Heading into December the UCLA Bruins were 5-2 on the season, including a 4-0 record at home with their only losses coming in the Maui Invitational to then No. 4 Marquette (by two points) and then No. 11 Gonzaga (by four points).
Sure the one point win over UC Riverside was less than convincing, but at the time there was little concern Mick Cronin’s very young team, littered with international players, wouldn’t find their way into being a top 25 caliber program and compete for second place in the Pac-12 behind Arizona.
The month of December, however, has been anything but kind to UCLA. The Bruins managed just 56 points against a struggling Villanova squad on the road, and then had a horrible shooting day in an eventual 67-60 loss to Ohio State in Atlanta.
Those two losses in a vacuum are not resume killers, but coming back home and falling to Cal-State Northridge (237th at KenPom) and then again to a seriously struggling Maryland team, who was up by 20 at times and eventually won by nine, is cause for real panic at the Pauley Pavilion.
Currently the Bruins are an astonishing 172nd in the NET rankings, with an 0-4 record in Quad 1 games and 0-1 in Quad 3. They are down to 84 at KenPom, sandwiched between future Big Ten partners Indiana and Minnesota, and have the 151st ranked offense in the country.
Cronin has discussed multiple reasons for this team’s struggles, including a lack of disciplined players which resulted in freshman Sebastian Mack losing his starting role for being late to a meeting, as well as complaints about the school’s lack of NIL funding which made making transfer portal additions a struggle.
If Cronin truly feels he’s incapable of building a roster that can compete heading into the Big Ten, will he jump ship? Could Louisville entice him with an offer this offseason assuming they move on from Kenny Payne? Would being closer to his hometown of Cincinnati get a deal done?
Those are all things worth monitoring this offseason, but for now Cronin and the Bruins have just one objective: right the ship enough to still go dancing in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
The resume right now is, frankly, nowhere near an at-large bid, but picking up a handful of Quad 1 wins in conference play is certainly possible if this team can find a go-to scorer against teams like Colorado, Arizona State, USC, and of course Arizona.
UCLA has a few days off before heading to Corvallis to take on Oregon State on December 28 followed by Oregon two days later.
Picking up a pair of wins in the state of Oregon may not move the resume needle all that much, but it would at least end the calendar year on a high note for Cronin and the Bruins.