The basketball season got underway for the UCLA Bruins Wednesday night, with UCLA picking up a 100-53 win over California Baptist in an exhibition game at the Pauley Pavilion. 

Mick Cronin spoke following the exhibition match, with the UCLA head coach seeming pleased with his team’s performance to kick off the new season.

“Obviously we had a talent advantage tonight but the guys did a great job of ignoring that and putting forth some maximum effort, trying to get better tonight,” Cronin said. “Team attitude has been great. I’m really having fun coaching. I look forward to coaching these guys every day because they’re very, very mature. They understand that coaching and teaching helps them become better players.”

Perhaps Cronin successfully fine-tuned his roster this offseason, giving UCLA enough talent to compete with anyone, while also finding players that can excel in Cronin’s coaching style. The Bruins went 24-12 last season but it was choppy for a lot of the season. 

It’ll take bigger tests for UCLA to jump to any conclusions after an exhibition win against California Baptist but several Bruins stood out in the win, including Eric Dailey Jr., Joe Philon III, Nikola Kusturica and Xavier Booker. Cronin talked about what he saw from Booker on Thursday.

“That’s what I care about. It’s what NBA scouts want from him,” Cronin said of Booker grabbing nine rebounds in 20 minutes. “He’s already proved he can shoot. He’s already proven he can run. They want to see his defense and his rebounding, and that’s what we need from him too for us to be a great team.”

UCLA will begin their regular season on Monday, November 2nd against No. 5 Arizona but the Bruins should head into the season with the belief that they’re plenty capable of making a deep run this season.