UCLA Basketball: How A Starter's 2nd Half Benching Improved His Play Vs ASU

A Mick Cronin tweak made a big difference.

Your UCLA Bruins' downward trajectory this season almost got considerably crazier on Wednesday, when the Blue and Gold trailed by as many as 15 points during the second half of their matchup against the Arizona State University Sun Devils.

But UCLA was salvaged by a massive second half swing, abetted in large part by first half starter Sebastian Mack. Mick Cronin had shifted the freshman guard to a bench role in the second half, in favor of sophomore Will McClendon.

“It’s hard to run an offense with multiple passes the way they deny," Cronin reflected, per UCLA Communications. "So, we went to try to spread them to attack them and use their aggression against them. He did a great job.”

“I had told [Mack] in this game, him and Adem, you can’t dribble multiple times in short space," Cronin explained of his decision to make the change in the second half. "They’re going to steal the ball. Now if we get them spread out, that’s a different animal. I thought both those guys did the dead opposite of what the [game plan] was. I wanted [Mack] to just calm down, that was really it. You got to calm down.”

With the win, UCLA improved to an 8-10 record on the season, while Arizona State dropped to 10-7.

Mack finished with 11 points in 22 minutes, while shooting 3-of-8 from deep and 5-of-8 from the foul line. He also pulled down four rebounds, dished out two dimes and swiped one steal. McClendon finished with seven points on 2-of-4 shooting from the floor and 2-of-2 shooting from the foul line, along with four rebounds and two assists.