The Bruins were outclassed physically by the Buckeyes.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - UCLA head coach Mick Cronin was disgusted with his team's lack of defense on Saturday.
The Bruins (12-6, 4-3) fell to the Ohio State Buckeyes (12-5, 4-3) 86-74 and a premier offensive day from the Bruins, led by a 30 point performance Tyler Bilodeau, meant nothing in the face of the way they were outclassed on the defensive end and bullied physically throughout the game.
"We wasted a great shot-making day from him [Bilodeau] with awful defense," Cronin said (via UCLA Athletics).
Cronin didn't mince words after the game. At this point, Cronin doesn't even feel that he can put winning basketball with the team that he has. Cronin shouldered the blame for the loss, not because of any specific failure of coaching, but because he was the one that recruited and signed the players that he now feels are inept at defending strong opponents and lack the willingness to put themselves on the line physically.
"Our defense is an embarrassment today. Last couple games it was great. Today, we couldn't guard them... We had nobody interested in rising to the challenge defensively. Everybody wants somebody else to get the dirty work. We're a team that struggles to have dirty work guys," Cronin said.
Effort is something that Cronin takes very seriously. Throughout the season, especially after bad games, Cronin has lambasted his team for an unwillingness to make hard plays, whether that's been on the rebounding front or in guarding the other team.
The Bruins have shown flashes of defensive effort at times, but never enough to chain together a consistent streak of wins. UCLA was riding a two-game win streak going into Saturday's game, which was a brief reprieve from the struggles they'd had in the previous two games, but their flaws reared their ugly heads again.
The Bruins were especially outclassed when it came to rebounding, a major point of contention for Cronin. The Buckeyes out-rebounded the Bruins 37-27 and had 12 more defenisve rebounds in particular. It was a hard shooting day for UCLA overall, but they kept up with Ohio State in most other stats beyond rebounding, which became the difference maker as any extra chances UCLA might have had were stripped away again and again by their inability to keep the ball away from the Buckeyes in the glass.
The biggest failure of the Bruins in Saturday's game was by far their handling of the Buckeyes' star guards senior Bruce Thornton or sophomore John Mobley Jr. Cronin said that UCLA had plenty of time to prep for those two in particular, but no one in blue could keep up, or even tried to.
Mobley Jr. led the Buckeyes with 28 points while Thornton turned in a 21 point, eight rebound performance.
"Two really tough guards and we knew that coming into the game. We've just to be more ready to play and step up to the fight," Bilodeau said.
Category: General Sports
