Waving a final farewell to its longtime conference, No. 5 seed UCLA men’s basketball (15-16, 10-10 Pac-12) will battle No. 12 seed Oregon State (13-18, 5-15) in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament Wednesday afternoon. But before the Bruins tip off in Las Vegas, senior staff writer Jack Nelson provides his five biggest takeaways from an uneven conference slate.
Roller coaster ride
Conference play for the Bruins was Magic Mountain purgatory – a wild ride complete with steep ascents, abrupt plummets and the perpetual element of unpredictability.
When UCLA overcame a nine-point deficit to eventually top Arizona State on Saturday night, the roller coaster took its final turn, putting the Bruins precisely where they hadn’t been for three weeks. Their previous five contests had all been missed opportunities, dashing what slim hopes remained of an at-large bid into March Madness.
The Bruins claimed victory at the close, winning the last-ever Pac-12 regular-season men’s basketball game. Not that it mattered – there’s little reason to believe it will spur a triumphant postseason.
But the squad did spend much of conference play constructing an elaborate illusion of hope.
It began with disaster in Utah, where UCLA lost its fourth straight and fell to its lowest point with its second-biggest defeat in program history. As a culmination of persisting shooting woes, declining discipline and a rare defensive implosion, it was an epic embarrassment that demanded a response.
And respond the Bruins did, winning eight of their next nine games. Veterans finally lived up to expectations, young newcomers’ talent shone through, and a fatal inability to finish dissipated in light of more comfortable victories.
Just over a month after “Hell in Huntsman Center,” UCLA welcomed Utah to its own house. Last time’s 46-point shellacking was left to memory as a chance for redemption in Pauley Pavilion winded down to the final possession. But an offensive rebound from Ute center Branden Carlson at the buzzer stopped the Bruins from ever reaching the mountaintop, only signaling the start of another losing spell.
This ride came to a screeching halt.
Far from home
The two most touted recruits in coach Mick Cronin’s transnational tag-along had to fight harder than anyone just to be on the court.
Spanish center Aday Mara and Turkish forward Berke Buyuktuncel weren’t cleared to play until Nov. 3 and 18. It was such a struggle between UCLA and the NCAA that by the time the pair did arrive, a fair amount of local hype had built up despite minimal knowledge about their abilities.
Albeit very different animals, Mara and Buyuktuncel appealed to Cronin because of their shared athleticism and scoring ability – traits the Bruins desperately needed from newcomers to help cushion the blow of four departed starters from 2023.
The fifth-year head coach experimented with both during nonconference play. The Spaniard averaged 4.6 points on 14 minutes per game, while the Turk tallied a slightly better five points with 16.6 minutes per contest. It was inevitable that Mara would fight for minutes behind sophomore forward/center Adem Bona, but Buyuktuncel had few standing in his way.
Neither had broken through by the time the final buzzer sounded Saturday night.
Buyuktuncel became a marginally less-efficient scorer despite a bump in play time, averaging 4.9 points in 17.5 minutes per game during Pac-12 play. Mara’s struggles to score in the paint – a typical area of dominance for someone of 7-foot-3 stature – reduced him to a nonfactor, as he averaged just 2.7 points in 6.6 minutes across UCLA’s 20 conference contests.
They just couldn’t adjust to the physicality of college basketball, never establishing themselves as the scorers Cronin needed them to be.
To their credit, though, freshmen growing pains are not an uncommon phenomenon. Time is their ally.
Bona bright spot
UCLA was going to revolve around Bona this season, and Cronin acknowledged it.
By withdrawing his name from the NBA draft pool last offseason, Bona elected to become the only returning starter for the Bruins, accepting his collegiate calling as a young leader in the locker room and on the court. He entered as the reigning Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, shouldering a heap of sophomore expectations.
Then he accomplished something only two before him ever have.
He went on to win Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, following Gary Payton and Evan Mobley as the conference’s only players to ever win the top defensive and freshman honor.
UCLA was unquestionably a better team when Bona stomped around the court. The team would almost always possess the athletic advantage under the rim, and could diversify its offense by controlling the paint. He finished second in the conference with 57 blocked shots and ninth with 63 offensive rebounds.
But self-inflicted wounds – and a failure to learn from them – kept Bona on the bench more than UCLA would’ve liked.
His playing time jumped from 24.1 minutes per conference game as a freshman to 27.4 this season, yet his personal foul total only declined by one, falling from 73 to 72. Across 20 conference matchups, Bona was called for four or more personal fouls 12 different times.
When a team’s finest veteran in a sea of inexperience can’t stay in the game, serious success is hard to attain.
His imposing defensive presence, though, was award-worthy – even if Bona-fide greatness didn’t grace the floor as often as was needed.
Mick’s mess
Player execution delivers wins and losses, but it’s the coach who must assemble his version of basketball’s Avengers.
In Westwood, that’s Cronin. And faced with query upon query of what caused a crash-and-burn campaign, he accepted the reality before him.
Cronin stands alone as the master of this mess.
The Bruins’ 15-16 overall mark at the close of conference play qualifies as the second-worst winning percentage for the program since the Pac-12 coined its current moniker in 2011. There have only been 18 losing seasons in the team’s 104-year history, and unless UCLA notches multiple wins in this week’s conference tournament, that number will grow to 19.
It all comes back to Cronin’s difficulty with luring transfers, which he admitted has been a challenge in the NIL era. UCLA’s limited ability to attract athletes away from other high-profile programs forced Cronin’s hand – he had to resort to international waters to complete his roster.
UCLA’s failures in conference play were not for a lack of coaching ability – Cronin’s sparkling track record carried a streak of 12 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances coming into 2024. There were whispers of him for Pac-12 Coach of the Year when the Bruins rattled off eight wins in nine games after a 6-10 start.
But as hard as Cronin tried to clean up, it was ultimately him who set this mess in motion.
One road, one way
All the twists and turns, all the triumphs and the heartbreaks – everything the Bruins endured has led them down one path.
Win, and you’re in.
If UCLA leaves Las Vegas with the Pac-12 tournament trophy in hand, it will earn an auto bid into March Madness – dancing against all odds. It’s one of the beautiful quirks of the college basketball postseason, giving teams something to play for in March regardless of whether the NCAA tournament was ever in their sights.
With a 10-10 conference record, the Bruins are lucky even to enter as a No. 5 seed, a reflection of how barren the Pac-12 was of truly great men’s basketball teams in 2024. But that doesn’t mean the road to the title will be smooth.
No. 12 seed Oregon State is one of the only two Pac-12 teams that UCLA beat multiple times, while a contest with No. 4 seed Oregon – which would await in the quarterfinals – could go either way. Then the going gets far, far tougher in a potential semifinal bout with No. 1 seed Arizona, which had UCLA’s number all season.
And if Cronin’s hesitancy has been any indication, the NIT is not a viable backup.
March miracle or bust.
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