'Rebuilding year' a 'reality' for Bruins as UCLA, Arizona prep for final scheduled Pac-12 meeting

Because UCLA coach Mick Cronin lost his top five scorers from last season’s Pac-12 regular-season champions, then pulled in a top-five rated recruiting class, the Bruins were expected to struggle initially this season before growing increasingly competitive.

That sort of thought may have led them to be picked third in the Pac-12’s official preseason poll.

But leading up to Arizona’s final conference visit to Pauley Pavilion on Thursday, UCLA is stuck at .500 after losing four straight … and it’s now March.

“What I’ve learned in life, and especially in my job, is that we all want our kids to grow up faster than they do,” Cronin said Tuesday in Los Angeles. “It’s just where it’s at.”

The Bruins start two freshmen and two sophomores while they rank 318th out of 362 Division I teams in Kenpom’s “Division I experience” metric, a measure of the average number of seasons played by a team’s roster, weighted by minutes played. Arizona ranks 81st in the same metric despite playing two sophomores and two freshmen regularly.

Still, when the Los Angeles Times asked Cronin on Tuesday where the responsibility was for the Bruins’ mediocre play, he pointed to himself.

“One hundred percent,” Cronin said. “Who else would it be?”

Not the players?

“They’re doing the best they can do,” Cronin said. “This is reality. We got stuck in a rebuilding year. We tried to overcome it with our recruiting. It’s the way it is.”

Cronin has been playing only seven players regularly in Pac-12 games, relying heavily on sophomore point guard Dylan Andrews (36.0 minutes a game)and junior wing Lazar Stefanovic (34.9), while also playing freshman guard Sebastian Mack an average of 24.3 minutes. Only one of UCLA’s four well-regarded international freshmen, Turkish forward Berke Buyuktuncel, is averaging more than eight minutes in conference play.

Mack is averaging 11.3 points but shooting just 40.1%, with nearly as many turnovers (27) as assists (30) in Pac-12 games, but Cronin said he’s suffered from overuse and recently from a toe injury that has impacted his explosiveness.

“He’s had to play more minutes than he was ready for,” Cronin said. “It’s not anything against him. In coaching, you know you’re in trouble when you’re asking players to do stuff that they’re not ready to do, that you haven’t trained them to do, that they don’t have the experience to do. They don’t have the tool set to get that kind of job done.”

With all that in mind, the Bruins still have a few things that could make Thursday’s game interesting. That is, they play at the Pac-12’s slowest tempo, and took a 19-point first-half lead against Arizona on Jan. 20 in Tucson. While UA came back to win that game 77-71, UCLA ripped off six straight wins afterward.

Having scouted the Bruins all season, Arizona associate head coach Jack Murphy says he’s noticed a difference.

“I think their young guys are getting more and more confident,” Murphy said.

Moreover, a freshman Cronin said has proven unusually equipped to handle the transition to the physical college game, forward Brandon Williams, is expected to be fully available after playing only six minutes at McKale Center because of respiratory issues.

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Cronin said his absence was a factor in UA’s rebounding edge of 36-29 as well as the foul trouble that limited Buyuktuncel to 19 minutes before he fouled out.

“There was a lot of concern you knew nothing about going on in that game because (Williams) couldn’t breathe,” Cronin told L.A. reporters Tuesday. “We had to play four guards, and our guards aren’t big enough.

“They just rebound the hell out of the ball. (Oumar) Ballo is huge, (Keshad) Johnson’s a fifth-year power forward, they have a great freshman guard rebounder in (KJ) Lewis, a great athletic wing, attacking rebounding guard. And obviously (Pelle) Larsson does everything.”

Love named to West top five

Arizona guard Caleb Love has been named one of five finalists for the Jerry West Award, honoring college basketball’s top shooting guard.

A player Cronin said would be the Pac-12 Player of the Year, Love leads the Wildcats in scoring and is fourth in the conference with an average of 19.4 points a game. During Pac-12 games, Love ranks second with an average of 21.2.

Love has also improved his shooting efficiency over last season at North Carolina, from 29.9% to 36.2% from 3-point range and from 37.8% to 43.5% overall. He tied the Matthew Knight Arena scoring record with 36 points on Jan. 27 at Eugene and has scored 20 or more points in 14 games despite Arizona’s balanced offense.

Love’s former teammate at UNC, RJ Davis, is also a Jerry West Award finalist. Others include Kansas’ Kevin McCullar, Kentucky’s Antonio Reeves and Michigan State’s Tyson Walker.

Five players were trimmed from Jerry West’s top 10 list released on Jan. 30: FAU’s Johnell Davis, USC’s Boogie Ellis, Baylor’s Ja’Kobe Walter, Creighton’s Trey Alexander and Houston’s LJ Cryer.

The Jerry West Award is one of five positional awards given out by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Arizona’s Johnson was named a top 10 finalist for its Karl Malone (power forward) Award, and that list is likely to be trimmed on Thursday.

UA’s Oumar Ballo was not named to the top 10 list for the Abdul-Jabbar (center) Award on Feb. 2, but has posted a double-double in every game since Feb. 1, a string of nine straight.

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Photos: Arizona Wildcats defeat UCLA 77-71 in Tucson, Pac 12 basketball

Photos: Arizona takes down Washington 91-75, Pac 12 basketball