LOS ANGELES — Mick Cronin understands that winning the Big Ten Tournament is not the ultimate goal. Not at UCLA, at least. Which, Cronin often reminds, is the only place in the nation where players practice under 11 national championship banners.
“I care about the next tournament,” he said Saturday, referring to the NCAA Tournament. “Because, around here, man, they won’t hang a banner if we win the Big Ten Tournament.”
That being said, Cronin isn’t neglecting the Big Ten Tournament. He’s using it as “practice for being in a one-and-out tournament.”
UCLA (22-9 overall, 13-7 Big Ten) earned the No. 4 seed and a double bye in the conference tournament, meaning the Bruins will play Friday, at approximately 11:30 a.m. PT, against No. 5 seed Wisconsin (24-8, 13-7). If they win, they’ll play the winner of a game between No. 1 Michigan State (26-5, 17-3) and No. 8 Oregon (24-8, 12-8) on Saturday at 10 a.m. The Big Ten Tournament championship game will take place Sunday at 12:30 p.m. All games are played in Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The Bruins are in a decent spot for a number of reasons. They had five days off between games after earning a double bye. They’re undefeated against possible opponents (Wisconsin, Oregon, and Michigan State); and they just need three victories to win the tournament.
If UCLA maximizes these advantages, it could improve from a projected six-seed in the NCAA Tournament.
But even that doesn’t concern Cronin.
“When it comes to the NCAA Tournament seeding,” he said on Tuesday, “I’m much more concerned with our location than our seeding.”
This school of thought comes from past experiences. Cronin’s deepest run came in 2021 when the No. 11 seed Bruins went from the First Four to the Final Four, but in 2023 the No. 2 seed Bruins – Cronin’s highest-rated team – lost in the Sweet 16.
Further in that comparison, though, lies Cronin’s greatest concern at this point of the season.
“Gotta make sure these guys are fresh when the Big Dance comes,” he said. “Just gotta get to March healthy.”
That 2023 UCLA team lost guard Jaylen Clark in the final regular-season game and center Adem Bona six days later in a Pac-12 Tournament semifinal. The dilemma clearly scarred Cronin.
These Bruins, though, arrive at their most significant juncture with an empty injury report. They’ve had the same starting lineup in all but six games. Skyy Clark, Kobe Johnson and reserves Sebastian Mack and Lazar Stefanovic have played in all 31 games, while Eric Dailey Jr. and Tyler Bilodeau have each missed one game; and Dylan Andrews has missed two.
There’s only so much a coach can do to control a team’s health, especially in the Big Ten where teams play games every day of the week and, in UCLA’s case, have to travel east four separate times.
Cronin’s decisions regarding practice intensity and in-game minutes played are often made with durability in mind.
For example, Cronin has limited Aday Mara to an average of 12.7 minutes per game this season because he struggles with his conditioning, and dealt with the norovirus in late February. Cronin, too, has monitored Dailey’s minutes at times as he feels his production can drop when his usage increases.
Before UCLA’s road trips or stretches of short rest, they tend to have light or no-contact practices. Then, in instances like the past two weeks, when they had four days in between their games against Northwestern and USC and five in between USC and the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal against Wisconsin, the Bruins had two days to rest and recover, and then two full practices.
“It helps with us staying fresh,” Stefanovic said Tuesday. “Those two days off really mean so much to us.”
The other side of health is simply luck in avoiding the injury bug.
In the first half of UCLA’s game against Ohio State on Feb. 23, Clark rolled his ankle while trying to turn the corner on a pick-and-roll. He went down in a heap, needed assistance to exit the game, and went directly to the trainer’s table. Five minutes later, though, he returned as if nothing happened.
Since then, Clark has had two of his best performances in victories. He had 10 points and seven assists against Northwestern on March 3, and then 17 points, six assists and three steals on Saturday against USC. His decisiveness on offense and calculated aggression on defense have stood out.
It has prompted Cronin to look at the Bruins’ ceiling and say, “If we get good guard play, we got a chance.” That means Clark, Andrews, and Mack contributing in all areas.
“Taking care of the ball and passing, and then obviously, production,” Cronin said. “And when you have big guys that can score, it’s important your guards get them the ball.”
Unlike health, Cronin can control guard-play, to an extent, by putting his guys in a position to succeed. If those two factors continue to coincide, UCLA has every opportunity to maximize its potential.
BIG TEN TOURNAMENT
Who: No. 4 seed UCLA (22-9) vs. No. 5 Wisconsin (24-8)
When: Friday, 11:30 a.m. PT
Where: Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis
TV/radio: BTN/570 AM
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