UCLA eyes Pac-12 season title
Bruins hottest team after winning 7 in row
LOS ANGELES — UCLA is the hottest college basketball team in Division I after failing to create a ripple in the early months of the season.
The first-place Bruins (19-11, 12-5) own a half-game lead over Oregon and can clinch at least a share of the Pac-12 Conference crown with a victory Saturday at crosstown rival Southern California. They haven’t won the regular-season title since 2012-13.
They’ve won seven in a row and 11 of 13 heading into the game at Galen Center. Even a loss to the Trojans, coupled with any loss by the Ducks in their final two games, would give the Bruins a share of the title.
“We don’t want this to stop because this feeling is great,” freshman guard Jaime Jaquez Jr. said. “We don’t want it to end anytime soon.”
UCLA already has earned a bye in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament next week in Las Vegas. The Bruins can claim one of the top three seeds depending on the outcome of this week’s games.
All of this hardly seemed possible as recently as Jan. 17 when the Bruins were tied for last place in the Pac-12.
First-year coach Mick Cronin publicly challenged his players after a loss to Stanford dropped them below .500. He blasted their lack of defense, even questioning whether they deserved to have UCLA on their chests.
“When the going gets tough, we have some guys who will fold,” he said in midJanuary. “As the game goes on, our softness shows up.”
Cronin wasn’t beneath using one of the oldest motivational ploys in the book on a group of mostly freshmen and sophomores that struggled early to implement the hardnosed defense his reputation was built on.
“The hardest thing as a coach to do is to change the DNA of a program,” said Cronin, who succeeded the fired Steve Alford. “I say that with all respect because Steve won a lot of games. They just did it differently. They scored a whole lot of points.”
Alford’s most recent teams were criticized for a lack of defense and togetherness. Some of those same players have blossomed under Cronin.
Junior guard Chris Smith averages a team-leading 13.1 points. Redshirt sophomore forward Jalen Hill averages 9.2 points and a team-high 6.9 rebounds two years after being suspended for shoplifting during a team trip to China. Jaquez averages 9.0 points.
“We don’t have an all-league player,” Cronin said. “We have a bunch of young guys. Even our old guys, they’ve never been in a lead role. We don’t have a leading man.”