Bruins Arrive in Honolulu, Prepare to Face Marquette
November 19, 2023 | Men's Basketball
HONOLULU โ The UCLA men's basketball team arrived in Honolulu on Saturday evening, two nights in advance of its first Allstate Maui Invitational contest against No. 4-ranked Marquette on Monday.
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The Bruins are set to play in the Allstate Maui Invitational for the seventh time in program history, UCLA's first trip to the Hawaiian Islands since Nov. 2019. Mick Cronin, in his fifth season as The Michael Price Family UCLA Men's Head Basketball Coach, joined the tournament's other seven head coaches on Sunday morning at an Allstate Maui Invitational press conference.
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"We knew that we were going to lose guys to the NBA, and we were going to lose guys to graduation," Cronin said in his introductory remarks on Sunday morning. "We've got one guy [Jaime Jaquez Jr.] in the NBA that plays in the fourth quarter's starting unit for the Miami Heat, a team that went to the NBA Finals. So, we've got a lot to replace. It has been a challenging offseason for us, seeing as two of our guys from Europe did not join us until September, for various reasons. Adem Bona was out โ we lost him in the NCAA Tournament. He did not play until our first game. We did a foreign tour [in Spain]. We are way behind, just because we haven't played with our three best NBA prospects. And one of them, he'll be in his first game on Monday. We're young but we all go through it, and everybody up here on this stage has gone through this."
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UCLA's contest against Marquette (3-0) will tip-off at 6:30 p.m. locally (8:30 p.m., Pacific time) on Monday, Nov. 20. The Bruins' game at the University of Hawai'i will be nationally televised on ESPN2, with Kanoa Leahey and Bill Walton calling the action. In addition, fans can tune to AM 1150 for the Bruins' courtside radio broadcast, featuring Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray.
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The Bruins were ranked No. 25 in last week's USA Today Sports Coaches' poll. UCLA has opened its regular-season schedule with a 3-0 record, notching victories over Saint Francis (Nov. 6), Lafayette (Nov. 10) and Long Island University (Nov. 15). The Bruins are looking to win the Maui Invitational for the first time since going 3-0 in the tournament in 2006, under then-head coach Ben Howland.
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"I think that Coach Barnes said that we're all going to get better because we are here," Cronin said on Sunday morning. "You have to know that, no matter what happens. You've got to get better. Monday will be our first game with our whole roster. We're such a work in progress. I have got to show some maturity and realize that, as much as I want my team to compete and I want us to win, the reality for us is if we do that, I've got to be happy. We have to make adjustments as we go because we are behind. We had a foreign tour, and as I said, [several of] those guys did not play. We played Santa Clara in a scrimmage and we had eight guys. That's just the way it is for us. We've got to get better. That's the best thing about basketball, versus football. You can lose a few early. UConn was not ranked last year, for all the geniuses out there that have those votes."
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The winner of Monday's game between Marquette and UCLA will take on either No. 1-ranked Kansas or Chaminade University on Tuesday. The other four teams in this year's eight-team bracket include Gonzaga, Purdue, Syracuse and Tennessee.
