LOS ANGELES — UCLA’s men’s basketball coach Mick Cronin does not believe the way Thursday’s 64-60 victory at home against Colorado unfolded will carry over to Sunday’s game against Utah.
“I would love for it to translate but it won’t. If you tell me we’re going to hold Utah to 60, I’ll take it, but you have to go play Sunday, but everything is a learning experience,” Cronin said.
The first time UCLA played Utah this season, the result was a 90-46 loss in Salt Lake City on Jan. 11, the team’s worst and only double-digit defeat this season. Sophomore point guard Dylan Andrews led the Bruins with nine points. The team’s most imposing interior presence, sophomore forward Adem Bona, only mustered four points and two rebounds in 18 minutes.
However, since that drubbing, UCLA has won eight of the nine games, including the team’s current and season-long six-game winning streak.
Freshman guard Sebastian Mack has led the turnaround and is the team’s leading scorer at 13.5 points per game and says he wants to stay locked into the Bruins’ current style of play against Utah.
“We’re going to take it step by step, going to practice, work our kinks out and go from there,” Mack said.
“Keep letting the momentum carry us,” Andrews added.
Here’s what you need to know about the important Pac-12 matchup:
UCLA VS. UTAH
When: Sunday, 4 p.m.
Where: Pauley Pavilion, Los Angeles
TV: FS1
Records: UCLA 14-11, 9-5 Pac-12; Utah is 15-10, 6-8
UCLA’s latest result: Mack scored a game-high 19 points in UCLA’s win at home against Colorado on Thursday. Bona had 14 points and seven rebounds. Andrews added 13 points and four rebounds. UCLA gave up a 14-point lead in the second half. However, a combination of timely offense and defense down the stretch earned the victory, which moved the Bruins into third place in the Pac-12 standings with three weeks left in the regular season.
Utah’s latest result: The Utes are coming off a 68-64 loss at USC on Thursday night. Senior point guard Deivon Smith filled up the stat sheet with 19 points, nine rebounds and seven assists but senior center Branden Carlson, who scored 15 points was the only other Utah player in double figures as the team shot 36.7% (22 of 60) from the field, including 19% (4 of 21) from three-point range.
Matchup to watch: UCLA’s Andrews against Utah’s Smith will be key. In just 21 minutes in Utah’s blowout win against the Bruins on Jan. 11, Smith recorded a double-double with 11 points and 11 assists. However, since then Andrews has emerged as UCLA’s top perimeter defense, holding dynamic guards like Colorado’s KJ Simpson, USC’s Boogie Ellis and Oregon’s Jackson Shelstad, well below their season averages and disrupting the flow of those aforementioned teams’ offenses.
UCLA trends to watch: The Bruins are averaging 69 points per game on their current six-game winning streak, slightly above the team’s season average of 66.1 points.
Meanwhile, more than 70% of the team’s scoring output has come from just four players, Mack (13.5), Bona (12.3), Andrews (11.3) and junior guard Lazar Stefanovic (10.8), who transferred from Utah ahead of the 2023-24 season.