WATCH: Mick Cronin Puts UCLA Men's Basketball on Blast After Upset Loss to Oregon

UCLA men’s basketball coach Mick Cronin talked to reporters following the Bruins’ 84-81 loss to Oregon on Thursday night, detailing the intense halftime meeting, his team’s lack of effort and toughness and all of the things that went wrong despite the close final score. 

MICK CRONIN

Opening statement

We did not play well. Shot selection, ball security, defense—none of the above, so. Somehow we made enough shots to stay in the game. The only bright spot is Peyton Watson’s effort and his eight rebounds. But defensively, to come out in the second half and have four deflections and give up 52% and 62% in overtime is just an abomination. It’s an abomination, an abomination. It’s embarrassing. I’ll fix it, though.

Team out of sync?

That’s an excuse. We weren’t prepared, it’s my fault, it’s my job, not out of sync. Didn’t play defense, didn’t take care of the ball, didn’t share the ball. When we shared the ball we actually scored and when we didn’t take crazy shots. But even when we started sharing the ball, then all of a sudden, we started taking terrible shots again. What happens in this game, either you’re humble and hungry like they were, trying to pull off the so-called upset, or you’re arrogant without cause just we’ve won nothing. We’ve had a win in overtime in a home game at Pauley, so we’re arrogant without cause. In this game, if you don’t play hard the game treats you the way it should, usually. Even if we had won, I’d have felt the same way.

66% from free throw line?

Practicing. Hopefully we get better at it. Cody, Myles and Jaime are the issue; the rest of the guys aren’t.

Jaime 100%?

You’d have to ask him. He practiced full go for the last three days. He’s been a great player for us, tonight obviously wasn’t his best effort. If you don’t come out ready to play, you deserve to lose. Everything that I believe in—effort, attitude and focus, the scouting report, situational, we were bad at.

Play at the end of the first half?

Ridiculous. Actually, it was a multitude of plays when we were up eight or nine. Johnny got beat on an and-one, [inaudible] loose ball in front of the bench, I knew the guy had shot it, I yelled at him to grab it, grab it, but we got beat. Myles Johnson is 6-11 and 250 and didn’t get a rebound in the first half—Will Richardson just took it from him and laid it in right in front of our bench. Toughness wins, guys. Like everybody thinks, you get into conference play, they think I just say things. There’s a reason certain teams always win, they find a way, they compete. You start thinking you’re going to win because people tell you you’ve got this guy or you guys are really good, it’s got nothing to do with it. You’ve got to physically compete.

Came back from halftime with only 90 seconds left until the second half started? Extra long meeting?

I tried to show guys how to pass at halftime. Certain guys on our team struggled with passing the ball to the open man.

No fans tonight?

Didn't help, but I don't believe in excuses. Play on the playground, man, you know? It is what it is. Like, I tell our guys, people who make it in life – whether it's sports or basketball – I gave them the speech this week, you've got two things: urgency and pride. At some point, if you're only doing it cause the coach is making you, you're never gonna make it. In the pros, they don't have time to motivate you. You gotta have enough pride to get the job done, have pride that people don't take the ball from you, people don't just score on you, go by you. You gotta have some pride, and you have to have urgency to be great. And most people can't show up every day with the same intensity and urgency, so I think the other team had both tonight. They played with a lot of pride and they had a sense of urgency, and you see what happens.

Clark's two late steals?

We did a great job in our pressure late in the game, obviously. So it gave us a chance, but we didn't – to be honest with you, we didn't deserve it. The way we played, even if we had won, I would have felt the same way, said the same things in the locker room. I don't grade the scoreboard, I grade the performance board and our effort and our attitude. We had a horrible practice yesterday, horrible, worst practice of the year as far as focus and guys paying attention. So that's my fault, my job is to stop it and get their attention. Obviously, I failed miserably.

Teaching them to pass literally?

No, there's film, there's a lot of stuff I can talk about with them.

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