LOS ANGELES — UCLA coach Mick Cronin said Friday he apologized to Steven Jamerson II for sending the center to the locker room late in a blowout loss at No. 15 Michigan State after he committed a hard foul.

Even before the referees reviewed the play and assessed Jamerson with a flagrant foul 1, Cronin grabbed Jamerson’s jersey and pointed for him to leave the court in the waning minutes of Tuesday’s 23-point loss to the Spartans in East Lansing.

“I don’t think, to be honest, the entire world has ever seen that in a game,” Bruins guard Trent Perry said.

“I already apologized to Steve, OK?” Cronin told reporters before UCLA’s practice. “It’s the only reason I sent him to the locker room. I thought he literally made a dirty play and tried to wipe the guy out. Once I saw the film, I mean, he still got an F-1. To be honest with you, I don’t even know if he deserved that.”

Cronin said Spartans coach Tom Izzo “thought the same thing when I communicated with him.”

Cronin joked that Jamerson “asked me for $10,000 more in NIL because of that.”

He went on to speak glowingly of Jamerson, who played three seasons at the University of San Diego before transferring to UCLA last summer for his final year of eligibility. Jamerson has started once in 26 games, averaging 2.2 points and 2.4 rebounds in 11.3 minutes. He was unsuccessful in walking on at Michigan State earlier in his career.

“Steve is everything that’s good about college basketball,” Cronin said. “He’s everything that I believe in about college basketball. That being said, I’m trying to protect, like I take it really seriously. Our guys don’t get techs. We’re not taking guys out in the air.”

Cronin said he’s sometimes too candid in his comments. He has complained about travel and tipoff times since UCLA joined the Big Ten last season and been harshly critical of his players at times after games. After the Michigan State loss, he also had a testy reply to a reporter’s question about Spartan fans.

“I have to do a better job of this, that in this climate, you’ve got to be careful with what you say. I’m a good fit here because I know I’m not bigger than the brand and the brand matters here, the school matters. The last thing I want to do is bring negative publicity to our school,” Cronin said.

“I apologize to our people — school, students, everybody in our community — because it’s important. These jobs, you gotta raise money, you gotta be friends with donors, I mean I believe in all that stuff.”

Jamerson wasn’t made available to media on Friday when he practiced with the team. Asked how the redshirt senior took Cronin’s apology, the coach replied, “Oh, he’s the best, man. … It’s not like I kicked him off the team.”

Perry, who is Jamerson’s roommate, has provided a reassuring ear.

“He’s been very mature about it,” Perry said. “I’m just glad that he’s keeping his head and I’m also checking in with him every single day.”

Guard Skyy Clark said the team is supporting Jamerson.

“Coach gave a pretty sincere apology,” Clark said. “I mean, obviously he was a little in his head about it, but you know, we gave him some words of encouragement.”

Clark said a players’ only meeting was called after the blowout road losses and another one was likely later Friday.

“We just gotta stay together,” he said. “That’s been the main focus.”

Cronin pushed back against perceptions that by ejecting Jamerson he doesn’t have his players’ backs.

“I know what I’m about,” the eighth-year coach said, “so I don’t really worry about that.”

Clark, a Louisville transfer and the Bruins’ third-leading scorer, has found a balance between Cronin’s varying forms of criticism.

“I say just listen to the message and not how it’s being conveyed. If you do that, then you really hear what he’s trying to say instead of how he’s trying to say it,” he said. “That’s just how he coaches. He was mentored under some pretty similar coaches, and so that’s just his style of coaching.”

The Bruins (17-9, 9-6 Big Ten) host 10th-ranked Illinois (22-5, 13-3) on Saturday. They’re coming off back-to-back blowout losses at then-No. 2 Michigan (30 points) and Michigan State.

Their lone signature win of the season was a 69-67 win over then-No. 4 Purdue last month.

“We saw that we can do it and so why not do it again?” Clark said.

Everyone got the matchup they wanted for the men’s hockey Olympic gold medal game.

Sunday, the 46th anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice,” will feature the United States against Canada, which is without a doubt the fiercest international rivalry in all of sports, going for all the marbles.

Unfortunately for Americans, Canada has owned this rivalry since day one. 

This will be the eighth time the United States and Canada have played for Olympic gold, and the only time the Americans have won was back in 1960. They also faced off for gold in 1920, 1924, 1932, 1952, 2002 and 2010. In the best-on-best format, the U.S. is 5-15-1, and three of those victories came in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.

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The very first meeting between the two countries in a best-on-best format was back in the 1976 Canada Cup, which Team Canada won 4-2. The Americans did not earn their first win over their northern neighbors until 20 years later, after losing seven of their first eight meetings and tying in the other.

The U.S. won that year’s World Cup, taking home the best-of-three series against Canada, but since then, it’s mostly been Canadian dominance again.

Canada has gone 7-2 against the Americans since 1998, and four of those wins were absolute gut-punches to the United States. Canada took home the 2002 Olympic gold medal in Salt Lake City over the Americans, but more famously, Sidney Crosby’s golden goal eight years later also came at the expense of Team USA in front of a Vancouver crowd. Four years later, Canada again defeated the U.S. in the Olympic semifinals, and last year, Canada won the 4 Nations Face-Off with an overtime victory against the Stars and Stripes.

Matt Boldy of Team United States and Sidney Crosby of Team Canada shake hands after the 4 Nations Face-Off Championship game between Team Canada and Team United States at TD Garden on Feb. 20, 2025, in Boston, Massachusetts. (Chase Agnello-Dean/4NFO/World Cup of Hockey via Getty Images)

US SKIER’S QUEST FOR OLYMPIC GOLD COMES TO A CRUSHING HALT AFTER TERRIFYING CRASH

The United States’ only wins in the aforementioned span came during group play of both the 2010 Olympics and last year’s 4 Nations. So, it’s been quite a while since the Americans had true bragging rights. Overall, Canada leads the best-on-best series, 15-5-1.

These two teams are already very familiar with each other, as both rosters are largely composed of the same members as last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off, where three fights occurred in the first nine seconds in the countries’ first best-on-best game in nine years.

Tensions between both teams and the fans were sky-high in that tournament, as it was fresh off President Donald Trump‘s “51st state” comments and tariffs against the country.

Canada’s Sidney Crosby (87) is checked by United States’ Charlie McAvoy (25) as Vincent Trocheck (16) looks on during first period 4 Nations Face-Off hockey action in Montreal on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025.  (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)

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But this is the true big stage, with revenge, bragging rights and Olympic gold on the line.

The gold medal game will take place Sunday at 8:10 a.m. ET.

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