How Mick Cronin Felt About Bruins' Effort in Win Over Boston University

The UCLA Bruins are back on the right track after an encouraging win over Boston University on Monday night. Coach Mick Cronin spoke postgame about his team's improvement of physicality and effort.

Oct 3, 2024; Rosemont, IL, USA; UCLA head coach Mick Cronin takes a question at the podium during the 2024 Big Ten Menís Basketball media day at Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Melissa Tamez-Imagn Images / Melissa Tamez-Imagn Images

The UCLA Bruins (2-1) came back home for a matchup with mid-major Boston University (0-3) on Monday night, dominating the contest and winning, 71-40. Bruins coach Mick Cronin spoke after the game and credited his team's fast improvement in the effort category from last week.

Cronin gave credit to Terriers coach Joe Jones and their group for competing throughout the entire contest. The Bruins forced 28 turnovers that led to 36 points, over half of their team total. The shooting performance was not the sharpest but the Bruins found a way to score other ways.

"I know the score didn't indicate it, but I thought they were physical," Cronin said. "They played really hard tonight, they've been dealing with some injuries. I thought his [Boston HC Joe Jones] guys gave us a physical battle obviously. Our ball pressure was an issue for them in the game, but I thought their guys played the right way. They did a good job defensively on us, they held us to 40% for the game."

Sophomore center Aday Mara had a strong game on the glass in a game where he was expected to dominate. He had four offensive rebounds which led to multiple put-back buckets. He finished with seven points and seven rebounds in the win. Mara will be a big piece for this team come Big Ten play.

"It's glad to see Aday get assertive, led us in rebounding at seven rebounds in 10 minutes," Cronin said. "Rebounding is an area and physicality where we got to continue to improve."

Above all else, Cronin wanted to see a change in the effort and competitive fire from his group, something they lacked in their upset loss to New Mexico last Friday night. The last few days of practice over the weekend surely woke this team up as Cronin was not messing around.

"I was most happy tonight with our attitude of humility and the fact that we dove on the floor more tonight than in every scrimmage game or exhibition game combined," Cronin said. "In the first half, we surpassed our dives on the floor for the year. So, we tried to send a message the last couple days, obviously, I've got a lot of work to do."

The Bruins are trending in the right direction, and Cronin is going to do whatever he can to get this team prepped and ready for their biggest games in conference play. They will continue to improve down the stretch hoping to make a run into March.

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