No. 13 UCLA defeated No. 23 USC Friday night to advance to the Pac-12 tournament final, which was their second win in a week over their rival. However, head coach Mick Cronin still had high praise for the Trojans and thinks USC’s projected seed for the NCAA tournament is too low.
“Defensively, I thought that’s as good as we’ve played in awhile, especially in the first half,” Cronin said, via Brad Crawford of 247Sports. “Obviously, I’ve got tremendous respect for Coach [Andy] Enfield and their program. Their projected seed is ridiculously low. That’s typical West Coast bias. I wish them all the best next week and hopefully we can all do what we did last year.”
On the season, USC went 26–7 and 14–6 in conference, but four of those losses came to either No. 2 Arizona or UCLA. The Trojans had a stronger resume over a week ago, but suffered three losses since then: two to the Bruins and one to the Wildcats.
Both SI’s Kevin Sweeney and ESPN’s Joe Lunardi currently project USC as a No. 7 seed.
As for the Los Angeles rivalry, Cronin said he has much respect for USC head coach Andy Enfield and doesn’t view any hatred in it.
“We don’t have animosity. We just don’t,” Cronin said. “Andy Enfield’s a great guy. I know their [staff]. Great guys man. It’s nice to be in a healthy rivalry. It should be about basketball. You see these guys before the clock hits zero, just tremendous respect for each. It’s good for our game. You can have a rivalry like that and it not be about hatred and all that stuff. Wish them all the best next week.”
In total, UCLA and USC played three times this year, with the Bruins winning the season series 2–1. However, since Cronin arrived in Los Angeles in 2019, USC owns a 5–2 advantage.
UCLA plays Arizona on Saturday night to decide the Pac-12 tournament championship.
