Alexander: UCLA Bruins don’t help themselves in loss to Arizona

LAS VEGAS – How much will UCLA be dinged by the NCAA selection committee Sunday? A lot? A little? Any?

Should they be penalized for losing an excruciatingly close game, to a quality opponent, in the finals of their conference tournament? Should it matter that it was a game decided by a single basket turned on two plays that replays indicate the officials may have missed? Will it matter, either way, that UCLA was already shorthanded up front after Adem Bona’s injury Friday night, and had both available big men Saturday night foul out?

Will it matter, too, that there are reports Bona’s injury was less serious than feared and he might be available next week?

Or will Saturday’s 61-59 loss to Arizona, a result not certain until Dylan Andrews’ missed jumper from the left wing at the horn, even make a difference in the committee’s evaluations?

If the Bruins are a No. 2 seed, rather than a No. 1, might that not be where the committee had them all along? If they get knocked down to No. 3 but stay in the West, will it really make a difference? They still would have the opportunity to avoid the No. 1 seed until the regional final.

The committee will likely have some explaining to do regardless of the decision they make. But Mick Cronin was having none of that conversation late Saturday night.  When I asked him if he had any thoughts about how the selectors might factor in this game, his answer was succinct.

“No,” he said.

This is when it becomes agonizing, for a team that could have left no doubt but feels like it left one on the table instead. The Bruins hadn’t lost in nearly a month and a half, winning 12 in a row, improving their NET ranking to No. 3 behind Houston and Alabama and their ranking in Ken Pomeroy’s computer formula to No. 2 behind Houston, and also improving their Quadrant 1 record from 4-4 to 8-4.

Now it’s 8-5. UCLA is 29-5, Arizona is 28-6 and cut down the nets at UCLA’s expense for the second year in a row at the Pac-12 Tournament, and we’re right back to the same question: How much difference should this or will this make when the bracket is revealed some time after 3 p.m. Sunday?

Cronin evidently told Bruins’ radio play-by-play voice Josh Lewin in an interview aired before the game that he felt the Bruins deserved the No. 1 overall seed. Meanwhile, some among the Bruin faithful seemed to have donned their tinfoil hats and suggested that when UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond left the selection committee after the announcement of the move to the Big Ten, and Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke was picked to replace him, the conspiracy was underway to deny the Bruins what was rightfully theirs.

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College basketball does do strange things to people.

And we haven’t even mentioned an Associated Press report, quoting the Bruins’ radio broadcast, that Cronin’s father, Hep, was harrassed following Saturday’s game. When that report was mentioned to Cronin, he got up from the dais and rushed out of the interview room, with Jarmond hustling to catch up with him. Later, Jarmond was seen talking to Pac-12 commissioner George Klivakoff on the floor.

This game was emotional. This rivalry is emotional. And while Las Vegas is technically a neutral site, Arizona had a good 70 percent of the crowd on its side, at least. Yeah, the juices were flowing, sometimes too much so in the stands.

The Wildcats also had the benefit of, as Cronin put it at the top of his presser, an “offensive foul not called, (and) they hit a three. But there’s an offensive foul on a guy that has the best dunk of the season.”

The former was the game’s decisive play, Courtney Ramey’s 3-pointer with 17 seconds left for a 60-58 Arizona lead. It followed either a jab step that threw defender Will McClendon off balance, or a nudge with his elbow and forearm that did the same. You judge.

@CourtneyRamey0

ESPN pic.twitter.com/r5n21yhMRh

— Arizona Basketball (@ArizonaMBB) March 12, 2023

The other play? With a little more than six minutes to go in the first half Amari Bailey took a pass from Jaime Jaquez Jr., soared down the lane and posterized Pelle Larson with a vicious dunk, but it was waved off and Bailey was called for an offensive foul. Again, you judge.

Amari Bailey was called for an offensive foul on this dunk.pic.twitter.com/vSUmUrM54m

— 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬 (@sportingnews) March 12, 2023

There were other factors, as is often the case with a razor-thin margin. Tyger Campbell, normally an 84.9 percent free thrower, stepped to the line for two free throws with 6.8 seconds left and a chance to tie. He made the first, missed the second; Azuolas Tubelis rebounded, was fouled and made one of two to push the Wildcats’ lead back to two, and Dylan Andrews had a 3-point try from the left wing to win it, but missed.

More pertinent: Kenneth Nwuba and Mac Etienne, the 6-10 centers who normally back up the 6-10 Bona but had to fill in for him Saturday night, both fouled out, Etienne with 9:35 left and Nwuba with 4:27 left. That meant UCLA had to go small the rest of the way against the 6-11 Tubelis and the 7-foot Oumar Ballo.

“It’s five on five,” Cronin said. “We don’t accept that somebody was out so you’re supposed to lose. We don’t roll like that. I don’t teach these guys that about life. They’re going to have ups. I try to train my guys for life like my father taught me to. So they’re going to have things happen along the way.”

And who knows? Maybe over the next three weeks the Bruins will provide reasons to forget all about this game, and what happened in ‘Vegas will stay in ‘Vegas. Either that or there will be a hiccup at a critical time, as so often happens in the NCAA Tournament, and what has been a memorable ride – especially for seniors Campbell, Jaquez and David Singleton – will come to an end.

“It is what it is,” Cronin said. “Get some rest, get ready for the real tournament.”

We’ll all get some answers to our questions Sunday afternoon.

jalexander@scng.com