The UCLA basketball team suffered a brutal 59-53 loss to Stanford on Wednesday to fall to 6-8 on the season, and head coach Mick Cronin did not pull any punches when talking about his players and what the problem has been for the team this season.

“The most important thing for a teacher is for his students to have aptitude or they can't learn, they can't apply, so your rate of progress and development is way too slow,” Mick Cronin said, via Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times. “So if a team makes adjustments, we struggle to adjust to instruction on the fly.”

Cronin was then asked if he expects his young team with a lot of freshmen to improve naturally throughout the year for UCLA basketball, and he said that is not a given.

“The fallacy is that freshmen get better as the year goes on,” Cronin said, via Bolch. “It's a fallacy because forget the one percentile. For the rest of 'em, it's harder as the year goes on, 'cause it gets harder to win, 'cause there's scouting reports. The games mean more and it's more physical. The coaches have figured out who they should play and who should sit. So it's harder on them as the year goes on.”

After that, Cronin's comment about his UCLA team needing to toughen up is notable.

“You can't call your mommy; she can't help you,” Cronin said, via Bolch. “You've got an opportunity of a lifetime and it may not last forever depending on your performance.”

Up next for the Bruins is a home game against Cal on Saturday as they try to turn the season around.