UCLA Basketball: Bruins Acknowledge Defense Shockingly Poor Against Maryland

Mick Cronin is not mincing words.

Your 5-6 UCLA Bruins dropped their fourth consecutive game on Friday, in a 69-60 defeat to the 8-4 Maryland Terrapins.

Head coach Mick Cronin, in his seventh season, has seen plenty of players pass through Westwood. He voiced his frustrations with the defensive efforts of this year's crop, per UCLA Communications.

Maryland, normally a poor three-point shooting team, connected on 8-of-22 shooting from long range (36.4%). Cronin acknowledged that this was uncharacteristically good, and perhaps an indictment of his own defense. Maryland improved to 8-4 on the year.

"They’re shooting 26 percent [from three on the season," Cronin said. "They’re 350th in the country. Give them credit. They came in and made shots. They had them.” 

Standout senior guard Jahmir Young, a top-40 scorer in the nation, enjoyed a huge game at UCLA's expense. He scored 37 points while shooting 13-of-19 from the floor (4-of-6 from deep) and 7-of-9 from the charity stripe, while grabbing seven boards, dishing out three dimes and notching a steal.

“What’d I see out of him? He had 37, and last year he probably had six against us. So we accomplished the game plan last year," Cronin observed. "I told the guys that he’s got to have to get 25 to get the win, and he got it at halftime. We did an absolute horrendous job on him, but congratulations to him. He played great. But we did an awful job. Could not have done a worse job. See good teams that win games, they know why they win. They take away the other team’s strengths. Like there is a whole list of winners knowing why they win. We really struggled with that. We’re just not tough enough to do it, or smart enough.”