UCLA HC Mick Cronin trying to get Bruins focused by calling them out

It's not often you hear a college basketball head coach tear into their team after a win to open the season. That just goes to show you how steamed Mick Cronin is, though, and this is despite the No. 12 UCLA Bruins' 80-74 win over Eastern Washington on Monday.

You get the sense that Cronin was expecting more, much more, from his team. Credit to the Eagles for putting up a fight against the Bruins, but this was a game that shouldn't have been close.

UCLA took Eastern Washington lightly, and it almost cost it its season opener. Sure, a win is a win, but it was 70-55 with 9:17 to go in the game and the Bruins couldn't put the Eagles away. In fact, at one point with under a minute to go in the game, it was 78-70 and UCLA's Sky Clark missed a field goal, which gave Eastern Washington a chance to make a run at an upset.

Per Cronin in the postgame, it was an attitude thing for his team.

“When you have the wrong attitude in life, it shows up – so I blame myself. I knew this was coming and I couldn’t stop it, so I failed miserably. I tried in shootaround. Arrogance. Lack of humility. Don’t want to defend, don’t want to rebound, don’t want to play defense. There are so many mistakes, I’d like to fire myself for our defense," Cronin said (h/t On3). 

Cronin revealed that he went off on his team during the shootaround before the game about their intensity, or lack thereof. 

Mick Cronin blasted the UCLA Bruins for not taking their opponent seriously 

The Bruins played exhibition games before the season began against San Diego State and UC Irvine. It seems like Cronin believes he took things too easy on his team in the preseason, and that almost cost them against Eastern Washington.

"I knew I lost them. I could tell I lost them all week. We’ll see if this will humble them a little bit tonight," Cronin said.

If UCLA needs to get humbled, it better do so fast. After games against Pepperdine and West Georgia in the next week, the Bruins will get a huge early-season test with No. 13 Arizona coming to town on Nov. 14.

Mindset is key for Cronin, and he wants his UCLA team to take every opponent seriously, so it can't get caught looking ahead to that game against the Wildcats. Perhaps that's why he used such harsh words despite the win.

If his team wasn't focused on its  own, perhaps it'll stop feeling so good about itself after being publicly called out by its head coach.

“Every time we took a step forward, we took two back," he explained. "Our saying is you have to win the fight to be able to win the game. You got to be able to win the fight, and you got a chance to win the game. We had no interest in getting in the ring tonight. We were too good for Eastern Washington. Cool loses, man, in everything in life.”