The Tennessee Vols will take on the UCLA Bruins on Saturday night in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. 

Tennessee advanced past the first round via a win against Wofford while UCLA is moving to the second round after taking down Utah State. 

On Thursday night, after the Bruins' win against Utah State, UCLA head coach Mick Cronin spoke to reporters about the upcoming matchup against the Volunteers. 

Cronin made it clear that he has a lot of respect for Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes while pointing out that UCLA wanted to sign Vols guard Jahmai Mashack back in 2020. 

UCLA, however, didn't have an available scholarship for Mashack. 

"My respect for Coach Barnes is off the charts because he does it the right way," said Cronin. "He cares about kids [and] coaches. He's not a phony. He is who he is. And that's worked for him for many, many years. And Tennessee got really lucky when somebody else let him go. It's been great for Tennessee basketball, obviously. So they've been in a golden era of being at the top or near the top of the SEC.

"They're always a great defensive team. They take care of the ball. They don't beat themselves. They got a great point guard down the road. They got Jahmai Mashack, who we would have tried to sign but we didn't have a scholarship. So we didn't really have a need for him at that time, but I knew he was going to [be a good player]. He's such a winner, he's a great kid."

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Mashack is from Rancho Cucamonga, CA, which is about 90 minutes east of UCLA.

Fortunately for Tennessee, the Bruins didn't put the full court press on Mashack, because who knows how that recruitment would've played out had that been the case. Mashack is one of the best defensive players in the nation and he's a huge part of the Vols' success over the last several years. 

By the way, the only reason Cronin has the UCLA job right now is because Barnes didn't take the job in 2019. 

Barnes nearly left Knoxville for Los Angeles in 2019, but the two sides couldn't work out an agreement on his buyout. 

"I'm supposed to be at Tennessee," said Barnes in 2019. "And it's really above and beyond the basketball program. I'm in love with this community. I'm in love with this state. I just think we got a lot of great things going on in this town."

"A lot of praying went into it, I can tell you that," added Barnes. "There was a lot going on. When you get down to a situation like that, it has to make sense from a financial standpoint. Bottom line is we couldn't work it out with the buyout."

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