UCLA basketball’s Skyy Clark could be nearing return

It must be maddening, a coach who fancies defense watching his team give up one basket after another.

That’s the situation that UCLA’s Mick Cronin finds himself in these days.

His team has too many players who struggle with lateral quickness, natural defensive instincts and rim protection. Cronin acknowledged that his team won’t do anything meaningful this season unless it can defend at a much higher level than it has through the season’s first three months.

But significant help could be on the way.

Skyy Clark, the team’s best defender, might be able to return starting with the Bruins’ game against No. 2 Michigan on Saturday in Ann Arbor.

“He’s got to stack practices,” Cronin said Wednesday of the guard who has been sidelined since Jan. 3 by a hamstring injury. The hope is that Clark can practice four days in a row without setbacks, putting him on track to play against the Wolverines.

Clark has become such a high-level defender that Cronin said San Diego State coaches — known for defensive wizardry — showed their team footage of Clark as a teaching tool.

“The guy’s our best defender,” Cronin said, “by light years.”

Without Clark, the Bruins have been searching for ways to get stops. 

This bunch is on pace to represent one of the worst defenses of Cronin’s seven seasons in Westwood, according to the metrics of basketball analyst Ken Pomeroy. Cronin’s only worse UCLA defenses came his first season and two years ago during the season he imported four European freshmen, none of whom remain on the roster.

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters

A glimmer of hope can be found in what UCLA once did with an equally deficient defense.

“See 2021, spring,” Cronin said.

That was when the Bruins locked in for a magical run to the Final Four, largely on the strength of maximum effort and Johnny Juzang’s torrid shotmaking.

This team can relate. Giving up an average of 69.8 points per game — ranking No. 8 in the Big Ten — has forced the Bruins (17-7, 9-4 Big Ten) to win with big offensive showings far too often. UCLA’s defense will face its biggest challenge against Michigan (22-1, 12-1), which was averaging a Big Ten-best 91 points per game before it faced Northwestern on Wednesday night.

Among UCLA’s primary issues is rim protection. Xavier Booker is working to put up more resistance in his first season as a full-time center. Backup Steven Jamerson II has shown flashes of being a capable defender when he’s been able to avoid foul trouble. At 6 feet 9, forward Tyler Bilodeau has struggled to stop bigger players.

Cronin has done his best to scheme around his team’s shortcomings.

“A big thing in coaching is, at some point you’ve got to figure out what somebody can’t do,” Cronin said. “Just because this is the way you like to do it, if he can’t do it and you continue to ask him and you know he can’t, that’s bad coaching. You’ve got to try to change your strategy.”

On the plus side, point guard Donovan Dent has become closer to the pesky defender Cronin wanted upon his arrival from New Mexico, and sophomore guard Trent Perry has stayed in front of his man more consistently. Guard Jamar Brown has proven a pest in limited minutes.

Getting Clark back would provide the added benefit of lowering the minutes of his teammates in the backcourt, allowing them to increase their defensive intensity.

“Just max effort, at all times, for 40 minutes,” forward Eric Dailey Jr. said of what’s needed. “That will probably solve all that. Communicating — just having that mindset that we want to defend and get stops and go the other way and score. That really helps.”