Mick Cronin does not think highly of the NCAA Tournament selection committee. Following UCLA’s first-round win over Utah State, the Bruins head coach bashed the committee’s seeding process.
Cronin said he told his team that believing in their odds of winning is their best chance in the tournament in his post-game presser. The UCLA basketball coach claims he does not think much of the seeding process, given the decisions are made by a group of people who have “never played basketball” before.
“You gotta believe you’re supposed to win in this damn tournament,” Cronin said. “The number next to your name was given to you by a bunch of people who never played basketball in a room. So what the hell do they know? You gotta believe you can advance and win, and, to me, that’s a big, big part of it.”
His message evidently worked out, as UCLA dominated Utah State to the tune of a dominant 74-47 victory. The Aggies entered the game averaging 78.8 points per game but were held to just 30 percent from the floor and 13 percent from three. Utah State’s leading scorer, Ian Martinez, shot just 1-for-11, including 0-for-7 from deep, and finished with just two points.
Junior guard Skyy Clark and sophomore forward Eric Dailey Jr. paced the Bruins with 14 points apiece. UCLA only had three players reach double figures but shot 41.7 percent from deep as a team and recorded 22 assists on its 26 field goals.
Mick Cronin, UCLA advances past Utah State to face Tennessee
With the win, UCLA advances to a much bigger test on Saturday against No. 2-seeded Tennessee. The Volunteers are coming off a 77-63 first-round win over Wofford. Cronin compared the difference in competition between Utah State and Tennessee to changing weight classes in boxing.
Cronin is known for his outlandish phrases, but his metaphor for Tennessee could not be more accurate. While Utah State came out on top of the Mountain West, Rick Barnes’ squad spent the entire year going blow-for-blow with the heavyweights of the SEC, the nation’s top conference all season. The Volunteers spent a good portion of the early season ranked No. 1 before suffering their first loss to Florida in January.
UCLA has been fairly successful against top-ranked teams thus far, going 4-3 against top-25 opponents on the year. That includes wins over Michigan State, Gonzaga and Oregon — which they beat twice — who were all ranked in the top 15 at the time of their loss to the Bruins.
Tennessee and UCLA square off at the Rupp Arena at 9:40 p.m. ET / 6:40 p.m. ET. The Lexington arena will be considerably closer to Knoxville than it is to Los Angeles, giving the Volunteers a de facto home-court advantage. As such, they enter the game as slight 4.5-point favorites.
The post Mick Cronin dismisses UCLA’s NCAA Tournament seed after crushing Utah State appeared first on ClutchPoints.
