LOS ANGELES — As the UCLA men’s basketball team tries to end its four-game losing streak Thursday night against No. 5 Arizona, Bruins coach Mick Cronin is facing the prospect of missing the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2010, when he was a fourth-year coach at Cincinnati.
“They’re doing the best they can do,” Cronin said about this season’s team. “They’ve done the best they can do, it’s just reality, we got stuck in a rebuilding year. We tried to overcome it with our recruiting and it’s the way it is.”
Despite the Bruins’ sub-.500 overall record (14-15, 9-9 Pac-12) and being tied for fifth place in the Pac-12 standings with two regular-season games to go, UCLA sophomore forward Adem Bona believes the team still has a lot of play for.
“We just want to show our identity, what we stand for,” Bona said before Tuesday’s practice. “As a team, I believe we have an identity of playing hard, playing tough, playing together as a group. … every single one of us on the team has pride and we want to play hard for the team and play for UCLA.”
The Bruins have won their last five home games against Arizona, a streak that dates to a 90-68 victory on Jan. 30, 2019.
UCLA did suffer a 77-71 loss at Arizona on Jan. 20, which came right before the team’s season-best six-game winning streak.
Here’s what you need to know about the Pac-12 matchup:
UCLA VS. NO. 5 ARIZONA
When: 6:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Pauley Pavilion
TV/Radio: ESPN/1150 AM
Records: UCLA 14-15 overall, 9-9 in Pac-12 play; Arizona 23-6, 14-4
UCLA’s latest result: The Bruins are coming off a 77-65 loss at Washington State on March 2, despite four players in double figures: Dylan Andrews (21), Sebastian Mack (11), Lazar Stefanovic (11) and Bona (10).
However, UCLA’s bench added only six points and did not help the starters keep pace with the Cougars junior forward Jaylen Wells, who scored a game-high 27 points, including three 3-pointers.
Arizona’s latest result: The Wildcats are coming off a 103-83 home win against Oregon on March 2. Arizona senior guard Caleb Love and senior guard Pelle Larson each scored 22 points and combined to go for 7 for 15 from 3-point range.
Matchups to watch: Andrews against Love, the Wildcats’ leading scorer at 19.4 points per game. Love has averaged 22 points and 5.6 assists per game during Arizona’s three-game winning streak.
Andrews, the team’s point guard and defensive stopper, has also emerged as one of UCLA’s go-to scorers, while still leading the team with 6.5 assists per game last week.
“Dylan had a great road trip,” Cronin continued. “But for us our defense and rebounding have to be really really good because we can’t overwhelm you on the offensive end.
“This group, we’re too young to do that so for us the backboard defensively has become a problem in the last few weeks and that breaks your back defensively. It just destroys your defensive effort and that’s kind of what’s happened to us.”
Another matchup to watch is Bona against Arizona senior center Oumar Ballo, a 7-footer who is averaging 13.1 points and 10.2 rebounds per game and has recorded a double-double in nine straight games.
Bona said his ability to rebound will be central to the team’s game plan.
“I didn’t have a good showing for myself at Washington State for rebounding, but against Arizona rebounding is going to be huge for us,” Bona said, who only grabbed one rebound in 21 minutes against Washington State last weekend. “We’re going to be crashing the glass.”
UCLA trends to watch: Freshman Sebastian Mack is the Bruins’ leading scorer at 12.8 points per game. The 6-foot-3 guard from Chicago said he’s learned a lot about himself this season while playing with a lingering toe injury.
“I always knew I was tough, it’s just keeping my head up,” Mack said. “Sometimes I do feel defeated and it hurts bad, but everybody on this level is hurt. You just have to keep playing through it and just keep going out there and competing.”
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“He’s had to play more minutes than he was ready for,” Cronin said. “And in defense of Sebastian Mack from about the halfway point with a bad big toe injury.
“You can watch it if you watch us closely, you can see it. So his explosiveness has definitely been affected but he’s fought through it for his team and shown a lot of toughness in doing so. It’s not an easy thing.”
Meanwhile, UCLA is still leading the Pac-12 in scoring defense, only giving up 65.5 points per game. The Bruins are 12-4 this season when they hold their opponents to no more than 65 points.
Cronin said his mantra for the Bruins remains steadfast.
“Same thing as always, come in here every day with a great attitude and great effort,” Cronin said. “Regardless of result.”