UCLA Basketball: Mick Cronin Reveals "Simple" Reason Bruins Fell Vs USC
UCLA Bruins head coach Mick Cronin, always a colorful postgame press conference character, revealed why his squad fell, at home, to a sub-.500 USC Trojans team that has virtually no hope of making the NCAA Tournament this March in a surprise 62-56 home defeat Saturday night.
"It's a simple game," Cronin said afterwards, per UCLA Communications. "The team that plays harder usually wins. They played much harder than us. They were more physical, they had humility, they came in here looking for redemption. We had no humility. Show me somebody that's not humble and I'll show you somebody getting ready to get humbled. We had our worst week of practice of the season. I failed miserably to get my team ready for the fight that was coming today and I'm thoroughly embarrassed."
UCLA outperformed UCLA in several aspects, but the glaring issue was the shooting. The Trojans outshot the Bruins mightily, posting a .440/.444/.500 team slash line, far above the field goal shooting of UCLA's .333/.211/.889 line. The Trojans also notched a massive 12-6 advantage in steals, as UCLA struggled to protect the rock.
With the loss, the Bruins fell to a 14-13 record on the year, while the Trojans rose to a still-miserable 11-16.
