Magic Continues to Shine as Rapsis Sweep Despite Brief Off-Season Halt
After UCLA's loss to Purdue in the Big Ten semifinals on Saturday, UCLA head coach Mick Cronin reminded the entire country of UCLA's pedigree.
It would have been electric if the UCLA Bruins could have made a surprise run to a Big Ten Conference tournament championship but Mick Cronin and his team knows that there’s bigger fish to fry. At UCLA, Cronin has been trained to chase national championships, rather than attempt to conquer a conference they’ve been a part of for just two seasons. In case you’re not ready for the NCAA tournament, here’s a pump up speech from Cronin’s postgame press conference on Saturday that will get you fired up.
“With all due respect to the Big Ten, you can see how hard our guys were trying to win, but our guys are well aware. They practice under 11 banners that say national championship every day,” Cronin said . “They warm up under another banner with 19 Final Fours on it.
We don’t even have one with conference championships because there’s 36 or something, there’s so many. Next week is what it’s about for us. ” It’s a pleasant sight to see Cronin embrace the fact that UCLA is a blue blood, and how they perform in the NCAA tournament will be the true reflection of how the season went.
The Bruins have proven they’re capable of beating elite teams, now they must prove that they’re able to do so consistently. The reason that this 23-11 season has felt so tumultuous is due to UCLA’s high expectations, which they didn’t meet for much of the season. Cronin knows it, and has expressed it all season long.