By By Garrett Stepien, 274Sports: The Pac-12 boasts a trio of teams entering the Elite Eight, including UCLA after an 88-78 overtime win over Alabama in Sunday night’s East Region Sweet 16 game. Following an upset of the second-seeded Crimson Tide (26-7) for the 11th-seeded Bruins (21-9), UCLA head coach Mick Cronin sent a message to Pac-12 detractors.
“All that stuff about West Coast teams not playing — it’s so bad, it’s so wrong,” Cronin said. “(Colorado’s) Tad Boyle, (Arizona’s) Sean Miller, (Oregon State’s) Wayne Tinkle. Look at (USC’s) Andy Enfield and (Oregon’s) Dana (Altman) — look at the coaches in our league, man. It’s a battle royal. We have great coaching in the Pac-12. Great coaching. I didn’t mention (Stanford’s) Jerod Haase. I haven’t beat him yet.
