A special day needs a great moment.
Leave the biggest bruin to deliver a handful in your own tribute to Bill Walton.
With UCLA clinging to a narrow advance on the Ohio State half of the second half on Sunday, Mara candidate took a pass from his teammate Skyy Clark and pivoted for a dunk. The 3-inch 7-foot center followed with another movement in which it ended in contact, converting a lay-up in which it was the victim of a fault.
The UCLA’s advance was back to eight points and the Bruins began to move away for a 69-61 Victory Inside the Pauley pavilion the day they honored Walton.
Mara added an emphatic block of the driving lay-up of the Ohio star, the Ohio star, a flight and a jump hook in the last minutes, the crowd of 9,015 buzzing each time as He touched the ball.
“I thought he changed us,” said UCLA coach Mick Cronin after Mara helped him win his 500th career victory. “He definitely allowed us to energy and the crowd likes him, so that helped.”
Playing most of the second half after his teammate Tyler Bilodeau took a quick fault and committed a bad turnover on his return by throwing a pass in the rear area, Mara finished with 10 points, nine rebounds, two blocks and a flight.
The Pas de Pas de Clark at three points with 38 seconds to the left made sure that the Bruins (20-8 in total, 11-6 Big Ten) would rebound their flourish against minnesota Last week.
After contributing to the collapse with the epic ineffectiveness of the line of fault, the Cronin team made 15 of the 20 free throws on Sunday, helping him to become the youngest active coach to reach the milestone of 500 victories. It is also only the 18th active coach to have counted at least as many victories at the NCAA division I.
Mara, Clark and striker Eric Dailey Jr. entered the post-match press conference bearing commemorative t-shirts featuring Cronin holding her hands in the ovens-up position alongside “500” in giant figures. The players resisted the desire to give their coach a festive shower in the locker room.
“We thought of soaking it,” said Clark, “but we saw the family and everyone had a cake, so we didn’t want to spoil this.”
Dailey came out of a three-week collapse with 20 points on a shot of eight for 15, including the first nine points of his team from the second half. Clark added 13 points, Sebastian Mack collected 11 points on the bench and Kobe Johnson contributed 13 rebounds, four assists and three interceptions to go with his three points one day when his shot did not fall.
Thornton scored 21 points in a relatively ineffective way for buckeyes (15-13, 7-10), making seven of the 17 shots one day, his team pulled only 31.7%.
The tributes to Walton, who died in May at 71 after a long battle against cancer, started well before Tipoff. UCLA players wore heating with a Tie-Dye design on the name of Walton and its n ° 32. Grateful Dead songs resisted the audio system. Even several members of the CBS television production team wore colored t-shirts.
Find out more: Long after dominating his beloved bruins, Bill Walton has never stopped making the UCLA feel special
During waiting times, Walton Sights video sequences were shown alongside the favorite memories of players on the big redhead. Walton’s wife Lori was honored on the ground in the middle of the first half and joined by family members during a half-time celebration. Several large big ones present, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Sidney Wicks, Jamaal Wilkes and Mike Warren, were shown on video advice.
Mara said he wanted to honor Walton, who advised him to be patient because great men tend to develop more slowly than their smaller counterparts.
“He was an incredible person,” said Mara, “so for me, this game meant a lot.”
Taking everyone who tried to associate with him, Mara heard more than the crowd.
“It’s fun to see it Dunk, it’s like the way I used to dip the little hoop for toddians,” said Clark, laughing. “We still root Aday. He is an incredible player, an incredible human. I mean, whenever he is drawn (by opponents), I tell him to make a score, go play because he has so much game for him. “”
Cronin said that Mara’s continuing emergence was made possible by increasing her lower body strength so that he could hold the ground against contact, improving his packaging and an intangible component.
“The third piece is Corazon“Said Cronin, using a Spanish word while speaking of the native of Zaragoza, Spain. “You have to play with heart.”
Cronin then told a story about how his father, HEP, would tell people who did not want to compete to get a six beer pack, sit on a quay and sing Michael Bolton songs during fishing.
Mara showed Cronin his tenacity after the coach issued a challenge concerning the offensive rebound.
Find out more: The late free throws of Elina Aarnisalo offer the UCLA a victory at the Iowa
“He went and obtained a better one that there was one all year round,” said Cronin, “and he started playing stronger than he never played with his efforts to go look for the ball. “
Mara said her success was partly working to play like Cronin and deputy coach Darren Savino, who works mainly with great men, taught him.
“(Cronin) always told me to put my hands high so that they do not grasp me,” said Mara. “Because I always have to continue, they enter my arm or something, so I was able to catch it with one hand. Most of the time, I do not catch it, so today I did, trying to do the way Savino tells us, as every day, tried to do it and it worked, so the next game I will try to go there as difficult as today.
Coming large when the Bruins needed it most, Mara would have liked her legendary predecessor.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
(Tagstranslate) Mick Cronin (T) Bill Walton (T) Skyy Clark (T) Aday Mara (T) Ucla (T) Ohio State (T) Bruins (T) Clark (T) Eric Dailey Jr. (T) Kobe Johnson ( t) minnesota
