UCLA Basketball: Despite Another Bruins W, Mick Cronin Sees Room For Improvement
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Your UCLA Bruins are on a roll. On Thursday night, the Bruins captured their sixth consecutive win against their Pac-12 foes, the Colorado Buffaloes. As of late, the Bruins cannot do anything wrong. Even though the Bruins are playing great basketball, UCLA head coach Mick Cronin wasn't all too pleased with his team's efforts.
After the game, Cronin spoke to the media and said he'd like to see more points scored, along with some issues he noticed in their four-point win over Colorado.
“More points. We don’t have enough assists. They (Colorado) did some good stuff. They do what I call emergency switch. When we were going to hurt them with the pick and roll, they switched it. When we weren’t going to hurt them, they were able to get through but they didn’t switch. That’s what really good defensive teams do. So I thought they had some really good late switches, and then we couldn’t get Adem [Bona] the ball in the second half. And that’s on me. I’ve got to get him more touches. We’re better the more he gets the ball.”
Cronin emphasizes that he didn't do a great job getting their big man, Adem Bona, involved in the second half. The sophomore big man finished the game with 14 points on 5-for-9 shooting and seven rebounds. However, 10 of his 14 points came in the first half. Bona had a very quiet second half, and Cronin shouldered the blame for it.
The Bruins were outscored in the second half by five points after ending the first half with a nine-point lead. The Bruins had another second-half scare against the Buffaloes, but luckily, they withstood their stand and came out victorious,
UCLA may not get any better than what we're witnessing in this stretch, but don't tell Cronin that. The Bruins are hot and will look to continue that momentum on Sunday as they look for revenge against the Utah Utes.
