UCLA coach Mick Cronin was initially surprised that his 83-year-old father was traveling from the Midwest to see the Bruins host Minnesota on Tuesday night in Big Ten play in Los Angeles.
Hep Cronin then spilled the beans — informing his son that he will be attempting to post career win No. 500.
“I was wondering why he was coming to this one and not the Michigan State game,” Mick Cronin said during his press conference on Monday.
The Michigan State contest on Feb. 4 turned out to be Mick Cronin’s 497th career win. He notched No. 499 with Friday’s 72-68 victory over Indiana to get in position for the milestone win.
Mick Cronin, 53, said he never could have foreseen accumulating this many wins when he first became a head coach at Murray State for the 2003-04 campaign. He coached three seasons at Murray State and 13 at Cincinnati before spending the past six at UCLA. He is 499-231 overall.
“When you’re young, you’re thinking can I get a job and make enough money before I get fired?” he said. “How do I survive?”
Cronin’s current squad is faring well. The Bruins (19-7, 10-5 Big Ten) have won eight of their past nine games and are a solid 13-1 at home.
UCLA ranks 23rd nationally in scoring defense (64.8 points allowed per game) and sixth in turnover margin (plus-5.3). Tyler Bilodeau leads the Bruins with a scoring average of 14.2 points per contest.
Minnesota (13-12, 5-9) lost its first six Big Ten games before winning five of its past eight. The Golden Gophers continued their improvement with Saturday’s 69-66 road win over Southern California.
Lu’Cye Patterson scored 19 of his season-best 25 points in the second half. Minnesota scored the game’s final eight points.
“I hope their win at SC gets our guys’ attention,” Mick Cronin said of the Golden Gophers. “They’re a solid basketball team.”
Patterson has averaged 24.5 points over his past two games to raise his scoring mark for the season to 11.8 points per game after battling consistency issues.
“He never lost focus,” Golden Gophers coach Ben Johnson said of Patterson. “We knew and he knew it was only going to be a matter of time. Now he’s ready to roll. I think our team feeds off him right now. He’s got this energy, this toughness to him, this competitive spirit.”
Minnesota’s star is Dawson Garcia, who leads the team in scoring (19.2 points per game) and rebounding (7.4 boards per game).
UCLA holds a 5-2 edge in the all-time series, but the Golden Gophers prevailed in the most recent meeting between the teams, routing the Bruins 83-63 in the first round of the 2013 NCAA Tournament.
–Field Level Media
