UCLA head coach Mick Cronin says the overall attitude of his streaking Bruins is no different than earlier in the season when wins were hard to come by as the team heads into Wednesday’s Pac-12 road matchup with Stanford.
The difference now, Cronin believes, is that the result has matched the effort.
“I think people wanted me to pile on the guys and start talking about our talent,” Cronin said following UCLA’s 71-63 win Saturday over Oregon in Los Angeles. “We’ve got great guys on the team, and if you’ve got guys (who) will listen, you’ve just got to keep working with them.”
The Bruins have won three straight games and five of six since a brutal 46-point loss at Utah.
UCLA (11-11, 6-5 Pac-12) lost eight of nine games and four straight as it bottomed with the program’s worst loss in 27 years against the Utes in the 90-44 debacle. In seven of those eight defeats, the Bruins scored 60 points or fewer.
UCLA has since averaged 69.8 points in its last six games and scored at least 65 each time out. One key to the Bruins’ offensive turnaround is the emergence of Dylan Andrews, who averaged 19.7 points over UCLA’s winning streak after posting 21 vs. Oregon.
Andrews also shot 8 of 12 (66.7 percent) from 3-point range over the stretch, a marked improvement from his 0 of 5 effort from beyond the arc the last time UCLA faced Stanford. That was the second of two games when Andrews was 4 of 25 overall (16.0 percent) from the floor.
The Cardinal (11-10, 6-5) contributed to a four-game losing streak for the Bruins with a 59-53 victory Jan. 3 at Los Angeles. Stanford overcame UCLA’s tenacious defense, which ranked No. 15 in the nation through the start of play Tuesday at 63.8 points allowed per game.
Stanford showed its own solid defense, holding the Bruins to 19-of-58 shooting from the floor (32.8 percent) and 3 of 13 from 3-point range (23.1 percent).
The Cardinal defense aims to regroup following a second-half breakdown when they gave up 48 points in an 82-71 loss at Arizona on Sunday.
Stanford comes into Wednesday’s contest allowing 75.9 points per game, the third-highest yield in the Pac-12.
Kanaan Carlyle, who scored 17 points in the previous meeting with UCLA, missed Sunday’s game with an upper-body injury. His status for Wednesday is uncertain.
“Kanaan adds an element, we know that. But it’s next man up, and we’ve been that way all year,” Stanford coach Jerod Haase said. “We’ve had one game where we’ve had everybody available all year. So that’s not an issue.”
The Cardinal seek their first regular-season sweep of UCLA since 2004-05. Stanford has not defeated the Bruins on campus since 2019.
–Field Level Media