WATCH: Mick Cronin Previews UCLA-Arizona Rematch, Talks Super Bowl Conflict

Cronin is from Cincinnati but now lives in Los Angeles, setting himself up for a win-win scenario when the Bengals and Rams play in Super Bowl LVI.

UCLA men’s basketball coach Mick Cronin talked to reporters Tuesday morning before practice, breaking down what the Bruins are planning to do for their rematch with Arizona, providing injury updates on Johnny Juzang, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Jaylen Clark, giving his thoughts on the Super Bowl and addressing rumors connecting him to the open Louisville job.

MICK CRONIN

Do you anticipate another team's adjustments to your game plan and implement that into your game plan or is that overthinking things?

That’s what we’re paid to do. First of all, I would say that they were on the third game of a road trip and we were at home with a tremendous home crowd and our energy level defensively was way more important than any game plan we had, so I think it is important sometimes—well, it’s always important—to have the right plan but when players play with tremendous effort and a collective effort as a group, they can overcome your game plan, if it’s wrong. That’s why I always say to you guys sometimes coaching is overrated, so our effort—eight blocked shots in that game—erased mistakes that you guys didn’t see, you know, much can be made [AUDIO CUTS OUT] but I don’t know if I’m buying into that. I think what I’m buying is, the effort of our players to erase the mistakes that we had or to maybe make a guy just a little bit more uncomfortable with a shot because of our effort was much more important than our plan—not that strategy’s not important, but yes, obviously you’re trying to be prepared going into any game, especially the second time you play a team, what adjustments do you need to make because regardless of whether you won or lost, you’re trying to get better shots, you’re trying to dissect defensively what you need to do to do a better job against their offense and vice versa. So that’s absolutely part of what we do as coaches, but I’m a believer that 75% to 80% of this is players and their effort.

How often does a game plan work?

Oh, well, sure, but again, the players make it work. Sometimes, ‘Well, we got outcoached,’ people get frustrated, I’m sure, in your world of the internet, credit is given to a victory over something like that and too much is blamed on a coach for a loss, but that doesn’t affect me either way; if you can’t deal with that, you don’t need to be in this business that affects you, because sometimes, you may win the game and you may get praised, like I’m trying to say, but players maybe overcame the situation, so it wasn’t really your game plan, is what I’m trying to say. But to your point and to your real question, I would say you go into games and sometimes you go in with Plan A and you’ve got to blow it up quick and go to Plan B and then maybe Plan C down the stretch because you’ve got injuries, foul trouble, or what you went in with is not working. I believe in winning, I don’t believe in trying to prove points that the way we’re going to do this is right; we’re a game-plan-specific adjustment team is the way we try to do things, you know, our guys know that. You know, I check my ego real quick if something’s not working.

How much has the game plan changed since the last meeting?

Well, not a lot. We better do a better job rebounding and we were very fortunate to defend the rim where they missed some shots, where we were able to challenge without fouling, but those are makeable shots, and we blocked eight shots and we were able to contest around five. So again, I don’t know if our game plan was the difference as much as our effort, in my evaluation of Game 1. So we’ve got to do a better job of limiting their opportunities at the rim, we’ve got to do a better job of blocking out, for sure, that’s huge. And we’re dealing with, will Jaime be able to play, will he not. I sit here on Tuesday morning, he’s doing treatment stuff right now. Jaylen Clark’s not going to play; do we play big, do we play small, we’ve got issues obviously when they play big, so we’re going to have Plan A, B and C on Thursday night due to our situation. Maybe Jaime’s going to play. Maybe he wants to try to give it a go and he feels good and then he gets out there and he doesn’t feel good, so a lot of stuff we’re dealing with as far as what we have to plan on.

Kriisa and Terry took 17 shots and missed them all – how much do you go in saying what you did really worked and how much are you saying there's no way that happens again?

There’s no way that happens again. [Laughs] A pretty pointed answer, right, Sam? You know, it's just a fact. There’s zero chance that happens again. I think more importantly like I said, two things you can control—we’ve got to somehow limit their opportunities at the rim. If we’re in a position to have to block eight shots, I don’t know if that’s a good thing, I don’t know how realistic that is as we tack on that to the 0 for 17. And then we’re going to have to find a way to keep them off the glass with a tremendous job of team rebounding and team blocking out.

Thoughts on the Louisville opening? Hear anything?

No, I haven’t. It would be wildly inappropriate for me to comment on another job. But you can ask me about my job anytime you want.

Cincinnati-LA Super Bowl?

That's a tough one, brother, cause I'm an LA guy now. But you gotta understand I'm really just happy for the people that root for the Bengals, most notably my stepson Carson. He dove in our pool at 48 degrees the other day. I'm cheap, I don't heat it in the winter, a cheap son-of-a-ball-coach. So it was a tremendous video to see him go in when he made the field goal. It's hard for me to say this to you guys, we'll get onto stuff that matters, but when you grow up there, I gave up around '97 I think, so you can only take so much pain. It's amazing what one guy can do to change a franchise, when you get a guy that's reminiscent of Tom Brady playing quarterback, it's just amazing. But anyway, I can't lose, I can't lose. But I'm not a huge football guy, but I am a huge fan of Dr. Dre and Snoop, so looking forward to the halftime show.

Update on Juzang?

Today is his test day, so today's day five cause they consider the positive test day to be day zero, so that makes today day five for him, so he'll test today. If it goes well, he'll practice tomorrow.

How often do you have to do random tests? Arizona, Colorado don't have to test unless guys have symptoms?

I love being at UCLA, and with that goes whatever the rules are here at UCLA. So one thing I'll say about our school is if anything ever airs on the side of something I don't agree with, I know that the way this school is run with chancellor Block that the quality and health and safety will probably always go over and above what I want as a coach. That being said, that's what drew me to UCLA. My daughter's a minority, I side with the majority here in West LA on social issues, so you can't have your cake and eat it too. I definitely sometimes (inaudible) but only at home here when it comes to those topics.

How often do you have to do randoms?

We don't talk about that stuff.

Know of anyone else in the conference that has to do that? Coaches talk about that stuff?

No. Nah.

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