Mick Cronin discusses how Amari Bailey's preparedness has grown throughout season

UCLA is quietly one of the very best college hoops teams in the entire country, and with a bit of a quirky roster distribution. The Bruins are led mainly by upperclassmen at the top — Tyger Campbell, Jaime Jaquez, Jaylen Clark and David Singleton — while the remaining pieces are almost exclusively freshmen. So it’s a tough dynamic from a team-building standpoint when you’re having to thrust recent high school graduates into the mix with a core of guys who have all been at the school for three or more years and have a Final Four under their belt.

Though he was ranked as a consensus five-star top-10 prospect, that transition was tough on rookie guard Amari Bailey at first. But according to head coach Mick Cronin, a light sense of humor and a strong work ethic have helped him meld with the veterans.

“His work ethic — you know, he practices really hard,” said Cronin at this week’s media availability. “I’m gonna go the flip side, though. When I talked to him last week, he said in some ways he’s a big goofball. I guess.”

One reporter asked if that was true, to which Cronin responded: “No, he is young but he flips a switch when it’s time to compete. Yeah he definitely flips the switch when it’s time to compete.”

Cronin then went on to explain the challenges of adjusting from high school to college ball — especially at UCLA, where the standard is sustained success and Bailey, along with the other freshmen, are asked to come in and keep up right next to three and four-year veterans. He also gave an anecdote from Jaime Jaquez’s time early on in the Bruins program.

“You know, like all young guys, they’ve never had to pay attention in scouting report as long, as you have to at this level, to every detail. I mean, it’s, you know, in their head. Like Jaime talked about. We were talking and eating lunch … it’s really rough here in Westwood,” Cronin said. “It’s recruiting speed you know we eat outside at 70 degrees around one o’clock after practice and Jaime was talking about those times coming short and how, as a freshman the first couple months, he thought he was terrible, he didn’t know if he’d ever play. Because it’s, you know, he goes ‘I turned it over, you were all over me,’ you know. ‘I thought I stunk, I just played at a high school where it was easy.’

“You know, where he’s at now and he was just talking about how you just got to push through it. It’s hard. It’s just such a big jump for kids to this level from the expectations. Then just go play. So that, you know, that’s an adjustment. But yeah, (Amari Bailey) definitely flips a switch and plays really, really hard.”

Bailey certainly hasn’t sunk despite the expectations as a UCLA freshman. He’s as important a piece to this team now as many of the older guys, which is a testament to how hard he’s worked to grow up on the court in year one.