WATCH: Mick Cronin Talks Jaylen Clark Injury, UCLA's Pac-12 Awards

UCLA men's basketball coach Mick Cronin spoke with reporters ahead of Tuesday morning's practice session at the Mo Ostin Basketball Center. Cronin talked about Jaylen Clark's injury, avoiding anxiety, the Bruins' showing in the Pac-12 awards and what their goal is at the conference tournament in Las Vegas.

Opening statement

Before you guys ask – we rolling? Jalen Hill has a lower – I'm sorry, Jaylen Clark has a lower – Jalen Hill, I pray for his family every day. George Hill texted me, George is the best, he still roots for the Bruins. But anyway, Jaylen Clark has a lower leg injury, that's all I'm authorized to say. He's out this week, he will not travel to Las Vegas and we will communicate with the NCAA tournament selection committee if they wish us – if they so wish, if they contact us as far as his further evaluation. That's all I can say to you about that.

Can you talk about how that will affect your team?

Sure, absolutely. Opportunity, man. Jim – opportunity, great thing for young kids. I've been saying all year I believe in our young guys. And whether there's times we need to play big with Mac taking some of Jaylen's minutes, obviously more opportunities for Will McClendon, Dylan Andrews, Abramo Canka. So as you can tell how I just perked up, excited for those guys. You know, Jaylen Clark is an unbelievably mature kid, so he's in a great place mentally and he's excited for them. So, you know, it'll be a fun week. You know, we've already accomplished a lot of fun weeks to get those guys a chance to play and see how things look.

Won't be any more updates on Jaylen after this week?

I didn't say that, I said right now, what I'm authorized to say is that he has a lower leg injury. He's unavailable this week. And, if the NCAA – I'm not trying to avoid things with the tournament committee, so if they wish to communicate with us, I'm sure they will. And we'll reciprocate on what I'm authorized to tell them.

Almost swept the all-conference awards?

Yeah, Alex was just showing me that stuff. You gotta run it down cause I've been busy this morning, so Alex was just briefing me walking in here.

Jaime player of the year?

Yeah, great. Happy for him. You know, Jaime's got a lot of goals, but you know, I think stuff like this for a player like Jaime – or any of the kids – is something they'll be able to reflect on when they're older. Right now, Jaime, it's like you're in the pool swimming laps, man, you can't stop. His race isn't over, he's got team goals to accomplish, he's got career goals he wants to accomplish. But I'm gonna make sure I tell him, you know, that this – look, Azuolas Tubelis had a great year, so congratulations to him for his season at Arizona, but Jaime should be proud of it, of the award. But like I said, you know, he probably won't – you get older and you look back, he can show his kids that he won.

Jaylen defensive player of the year?

Yeah, I think that, you know, very few times – although, I think, did Marcus Smart win it last year? Usually, defensive player of the year always goes to a big man, so for a guy like Jaylen Clark that's got a lot of Marcus Smart in him, it's harder, it's harder, because everybody sees the tall shot-blocker impact the game with his size, even if he doesn't block the shot. It's much harder to win that award as a guard, but I'd be shocked if Jaylen Clark didn't win that award unanimously, that's how elite of a defender he is.

Jaylen didn't make the 10-player first team?

Again, that's why you have the pen and the ink. Let it rip.

I don't have a vote?

You're not allowed to vote for your own. Yeah, so you're not allowed to vote for your own players or yourself.

Because of where you're ranked and Jaylen's injury, is the anxiety level starting to build and build?

Nah, heck no. It's much harder, the regular season is such a grind. And sure, I always talk about our aspirations, but all you can do is put yourself in position. And the worst thing you can do as a coach is have anxiety, cause it's gonna filter through your team. It's late in the year, these guys have earned it, we're going to Top Golf tonight to have some fun in Vegas. You know, it's time to let it rip, it's time to believe in your team, it's not time to be anxious at all. So it's a grind, long season. You know, college sports have changed so much with the scrutiny on the players. That, to me, is the worst change in the sport, is the 24-7 news cycle, scrutiny on the players. I'm OK with it as a coach cause you get paid and you're an adult. The mental health of players is something that, when I was young and started, Jim, we didn't talk about much. When I was a young assistant, my dad, as you know, was a coach. But it's become much more of a problem and I think it's because they're being scrutinized, criticized or put on a pedestal all the time at a very young age, and that is a hard thing. I mean, you played, that's a hard thing for, you know, young people, when they're not adults, to go through the peaks and valleys of that. You're the greatest, then you're a freshman and you have a bad game, oh, you're a bust, you're not as good as they said. I mean, imagine being 18 and dealing with that? It's not easy, it's just not easy. You know, your team loses – I don't read any of that stuff, but they do and I know they do, even though I tell them not to. So the mental health of it all, it's just a real grind on these guys. You know, and you guys see me as a disciplinarian type of guy, but what I try to teach my guys is you gotta be tough and you gotta care about your family and they people in this locker room. Because the people outside of it, 99% of them are transparent. If you help their team win, they love you, if you don't they're gonna destroy you. So you can't play for them, you can't live for them, you gotta have toughness to deal with all that. So I try to teach them about, to block all that stuff out. But it's hard, so right now, the last thing I want is anxiety in our program. We need to be smiling and getting ready to go.

Getting back to the awards...

Yeah, you're on these awards. You're calling the Pac-12, aren't you?

They're a big deal

I'm gonna say this – I don't know if there's rules about how many guys can be on a First or Second Team. I think it's weird that there's more, isn't there 10 guys on the First Team? That's extremely weird, think that's another sign of the times of everybody gets a trophy. You know, to me, it should be five. You know, five and five and move on down the road. What is it, 10 and 10?

10 and five and then honorable mention

Everybody gets a trophy. That's the era we're in, man.

Adem freshman of the year?

Yeah, well deserved. You know, I would think Amari was second, obviously he had the injury, missed a month. But Adem's – to me, Adem was a lock to win that cause coaches vote, so they don't look at stats. Coaches understand impact on the game and they understand that our defense has been the best in our league all year and Adem's been a monsterous part of that with his rim presence and has really taken our interior defense, our second line of defense, to a whole new level. And he's been – he hasn't missed a game, his durability for a freshman has been awesome despite taking a shot to the face.

How is he doing? Took another shot the other day?

Yeah, you know. You have to knock him out to get him out of the game. I don't want anybody to try doing that, but he took a lower body shot in one game and kept playing, so the Washington game. So it's not ideal, the mask isn't ideal for him, but it's necessary, and that's all I'm allowed to say on that. But, you know, there's a chance, if we keep winning, he could get it off at some point. But I think the more he's playing with it – hopefully, the more he plays with it, the more he adjusts to it. But well-deserved award. You know, stats can be overrated, he's one of the most impactful freshmen in America, period. Cause when I say impactful, you look at how many Power Five teams got 27 wins right now?

I don't know the answer, a couple?

Zero, besides us. Power Five, yeah. So he's got a big impact on that. So he's one of the best freshmen in America. Stats can be misleading.

You won coach of the year for the second time in four years?

Yeah, that's coaching staff of the year. You know, that's how I look at it. I have a tremendous staff, like I've said. Coach Lewis had a great year at Ball State, we're proud of him. We all get a kick out of – check his Instagram. Talk about cold beverages and students.

Free beer?

They made him change it to frosty beverages. Um, so Ivo's been a great addition to our staff. I've said many times, Rod and Darren are head coaches on my staff. So you know, young guys, all the way down to Alex,we're a program, so we accept that award as a program. No coach – coach of the year means you have really good players and you had a heck of a year, let's just be honest. Nobody's winning that award that doesn't have really good players.

But you have someone to set the tone?

Yeah, I appreciate it. I'm not good at accepting compliments, so I get ... ignore criticism, deflect praise – John Wooden.

Tyger and Jaime the first three-time all-conference players from UCLA since Darren Collison in 07-09 – continuity and excellence together?

I think you talk about continued success, you gotta have some continuity, right? You know, Tyger, we haven't talked about, coaches love Tyger because you've got a guy that can make shots, run your team, take care of the ball. And again, stats can be overrated, people that really watch understand that when you need a basket at Colorado to ice the game, there's Tyger Campbell, right? You're struggling a little bit scoring, he gets a guy on him that he knows is younger, can't handle him, he knows how to get to his spot and get a bucket. You know, he's just a winner, the guy just knows how to win. Tyger Campbell gets more, has gotten more, out of his physical attributes than any player I've ever coached. You know, for his height, his athleticism, his god-given stuff, he's gotten more out of that body than any player I've ever coached. And that's because of his fortitude, his competitive spirit, which are the things I respect the most. I respect people that get the most out of their – out of what they've been given, and Tyger has gotten the most out of that body and he's been unbelievable.

Joe Lunardi said he feels like you need to win the Pac-12 tournament to keep the No. 1 seed given how competitive with Baylor, Texas, Purdue – how important is that to you? How do you feel about that going into this week?

You spoke to who?

Joe Lunardi

Not sure who that is.

ESPN

Yeah, I don't have any comment on that. I'd rather you speak to my father, somebody that actually knows basketball.

What is the goal this week for UCLA basketball?

Yeah, look, coaches hate – coaches, the only way you like a conference tournament is if it can help you. Coaches hate – certain coaches hate conference tournaments. Was it Lute Olson back in the day? I can't remember his quotes, but I know him and Bob Knight were against conference tournaments. I'm with them. But I would say this, Ben, then you gotta check yourself, so I'll say this to you. You gotta make it about the players, right? So for Jaime, who just walked in, it's a chance for him to play, he's only got so many games to put the uniform on. So obviously, then NCAA tournament is our big goal, we know that, but it's a chance for these guys to play. They want to play well. We don't ever go on the court unfocused or not ready to play at our best. So I try to – again, it's about them. If it was about me, it'd be a whole different story. Russell Stong may be starting on Thursday. But it's about them, so a chance for these guys to show their talents and they work hard every time they get a chance to walk out there and represent our school. They're gonna do it and a chance to chase their dreams, so that's how I reconcile it, you know? Cause as much as I'm like, ugh, you know? Then I sit back and ok, well, you know, it's a chance for Amari Bailey to shine or Dylan Andrews or whomever name you pick. So they put in a lot of work, they wanna play games. We look at it from coaches and fans' standpoint, trust me, kids, they want to play this time of year, they don't want to practice, and I don't blame them. They want to play and they want to play well, that's what they – they're trying to chase their dreams, so make it about that and it kinda makes things simple when you make it about the kids.

What kind of role could Canka carve out and do you have an idea of how many minutes he might play?

No, we'll see. Depends on games – we don't know who we're playing. One thing Abramo has as a skill is he rebounds. And that's – Will and Abramo do rebound. And Abramo has a nose for the ball as an offensive rebounder, much like Jaylen Clark's this week. So he's gonna get a chance, so we'll see. I mean, you just don't know how the flow of games go and who you're gonna be playing, strategy and matchups and that. But I think that's an area and a skill I know he has that as we've met with him and Will and talked to them about we're not concerned about your shot-making this week. We're concerned about, you know, be Jaylen Clark this week. You know, this week, it's just be Jaylen Clark. Do what he does, don't worry about making shots. I tell Jaime the same thing, you know, just play hard, man. You're playing time's not gonna be dictated by your shooting, that's just how we roll at UCLA.

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