UCLA basketball fought to come back and win a 59-47 game against Arizona State on Saturday for their final regular season game.
After the game, Bruins head coach Mick Cronin revealed that he was most impressed with the team's defensive efforts, particularly in the second half. The team's defense had slipped in the last three games — allowing at least 75 points in each of those contests — but returned to form for UCLA to get the win.
“It’s the only way we are going to win, that’s just the way it is right now. That’s not what I want, but with this team that is our reality, we have to defend to win. It’s just the way we have to do it. We are not beating anyone 85-80. They [Arizona State] shot 5-22 in the second half. Once we stopped fouling, they weren’t making shots ... What we can’t do is get up there and foul and give guys layups. A guy hits a hard pull up, we don’t care. It’s not like I invented analytics, but teams can’t win if that is all they take. But if you get beat and they are kicking it out and shooting threes, that’s what happened the last seven minutes of the first half to our defense. We kept getting beat, bang, three.”
— Mick Cronin, via UCLA Communications.
As Cronin points out, the Bruins know their identity, and the best chance at winning is defense. Once they were able to control their fouls, UCLA had an easy advantage and was able to pull through for the win. The Bruins were on such a roll that at one point they went on a 19-1 run.
Now the key will be to replicate this kind of defensive effort at the Pac-12 Tournament this week, starting with a matchup against Oregon State.
More must-reads: