Maryland men’s basketball will look to avoid a three-game slide when they return to action on Friday night to host UCLA. Head coach Kevin Willard will look to move to 2-1 all-time against the Bruins with the road team coming out victorious in each of the last two matchups, but more importantly, Maryland will look to get back on track with a chance at its first ranked win of the season.
How the Bruins respond in their second East Coast game of the season remains to be seen after UCLA suffered a 19-point loss against Michigan on Tuesday night, their second consecutive loss and third in their last four games. While it marked the lone double-digit loss of the season, head coach Mick Cronin didn’t mince words about his team after Tuesday’s loss, repeatedly calling his team “soft”.
“We’re soft. We’re too soft to play hard enough – even in the crucial [situations] you can’t get an offensive rebound,” Cronin said after the loss.
“Don't tell me you want to win. Like just don't tell me you want to win. You start the game, Tyler Bilodeau gave up 12 points. Two screens, he didn't say a word, threes, and then he got dunked on three times. So just don't tell me you want to win. I mean, we're soft.”
“I have to run on the court to get guys to play hard, Cronin added. “It's crazy. And it's every day. I'm tired of it. It’s every day. I have the most energy of anybody at practice every day. I’m upset with everybody in that locker room – my assistant coaches and my players.”
UCLA found themselves trailing by double digits for nearly the entire first half before battling back to eventually take a 55-51 lead at the 14-minute mark in the second half. But Michigan would reclaim the lead just four minutes later before stretching it back to a double-digit Bruin deficit. UCLA was outscored 31-13 over the final 9:22 in regulation.
“I mean I don’t need to do anything else. I almost got 500 wins – I’m only 53. You’d think I’m coaching the Lakers. It’s a joke. It’s a joke,” Cronin added.
When asked about tweaks to the on-court performance for the rest of conference play, it was then when Cronin made headlines for controversial comments about his players. “It’s really hard to coach people that are delusional. The hungry dog gets the bone,” Cronin said. “We’ve got guys that think they're way better than they are. They’re nice kids. They’re completely delusional about who they are.”
As for Maryland, they’ll look to move to 10-1 at home this season after suffering their fourth loss by six points or fewer. While the starting lineup is expected to remain the same on Friday, how Willard adjusts to the slow second-half starts remains an area of concern after watching his team squander a double-digit lead in the opening minutes of Sunday’s road loss vs. Oregon.
“I think that going forward, I’m looking at that starting lineup and I’m starting – they really start games really well. And what I’m kind of noticing is when we come out at halftime, that group is really struggling,” Willard said on Sunday. “And I think the bench has really been good. I have a lot of confidence in those guys and I think going out of the second half, we just need a little more energy to kind of continue what we do to start the game. The starts of second halves have been absolutely brutal and we just got to do a better job on those.”
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