The remarkable first season for Mick Cronin at UCLA has continued. It’s becoming a better story all the time, not the least because after Saturday night, they are alone in first place in the Pac-12 as we enter March.
A couple of weeks ago, the Bruins had very much emerged into contention in the Pac-12, which by itself was remarkable and unthinkable not all that long ago. With their 69-64 win over Arizona on Saturday night, their seventh in a row, the Bruins are now 12-5 in the Pac-12, a half game ahead of Oregon.
It’s hard to believe that at one point this season, the Bruins had lost six of seven, with three of those losses coming at home and only one of them coming against a team likely to be in the NCAA Tournament (although one other team, Stanford, might get there as well but has some work to do).
In fact, it’s that very stretch that is probably most responsible for the Bruins being projected as not being in the NCAA Tournament by most bracketologists at this point. None of the other losses are all that bad – the worst is Hofstra, who wrapped up the CAA regular season title on Saturday, so that’s not bad. But it’s losses at Notre Dame, to North Carolina in Las Vegas, Cal State Fullerton and at Washington State that are hurting them on the whole.
This edition of the Bruins is nothing if not a late bloomer. The seven-game winning streak is part of a stretch where they have won 11 of 13, and along the way have knocked off the likes of Colorado and Arizona twice, along with Arizona State (just a game back in the loss column). The lack of a signature non-conference win hurts, as their best win there is probably the one over surprisingly UNLV.
Mick Cronin now has to be included in discussions of national Coach of the Year at this point. He should be on a list that also includes guys like Scott Drew, Brian Dutcher, Anthony Grant and Leonard Hamilton, to name a few. This Bruins team is not lacking talent, but there is no big-time NBA prospect on the roster and basically no winning experience at the college level there.
The Pac-12 is having a better season all around than the last two, which were both forgettable ones for the Conference of Champions. UCLA’s improvement is certainly no small contributor to that, and it’s also the best story coming out of it.
Side Dishes
For more on many of Saturday’s key games, please see the final Saturday Notes of the 2019-20 season.
The Missouri Valley Conference is one of a few whose regular season ended on Saturday, and theirs ends in some mystery due to their tie-breaking procedures, which in the case of two ties will come down to NET rankings on Sunday morning. Bradley and Indiana State tied for third place, and based on their NET rankings entering the day and the results on Saturday, it looks like Indiana State will take third, while Missouri State and Valparaiso tied for sixth place, and the results appear to favor Missouri State. The conference will announce its seedings after the latest NET rankings are revealed, and the second tie is important since the team that loses the tiebreaker will have to play in the first round of the conference tournament against Evansville, who went winless in Missouri Valley play.
LSU retired Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf’s jersey on Saturday, 30 years after he starred at the school for two years. Then known as Chris Jackson, he was one of the best players in the country as soon as he got to college, and on Saturday was there with then-head coach Dale Brown for the ceremony.
Tonight’s Menu
The final day of the regular season for a few conferences is a light one in terms of game volume, but not in the importance of the games on tap.
- A pair of Big East games are on tap, with St. John’s hosting Creighton (noon) and Georgetown hosting Xavier (2 p.m.)
- A big one in the American Athletic Conference comes up early with two of the three teams tied at the top battling as Cincinnati visits Houston (1 p.m.), while later on SMU hosts Wichita State (4 p.m.)
- First place is on the line in Conference USA as North Texas hosts Western Kentucky (2 p.m.)
- The Atlantic 10 has a key matchup among the teams chasing Dayton as Saint Louis travels to Rhode Island (2 p.m.)
- In the Big Ten, Indiana visits Illinois (2 p.m.), Ohio State hosts Michigan (4 p.m.) and Wisconsin hosts Minnesota (6:30 p.m.)
- The MAAC continues to wind down its regular season with three games, highlighted by Monmouth hosting Manhattan and Fairfield hosting Rider (2 p.m.)
- The final CAA regular season game is in Boston, where Northeastern hosts Towson (4 p.m.)
- Louisville hosts Virginia Tech in an ACC tilt (6 p.m.)
- The lone Pac-12 game of the day has Stanford hosting Colorado (6 p.m.)
