UCLA is now 1-0 on the season. The team is projected as one of the Top 25 teams in the Power Rankings, but the first game of the season was a struggle. After an 80-74 win over Eastern Washington, head coach Mick Cronin was not happy with the team's performance.
“Arrogance. Lack of humility… there's so many mistakes, I'd like to fire myself,” Cronin said after the game, assessing his team according to The Field Of 68.
It was a back-and-forth first half for UCLA against Eastern Washington. They did open up a seven-point lead at the end of the first half. Still, UCLA could not pull away in the second half. While UCLA did not give up the lead in the second half, they still came away with just a six-point victory, even though the team was a 29.5-point favorite heading into the game.
“I blame myself because I knew it was coming tonight. I couldn’t stop it, so I failed,” said Cronin about the UCLA struggles in the game.
UCLA shot just 47.1 percent from the field while outrebounding Eastern Washington by just five. Meanwhile, Eastern Washington shot 53.7 percent from the field and was dominant in the paint, scoring 38 points down low.
“We get beat in layups. We had everything you can think. I’m going to throw this at you, because I want to get the hell out of here: lack of adherence to the scouting report, terrible pick-and-roll defense, help when we shouldn’t, rotate off the best shooter to a non-shooter, post defense embarrassingly terrible. And those are all coaching. Defense is coaching,” the head coach said, clearly exasperated over the defensive performance.
UCLA will return to the court on Friday night against Pepperdine. They have just over a week to figure out the defense before playing against rival Arizona on November 14th.
