UCLA’s basketball faces late nights, long trips | College News

SEATTLE —  Alaska Airlines Arena had largely cleared out late Friday night time, a few followers lingering to take images with gamers and coaches on the court docket.

Outside UCLA’s locker room, a group of household and mates gathered round ahead Tyler Bilodeau, their expressions reflecting concern over the ankle he had turned during the sport.

Having accomplished his radio interview after the Bruins’ hairbreadth victory over Washington, coach Mick Cronin requested a colleague the place he might discover the one reporter touring to cowl the crew. The coach turned a nook to seek out the reporter and a crew videographer ready for him down a close by hallway.

“Do you think they played the game late enough?” Cronin cracked earlier than taking the primary query. “What time is it?”

The clock was pushing 11 p.m. The night time was removed from completed. There was a 25-minute bus trip to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, adopted by a roughly 2½-hour flight back to Los Angeles.

“We’re going to get home at 2 in the morning, 3 in the morning,” stated Cronin, whose Bruins (14-6 total, 5-4 Big Ten) had simply gained a third consecutive recreation to nudge their convention file over .500. “We should have just had this game at midnight. When you sell your soul to television, that’s just the way it is, and that’s college sports — we’ve sold our soul to television, so we’ll get home in the middle of the night, get some rest and prepare as best we can to play a team [USC] that played on Wednesday, took Thursday off and was focused on us while we’re up here, so there’s a lot of inequities in this thing.

“I’m sure at some point later in the year it will go our way — I haven’t found that yet, but I’m hoping.”

This was the conclusion of a brutal stretch for the Bruins. The crew had simply performed 4 of its final seven video games on the street, together with a home recreation sandwiched between two trips which may as properly have been held in Las Vegas as a substitute of Los Angeles.

That approach, no less than UCLA’s opponent, Michigan, would have needed to change resorts and do a bit of touring itself as a substitute of lingering in Southern California for 2 days off earlier than dealing with the Bruins after beating USC.

Cronin praised his coach, Tyler Lesher, and director of basketball efficiency, Dave Andrews, for maintaining gamers contemporary given a Big Ten schedule that requires longer trips and fewer consistency than the Bruins loved within the Pac-12, when most of their video games have been on Thursdays and Saturdays.

Their new schedule entails video games on each day of the week besides Wednesday as half of the Big Ten’s efforts to supply enticing stock to tv companions.

“The Pac-12, it’s horrible for your national exposure when all your teams are playing at the same time,” Cronin stated, “so if you want big TV contracts, you want national exposure, you’ve got to spread your games out and this is part of it.”

UCLA can also be taking considerably longer trips, although perhaps not as long as Cronin alluded to when requested about inequities between Big Ten groups residing on the West Coast and their convention counterparts.

“We’ve seen the Eiffel Tower — or, we’ve seen the Statue of Liberty twice in the last three weeks while we were landing,” stated Cronin, who might be forgiven for the slip-up given all of the miles logged. “We also saw the Capitol building. And then we gotta go back [to Indianapolis] for the Big Ten tournament!”

The solely factor maintaining this schedule from having a really skilled really feel is the shortage of back-to-back video games. Cronin stated practices have been truncated and a few days concerned solely weight lifting and exercises for gamers who didn’t play in video games.

“It’s like an NBA deal right now — a lot of film, a lot of walk-throughs, a lot of shell without hitting each other and we’ve got to keep them fresh for games because not only is it playing every three days for us, it’s traveling,” Cronin stated. “It’s just part of it when you’re buried on the coast.”

The Big Ten tried its best to construct equity into convention schedules by permitting UCLA to play street video games in opposition to its three closest opponents — USC, Oregon and Washington — and grouping two different trips in order that the Bruins wouldn’t should journey far between video games.

Next month, UCLA will trek 166 miles between video games at Illinois and Indiana. On their last journey of the common season, the Bruins will journey 141 miles between video games at Purdue and Northwestern.

But there have been additionally some misplaced alternatives. Perhaps a one-off journey to Nebraska earlier this month might have been included as half of a three-game journey. Maybe UCLA’s journey to face Maryland and Rutgers might have been scheduled instantly after the Bruins confronted North Carolina at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Equal relaxation has been one other level of rivalry. Maryland was coming off two further days of relaxation when it throttled UCLA on its home court docket. USC may even have had two further days of relaxation when the groups meet Monday night on the Galen Center.

Cronin was incredulous when a reporter not too long ago requested if Big Ten groups coming east to face UCLA have been enduring comparable wear-and-tear points because the Bruins.

Said Cronin: “Wear and tear on them?”

Said reporter: “Yeah.”

Said Cronin: “Is that a joke? Please tell me that’s a joke.”

Said reporter: “Is it even comparable?”

Said Cronin: “Comparable? Have you ever looked at the NBA stats on the gamblers and all those people do on west versus east? Talk to [USC coach] Eric Musselman, ask him that question, who coached in the NBA. Good luck, west going east. Ask me UCLA’s record east of the Mississippi in the last 20 years. When I got the job, I looked it up for scheduling purposes. It’s under .500, OK? We have to go back [east] four times. Oh, the Big Ten teams get to come to Los Angeles, where it’s 70 degrees, one time a year. They don’t even have to switch hotels. We’re 12 miles apart. Are you kidding me? Please, tell me you’re kidding me. I mean, is this a plant? Is this a planted question? I mean, you cannot be serious with that.”

Per week later, deep inside Alaska Airlines Arena, Cronin patiently answered a reporter’s questions on journey and taking part in on practically each day of the week, even when he had bother maintaining them straight.

“All I know,” Cronin stated, “is we’ve got SC on Monday, correct?”