LOS ANGELES – It is hard to imagine a team not showing up energized and focused for a rivalry game. Especially a team that had more to play for.
But that six-game winning streak UCLA compiled before losing at the buzzer to Utah last week? That’s old news, getting smaller in the rear view mirror.
The chance of getting back to the NCAA Tournament, and giving Mick Cronin his 12th straight trip to March Madness (if you forgive 2020, when there was no tournament because of COVID-19)? It’s hanging by the skinniest of threads. USC, which played its way out of contention for an at-large bid weeks ago, likely extinguished it’s rival’s at-large hopes as well Saturday night with a 62-56 decision at Pauley Pavilion that was a lot more convincing than the final score looked.
“There’s only one way we can make the tournament,” he said. “You gotta win the conference tournament, by my math.”
But that might have been the least of his worries, following a discouraging loss and the attitudes during the week of practice that led up to it.
“It’s a simple game – the team that plays harder usually wins,” Cronin said. “They played much harder than us. They were more physical. They had humility. They came in here looking for redemption. We had no humility. Show me somebody that’s not humble, and I’ll show you somebody getting ready to get humbled.
“We had our worst week of practice of the season. I failed miserably to get my team ready for the fight that was coming today. And I’m thoroughly embarrassed. I apologize to the people wearing the four letters. Yes, we really struggled making open shots, but that has nothing to do with all the stuff I talked about. The team that wins the fight usually wins the game, and they won the fight in every way. We were awful.”
Exhibit A: Cronin noted that the top priority listed on the locker room board before the game was to put the clamps on the Trojans’ Boogie Ellis.
“Do not let him shoot,” Cronin said. “Make somebody else beat us. How’d that work?”
Ellis had 18 points at halftime, on 6-for-10 shooting and 3 for 5 from 3-point country. He finished with 24. Meanwhile, UCLA’s guards were 5 for 17 from the field in the first half, 7 for 35 for the game with 11 turnovers. And after using a 15-1 run at the end of the first half to tie the game 34-34, UCLA didn’t score a point for the first 7:15 of the second half to fall back again.
“We missed our first five shots (after halftime), so we just came out flat with no energy,” Adem Bona said.
The 15-1 run was, Cronin said, the only time during the game he felt his team played hard. Otherwise, “We let them run whatever they wanted to run. We took nothing away from them.”
The signs evidently were there in the days leading up to the game, and Cronin seemed befuddled that he had to “put guys on the treadmill, yell and scream and run my team the day before you’re playing your rival in front of your biggest crowd of the season … I should have to calm them down.”
Would this be the sort of experience that might get his players’ attention for the final four regular season games and the conference tournament? Maybe. Maybe not.
“You would assume they’re extremely humble” after a loss like that, Cronin said, adding that he didn’t expect them to take it as hard as he did.
“I’m not going to talk to anybody tonight,” he said. “I’m going to hate myself, the job I did. The only person I’m talking to tonight is my dog, okay? And that’s it. I have a recruit in town, so somehow I have to rally tomorrow.
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“They’re not me. Like, they’re not you. They’re just not. They’re kids. I mean, I would hope that they were thoroughly embarrassed, and they should be. I just don’t know if it’s like that. … There’s certain guys (who will take it hard). Other guys will go out. You know, I’m liable to have four guys out eating and laughing tonight with their girlfriend. That’s just the way it is.”
Kids these days, right?
The metrics that will ultimately be used in determining at-large teams are very unfriendly to both L.A. schools. Before Saturday night UCLA was 107th in the NET rating, one of the primary tools the NCAA Tournament selection committee uses to evaluate potential at-large teams, while USC was 108th. The two figured to flip-flop after Saturday’s result, and neither is close to the territory that would qualify for the tournament’s 36 at-large berths.
UCLA is 14-13, but when you take away a Maui Classic victory over Division II Chaminade, it’s a .500 team. They’re still in fourth place in the Pac-12 at 9-7, and in position for a first-day bye in ‘Vegas, but their four remaining conference games include games at second-place Washington State (12-5) and at home against first place Arizona (12-4).
USC (11-16, 5-11) right now is in 11th place and would have to somehow win four games in four days in ‘Vegas to get back to March Madness. It could be argued that Saturday night at Pauley Pavilion was their NCAA Tournament equivalent.
The Trojans played like it mattered. The Bruins didn’t, and it showed.
jalexander@scng.com