RandBall: The euphoria of Gophers men’s basketball met its opposite in UCLA

There is no clearer sign of the pain and exasperation experienced by UCLA on Tuesday — completely the opposite of the Gophers men’s basketball team’s euphoria — than the bizarre lashing out from Bruins coach Mick Cronin in the aftermath of the 64-61 result.

He watched his team lose a 17-point lead, saw the Gophers take the lead for the first time in the closing moments and most egregiously witnessed his players going just 5-of-15 from the free-throw line in the second half.

And Cronin decided that the blame should be directed at ... UCLA fans?

“All we’re worried about is our shooting. ... Our crowd’s mind is on the wrong stuff. They make it worse,” Cronin said. “The stress in Pauley [Pavilion] is crazy. How about help the guy, cheer for the guy? He’s not trying to miss the free throw. Everyone’s mind is on the wrong stuff.”

Blaming the home crowd for his team botching its last five free throws? Sounds like Cronin’s mind is on the wrong stuff, as I talked about on Wednesday’s “Daily Delivery” podcast.

Cronin was projecting, of course, and I can’t imagine he made things any better with UCLA fans with his comments.

We can understand it, though, in the context of the night. The Bruins are fighting for an NCAA Tournament spot — in decent shape, still, after Tuesday, but they sure could have used that win.

More so: Cronin needs just one more coaching victory to reach 500 in his career, and the Gophers figured to be a layup for the milestone.

The Bruins were double-digit favorites. Minnesota was playing the second leg of what has proved to be a very difficult Los Angeles road trip that started, similarly, with a comeback win over USC.

Cronin’s dad, Harold “Hep” Cronin, himself an accomplished former high school basketball coach, looked to be enjoying himself early as cameras found him. It was 29-12 UCLA with about five minutes left in the first half, and nobody in their right mind would have expected what happened over the final 25 minutes.

By the end, Hep Cronin looked like he would rather be getting emergency root canal surgery than watching UCLA miss free throws while his son became increasingly agitated.

This was like a good football team losing a homecoming game to a strategically scheduled underdog.

None of this is mentioned for any great reasons of schadenfreude (the “pleasure derived ... from another person’s misfortune”).

Mick Cronin can’t appear on any Gophers fan’s list of enemies, given that this is UCLA’s first year in the Big Ten.

But it did feel like exactly the kind of thing that tends to happen to a Minnesota team, not for a Minnesota team.

As they whisked themselves away from Pauley Pavilion, having led for just a handful of minutes combined against both USC and UCLA but somehow securing two wins, the Gophers could feel nothing but exuberance.

It sure beats the opposite, which is all UCLA could feel.