UCLA Pac-12 Tournament record under Mick Cronin

After stumbling to a 15-16 overall record and a 10-10 mark in the Pac-12’s final season, the UCLA Bruins will kick off the final iteration of the Pac-12 Tournament on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. PT as the No. 5 seed against No. 12 seed Oregon State 13-18 (5-15). Mick Cronin’s group failed to earn the first-round bye as a top-four team in the conference but by virtue of their 10-10 conference record did draw the league’s last-place team. 

After missing out in Year 1 of his tenure due to Covid cancellations, Cronin has taken the Bruins to the NCAA Tournament every year since, with increasingly high seeds from 11 in 2021 to a No. 4 seed in 2022, to the two-line last March. However, this year, after Cronin’s worst season in Westwood, they’ll need to win the Pac-12 Tournament and qualify for one of the 32 automatic bids to the big dance. 

Last offseason, Jaime Jacquez Jr. finally left for the NBA, so the fulcrum of Cronin’s offense had to be replaced. This year, the team struggled to transition to playing through a big, Adem Bona, who led the team in scoring with just 12.4 points per game on 58.5% shooting. Outside of Bona, UCLA’s next six minutes leaders, all shot under 40% from the field for the season. The Bruins finished the regular season 333rd in effective field goal percentage at 46.1% and 269th in offensive efficiency. 

The good news for the UCLA program and fans alike is that Cronin has had success at the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas, reaching the championship game in each of the last two seasons, and having lost to the eventual champion in all appearances. 

Mick Cronin Pac-12 Tournament record 

• 4-3 

Year-by-year

• 2020: Canceled (Covid)
• 2021: 0-1 (second-round loss to eventual champ Oregon State)
• 2022: 2-1 (loss in championship game to Arizona)
• 2023: 2-1 (loss in championship game to Arizona)

The bad news is that UCLA has not won the Pac-12 Tournament since 2014 and surprisingly, the Bruins only have four conference tournament titles. The tournament first began in 1987 and was won by UCLA, then went on hiatus from 1990 until it returned in 2002.