NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL FINAL: UCLA VS MICHIGAN

March 30, 2021

Mike Cronin

Lucas Oil Stadium - Unity Court (South)

UCLA Bruins

Elite 8 Postgame Media Conference

UCLA - 51, Michigan - 49

MIKE CRONIN: First of all, I'd like to congratulate Coach Howard and Michigan on an unbelievable season. Obviously they have got great kids, great coaching staff, tremendous program. So all the best to them and again congrats on their season.

As far as us guys, as a Big Ten battle royal game, nobody could find an offensive rhythm and that was just a credit to the defenses. You know, just an unbelievably physical game. It was hard to get bodies off of bodies.

Obviously for us, you know, we rode Johnny as hard as we could with his scoring. Jules Bernard, not 100 percent tonight. You saw him limp -- if anybody noticed him limping in the last game towards the end of the game. Tyger Campbell gave us some offense. I thought their size bothered Jaime a little bit. But he's had an unreal tournament.

Didn't get -- I didn't get some of our -- Dave and Jake enough time probably, but I thought the game was such a half-court game, our guys weren't tired. It was just a physical game. I was trying to go with our best defensive lineup.

But all the credit goes to the players. They have been unbelievable to hold Michigan to 49. That's two teams we've held under 50 in this tournament. We held Alabama to 65 in regulation and BYU to 60. Just awesome, awesome effort by our kids and all credit goes to them.

Q. Congratulations on that win.

MIKE CRONIN: Thank you, Tracy.

Q. So many stats here: Outrebounding, points in the paint, everything. How much does this come down to like an intangible of physical and mental toughness with this team?

MIKE CRONIN: I think that's the whole key. Just the resiliency of these guys, somebody told -- it's not on here whenever -- you guys may have it -- whenever Michigan's last field goal was. Somebody told me they didn't get a field goal in the last five minutes.

Q. Five minutes, yeah.

MIKE CRONIN: What you try to preach when you're building a program, and you guys have heard me say this, you know, first of all, April 9th, 2019, I told you, I spell fun w-i-n.

And our scoring has been elite, 11 or 12 offense, but tonight it was our defense. You have to find a way to win and these guys are having most fun they have ever had in their life back in that locker room because they won.

I told them I was going to teach them how to win. And you have to be able to win different ways, when things are not going well on the offense, because of the other team, not because of us it, was Michigan. They are 1-seed for a reason, and the Big Ten had, what, ten teams in the tournament and they dominated the conference for the most part.

To find a way to beat them with defense the way we did tonight, obviously extremely proud of our team. It was just resilience. Stats are for losers, you either win or you lose. I think that stat sheet can get crumbled up tonight. Johnny's points were huge, and Tyger had some big baskets. Really happy for him.

Q. You mentioned Johnny. He had that scary moment where he went down with his injury, and Michigan started scoring a little bit, went on a run. What impact did losing him for that little bit have, and then having him come back just in terms of the team's --

MIKE CRONIN: Surely it didn't help. You know, there's not much that hasn't happened to us this year as far as losing guys and injuries. You know, he's on two iffy ankles. There was no doubt in my mind he would come back, but obviously while he was out -- look, I don't know what we got up, so, the largest lead isn't on here, either -- there it is, nine. You know what I think maybe we were up nine. Look, they weren't going anywhere. We weren't going to win by double figures tonight. Hunter Dickinson got them some big buckets that got them back in the game. We didn't do a good job a few times and let him get to his left hand. Again, we made a few probably wild ones. He made a wild one off the gas, that was going to happen.

Our defense forced 14 turnovers. That's huge, in a game -- in a low-possession game, to create 14 turnovers, is really why we won, because if say we force eight; they get six more shots off; they probably beat us. Unbelievable effort by our kids defensively.

Q. Talk a little about the toughness of this team, especially the last two weeks, where it's come from. And two, you mentioned the stats sheet and ripping it up. Kenneth Nwuba didn't have a point tonight but probably played 20 of the biggest minutes of his UCLA career tonight?

MIKE CRONIN: Yeah, look, Mac Etienne is going to be a great player. We brought him in to put Wade on him to get him stronger. But the problem is we had to play him. He's done well in practice, but all the running and practice time since Jalen Hill has been gone, he can't gain weight because he's practicing so hard. A game like, this Kenny is obviously a bigger, stronger guy in his third year of college.

Look, Kenny has never played that many minutes, I don't think. I think 20 is probably the most in his career. So he dug deep for us, five big rebounds, great physicality, set some great screens.

Again, stats can be overrated. Here is a guy that didn't score but you brought his name up for a reason. He had a big impact on the game physically. Other games you go small, we play Jaylen Clark at the five and he's 6-4, but you didn't do that against Michigan. We had to go big today. Kenny was huge.

I think your original -- our toughness, it's been great all year. You just can't win them all. We caught some bad breaks. Some of those, you've got to take your hat off to the other team. Some of it we had a few missed free throws. It was our fault.

We won it on the defensive end. We didn't foul. We didn't give up a layup. We forced shots over us down the stretch and that was the whole key. We forced shots over us.

Q. When you took over the program two years ago, as optimistic as you are, could you imagine you'd be in the Final Four in two years?

MIKE CRONIN: No.

Q. Does any part of this surprise you? Be honest.

MIKE CRONIN: No, look, that's why I laughed. You know, look, we lost, when we lost Daishen Nix to the G League, and then you lose Chris Smith and Jalen Hill, if I had told you those three -- the guys that follow us every day, if I had told you guys last May when we were all in lockdown, you guys would have said, "You're not making the NCAA tournament." Nobody would have said you're going to the Final Four, let's be honest. So no, Bill.

Now, quietly, when we had those three guys, quietly I told my dad, I've got a chance to have my best team ever, after Johnny committed to us. When Johnny signed and got cleared to play this year, and then you had Tyger and Chris Smith and Johnny and all these guys and Jalen Hill is on the team, you've got experience and you've got athleticism.

But without those three guys, hell, no, Bill. Hell, no.

Q. How much have you seen Johnny grow since the Chris Smith injury?

MIKE CRONIN: Really, he was -- he was awesome in October. Then, you know, he had a stress reaction in his foot and we had to shut him down. But even though when he was -- he was playing well in practice. I knew he was going to need game minutes because, you know, it's just different.

So my plan was that -- I knew for us to get here, I was going to have to let him play through -- play through things and teach him shot selection. What I tried to teach him is that -- what he did tonight. He's got 11 baskets but only two threes.

So he's more of a scorer than a shooter, and I think that's what he got labeled at Kentucky and I wanted him to get rid of that mindset. We really worked hard on his mid-range and him going to the basket. You know, but he's grown immensely and you know, obviously -- I knew for us -- back to Bill, I knew for us to evolve, he was the guy that was going to have to evolve for us.

Q. Just wanted to ask you about the way you had to manufacture this game possession by possession. They got it down to one point and you ran something for Cody.

MIKE CRONIN: Big play.

Q. You ran a wing play for Juzang, and then kind of concocting minutes from your bench in the middle. I guess the question is: How did you feel like you just kind of cobbled this thing together?

MIKE CRONIN: Hey, again, look, I like to give the kids credit. The play you alluded to, out of a time-out, the guys ran perfectly. Something I kept in my pocket to get a bucket late.

When Johnny is hot, I use him as a screener. I thought if he set a guy -- I told him, you've got to set the screen, I think Cody will be wide open, your man won't help because the way he's shooting the ball, and Jaime threw a great pass and Cody got it up.

You can draw stuff up, but the kids have got to execute. Obviously there's -- there's four teams still left and we understand what's ahead of us. But to get this far, you know, we can't just rip-and-roar, because we've talked enough about the guys that are not here, and Cody's foul trouble is an issue for us, and it makes it challenging.

Again, you have to -- each game management, that's what you're paid for. I have a great coaching staff that I hired for a reason. So they helped me out a lot. It's not a one-man band.

Q. You take the UCLA job, and it's steeped in history. Can you just touch on getting to the Final Four at UCLA? I believe it's the 19th in school history, and just what it means to have your own niche in that great dossier that's there.

MIKE CRONIN: Well, look, obviously you know, I knew what I was -- I knew the expectations, right. I mean, it's pretty clear at UCLA.

I think -- I thank Dan Guerrero for believing in me. I tried to convince him that and the guys that were around him with this, that I understood it and I wanted it. You know, Coach Pitino is like an older brother to me and he used to say, "I'd rather live one day as a lion than a thousand as a lamb."

It's like I told my father, "If I don't take this job, I'll feel like a lamb."

I felt like I accomplished a lot at Cincinnati and I felt good about the fact that I gave everything I could to that position every day from my heart, and it was just time. It was time for a change and a challenge for me professionally, as well as I thought that it would be great for my daughter, as well.

But yeah, sure, we're not done. Tomorrow is never promised. This is great, but we've got work to do. And, you know, hopefully I'll be around to keep trying to chase the tradition and the expectations at UCLA.

But it takes players. I don't like talking about it because players win games, and I really appreciate these guys for allowing me to coach them.