Adem Bona
- Thread starter Boyd94
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I was just about to post the same thing. Watched UCLA last night, and that crowd was SHAMEFUL- looked like a crowd assembled to watch a badminton match (just a few fans around the bottom ring).
UCLA looks like a UL type dumpster fire at this point. Other than Bona blocking a few shots here and there, they look TERRIBLE, and lost last night to a middling 6-6 Stanford team.
SMDH, but frankly it couldn't happen to a nicer leprechaun.
He probably prefers it.
Some of these guys want the path of least resistance. No pressure, no crowds.
It’ll take a while for anyone to reach the level of dumpster fire that is ul, but hopefully Cronin and co are on their way to it.
That Stanford team is looking solid. I've seen 2 of their 4 games since Carlyle joined, and he is a close version of Dillingham.
I don’t think Kentucky regrets Bona choosing UCLA. I’ve watched quite a bit of UCLA living on the west coast and seen them in person before UK/UNC.
Bona is a junkyard dog type of player and makes high energy defensive plays. However, he is also 6-8 at best, is a foul machine, complete shooting non-threat. Hes good within 3 feet against mid major competition but not as good against anyone with a competent big. He's basically an extremely budget version of Oscar. Cronin playing him with Mara is horrific strategy. If Bona is your best player your team is going to be very very bad.
Bona is a junkyard dog type of player and makes high energy defensive plays. However, he is also 6-8 at best, is a foul machine, complete shooting non-threat. Hes good within 3 feet against mid major competition but not as good against anyone with a competent big. He's basically an extremely budget version of Oscar. Cronin playing him with Mara is horrific strategy. If Bona is your best player your team is going to be very very bad.
You know how Cal always says UK isn't for everyone? It's possible Bona didn't want that spotlight and realized he would be far less scrutinized at UCLA..... not every kid we recruit who chooses another school made a mistake. Some know what they want and DONT want.
I guess the bigger question is what the hell happened to UCLA? Cronin is generally known as a good recruiter and coach. But this year they seem to be struggling with both.
Imagine going to a school 4 years and your career win total is 8 games though
What's done is done, can't change thing's that have happened... Best to just not say anything and just enjoy what we have, I am not worried about other teams or who play's for them... I only watch UK and who they are playing at the time...
GBB
GBB
Believe it or not UCLA NIL sucks. If you think about it, no one gives a rats ass about UCLA basketball in SoCal. A town that has:
The Lakers, Clippers, Dodgers, Angels, Rams, Chargers, Kings, Ducks, USC Football, USC Basketball, all of entertainment/Hollywood.
It’s just hard to promise local money to kids when they aren’t recognizable in their own town and there are so many others who get those deals. More people would recognize Adem Bona in Lexington than in So Cal. And UCLA isn’t like UK or Kansas or UNC. If the bruins suck people just tune out, if they’re good they’ll have people follow. But there’s just not that much public pressure to perform.
Mick Cronin is offensively retarded as a coach. He is an arrogant idiot when it comes to understanding the importance of scoring/offense and talks of "toughness" which means what exactly in a sport where putting the ball through the net wins/loses games? Makes 1 run in NCAA's in the Covid year and people forget he was in the damn play in game.....and everyone acted like UCLA was "back". He finds a way to lose games he should win because he uses Cal's "stall ball" almost the entire game.
When you are watching a game and the announcers say "UCLA has it at their pace" and it's 28-24 and we're talking about UCLA--what should attract anyone in the West Coast and nationally--it speaks volumes. Spacing is non existent. Entire approach is predicated on hoping officials don't call every foul defensively and just throwing up late 3's in shot clock and getting to the FT line because like all offensively challenged tyrants-they want to be able to hack on one end but get a soft whistle on offensive end to bail them out.
When you are watching a game and the announcers say "UCLA has it at their pace" and it's 28-24 and we're talking about UCLA--what should attract anyone in the West Coast and nationally--it speaks volumes. Spacing is non existent. Entire approach is predicated on hoping officials don't call every foul defensively and just throwing up late 3's in shot clock and getting to the FT line because like all offensively challenged tyrants-they want to be able to hack on one end but get a soft whistle on offensive end to bail them out.
Listen, I really don’t like the city of LA specifically, but when you live in that kind of year around sunshine and warmth, with so many choices of things to do, it’d be hard to get heavily invested into college basketball. Part of why college basketball can be big here is because the weather sucks and we don’t have much else to focus on this time of year. Even when you watch the Dodgers or Lakers games the crowd shows up late, leaves early, and is often concerned with just putting in an appearance.
As a southern california resident this is 100% accurate. Laker games a place to be seen. Tbh Clipper games are far more fun.
I have no idea what Cronin was thinking playing Bona and Mara together. Mara cannot make a shot from anywhere right now, and Bona cannot score outside of 3 feet. Watching them play against Ohio State was some of the worst basketball I had ever witnessed, immediately followed by UK/UNC which was some of the best basketball i've ever witnessed.
UCLA crowds have always been bad. Even when they made three straight Final Fours under Howland and had superstars coming through like Westbrook they still had bad crowds. Like other people mentioned in this thread, there are just too many other things to do in SoCal.
Well to be fair he had the chance to pick the better program and didn’t take it so that’s on him. He can enjoy losing to terrible pac-12 teams in empty gyms.
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