Never one to conceal his emotions, Mick Cronin was lastly at a loss for phrases Saturday night time.

The UCLA coach didn’t present up to communicate with reporters after his crew’s newest loss. He as a substitute despatched assistant Rod Palmer to parse the fallout.

Could it go any decrease for the Bruins?

Hard to say. There’s nonetheless greater than two months left in the season.

The solely certainty is that the Bruins sank to new depths at Pauley Pavilion, falling to an opponent that had gained just one recreation over the earlier 5 weeks and had dropped its final 19 Pac-12 video games going again to final season.

UCLA modified all that, giving California a speck of life whereas darkening its personal already bleak outlook.

A new level guard rotation, completely different lineups, extra minutes for seldom-used gamers … nothing labored for the Bruins throughout a 66-57 loss.

UCLA (6-9 general, 1-3 Pac-12) has dropped 4 consecutive dwelling video games for the primary time for the reason that 2002-03 season — coach Steve Lavin’s final — whereas additionally falling to the Golden Bears inside Pauley Pavilion for the primary time since February 2010.

It has been a irritating turnabout for the Bruins, who’ve misplaced seven of eight video games and are looking at the potential of a first-to-worst reversal in the convention standings after profitable the Pac-12 by 4 video games final season.

In addition to skipping his session with reporters, Cronin additionally didn’t full his ordinary postgame radio interview, nor did he make gamers obtainable to communicate with the media. Palmer mentioned Cronin was nonetheless speaking to the crew and didn’t need to maintain reporters ready.

What was Cronin’s message to his gamers? Palmer mentioned it had not modified.

“You have to play harder if you want a different result,” Palmer mentioned. “You have to do things different if you want a different result and we haven’t been doing those different things. We’ve been stressing it in practice but for some reason, whatever it is — it could be youth, it could be inexperience — we’re just not getting the job done.”

When Cronin had final addressed reporters, after a loss to Stanford on Wednesday, he questioned his gamers’ aptitude and mentioned that freshman guard Ilane Fibleuil’s exit from the sport after solely 21 seconds was for defying directions and committing a turnover.

“That’s on him, not me,” Cronin mentioned of Fibleuil’s fast hook. “Like I tell guys at this level, you know, I tell ‘em all it’s hard. So you can quit and go home, make an excuse and transfer like 1,900 guys, or you get better. Look in the mirror. But you gotta look in the mirror first.”

Cronin additionally intimated that his roster may look significantly completely different subsequent season if gamers didn’t toughen up.

“You can’t call your mommy; she can’t help you,” Cronin mentioned. “You’ve got an opportunity of a lifetime and it may not last forever depending on your performance.”

The Bruins didn’t precisely seem energized three days later in instantly falling into an enormous gap in opposition to Cal with their offense persevering with to stumble. As poorly as they performed, as soon as trailing by as many as 14 factors in the second half, the Bruins pulled inside 61-55 with 1:44 left earlier than Cal’s Jalen Cone hit a backbreaking three-pointer.

It was that type of night time for UCLA, which additionally received pushed round in being outrebounded by 10.

“Either you’re going to hit someone or you’re going to get hit,” Palmer mentioned, “and we’ve been getting hit a lot.”

Cronin was so flabbergasted over a referee’s name — not to point out the best way his crew was enjoying late in the primary half — that he flung his go well with jacket over the bench, incomes a technical foul.

UCLA coach Mick Cronin, proper, yells at a referee throughout the first half of the Bruins’ loss to California on Saturday night time.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

Nothing has come simple after wholesale roster turnover necessitating seven freshmen and greater roles for prime returners Adem Bona and Dylan Andrews.

Seeking to change his crew’s sagging fortunes, Cronin had instructed Sebastian Mack to take over major level guard duties from Andrews, caught in an epic funk.

It solely made issues worse.

The Bruins missed their first 5 pictures and dedicated three turnovers whereas giving up the sport’s first 9 factors.

Cronin then gave Jan Vide a couple of minutes at level guard and issues didn’t get a lot better. So the coach went again to Andrews, whose 4 factors in rapid-fire trend pulled the Bruins to inside 32-23 at halftime.

Presumably supposed to take stress off Andrews, who was capturing 24.5% from the sector over his earlier 4 video games whereas logging practically as many turnovers as assists, the transfer solely led to extra turnovers and sloppy offense for the Bruins.

“Coach is trying to put the ball in people’s hands to score, guys who can score, and a lot of times they just think it’s for them to score when in actuality it’s for them to score if they can, but find the open guy if they can’t,” Palmer mentioned. “And that’s the disconnect right there. So we just have to stress using each other, sharing the ball with each other and hopefully things will get better.”

Andrews by no means discovered a lot of a capturing type, ending with 10 factors whereas making 4 of 12 pictures. Mack led UCLA with 20 factors and heart Adem Bona added 14, however the Bruins made solely two of 10 three-pointers in one other abysmal displaying from lengthy vary.

Guard Jaylon Tyson scored 22 factors on nine-for-12 capturing for Cal (5-10, 1-3), whose earlier victories had come over St. Thomas, Cal State Bakersfield, Santa Clara and UC San Diego.

At this level, it’s not apparent if their overcome UCLA qualifies because the Golden Bears’ better of the season.