UCLA endured its second-worst setback of the season when it was mauled by Michigan State on Feb. 17.
The Bruins have recovered to win five of six games. They will get another look at the third-seeded Spartans when the teams play in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals on Friday night at Chicago.
UCLA coach Mick Cronin is happy his team is alive in the tourney but not so thrilled that his sixth-seeded Bruins (22-10) will be facing Tom Izzo-led Michigan State (25-6).
“They took us to the woodshed the last time,” Cronin said of the 82-59 loss in East Lansing, Mich. “It will be a good game for us. We have some skilled guys but we’ve had trouble with physicality. That’s no secret
“… They’re the hardest-playing team because they have a Hall of Fame coach who’s a legend. It’s going to be a big challenge for us.”
Michigan State led by as many as 31 points in the dismantling of the Bruins. Jeremy Fears Jr. had 16 points and 10 assists and Coen Carr also scored 16 points.
Fears badly outplayed UCLA’s Donovan Dent, who had just six points on 3-of-11 shooting and had the same numbers of assists as turnovers — four apiece.
However, that disappointing night seems to have sparked Dent. His play has since been superb with 65 assists against four turnovers in the six-game stretch.
In Thursday’s 72-59 third-round victory over 14th-seeded Rutgers, Dent had 12 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds to notch the first triple-double in Big Ten tournament history and just the fifth in the rich annals of UCLA basketball.
Legendary Bill Walton (1973), Jelani McCoy (1995), Toby Bailey (1995) and Kyle Anderson (2013) are the other Bruins to have a triple-double.
“It’s a really good feeling, credit to my teammates helping me get the assists,” Dent said. “I was just crashing to the boards because Coach preached us at halftime to get offensive rebounds and extra possessions.”
Michigan State, ranked No. 8, started a five-game winning streak by dominating UCLA but that ended Sunday with a 90-80 road loss to No. 3 Michigan.
Jaxon Kohler had 23 points and eight rebounds against the Wolverines and is averaging 19.7 points and 9.3 rebounds over the past three games.
The senior is in his fourth season playing for the Spartans and is well aware that the Izzo philosophy is to rely on veterans during March.
“The biggest thing for me is trying to make sure it doesn’t stay in my head that I’m gonna be tired,” Kohler said. “Because when you hear it, it subconsciously stays in your head.
“But if you keep the attitude and the mindset of, ‘Hey, it’s just one game at a time, one game at a time; we don’t have practice, we just have walk-throughs,’ then that helps us save energy and I double down on recovery.”
Another fourth-year senior big man, Carson Cooper, has scored 12 or more points in five of the past six games. He feels motivation from knowing his final game is near.
“I feel pretty good,” Cooper said. “Just knowing that it’s your last go-round, that kind gives you that extra little boost. Maybe last year, you might take something for granted — and we got next year. But now, there’s no room for being tired.”
Fears averages a team-best 31.9 minutes per game to go with leading the squad in scoring (15.5 points per game) and entering the week as the national leader in assists (9.1).
“We want to play till Sunday and try to do something special,” Fears said of his sights being on the tournament title game.
