ZAGS TRACKER: Mick's Hollywood story entering final act

Mick Cronin was celebrating UCLA’s victory over Michigan, an ugly 51-49 survival act that nudged the Bruins into the Final Four.

The man who migrated to glamorous Los Angeles from unsightly Cincinnati was happily explaining how — even in the shadow of Hollywood — he could make slugfest wins look lovely, because…

After all, they were wins.

UCLA has had to do everything the hard way, having lost a 5-star recruit to the G-League and then its second-leading scorer to a season-ending injury.

But that adversity only played into Cronin’s brand of coaching, the style that plenty of UCLA fans found objectionable when the rough-and-tumble coach was hired two years ago.

With a shorthanded roster — at least in terms of sheer talent — the Bruins were forced to turn every game into a rock fight.

They finished the Pac-12 season in fourth place (losing their last three, and then falling to Oregon State in the first round of conference tournament), and their current 22-9 record only looks mildly acceptable because they’ve almost miraculously won five straight games in this NCAA tournament.

Cronin’s summation after 31 smashmouth games…

“Our toughness, it’s been great all year,” he said. “You just can’t win them all.”

Oh, the irony.

On Saturday night, Cronin’s Bruins will face a 30-0 Gonzaga team that truly DOES want to win them all.

THE COLD and calculating Vegas oddsmakers, whose idea of a good time would be kicking Cinderella down a long flight of stairs, have installed the Zags as a 14-point favorite.

Yes, and before you even ask, it is the largest spread ever posted for a Final Four game.

Here’s the betting logic, besides what the bookies have seen with their own eyes…

“When you don’t make shots,” Michigan guard Eli Brooks said while attempting to explain the Wolverines’ face plant, “it makes things a little more difficult.”

Funny thing, though.

UCLA won while shooting just 39 percent from the floor and 23 percent from deep, all while being outrebounded 38-28.

Only two stats suggest the sniff of an upset.

The Bruins committed just eight turnovers (to 14 for Michigan) and they scrapped enough to hold the more talented Wolverines to just about the same awful shooting.

Michigan converted just 39 percent overall and 27 percent from 3-point range.

Some of it was decent defense.

But plenty of it was just terrible shooting.

NOT THAT Mark Few ever would allow such a thing, but we suspect he will not — even for a second — allow his Zags to believe that 14-point spread, or UCLA’s apparent reliance on just one player (guard Johnny Juzang) will make this Final Four semifinal any walk in the park.

The Bruins will go down fighting, if they go down at all.

However it’s happened, UCLA is sitting right there — just like the old days, when they won 11 national championships.

This year’s Bruins have rallied from 14 points down against Michigan State in the First Four game, and now they’ve taken out a No. 2 (Alabama) and a No. 1 seed.

UCLA is not in the Final Four because of beating up on the Little Sisters of the Poor.

It might also be wrong to dismiss UCLA on the basis of scoring just 51 points in that Elite Eight triumph.

They seem to get whatever the need, which happened to be 86 against Michigan State.

ON THE other hand, knocking off Gonzaga when a huge chunk of your scoring (28 points in the Michigan game) comes from one place, feels like a bridge too far.

Juzang, in case you have been wondering, is a 6-6, 200-pound transfer from Kentucky.

He got almost no playing time as a freshman with the Wildcats, averaged three points per game – and decided to go home.

A Los Angeles kid, he found new life at UCLA, where he’s averaged 15.5 points per game this season.

It’s a little odd that Juzang is getting such a large portion of the shots (and a whopping share of the points) in this tournament, since UCLA has four players averaging in double figures for the full season, and another sitting at 9.8.

Predictably, Juzang is happy shooting from distance.

Despite a sweet stroke (90 percent on free throws), however, he’s only connected on 34.7 percent on 150 tries behind the arc — and he’s sitting just under 43 percent overall.

NCAA tournaments in general, and the late rounds in particular, are filled with remarkable stories of individuals getting hot and simply carrying teams to titles.

YOU DON’T have to be a Gonzaga cheerleader, though, to suggest that UCLA will have to produce more than 51 points to upset the Zags.

Juzang might need 51 by himself, and confronted with the likes of Jalen Suggs, Joel Ayayi, Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Cook — with help from Corey Kispert and Drew Timme — that seems, ah…

Unlikely.

UCLA would also need the Zags to shoot like Michigan, and that seems even more of a stretch.

This isn’t to say that the Bruins don’t have a puncher’s chance.

There wasn’t any real talent gap back in the day, but every Zags fan carries a sickening memory from 15 years ago, when UCLA knocked Gonzaga out in a Sweet Sixteen game – leaving Adam Morrison in tears on the court.

It can happen.

Cronin no doubt will have scrambled around to find tapes of Gonzaga games against Saint Mary’s, since Gaels guru Randy Bennett has discovered ways to slow down proceedings and steal wins over Zags teams that had far superior skills.

We almost certainly will see an attempt to mimic something like that.

You’d be shocked if UCLA decided on a track meet.

AS FOR Gonzaga, Few will simply be wanting more of the same.

Swarming defense, an attack that revolves around Timme, and non-stop pace.

No one has slowed Timme down so far, let alone really stopped him.

The sophomore from Texas is almost impossible to guard one-on-one, but if you choose to double him, well… Timme is a great passer.

More than that, he has a true understanding of the game, so even if teams switch tactics, Timme seems to know exactly what space (and shooters) have been left open.

Once again, the Zags will run whenever it’s obvious – and generally even when it isn’t.

One reason that Gonzaga is so hard to catch if you fall behind (the Zags have won their last 116 games when leading by 10 or more at halftime), is that to rally, you need stops.

And Gonzaga moves people — and the ball — so well that there are usually easy shots available.

SO, STOPS are tough to get, especially when you need a handful of them.

As for one danger that has been making the rounds…

No!

Don’t think, not even for a heartbeat, that the Zags will allow a title-game showdown with Baylor to creep into their thoughts.

At this point, it’s a one-game season.

That game is UCLA.

Then…

If all goes well, there will be a second one-game season.

Truthfully, I expect UCLA to put up a hell of a battle.

I also expect it won’t be enough.

If I’m right, THEN we can anticipate one game for history.

But the Zags won’t even consider the word “history” until two more wins are up on the board.

And hey, you can’t get two unless you win the first one.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays during the NCAA tournament. “Moments, Memories and Madness,” his reminiscences from several decades as a sports journalist, will return and run each Sunday after Gonzaga’s season is concluded.

Steve also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which will be published each Thursday during the tournament.