UCLA's free-fall reaches new depths in loss to California

California guard Jaylon Tyson drives to the basket in front of UCLA forward Kenneth Nwuba.

Staff Writer

Published Jan. 6, 2024 Updated Jan. 7, 2024 12:50 AM PT

Never one to hide his feelings, Mick Cronin was finally at a loss for words Saturday night.

The UCLA coach didn’t show up to speak with reporters after his team’s latest loss. He instead sent assistant Rod Palmer to parse the fallout.

Could it go any lower for the Bruins?

Hard to say. There’s still more than two months left in the season.

The only certainty is that the Bruins sank to new depths at Pauley Pavilion, falling to an opponent who had won only one game over the previous five weeks and had dropped its last 19 Pac-12 games going back to last season.

UCLA changed all that, giving California a speck of life while darkening its own already bleak outlook.

A new point guard rotation, different lineups, more minutes for seldom-used players … nothing worked for the Bruins during a 66-57 loss.

UCLA (6-9 overall, 1-3 Pac-12) has dropped four consecutive home games for the first time since the 2002-03 season — coach Steve Lavin’s last — while also falling to the Golden Bears inside Pauley Pavilion for the first time since February 2010.

It has been a frustrating turnabout for the Bruins, who have lost seven of eight games and are staring at the possibility of a first-to-worst reversal in the conference standings after winning the Pac-12 by four games last season.

In addition to skipping his session with reporters, Cronin also did not complete his usual postgame radio interview, nor did he make players available to speak with the media. Palmer said Cronin was still talking to the team and did not want to keep reporters waiting.

What was Cronin’s message to his players? Palmer said it had not changed.

“You have to play harder if you want a different result,” Palmer said. “You have to do things different if you want a different result and we haven’t been doing those different things. We’ve been stressing it in practice but for some reason, whatever it is — it could be youth, it could be inexperience — we’re just not getting the job done.”

When Cronin had last addressed reporters, after a loss to Stanford on Wednesday, he questioned his players’ aptitude and said that freshman guard Ilane Fibleuil’s exit from the game after only 21 seconds was for defying instructions and committing a turnover.

“That’s on him, not me,” Cronin said of Fibleuil’s quick hook. “Like I tell guys at this level, you know, I tell ‘em all it’s hard. So you can quit and go home, make an excuse and transfer like 1,900 guys, or you get better. Look in the mirror. But you gotta look in the mirror first.”

Cronin also intimated that his roster could look considerably different next season if players did not toughen up.

“You can’t call your mommy; she can’t help you,” Cronin said. “You’ve got an opportunity of a lifetime and it may not last forever depending on your performance.”

The Bruins did not exactly appear energized three days later in immediately falling into a big hole against Cal with their offense continuing to stumble. As poorly as they played, once trailing by as many as 14 points in the second half, the Bruins pulled within 61-55 with 1:44 left before Cal’s Jalen Cone hit a backbreaking three-pointer.

It was that kind of night for UCLA, which also got pushed around in being outrebounded by 10.

“Either you’re going to hit someone or you’re going to get hit,” Palmer said, “and we’ve been getting hit a lot.”

Cronin was so flabbergasted over a referee’s call — not to mention the way his team was playing late in the first half — that he flung his suit jacket over the bench, earning a technical foul.

UCLA coach Mick Cronin yells at a referee and points.

Nothing has come easy after wholesale roster turnover necessitating seven freshmen and bigger roles for top returners Adem Bona and Dylan Andrews.

Seeking to change his team’s sagging fortunes, Cronin had instructed Sebastian Mack to take over primary point guard duties from Andrews, stuck in an epic funk.

It only made things worse.

The Bruins missed their first five shots and committed three turnovers while giving up the game’s first nine points.

Cronin then gave Jan Vide a few minutes at point guard and things didn’t get much better. So the coach went back to Andrews, whose four points in rapid-fire fashion pulled the Bruins to within 32-23 at halftime.

Presumably intended to take pressure off Andrews, who was shooting 24.5% from the field over his previous four games while logging nearly as many turnovers as assists, the move only led to more turnovers and sloppy offense for the Bruins.

“Coach is trying to put the ball in people’s hands to score, guys who can score, and a lot of times they just think it’s for them to score when in actuality it’s for them to score if they can, but find the open guy if they can’t,” Palmer said. “And that’s the disconnect right there. So we just have to stress using each other, sharing the ball with each other and hopefully things will get better.”

Andrews never found much of a shooting form, finishing with 10 points while making four of 12 shots. Mack led UCLA with 20 points and center Bona added 14, but the Bruins made only two of 10 three-pointers in another abysmal showing from long range.

Guard Jaylon Tyson scored 22 points on nine-for-12 shooting for Cal (5-10, 1-3), whose previous victories had come over St. Thomas, Cal State Bakersfield, Santa Clara and UC San Diego.

At this point, it’s not obvious if their triumph over UCLA qualifies as the Golden Bears’ best of the season.