{"id":228508,"date":"2026-03-20T13:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T13:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/228508\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T13:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T13:10:13","slug":"ucla-mens-basketball-eager-to-mount-deep-tournament-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/228508\/","title":{"rendered":"UCLA men’s basketball eager to mount deep tournament run"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PHILADELPHIA\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Besides carrying on the UCLA<\/a> legacy, which Mick Cronin<\/a> says is an honor in itself, he\u2019s got an extra incentive here this weekend that has nothing to do with finding the best cheesesteak in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to win two games,\u201d said Cronin, whose Bruins will start off going against Central Florida<\/a>, whose coach, Johnny Dawkins, knows all too well from the years they squared off when he was at Cincinnati in the American Athletic Conference. \u201cMy daughter goes to American [University.]<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll see her Monday. But I would like to spend a week with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because the East Region will be held in Washington, where AU is located. But for the Bruins to advance to past a Sunday showdown most likely against powerful Connecticut, Cronin says they\u2019ll first need to contain Central Florida\u2019s potent attack.<\/p>\n

\"UCLA <\/p>\n

UCLA coach Mick Cronin talks with guard Trent Perry during the Bruins\u2019 game at Michigan on Feb. 14.<\/p>\n

(Lon Horwedel \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

\u201cCentral Florida can score,\u201d he explained of the 21-11 Knights, who\u2019ve successfully made the transition from the AAC to the Big 12. \u201cThey\u2019re athletic.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Themus] Fulks [averaging 14.1 points and 6.7 assists] keeps me up at night because he can get in the lane whenever he wants. He\u2019s great off the pick and roll. He makes good reads and he\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen Riley Kugel [14.4 points] since high school. He played for a friend of mine, so I know he\u2019s a very good player and has gotten better as he\u2019s gotten older.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can shoot it. They\u2019ve struggled of late which means law of averages, that\u2019s going to flip. They\u2019re an athletic, aggressive team.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other hand Dawkins, back in the city where he played for five years and won an NBA Eastern Conference title while playing alongside Charles Barkley, knows what he\u2019s up against. <\/p>\n

\u201cMick does a great job with his team,\u201d said Dawkins, who before coming to Central Florida went 156-115 coaching eight years at Stanford, following a decade serving as Mike Krzyzewski\u2019s assistant at his alma mater, Duke. \u201cOf course. UCLA is a storied program of all college basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat an amazing history they\u2019ve had there. and, of course, Coach Cronin is a coach I have known from the American as well. I know his team is going to be really, really talented.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re very skilled and they\u2019re tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of that legacy, which includes a 1976 Final Four appearance here under John Wooden\u2019s replacement, Gene Bartow, Cronin\u2019s players knew what they were signing up for when they decided to come to Westwood.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a blessing just to be part of this, to be part of the history, part of the tradition,\u201d said senior guard Skyy Clark, averaging 11.7 points per game. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot to carry for sure, but it motivates us to go out there and just do what we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UCLA <\/p>\n

UCLA forward Tyler Bilodeau is congratulated by fans after beating USC at the Galen Center on March 7.<\/p>\n

(Allen J. Schaben\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, a lot comes with these four letters we wear on our chest,\u201d added second-leading scorer and top playmaker Donovan Dent (13.5, 7.6 assists). \u201cWe just want to make our names and the history of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say there\u2019s extra pressure, but we know there\u2019s definitely a standard that needs to be held.\u201d<\/p>\n

UCLA forward Tyler Bilodeau and Dent were injured during the Bruins\u2019 Big Ten tournament run, but Cronin said Thursday \u201cthey looked good today [during practice,] so knock on wood.\u201d <\/p>\n

Maintaining the standard first set by Wooden is what lured Cronin from Cincinnati, where he won 296 games in 13 years and took them to the NCAA tournament nine times. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had a great job and was close to being the winningest coach ever at Cincinnati,\u201d said Cronin, who\u2019ll be making his fourth tourney appearance with the Bruins, including dropping a 2022 Sweet Sixteen game to North Carolina in this building. \u201cBut I left to sit in Coach Wooden\u2019s chair and coach at the best university in the country, arguably the world, and everything that goes with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tremendous. I\u2019ve been very fortunate. To coach at my alma mater, Cincinnati, and to be the head basketball coach at UCLA following so many.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday night, Cronin and the Bruins will take on the challenge of Central Florida and his longtime adversary Dawkins, mindful there are no gimmes once you get this far. No. 5 seed Wisconsin learned that during a loss to No. 12 High Point on Thursday and top-ranked Duke nearly did, having to rally from 13 points down to survive No. 16 Siena.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got to have players,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you can\u2019t coach, you\u2019re not going to be in those tournaments. \u201cThe better players you have, the further you go.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the whole key to getting in these things and advancing in them. Perseverance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Besides carrying on the UCLA legacy, which Mick Cronin says is an honor in itself, he\u2019s got an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[103829,64634,2454,8932,16770,24993,4690,103828,423,48,52,51,47,50,49,8750,1459,1417,2429,11147,72],"class_list":["post-228508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-aggressive-team","tag-amazing-history","tag-basketball","tag-bruins","tag-central-florida","tag-cincinnati","tag-coach","tag-deep-tournament-run","tag-game","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mick-cronin","tag-part","tag-point","tag-thursday","tag-ucla-man","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}