INDIANAPOLIS —
Basketball fans on the East Coast who miss Pac-12 games because they stretch past the closures of Taco Bell drive-throughs were probably already slumbering when UCLA coach Mick Cronin essentially said experts who dismissed his conference were asleep on the job.
The Pac-12 joined the Big Ten in going unbeaten through the first round of the NCAA tournament, keeping alive Bruins legend and legendary absurdist Bill Walton’s dream bracket of five Pac-12 teams in the Final Four, were that somehow possible.
After joking about not being able to stay up late like those East Coast fans because he lives in Southern California, where he likes to rise with the early sun, Cronin lambasted pollsters who kept Pac-12 teams on the fringe of the national rankings all season.