UCLA coach Mick Cronin was originally surprised that his 83-year-old father traveled from the Midwest to see Bruins host Minnesota on Tuesday evening in Big Ten Play in Los Angeles.
Hep Cronin then spilled the beans – informed his son that he will try to publish career winnings no 500.
“I wondered why he came to this and not Michigan State game,” said Mick Cronin during his press conference on Monday.
Michigan State competition on February 4 turned out to be Mick Cronin’s 497th career victory. He noted No. 499 with Friday’s victory 72-68 over Indiana to get in position for the milestone.
Mick Cronin, 53, said he could never have foreseen to gather these many wins when he first became head coach in Murray State for the 2003-04 campaign. He trained three seasons in Murray State and 13 at Cincinnati before spent the last six at UCLA. He is 499-231 in total.
“When you are young, you think I can get a job and make enough money before I get fired?” he said. “How do I survive?”
Cronin’s current squad is doing well. Bruins (19-7, 10-5 Big Ten) has won eight of their last nine matches and is a solid 13-1 at home.
UCLA is ranked 23rd nationally in points defense (64.8 points allowed per match) and sixth in the turnover margin (plus-5.3). Tyler Bilodeau leads Bruins with a point average of 14.2 points per competition.
Minnesota (13-12, 5-9) lost his first six Big Ten matches before winning five of his last eight. Golden Gophers continued its improvement with Saturday’s 69-66 road victory over Southern California.
Lu’Cye Patterson scored 19 of his season best 25 points during the second half. Minnesota scored the last eight points of the game.
“I hope their winnings at SC get our guys’ attention,” Mick Cronin said of Golden Gophers. “They are a solid basketball team.”
Patterson has an average of 24.5 points in the last two matches to raise its score for the season to 11.8 points per match after fighting against consistency issues.
“He never lost focus,” said Golden Gophers coach Ben Johnson about Patterson. “We knew and he knew it would only be a matter of time. Now he is ready to roll. I think our team is feeding him right now. He has this energy, this toughness for him, this competition spirit.”
Minnesota’s star is Dawson Garcia, who leads the team in points (19.2 points per match) and rebounding (7.4 boards per match).
UCLA has a 5-2 edge all the time, but Golden Gophers prevailed in the last meeting between the team and directed Bruins 83-63 in the first round of the NCAA tournament in 2013.
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