The Hoosiers take on the Bruins in Assembly Hall.
Indiana is set to welcome UCLA to Assembly Hall tonight for a matchup between the two most storied programs in the Big Ten.
While all of their history comes in a different conference, the UCLA brand speaks for itself. More titles than any other team in the sport, pretty consistent success from the program’s founding into the 21st century and, typically, strong guard play.
These Bruins are very much Mick Cronin’s, meaning they’re a defense-first team that tends to frustrate opponents.
Here’s three things to know about the game:
A chance for a quality win
UCLA is currently 25th in the NCAA’s net rankings, making this a quad 1 game. Mike Woodson has a less-than-ideal record in quad 1 games as the head coach at Indiana, he’s several games under .500, but the Hoosiers are coming off of a win over Michigan State on the road.
Despite the weirdness of this yeat, the overall disappointment culminating in Woodson’s departure at the end of the season, there’s still a definite path to the NCAA Tournament for this group.
They just have to make games like this one count. Michigan was a lost opportunity but Michigan State was a great bounceback. Adding to this, UCLA has had a rough time in every time zone that isn’t Pacific Standard. Indiana can’t afford to let others slip away.
Mick Cronin’s Defense
Cronin is a former pupil of Rick Pitino and his style of play looks the part on one end of the floor. All of his best teams have been built on the defensive end of the floor. At least one Bruin is frequently touted as not only among the best individual defensive players in their conference but in the country as a whole.
The Bruins impose themselves on other teams, crowding ballhandlers and getting hands in passing lanes for deflections or steals. No team in all of college basketball is better at forcing turnovers than UCLA, which ranks first in overall opposing turnover percentage and second in non-steal turnover percentage, per KenPom.
UCLA tries to wear teams down and break them, capitalizing with points off of turnovers. Indiana has to be ready for that.
Is Cronin a candidate?
With the Indiana job coming open at the end of the season, Cronin’s name has been floated as a possible candidate to replace Mike Woodson.
It’s not the first time Cronin’s name has been out there, his name was swirling last offseason for the Louisville opening, where he briefly worked as an assistant decades ago. It’d certainly be interesting to see him move given the status of the UCLA job.
It’s no big secret that UCLA has a less-than-ideal NIL setup especially when compared to other blue blood programs. Would that be enough to land Cronin in Bloomington?