How UCLA’s Mick Cronin stretched Bruins’ bucks: ‘Couldn’t be happier’

Funny what a little money can do.

UCLA basketball coach Mick Cronin told the California Post that his team’s financial resources put it in the top half of the Big Ten but not among the conference’s top five teams.

And yet …

The Bruins snagged an emerging 17-year-old superstar in Nikola Kusturica. They brought in a dynamic playmaking guard in Jaylen Petty. They landed another guard in Azavier “Stink” Robinson, who might be the best on-ball defender Cronin has coached.

The team appears to have addressed deficiencies in rebounding and defense — particularly when it comes to stopping others on the perimeter — while also retaining a significant chunk of its core from last season.

It’s made the famously fussy Cronin … gleeful?

“I thought we did an excellent job given our situation financially,” Cronin told The Post. “Actually, couldn’t be happier.”

Did Cronin have enough to do what needed to be done as part of his latest roster reconstruction?

“Hey, you got to do the best you can with what you have,” Cronin said. “You know, I think we’ve done a great job with that.”

There were sufficient funds to give a two-year deal to Kusturica, the Serbian Salvation who might just become a worldwide sensation. He’s widely projected as one of the top picks in the 2028 NBA Draft — thankfully for Bruins fans, he’s too young to be drafted in 2027 — after shredding a loaded U.S. team for 37 points this summer in the gold medal game of the FIBA Under-17 World Cup.

“He’s got a desire to be great — not good, he wants to be great, he wants to be coached,” Cronin said of the 6-foot-9 wing player who also was selected the best defensive player of the World Cup after averaging 2.3 steals and 1.7 blocks per game.

“Obviously, playing at 17 in college is going to be a challenge, but when you watch him, you’re going to have to remind yourself that he’s 17 years old.”

Already doggedly recruiting Kusturica, UCLA’s pursuit intensified once he decided to enroll in college a year early. That meant almost daily 6 a.m. phone calls to his family in Serbia and his agent in Greece.

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“Which was worth it,” Cronin said. “I mean, he’s one of the most talented players in the world in his class. … He’s going to impact winning right away.

“The only way to guard him is to beat him up. So we’re preparing him for that.”

Those who worry that UCLA lost too much scoring between the departed Tyler Bilodeau, Donovan Dent and Skyy Clark — who averaged a combined 42.4 points last season — will be pleased to know that Petty could be capable of replacing half of that production himself.

The Texas Tech transfer is a dynamo who combines elite shooting with an ability to not only get to the rim but also finish over anybody standing in his way.

“You know,” Cronin said, “you don’t score 20 at Houston and you don’t start for a top-15 team as a freshman if you’re not a big-time player.”

Other newcomers could infuse the toughness that UCLA lacked last season, when it failed to reach the NCAA Tournament’s second weekend for a third consecutive year. Cronin labeled Robinson — a transfer from Butler — as maybe the best perimeter defender he’s coached not named Jaylen Clark, who was a National Defensive Player of the Year. Cronin compared Joe Philon III, a long and bouncy freshman forward, to a young Peyton Watson in terms of his makeup and relentlessness.

Forwards Filip Jovic and Sergej Macura should add rebounding and tenaciousness, with Cronin predicting that the 6-9 Jovic would be the team’s best interior scorer. 

“They’re both hard-nosed, tough kids, which is what I wanted to add,” Cronin said. “You know, Big Ten, your bigger guys gotta have physicality, and they both have that.”

Jovic will sometimes man the post alongside returning center Xavier Booker, who is trying to enhance his defensive instincts and find more moves around the basket to go with his outside shooting. Freshman Gunars Grinvalds — who goes by “G” instead of the harder-to-master GOO-naars — will add another 3-point threat.

Orchestrating it all will be junior point guard Trent Perry, who is taking over the primary ball-handling duties from Dent.

“Obviously, we need for him to have a big year,” Cronin said. “Same with [returning forward] Eric Dailey Jr. I mean, he was our leading rebounder.”

If it all doesn’t align perfectly by March, just wait. Everybody on the roster has remaining eligibility for the following season.