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After coming off three consecutive Sweet 16 appearances, the UCLA Bruins have struggled this season. It's not for a lack of talent as the Bruins had three NBA draft prospects coming into the season. But with a 6-9 record, Aday Mara, Adem Bona and Berke Buyuktuncel could all find themselves needing to return to college next season instead of declaring for the 2024 draft.
ESPN NBA draft insiders Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo look at the troubles in Westwood along with the latest on a pair of injuries to two top-five prospects in Nikola Topic and Alex Sarr and the Colorado prospect gaining momentum in this week's notebook.
UCLA had three first-round prospects, so what exactly went wrong?
While much scrutiny has been paid to the struggles of 8-7 USC due to the presence of former projected No. 1 pick Isaiah Collier and Bronny James, crosstown rivals UCLA appear to be in a significantly worse situation. The Bruins are 6-9, losing four consecutive home games for the first time in two decades. With zero wins against top-150 opponents, they'll need a miraculous turnaround to even make the NIT at this stage.
That's shocking considering the school is coming off three consecutive Sweet 16s, including a run to the NCAA Final Four in 2022. Bruins coach Mick Cronin was fortunate to inherit program stalwarts Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Tyger Campbell -- the backbone of those teams along with Kentucky transfer Johnny Juzang -- thanks to the work of previous head coach Steve Alford. Cronin has been unable to create an attractive enough environment for high-level prospects of his own since, despite being in the middle of one of the most fertile recruiting bases in Southern California.
Digging into film and numbers, it's not hard to understand what ails the Bruins.