached his ceiling and there is no up from here. UCLA is stuck in mediocrity.
This set of players has a lot of nba potential. Mara at a minimum would be silly to deny that and stay another season with this clown. I’m sick of this clown that’s clearly hit a ceiling. There’s no up from here folks. Next season won’t be better. Stop drinking the cool aid and come to the dark side. It’s better over here in the real world
I think individual and collective inconsistency aptly describes this year's overhauled (another "Year-1") roster. During their last 3 losses, the Bruins have been unable to put together 2 good halves, with their defense spotty and then disappearing. Against Purdue, they committed a lot of sloppy turnovers, allowed too many uncontested 3-pointers, and couldn't stop 2 guys from scoring a combined 52 points on them. The delusional stubbornness in relying on Bilodeau to defend inside the paint and the recurring reluctance in giving Mara and Kyle meaningful minutes hasn't helped. When the Bruin defense isn't as good as it usually should be, then their offense often isn't potent enough to compensate, and conversely, when the defense is stellar, one often has to hope that they generate enough scoring to secure the win.
I agree, the ceiling for this year's team in the NCAA tourney looks like a Sweet-16 or less (as a projected 7-seed). The Bruins NET ranking is 26 (KenPom #28), but they're now below .500 in Quad-1 games (7-8), and have fallen to 6th place in the B1G (11-7). Maybe their performance is to be expected with the stiffer competition and louder crowds in the B1G, the long-distance travel ordeal, and the SBTRs often making bad calls (or no-calls) against the B1G newcomers. Anyway, just 2 more games left before their postseason begins.
I attribute sloppy play and no legs on defense to the grind of travel. That challenge is the future for the Bruins in this conference, therefore . 500 ball.
And the future is the present in the NIL landscape--player turnover, with each season being a Year One. The portal reconstitutes the roster yearly, and Crnin is not attracting hs star talent either for instant impact or development. He has made 15 offers to the class of '25, but none have accepted. However, a number of those very players instead have committed to our co-Conference teams, rival Arizona, and 2 to USC.
I was hoping to see better officiating in the BIG, but really it’s just different. The SPTRs were inconsistent and often bad, while the BIG refs deliver home cooking and seem more susceptible to playing to the crowd. This shouldn’t be an excuse for a loss, just something we have to get used to.
And before anyone asks: yes, there will be a game thread for the game tomorrow. I am writing it as I speak.
I would say not taking care of the ball was a major problem.
There is no way to know if the outcome of the game would have been different with Aday Mara playing a lot more. That being said, his lack of playing time was a result of Mick Cronin being extremely stubborn and having tunnel vision. Let's be clear, Aday Mara did not look good in the few minutes he played in the first half. And, had someone else been able to guard Kaufman-Redd, I might look at the situation differently, Given that the guy scored 29 points, perhaps Mick should have given the 7'3" tall Mara some additional instruction and playing time? Perhaps he would have played better and perhaps not. Perhaps we could have forced Kaufman-Renn to guard Mara more at the low post and commit some fouls. None of this can happen when one of the keys to your team's success this year sits for about 34 of the first 37 minutes of the game. I'm not a "fire the coach" kind of guy. That being said, if Mick chooses to go to Indiana, I'm not going to lose any sleep. His stubbornness and inability to adjust his approach and playing rotations to this group are somewhat astonishing to me. It's probably most astonishing because I think he's a good basketball coach. I just don't understand his decision making when it comes to Aday Mara.
I think he's still haunted by the Mara from last season tbh, and even early season Mara was a struggle more often than not. The light has seemingly come on for him in recent weeks, but I think the PTSD of last year is still nagging at him. Maybe a sports psychologist in the offseason?
The good news is that I expect Mara will be here next year and possibly will even be on campus this summer, unlike the previous two, where he played some international ball and came back needing to reacclimate. Mara's camp is more than happy with his progress under Cronin (don't yell at me, this is what I keep hearing) and Mara himself seemingly loves being a student on campus, so outside of a random NBA team throwing him a 1st round promise, I expect him to be back next year and likely as a starter (I'd guess at Dailey and Bilodeau moving to the 3/4 next year as well).
I think he's happy at UCLA and know that he attends soccer games regularly on campus. But, he is not getting the playing time and patience in games he deserves. The quick hook without a quick re-entry can be demoralizing and demotivating. I was hoping Mick woke up. Tonight shows he hasn't. Stubbornness in the extreme.
And watch Jarmond hire a worse coach.
My preference would be Mick waking up and playing the big kid. Tonight diminished that hope.
Unless you don’t know, why not name the officials who are calling a bad game? If all bloggers and writers did this, and not just the coaches, maybe home town refereeing would at least stand a chance of being at least toned down?
Why not just hand out their home addresses and phone numbers while you're at it? Personally, I think the refs had a better game than our coaches tonight.
I don’t agree in the 2nd half a Purdue player pushed Bilo a good 5ft. Under the basket toward the end line. Rebound went over where Bilo just was. No foul the Bruin just barely touched Purdue who got ball and was called for foul. It was like that all game. Purdue pushed went unchecked by refs.
I guess you could interpret my comment in 2 different ways. One, the refs weren't that bad or our coaches were even worse than bad refs.
The Mara issue is very strange to me. Mick trusted him enough earlier this year when Mara had a good run of 5-6 games where he played 20+ minutes.
That ended when he got the food poisoning going around the team though. Did Mick forget about the "good Mara"? Or is his conditioning not up to snuff right now?
I still think ucla loses one of their next two, bounces early in conference tourney, and a first round loss in the big tourney. Cronin has become too predictable.
The support of Cronin is quite frankly baffling. I’d compare it to what many started to label as the Alford apologists. That’s what ucla has now. A bunch of cronin apologists. Blaming it on the refs, on Mara’s inability to be in game shape at this point in the season (a clear coaching problem to me), on Andrew’s inability to handle the ball, on the complete lack of 3 pt defense (isn’t Cronin a defensive genius?)… I could go on, but you should get the point.
The reason ucla lost this game is because they went on a 5 minute scoring drought in the second half. They were up by a point at the 8:43 mark and then went on a very predictable mode where they passed it to Mack or bilo to dribble down the shot clock. Then throw it out to Steph for a prayer shot. That’s not good basketball, that’s not entertaining basketball, that’s how you lose a game. If at this point into the season, a coach can’t recognize that his offensive game plans are so awfully predictable, then I don’t see the Hope.
All of the cronin apologists have access to hopium and keep saying oh, but next year will be better!! The whole team is going to stay! Are you kidding me? This is the transfer era where any players jumps at more money. There’s no commitment to a coach, to a team, especially when cronin dropped his entire team last year but now everybody’s gonna be loyal to this guy!?! Give me a break. Use your head and see that cronin is who he is. He’s reached his ceiling and there is no up from here. UCLA is stuck in mediocrity.
This set of players has a lot of nba potential. Mara at a minimum would be silly to deny that and stay another season with this clown. I’m sick of this clown that’s clearly hit a ceiling. There’s no up from here folks. Next season won’t be better. Stop drinking the cool aid and come to the dark side. It’s better over here in the real world
“The support of Cronin is quite frankly baffling.”
You think UCLA loses......typical.
I think individual and collective inconsistency aptly describes this year's overhauled (another "Year-1") roster. During their last 3 losses, the Bruins have been unable to put together 2 good halves, with their defense spotty and then disappearing. Against Purdue, they committed a lot of sloppy turnovers, allowed too many uncontested 3-pointers, and couldn't stop 2 guys from scoring a combined 52 points on them. The delusional stubbornness in relying on Bilodeau to defend inside the paint and the recurring reluctance in giving Mara and Kyle meaningful minutes hasn't helped. When the Bruin defense isn't as good as it usually should be, then their offense often isn't potent enough to compensate, and conversely, when the defense is stellar, one often has to hope that they generate enough scoring to secure the win.
I agree, the ceiling for this year's team in the NCAA tourney looks like a Sweet-16 or less (as a projected 7-seed). The Bruins NET ranking is 26 (KenPom #28), but they're now below .500 in Quad-1 games (7-8), and have fallen to 6th place in the B1G (11-7). Maybe their performance is to be expected with the stiffer competition and louder crowds in the B1G, the long-distance travel ordeal, and the SBTRs often making bad calls (or no-calls) against the B1G newcomers. Anyway, just 2 more games left before their postseason begins.
Cronin blows it again. All a head coach can really do in a game besides call plays is exploit matchups and he is … not good at that.
Or maybe Purdue is better, ever think of that?
I attribute sloppy play and no legs on defense to the grind of travel. That challenge is the future for the Bruins in this conference, therefore . 500 ball.
And the future is the present in the NIL landscape--player turnover, with each season being a Year One. The portal reconstitutes the roster yearly, and Crnin is not attracting hs star talent either for instant impact or development. He has made 15 offers to the class of '25, but none have accepted. However, a number of those very players instead have committed to our co-Conference teams, rival Arizona, and 2 to USC.
Unlike the hopium of the Alfie apologists, the Crnin apologists cannot use the mantra of, "Next year's recruits!"
11-7 is not .500.
True, which is good for 6th place.
I was hoping to see better officiating in the BIG, but really it’s just different. The SPTRs were inconsistent and often bad, while the BIG refs deliver home cooking and seem more susceptible to playing to the crowd. This shouldn’t be an excuse for a loss, just something we have to get used to.