On Thursday, UCLA basketball head coach Mick Cronin and his Bruins improved to 10-11 on the young season with a big 71-63 home win over the Oregon State Beavers. The game was very closely contested at halftime, with UCLA leading Oregon State by just two points; however, the Bruins were able to take off down the stretch en route to the win.

After the game, Cronin got one hundred percent honest on how his team's defense can still be even better, despite the big win over Oregon State.

“You can't expect to win if you don't put forth winning effort, which means you have to put forth more effort than your opponent,” said Cronin, per the Bruins' official team website. “Tonight, we weren't able to shut them out. Obviously, they shot at a good percentage. But thankfully, we dominated the backboard and we were plus-four in the turnover margin. That takes effort to turn people over. It takes effort to outrebound people, and back to how to win, you can't expect to win if you want to come out and be pretty and shoot jump shots.”

As previously mentioned, Cronin and his UCLA squad now sit at 10-11 on the young season, probably not where they envisioned they would be at this point of the campaign but with plenty of time left to improve things and make a push up the standings. Up next for UCLA basketball is a home game against the Oregon Ducks. That game is slated to tip off at 10:00 PM ET from Los Angeles.