The UCLA Bruins’ locker room was still thick with the scent of sweat and disappointment when head coach Mick Cronin unleashed his postgame tirade. After a grueling 98-97 double-overtime loss to the Indiana Hoosiers on January 31, 2026, at Pauley Pavilion, Cronin didn’t mince words. “They won purely because of luck,” he fumed to reporters, his voice echoing off the walls as he dissected the final chaotic moments. He pointed to a controversial out-of-bounds call in the dying seconds of the second overtime—a call he challenged and lost—as the decisive break that handed Indiana the victory.
In Cronin’s view, the Bruins had controlled the tempo, fought through two overtimes, and were robbed by a fluke bounce and a questionable whistle. Luck, he insisted, was the only explanation for why his unbeaten home streak ended in such heartbreaking fashion.
But the narrative shifted almost instantly. As Cronin’s words hung in the air during the press conference, Indiana’s star forward Tucker DeVries—quiet, composed, and fresh off a gritty performance that included key assists, rebounds, and clutch plays—delivered a response that cut through the excuses like a knife. Standing at his locker just moments later, surrounded by microphones and cameras, DeVries needed only five words to dismantle the entire argument: “We made our own luck.”
Those five words landed like a buzzer-beater. They weren’t shouted, they weren’t arrogant—they were calm, matter-of-fact, and devastatingly effective. In an instant, DeVries reframed the entire game. What Cronin saw as random fortune, DeVries revealed as the product of preparation, resilience, and execution under pressure. The Hoosiers didn’t stumble into a win; they earned it through 50 minutes of basketball that tested every ounce of their character.
The game itself had been a classic March Madness preview in the middle of January. UCLA, riding high with a 14-game home winning streak and a balanced attack led by Trent Perry’s 25 points, looked poised to pull away multiple times. The Bruins built leads, forced Indiana into tough shots, and even tied the game at 76-76 to send it to overtime on a dramatic Perry three-pointer with 1.1 seconds left in regulation. In the first overtime, Indiana trailed but clawed back when DeVries found Sam Alexis for a game-tying layup with six seconds remaining, forcing yet another extra period.
Double overtime brought more drama. UCLA’s Eric Dailey Jr. knotted it at 97-97 with a jumper in the lane with 12 seconds left. Then came the pivotal sequence: a scramble under the basket, a rebound ruled to have last touched a Bruin, and Cronin’s unsuccessful challenge. Indiana inbounded to freshman Trent Sisley, who was fouled and calmly sank the game-winning free throw with 0.3 seconds on the clock. Pandemonium. Heartbreak for the home crowd. Jubilation for the visiting Hoosiers.
Cronin’s frustration was understandable. His team had played hard, defended tenaciously at times, and refused to fold despite Indiana’s late surges. Yet in attributing the outcome solely to luck, he overlooked the intangibles that DeVries and his teammates had summoned all afternoon. DeVries, the transfer standout known for his shooting and basketball IQ, didn’t light up the scoreboard with volume scoring. Instead, he led Indiana with 10 rebounds and seven assists, consistently making the right play in crunch time. His pass to Alexis in the first overtime wasn’t luck—it was vision and trust in a teammate.
His rebounding in traffic wasn’t fortune—it was positioning and effort. Even when his shot wasn’t falling, he contributed in ways that don’t always show up in the box score but win close games.
DeVries’ succinct retort forced everyone in the UCLA program to confront an uncomfortable truth: great teams don’t complain about luck; they create their own breaks through relentless execution. The Hoosiers, under coach Darian DeVries (Tucker’s father), have built a reputation for toughness and smart play. They pass the ball with purpose, defend with discipline, and rise in moments that matter. Against UCLA, they demonstrated all of that.
They fought through poor shooting nights from key players like Lamar Wilkerson and Tucker himself, leaned on role players like Conor Enright and Nick Dorn, and stayed composed when the game spiraled into chaos.
For UCLA, the loss stung deeper because it exposed cracks that Cronin himself acknowledged in his more candid moments. He admitted postgame that his team “deserved to lose,” citing stretches of pouting, poor defense, and letting one bad possession snowball into the next. The Bruins’ home dominance evaporated not because of a single unlucky call, but because Indiana capitalized on every opportunity UCLA gave them. The out-of-bounds play? It only mattered because the game was tied in the final seconds—something Indiana refused to let slip away.
DeVries’ five-word mic drop reverberated across college basketball circles. Social media lit up with clips of the quote, fans praising the class and confidence it displayed. It wasn’t trash talk; it was accountability wrapped in humility. By refusing to accept the “luck” label, DeVries elevated his team’s victory from a fluke to a statement. Indiana improved to 15-7 overall and 6-5 in the Big Ten, proving they could steal a tough road win against a talented conference foe. UCLA dropped to 15-7 and 7-4, their first home loss of the season serving as a painful but necessary wake-up call.
In the end, basketball games aren’t decided by dice rolls or referee whims alone. They are won by teams that prepare, adapt, and execute when it counts most. Tucker DeVries reminded everyone of that simple, powerful reality with just five words. For the UCLA Bruins, accepting the defeat meant acknowledging that on that January afternoon in Los Angeles, the better team didn’t just get lucky—it earned every bit of the 98-97 result.
