COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Three days after ripping his group following a house loss to Michigan, UCLA coach Mick Cronin turned his disdain towards the officers.
Cronin was ejected with 5:11 remaining in a 79-61 loss at Maryland on Friday evening, and he didn’t maintain again afterward, voicing his displeasure with the officiating and Big Ten scheduling. He was far gentler on his personal gamers than he was earlier within the week, when he called them “soft” and “delusional” after a 19-point defeat by Michigan. This time he felt they had been in an unfair state of affairs.
“In protection of my guys, I did not assume we got any likelihood to win within the second half,” Cronin mentioned. “I let [official] Jeff Anderson know, I hit the showers.”
Cronin’s outburst got here with UCLA down 9 after Maryland got here up with a rebound. He was given two fast technicals and despatched on his means.
“I do not bear in mind the final time I had a technical,” he mentioned. “I had sufficient. I’m sending a message. I’m bored with it. I do know we are the outsider and all that — us, SC and Oregon — however that was ridiculous.
“And take nothing away from Maryland, a very good group at residence, however you bought to defend my gamers. If you’ll be able to simply mug guys and chop their arms off, throw them out of the best way, it is laborious to run any offense.”
The technical fouls led to a six-point possession for Maryland, and the sport turned a rout.
“We wanted some stronger officers on the sport in my view, however we wanted to be stronger with the ball,” Cronin mentioned. “In protection of my gamers, we did not have a whole lot of time, we had at some point to organize.”
This is UCLA’s first season within the Big Ten, together with USC, Oregon and Washington. Difficult journey was a given when these groups joined, and the Bruins are coping with it now.
They performed at Nebraska on Jan. 4, returned residence for one sport with Michigan, then headed out for a visit to Maryland and Rutgers.
“We needed to journey on a five-hour-and-50-minute flight. They acquired residence Sunday. They had two further days,” Cronin mentioned. “Now Rutgers is sitting at residence and so they acquired an additional day. I have never mapped all this out, however I positive hope it swings our means sooner or later.”
After getting back from Rutgers, UCLA will play seven straight video games from Jan. 17- Feb. 8 — 5 residence video games plus journeys to Washington and USC.
“I get it. It’s in all probability just about not possible to make the schedule, however I simply comprehend it hasn’t been good for us,” Cronin mentioned. “Michigan was in L.A. three days earlier than we had been.”
This has been a very robust week to be away, given the wildfires which have brought about a lot chaos within the Los Angeles space. Cronin mentioned after he was ejected, he rapidly went to verify an app that offers alerts.
“My home is getting actual near being evacuated,” he mentioned. “When I acquired thrown out, I simply instantly went to my telephone.”
