There is no Walton or Jabbar or Markes Johnson at this time. There is not even one Chris Smith, Jalan Hill or Dassen Nix. UCLA does not have the players it has, nor is it believed to have, and still wound up where it once owned exclusive rights: the NCAA Final Four.
UCLA owns 19 Final Four appearances in its illustrious basketball history, and nearly all of them were led by some exceptional combination of elite talent. Hall of Famers, All-Americans, were future NBA All-Stars. When UCLA gets away in this tournament, it’s because the Bruins were better.
So what, exactly, just happened?
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In his second year as coach, the younger three regular players he was hoping to fill in the required roles, Mick Cronin placed himself in the same category as Ben Howard, Jim Harrick, Larry Brown, John Wooden. And in some ways, he only did something for Brown, perhaps, ever: made an improbable Final Four run. Bruce lost the final four games of his regular season and was squeezed into March Madness. And now they become only the second first four team to reach the last four to join VCU of 2011.
Brown’s 1980 team was closest to a UCLA surprise. They finished fourth with the Bruins 17-9 and fourth in the Pac-10. He regularly had three freshmen, which influenced his success, but he also featured seven future NBA players.
“When you try to promote, when you are building an event – and you guys have heard me say, first on April 9, 2019, I told you – I made fun of WIM , “Cronin told reporters in a postgame. “Our score is elite, 11th or 12th offense, but tonight it was our defense. You have to find a way to win. And these people are enjoying the most in their lives in that locker room. Because they won. “
In the space of three days, UCLA ranked No. 1 and No. 2 seed in the East Region, Michigan the regular season champion of the Big Ten Conference, and Alabama the regular season and tournament champion in the SEC.
In both cases, the Bruins advanced to a level of defensive commitment that was beyond that for this year. They are an elite jump shooting team, and they do not turn the ball over, but they leave no stone unturned to produce high-percentage shots. They were unlikely to outsource either the Wolverines or the Crimson Tide, so they attempted to limit the asset and make every cut – every action – as uncomfortable as possible to Michigan.
“We won it on the defensive end,” Cronin said. “We did not cheat. We did not lay off. We forced shots under the stretch and that was the whole key. We forced shots on us. “
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Michigan had every chance to land the Bruins, just as Alabama had done before, and exactly as Michigan State did back in the First Four. None of those three were successful. UCLA reached the final four scoring, averaging 66.6 points in regulation. The darker the Bruins advanced, the ugly they need the game. It is possible, in part, to consume more and more shot clock with patience with the ball and still to achieve a worthy shot attempt. This was, therefore, the product of extraordinary defensive efforts.
Michigan, which owns the nation’s No. 9 offense, had a measly .83 points per possession. All-American Hunter Dickinson was the only Michigan player to reach double figures in scoring and had 11 points. Wings Franz Wagner and Chaundi Brown, who handled a very aggressive responsibility to handle Isaiah Levers before being injured, were smoothed over by Jaime Jacques and Jules Bernard and scored 12 points overall.
The Wolverines missed four point-blank shots and three open 3-pointers in the final 3 minutes, and each of those shots put them in the lead. He did not make the basket in the final 5 minutes. He committed 14 turnovers, nearly one for every four possessions he had during the game.
“It’s very disappointing for our people, working very hard this year,” Michigan coach Juwan Howard told reporters. “And sometimes it happens. In the game of basketball, there are one or two possessions that can actually either help you or hurt you, and for us, we have fallen short. “
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UCLA entered the season without the Knicks, a five-star recruit who committed to the Bruins last year but chose to join the NBA’s G League Pathway program. Smith tore his ACL in a win over Utah on New Year’s Eve. Hill decided to leave the program in February for personal reasons.
Cronin placed more aggressive responsibility on Kronki transfer Johnny Jujang, encouraging him to be more of a scorer than a shooter. As a five-star prospect in high school, Xujang was expected to be elite from a long distance. He is shooting 34.5 percent. But Cronin and his staff assure Jujang that they have other means of ringing in large numbers. He has scored 21.6 points in the NCAA tournament, including the Bruins’ 51 points against Michigan.
“I approached it just like another game. We’re super locked for this tournament,” said Jujang. “You as a player – you don’t like to add pressure on yourself. I know that the whole team was just worried that we would leave it there and we would give it our all. I mean, the shots just happened to go in and the teammates are looking for me. I will not say anything different.
“I love every one of these people. This is incredible, man. Unrealistic. Unrealistic. Some, you know, are growing up, you just dream. And to do so with such a wonderful group of people, such an incredible staff, such an incredible coach, is just what makes it so amazing. It is beautiful This is a beautiful moment, you know, your brothers and great people, great people. “
None of his brothers are All-Americans. There may be some future professionals. But they are all going to the Final Four. So many Bruins did before him, with bigger names, more ability – but no greater desire to win.
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