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Mick Cronin: Adem Bona is an “elite, elite player”

Mick Cronin isn’t going to mince words when he’s asked about UCLA freshman big man Adem Bona.

“I’m not going to shy (away) from it — he’s an elite, elite player,” Cronin said of the 6-9, 225 pound Bona this week on the College Hoops Today Podcast. “I don’t expect for him to be in Westwood very long.”

A five-star recruit, Bona shined this summer for Turkey at the 2022 FIBA U20 European Championship, averaging 17 points, 10.9 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks in seven games.

Bouncy around rim and relentless on the glass, Bona clearly possesses the highest upside of any post player that has ever played for Cronin.

“The guy is just a world class athlete and a world class competitor,” Cronin said of Bona. “He’s an unbelievably nice person. He’s just such a good teammate. Personality wise, he brings such a smile and a positive vibe to your team. I haven’t seen something like that since I recruited Francisco Garcia to play for Rick Pitino at Louisville. He just has an unbelievable attitude for life.”

Bona will need that positive energy on a daily basis as he looks to step into UCLA’s starting center spot as a freshman.

With both Cody Riley and Myles Johnson no longer a part of the Bruins’ program, the only other true post players on UCLA’s roster are 6-11 veteran Kenneth Nwuba and 6-10 redshirt freshman Mac Etienne, who still isn’t fully cleared due to a knee injury. Cronin did say on Monday that Etienne “should be ready for the start of practice” and also praised Nwuba’s offseason progress, saying that the redshirt senior had “improved as much in the last five months as much as any player that he’s ever coached”. Nwuba only averaged 6.4 minutes last season while Etienne only played 147 total minutes two years ago prior to injury.

That type of inexperience at center only reiterates how much UCLA needs major mileage out of Bona if it’s going to reach its ceiling during the 2022-23 season.

“We need him on the floor,” Cronin said of Bona. “He’s a special player. There’s no way around it. He’s a better offensive player than I thought. I knew he would change the game with his defense and his rebounding, but his offense is really improving.”

UCLA returns four players — Jaime Jaquez, Tyger Campbell, Jaylen Clark, and David Singleton — who averaged double figure minutes on last year’s team that advanced to the Sweet 16 and lost to North Carolina. In addition to Bona, the Bruins also added two other Top-50 recruits in freshmen Amari Bailey and Dylan Andrews.

UCLA is currently ranked SIXTH in the ROTHSTEIN 45 and was picked to finish first in this week’s Pac-12 Offseason Breakdown.

Leftovers