Saturday’s game between UCLA and No. 2 Michigan in Ann Arbor will feature a mini-reunion. It just doesn’t sound like a particularly friendly one.
In the only game of the regular season between the teams, it marks the first time the Bruins and Wolverines have met since 7-foot-3 Michigan junior center Aday Mara transferred from UCLA after last season ended.
When asked about going up against Mara, UCLA head coach Mick Cronin didn’t sound very sentimental.
“Another game, buddy,” Cronin said to a reporter. “That’s life in the portal. Like, when you ask me about stuff like that, I’ll give you an honest answer.”
Pressed further about what it will like to play against Mara — who averaged 5.0 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 11.5 minutes per game over two seasons at UCLA — Cronin didn’t budge.
“I’m scouting Michigan,” he said. “I’m not scouting Aday.”
Saturday will be the start of a two-game swing in the state of Michigan for the Bruins — they play at Michigan State on Tuesday — that will have important implications in the Big Ten title race.
Michigan (23-1, 13-1) is off to its best start in school history, has a two-game lead in the league standings and sits No. 1 in the NET rankings.
The Wolverines enter on a nine-game winning streak following an 87-75 triumph on Wednesday at Northwestern, where they rallied from a 16-point deficit in the second half.
Michigan has been a dominant team both offensively and defensively behind Mara (11.4 points, 6.9 rebounds, a Big Ten-best 2.8 blocks per game) and fellow frontcourt transfers Yaxel Lendeborg (14.3 ppg, 7.7 rpg) and Morez Johnson Jr. (13.5 ppg, 7.3 rpg).
“We still have a lot of difficult games down the stretch,” Michigan head coach Dusty May said. “We’re trying to stay in the moment, not predict what’s going to happen next and figure out solutions.”
May said that when the team was caught up in a league title race last year, his players tended to spend too much time paying attention to what other teams were doing. Michigan ended up seeing rival Michigan State win the regular-season title.
“Now (Tuesday night) when we’re watching (other league games) all together in the conference room and one game ended and our managers erupted, and I kind of looked up to see, ‘Is that our players?'” May said. “And our players are just kind of like, ‘That’s probably what we need to happen in whatever case,’ but it was our managers who erupted. Our players are just, ‘We’ve got to take care of us and we’ve got to take care of business and control what we can control.'”
UCLA (17-7, 9-4) comes in tied for sixth in the league standings — a couple of wins from challenging for one of the four triple byes in the Big Ten tournament and a couple of losses from having to win five games in five days to collect the league’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
One bit of good news for UCLA came Wednesday when Cronin revealed that guard Skyy Clark, the team’s best defender who hasn’t played since Jan. 3 due to a hamstring injury, might play against Michigan.
The Bruins should be plenty fresh, given they have not played since last Saturday’s 77-73 home win against Washington.
UCLA has won five of its last six games and entered Thursday No. 39 in the NET rankings.
