Mick Cronin says ‘blame me’ after UCLA’s loss to Ohio State

COLUMBUS, Ohio — There were the usual suspects as Mick Cronin met with two reporters to assess what had gone wrong, UCLA’s season-long defensive and rebounding problems plaguing them once more.

Then came something entirely different as the Bruins’ coach pointed the finger at a new culprit.

Himself.

“Blame me — blame me,” Cronin said after his team’s 86-74 loss to Ohio State on Saturday afternoon at the Schottenstein Center. “I recruited ‘em, I signed them as free agents. We’re not going to win meaningful games if we can’t stop the other team.”

Once hailed as big winners in the offseason when they landed top transfer point guard Donovan Dent, the Bruins are trending toward being one of the biggest disappointments of the college basketball season.

They can’t defend for long stretches, and when they do they often give up an offensive rebound. Xavier Booker’s transition to center is not working out. Tyler Bilodeau can’t seem to find enough offensive support. Dent appears to be an average point guard at the Big Ten level.

UCLA’s limitations were on full, frustrating display once more against the Buckeyes as it got hammered on the boards and gave up too many big runs in having its two-game winning streak end.

Afterward, as he unloaded on his team and himself inside a green room that had been used for corgis participating in a halftime race — several plastic water bowls remaining on the floor and a sleeve of tennis balls on a counter — Cronin acknowledged that there’s no easy solutions for a team that started the season ranked No. 12 in the nation but probably wouldn’t make the NCAA tournament if it started today.

“I’m highly disappointed in getting our ass kicked physically and our inability to play defense,” said Cronin, whose 2½-minute media session might have been his shortest in seven seasons with the Bruins. “I offer no excuses.”

Some might say it’s tough to win on the road in this conference — especially with guard Skyy Clark sidelined once more by a hamstring injury — but the Bruins fell short in the energy and toughness departments as well while falling behind by as many as 19 points.

“Everybody wants somebody else to get the dirty work,” Cronin said. “We’re a team that struggles to have dirty-work guys.”

So what can be done about that going forward?

“Nothing,” Cronin said. “I can’t trade guys. You get your ass kicked physically, you don’t defend in the Big Ten, you’re going to lose.”

After giving up 12-0 and 8-0 runs early in the second half, UCLA (12-6 overall, 4-3 Big Ten) was further deflated when it gave up two offensive rebounds on the same possession and then committed a foul to send a Buckeyes player to the free-throw line.

Ohio State (12-5, 4-3) shot 53% and won the rebounding battle, 37-27, with 12 offensive rebounds leading to 17 second-chance points. Cronin pointed out that the Buckeyes missed only 25 shots, meaning they rebounded almost half their misses. Guards John Mobley Jr. (28 points, six three-pointers) and Bruce Thornton (21 points, eight rebounds) were major nuisances for a defense incapable of providing more than token resistance.

“We had nobody who could guard Thornton or Mobley,” Cronin said. “In my opinion, we didn’t have anyone interested in rising to that challenge.”

Bilodeau’s 30 points weren’t nearly enough on a day that Dent added 13 (after making only his third and fourth three-pointers of the season) and forward Eric Dailey Jr. fouled out with nearly nine minutes left after collecting 12 points and four rebounds. Three days after he tallied a career-high 30 points, UCLA guard Trent Perry could manage only seven while making two of nine shots.

“I didn’t really offensively show up for my team,” Perry said. “I feel like I could’ve done a lot better in different areas so, of course, on my behalf it’s for sure on me.”

UCLA played a fourth consecutive game without guard Clark, who continues to close in on a return from the injury he suffered in the second half of his team’s loss to Iowa earlier this month. Clark’s absence provided more minutes for Eric Freeny (two points) and Jamar Brown (eight points, three rebounds), who had a negligible influence.

Meanwhile, Cronin might be closing in on a difficult decision — what to do about Booker. The big man got another start Saturday before providing very little in return. He got yanked after only two minutes, never to return after Cronin pointed to the spot of an apparent defensive breakdown as Booker walked past him on his way to taking a seat on the bench.

“Trying to play the guys that I think give us the best chance to win,” Cronin said when asked about Booker’s playing time.

Steven Jamerson II started the second half in Booker’s place. It made no difference for a team with too many deficiencies.

Where do the Bruins go from here? Things could deteriorate further against No. 5 Purdue on Tuesday at Pauley Pavilion unless this team finds a way to do things differently.

“We have to come together as a group,” Perry said. “We keep losing because we’re not rebounding, we keep getting out-rebounded. We’re not talking as much. It was a totally different energy from Penn State to now, in my opinion — especially just, like, talking. I felt, even myself, we were kind of quiet. But we gotta pick it up.”

A home game against one of the nation’s top teams would be a great place to start.