UCLA's Mick Cronin: Michigan is 'extremely efficient' and Juwan Howard does 'an elite job'

Mick Cronin sat at the podium Monday, took his mask off and grabbed a bottle of water.

The UCLA basketball coach was asked to give an opening statement. Cronin looked into the camera — and spoke candidly.

“I’ll do my best,” he began. “I’m a little tired.”

It had been roughly 14 hours since Cronin and the Bruins earned a trip to the Elite Eight with an overtime win over No. 2 seed Alabama. The game had been a dogfight; the Crimson Tide made a tying 3-pointer in the final seconds of regulation to send the game to overtime. UCLA had been up to that task.

Now, Michigan basketball presents another tough assignment.

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“Michigan’s going to be a great challenge,” Cronin said. “Juwan Howard does a great job. They’re extremely efficient. They carve you up. It’s going to be a different type of game. Alabama was unbelievably fast in transition. Michigan is Big Ten basketball, physical, but their execution is extremely impressive.

“Their unselfishness and their execution, their assist-to-turnover ratio in their last five to 10 games is unbelievable. And they’ve got seniors. They’ve got great senior guards. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

Cronin and senior wing Jules Bernard had nothing but praise for the Wolverines, who will play UCLA on Tuesday night (9:57 p.m., TBS) for a spot in the Final Four.

“We know they’re a great team,” Bernard said. “They have physical players. They really execute. They have size in the post, they have good guard play. It’s going to be a good game.”

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The Bruins have had a longer journey than any other Elite Eight team: They were part of the First Four, which means they've played four tournament games as opposed to three.

To get to this point, UCLA had to beat No. 11 seed Michigan State, No. 6 seed BYU, No. 14 seed Abilene Christian and No. 2 seed Alabama. And it had to improve on how it played to end the regular season, when it lost four consecutive games to nearly slide out of the NCAAs altogether.

“We’ve been taking care of the ball,” Cronin said. “We’re shooting a high percentage in the tournament. And I think we’re giving up 24% from the 3-point line in the NCAA tournament. Our defense since the first half against Michigan State — they really executed well and made shots, but since then, our defense has been much better. It’s been much more consistent. I think the Pac 12 is a really good league and when we lost two key guys, we had to reinvent ourself defensively.

“We’ve just learned to play harder and be more consistent with our defensive effort. If you look at our numbers in our last four games, our field-goal percentage defense is so much better than it has been. ... We’ve got a lot of guys who can score. We shoot the ball. We’ve got guys who can make shots, now. We can spread you out. We have to do that because we’re not a powerful team down low other than Cody Riley.”

On Monday, Cronin praised Michigan's efficiency on offense and point guard Mike Smith, who he called a “tremendous player” with an “unbelievable” assist-to-turnover ratio. And he had more praise for Howard, too.

“I would say, again, my impression of being up all night is that coach Howard does an elite job,” Cronin said. “He doesn’t do a good job. He does an elite job. When your team is as organized as they are on both ends and plays as physical and tough as they do, that is a reflection of their coach.”

Of course, Cronin feels good about his team, too.

“Our defense is why we’re alive,” Cronin said. “And our defense is why we will survive. We’ve got multiple guys who can shoot the ball. We share it. The guys believe, they’re aggressive, they’re not afraid to pull the trigger. And that’s how I want them on the offensive end. The big question is with Michigan’s efficiency and their talent and their play-calling, will we be able to continue defending the way we’ve defended here lately?”

Contact Orion Sang at osang@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @orion_sang. Read more on the Michigan Wolverines and sign up for our Wolverines newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: NCAA tournament: UCLA's Mick Cronin praises Michigan basketball