Rested and renewed, UCLA mens basketball readies for deep March run

Mick Cronin dispersed his team on Selection Sunday.“Go home,” the UCLA basketball coach told his players.“Get some sun.

Relax.”The Bruins didn’t get back to campus until a few hours before the NCAA Tournament bracket was released after playing three games in as many days in the Big Ten Tournament.So Cronin told everyone to go watch the selection show on their own.If everything goes as planned, they’ll be together plenty over the next few weeks.The seventh-seeded Bruins are playing their best basketball of the season heading into their first-round game against 10th-seeded Central Florida on Friday at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.“We feel like we’re at one of the highest points of the team on the whole season,” point guard Donovan Dent said Monday, “so we’re just hoping to keep riding that wave and keep flowing.”Once they get Dent and Tyler Bilodeau back from the injuries that sidelined them last week, the Bruins expect to reach another level.They’ll need to be at peak form to survive an opening weekend that could also include what would amount to a home game for second-seeded UConn in the second round.“The most important thing at this time of year,” Cronin said, “is being healthy – we’re working on that – and I think having their mind fresh, being excited and ready to go.”Dent proclaimed himself fully recovered from the calf injury that knocked him out of the Bruins’ game against Purdue on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Cronin said that Bilodeau should be able to practice in another day or two after suffering a right knee sprain against Michigan State.“It gives him three or four days of getting swelling and soreness out,” Cronin said, “so hopefully if he can go Wednesday and Thursday, he can be 100 percent.”When the Bruins (23-11) watched the bracket release, their biggest hope was to play on Friday instead of Thursday.The extra day not only would benefit Dent and Bilodeau in their recovery but also a weary team ma...