How to get the best divorce settlement

• March 23, 2025

Ending a marriage is one of the most significant legal and financial negotiations you will ever navigate.

Yet, in the midst of the legal battle and emotional mayhem, taxes are often an afterthought.

Adding to the challenge, your current tax professional may want to stay neutral and avoid the fray rather than help you. (They should probably step aside entirely, as their responsibility was previously to both spouses.)

It’s also OK if your accountant opts not to tell you what to do.

I am here to share what I have learned, just as I would for a friend going through this. Here are some steps to consider that can help you obtain the best divorce settlement and the lowest tax bill.

A better alternative to filing

It is not widely known that even if you are not yet divorced, if you did not live with your spouse for the last six months of the year, you may qualify for head of household (HOH) status, which is generally the most advantageous tax filing status for someone going through a divorce.

HOH provides a higher standard deduction than other filing statuses like Single or Married Filing Separately and offers lower tax rates, reducing your overall tax liability. If you paid more than half the cost of maintaining a home and have a qualifying dependent, typically a minor child, who lived with you for more than half the year, you could qualify.

The benefits of filing as Head of Household can be significant. For 2024, the standard deduction for HOH is $21,900, compared to $14,600 for Single filers. HOH filers also benefit from broader tax brackets, meaning more of their income is taxed at lower rates. It can also help parents qualify for valuable tax credits, such as the Child Tax Credit or Earned Income Tax Credit, depending on income level.

If you have more than one qualified child, a good, negotiated option would be for each of you to claim at least one child so you both benefit from this rule.

How to file

If you do not qualify for Head of Household filing status but were still married on Dec. 31, in most cases, filing Married Filing Jointly (MFJ) will result in lower taxes, a higher standard deduction, and access to more tax credits compared to filing separately.

Regardless of your filing status, you should each hire your own tax professional to ensure the tax return is prepared fairly and that any refund or liability is divided correctly.

I suggest that one tax professional prepares the joint tax return, and the other can review it, or they can separately prepare drafts of the returns and then hash out a final version for filing. This ensures that both parties benefit from joint filing without one spouse taking advantage of the other. Just be aware that if you both sign and file jointly, you are both liable for the tax now and if you are audited.

Let your tax people negotiate for you, and it will be one less issue to argue about. It might be helpful to hire someone who works with your divorce attorney and is an expert in family law taxes.

Alimony is not what it used to be

Before 2019, a spouse in a high tax bracket (e.g., 37%) could deduct alimony, reducing their tax burden, while the recipient spouse (typically in a lower tax bracket) paid taxes at a lower rate. This arrangement helped make larger support payments more palatable to the payer because they were able to deduct them, and the spouse receiving payments had to pay taxes on the alimony.

Now, alimony is no longer deductible to the paying spouse and is no longer taxable to the receiving spouse. Without the deduction, alimony—often called spousal support in modern divorce agreements, is an after-tax out-of-pocket expense, making the paying spouse more resistant to high payments because they have to pay the support after they have paid taxes on the income. This has led to lower support awards or shorter payment durations.

So, what should you ask for if your spouse does not want to pay the alimony that you think you require and deserve?

Besides cash and investment accounts for immediate needs, you should definitely ask for a larger share of the retirement account via a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (abbreviated as a QDRO), especially if you are older, because it will be appealing to your estranged spouse that it is not immediate cash out-of-pocket for them but something in the future. Plus, they don’t have to write that check every month.

A QDRO is a court order that allows a portion of a retirement plan to be divided between divorcing spouses, ensuring the right of the non-account holder spouse to receive a portion of the retirement benefits. By asking your attorney about maximizing the QDRO, if you have another source of current income, you will also be securing your long-term security.

Sell the family home?

The 2017 tax law changes eliminated many of the tax benefits of owning a home: Most people no longer itemize deductions, and the mortgage interest deduction and deduction for state and local taxes (including property taxes) are now limited.

Property insurance and home maintenance costs are increasing rapidly. If refinancing is necessary to remove the ex-spouse from the mortgage, the new loan may come with significantly higher interest rates, making monthly payments even more burdensome.

Selling the home during the divorce also allows for a $500,000 capital gain tax exclusion on the sale, whereas keeping the house and selling later may result in a larger tax bill down the road.

Considering that you will now be living on one income, it might be wiser to negotiate for other assets that provide financial security and flexibility instead of fighting to keep a home that could lead to economic insecurity.

Negotiating for investment portfolios and cash could be more useful in the short term than negotiating for an illiquid, high-cost asset like a house. By prioritizing future financial security over holding on to this major asset, you can avoid being house-rich but cash-poor.

The incomes of most women drop 23%-40% in the year after the divorce. By not holding on to the house, you can increase your short-term cash flow and buy yourself some time to adjust to your new budget.

A well-negotiated divorce settlement is about both your immediate cash needs for survival and your financial security for years to come. Tax considerations should always be part of the equation, whether you’re negotiating about alimony, selling or keeping the house, or who claims the kids. If your tax advisor is not providing helpful advice and advocating for you, find someone else.

With some financial savvy and a little professional help, you can take control of your financial future and move on to the next phase of your life with confidence.

Michelle C. Herting is a CPA, accredited in business valuations, and an accredited estate planner specializing in succession planning and estate, gift, and trust taxes.

​ Orange County Register 

Wife of slain Cal Fire/Riverside captain arrested in Mexico

• March 23, 2025

Yolanda Marodi, wife of Cal Fire/Riverside Capt. Rebecca “Becky” Marodi, who was fatally stabbed last month, was arrested by Mexican authorities on Saturday, according to authorities.

After her arrest, she was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals Saturday at a U.S. port of entry. Once she is processed, she will be booked on suspicion of murder, according to a San Diego County Sheriff’s Office news release.

Agents from Fuerza Estatal de Seguridad Ciudadana, known as FESC, in Baja California said they apprehended  Marodi near a hotel in the Ferrocarril neighborhood of Mexicali, ending a five-week manhunt.

On Feb. 17, Rebecca, 49, was found injured by her mother who also lived on the property in Ramona with Yolanda, 53, and Rebecca.  She was stabbed in her neck, chest, and back.

In a surveillance video, Yolanda was earlier seen arguing with Rebecca and physically assaulting her. Rebecca’s final moments were captured on a doorbell camera of their home.

The day following Rebecca’s killing, according to an affidavit in support of an arrest warrant, Yolanda messaged a “known associate” saying, “Rebecca came home and told me she was leaving me … We had a big fight and I hurt her … I’m sorry.”

The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office filed the warrant affidavit in El Cajon Superior Court.

Yolanda was later seen leaving the property, before Rebecca’s mother arrived. Police and emergency firefighters arrived to the property and performed life-saving measures. Rebecca died from her injuries.

The affidavit in support of the arrest warrant states that, according to the Department of Homeland Security, Yolanda Marodi entered Mexico just after 9:15 p.m. the night of the attack.

A fund was established to help the family of the slain captain, who worked at the Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department’s French Valley station near Murrieta. She started as a volunteer firefighter in Moreno Valley in 1993.

The Litas San Diego, an all-female motorcycle collective, organized a memorial ride on March 16 to honor Rebecca Marodi, who was a member of the group.

More than 200 people took part in the event that saw motorcyclists travel from Hillcrest in downtown San Diego through Ramona and into the unincorporated town of Wynola.

The investigation is ongoing.

The death of Rebecca drew comparisons to the October 2000 killing of Yolanda Marodi’s then-husband, James Olejniczak, in San Bernardino County.

Olejniczak was found dead in his apartment with stab wounds to his chest.

Yolanda Marodi, who had reportedly been estranged from Olejniczak and lived in Vista with her two children, turned herself in to authorities shortly after the body was found.

Marodi was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and served 13 years in prison in connection with the slaying.

Anyone with information about the killing of Rebecca Marodi was asked to call the Homicide Unit at (858) 285-6330/after hours at (858) 868-3200.  You can remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.

San Diego Union-Tribune staff writers Christian Martinez and Rob Nikolewski; and Ramona Sentinel writer Regina Elling, contributed to this story.

​ Orange County Register 

Alexander: What if Tennessee’s Rick Barnes hadn’t turned down UCLA?

• March 23, 2025

LEXINGTON, Ky. — There is this peculiar quirk that is not limited to sports but comes up fairly frequently in such conversations, exemplified by the words, “What if?”

What if the ball had bounced one way, instead of the other? What if the official had actually been in the proper position to make the call?

Or what if Coach B had taken a particular job, instead of Coach A?

We’ll never know the answers, of course, because you only get a first chance once. But the question was particularly intriguing Saturday night here, in the runup to Tennessee’s 67-58 victory over UCLA in a second-round NCAA Tournament matchup, sending the Volunteers to the Sweet 16 next Friday in Indianapolis.

Mick Cronin wound up with the Bruins’ job in 2019 after Steve Alford was let go in midseason and Murry Bartow finished the 2018-19 campaign. But Rick Barnes, then as now Tennessee’s coach, was also mentioned as a candidate, and the job did hold some appeal for a guy who had spent much of his coaching career at Clemson, Texas and Tennessee.

In fact, Barnes’ interest in UCLA – the program and not necessarily the coaching position – went back to his own very first head coaching job, at George Mason in 1987-88. One of his players, Bill Johnson, was good friends with John Wooden and his family. Later, Barnes would have frequent interactions with Wooden, and also had chances to talk to him when two of his Texas players were up for the Wooden Award, T.J. Ford and Kevin Durant.

“My son was living out there, and we had a chance to go to Coach’s home and spend time in his home with him and talk basketball,” Barnes said. “Also a number of times I would go to dinner with him. That was a wonderful experience for me, to get to talk to him, and he was in his 90s. And just hearing so many wonderful stories about his coaching career. So when UCLA called, it was certainly an honor because obviously of the respect growing up.”

How deep was his respect for the UCLA program? This is a guy who spent his life in other parts of the country, but he recalled “staying up late at night in the ’60s when Dick Enberg would come on at 11:30 on East Coast time. And they might play once a year. And watching those games and the great run he put together.”

(Barnes almost certainly didn’t realize it at the time, but those of us who lived in Southern California in the ’60s and ’70s would have to stay up late for UCLA basketball as well, since KTLA/Channel 5 aired home games at 11 p.m. on tape delay.)

When UCLA approached Barnes in 2019, he’d just come off a 31-6 season, his fourth at Tennessee, and had gotten to the Sweet 16 that spring but lost to Purdue in overtime. Barnes, now 70, is in his 38th season as a head coach and, going into Saturday, has a lifetime record of 834-422 (.664) at George Mason, Providence, Clemson, Texas and Tennessee.

“When I got the call, obviously for a lot of reasons I listened,” he said. And he mentioned that he’d been asked recently what he remembered most and said, “I remember a lot of prayer. Because I felt really blessed to have had the opportunity to come to Tennessee, and I will forever be thankful to (University of Tennessee president) Randy Boyd and when we were in that part of the negotiation, the commitment that he made.

“Again, I look at it now and I thank God that he gave me the guidance to be where I am. And certainly UCLA hired a great, great basketball coach in Mick Cronin, and it’s worked out well for him.”

Cronin returned the favor. As a defense-first coach himself, he appreciates the way the Vols play the game.

“You have to do everything with strength and conviction or you’ll be running your offense at half-court,” he said Thursday. “Defending their offense is hard. Coach Barnes is a great coach, they got a great four-year starter at the point, numerous veterans. … They play the game the way it’s supposed to be played. So looking in the mirror a little bit with that.”

For all of those Cronin critics in the UCLA fan base, then – and there are more than a few – coach B would likely have played the same style as Coach A, albeit with a lower volume on the sideline.

Coach B’s team played it better Saturday night. UCLA shot 37 percent for the game and increasingly had trouble running its offense against Tennessee’s increased intensity in the second half. The Vols, meanwhile, kept draining 3-pointers in the second half, seven of them, many wide open.

Still, Cronin, now 53, has more than earned his keep in Westwood. The Bruins are 138-63 in his six seasons and 10-3 in the postseason, and that in itself is a story. The three losses were two to Gonzaga by a total of six points, one in overtime, both on improbable shots from the logo. The other was a 73-66 loss to North Carolina in the 2022 Sweet 16 in Philadelphia, when Caleb Love torched the Bruins with six 3-pointers and 30 points.

The NCAA Tournament wasn’t played in Cronin’s first season because of COVID-19. After last year’s miss, Cronin reloaded his roster to get the Bruins back to the tournament.

And a reminder: Last month Cronin became the youngest coach to reach 500 career victories. All told, at Murray State, Cincinnati and UCLA, he’s 503-234. Fans may grumble occasionally, especially when Cronin is stalking the sideline, going full blast on his own players.

But, as Barnes repeated, “I don’t think there is any question they made the right hire.”

Consider, too, that both coaches are subjects of speculation about their futures. Barnes turns 71 in July, and ESPN’s Myron Medcalf reported “retirement rumors floating around,” but the coach talked during Friday’s media session about the possibility of scheduling a home-and-home series with the Bruins. That doesn’t exactly sound like he’s ready to pull the ripcord.

Meanwhile, Adam Zagoria of New Jersey Advance Media reported earlier this week that Cronin is a “dark horse” candidate for the now vacant Villanova job, along with Northwestern’s Chris Collins.

But, as Cronin put it in Indianapolis during last week’s Big Ten conference tournament:

“I’m not leaving UCLA until they make me leave, OK?”

jalexander@scng.com

​ Orange County Register 

NCAA Tournament: UCLA men’s season ends with loss to Tennessee

• March 23, 2025

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Chaz Lanier made 4 of 5 3-pointers and finished with 20 points, and No. 2 seed Tennessee advanced to a program-record third straight Sweet 16, beating seventh-seeded UCLA 67-58 in the NCAA Tournament on Saturday night.

The Volunteers (29-7) will play either sixth-seeded Illinois or No. 3 seed Kentucky, who play Sunday in Milwaukee. The Midwest Region semifinals will be Friday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Senior guard Jahmai Mashack said this kind of streak is what he wanted when he signed to play for coach Rick Barnes at Tennessee.

“I’m not saying that to be cocky,” Mashack said. “I’m saying that because I put in the work … Just knowing that the Sweet 16 was a possibility that I wanted to get to, I wanted to do it and I knew this team was going to be able to do it.”

Lanier also set the Tennessee single-season record for 3s with 120, topping the 118 by Chris Lofton in 2007-08. Lofton was in the stands at Rupp Arena to witness Lanier’s performance. Lanier called it a blessing and said the glory went to God. He hoped to talk with Lofton postgame.

“It’s just a blessing,” Lanier said of the record. “I want to shout out my teammates as well. They’re always setting good screens for me and passing the ball on the money for me. So without them, I wouldn’t be making the shots.”

Zakai Zeigler added 15 points for Tennessee, and Jordan Gainey had 13 points to help the Vols take a 19-point lead with 5:15 left.

UCLA (23-11) made its earliest exit from the tournament in the six-year tenure of coach Mick Cronin.

This was just the second meeting between these programs and first since 1977, a game won in a rout by UCLA in Atlanta. Tennessee took this round with smothering defense, holding UCLA to the fewest points the Bruins had scored in a loss this season.

Cronin said Tennessee’s experienced starting lineup, including a graduate transfer in Lanier and seniors in Zeigler, Mashack and Igor Milicic, was a huge advantage for Barnes and the Vols.

“Offensively, we weren’t good enough,” Cronin said.

UCLA last led 25-24.

Tennessee scored the final eight points of the first half and led 32-25. The Vols, with Zeigler and Mashack two of the four finalists for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award, held UCLA scoreless over the final 3:21 of the half.

Skyy Clark, limited to barely three minutes of play in the first half by foul trouble, finished with 18 points for UCLA. Tyler Bilodeau added 15. Clark said he smacked himself on the head as he watched from the bench in the first half.

“Skyy not being able to play really threw us off for a long time,” Cronin said. “It messed the game up. We had a chance if that wouldn’t have happened, we might’ve had a lead at half.”

Takeaways

UCLA: The Bruins came in with the Big Ten’s best scoring defense, holding opponents to 65.2 points a game. They committed just 11 turnovers compared to the Vols’ 18, giving them fewer than their opponent in 28 of 34 games this season.

Tennessee: The Vols led the Southeastern Conference by allowing just 63 points a game and limiting opponents to 38.4% shooting — fourth stingiest in the nation. They also led the SEC and were third in the country in defending 3s with teams shooting just 28.2% outside the arc. The Vols shot 11 of 22 from 3.

Key moment

The Vols opened the second half by outscoring UCLA 14-6. Cronin took a timeout with 14:11 left after Lanier hit his fourth 3, capping a 9-0 spurt for a 46-31 lead.

Up next

Tennessee is two wins away from the program’s first Final Four berth in a season where the Vols spent five weeks ranked No. 1 in the country. Cronin got UCLA back to the tournament after last year’s miss, with the Bruins turning in a good inaugural season in the Big Ten.

​ Orange County Register 

LAFC cruises in dominant win over Kansas City

• March 23, 2025

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — David Martínez scored in the first half, Aaron Long added a goal in the second half and LAFC defeated Sporting Kansas City 2-0 on Saturday.

Hugo Lloris made two saves for his clean sheet and LAFC (3-2-0) picked up its first road win of the MLS season. All three MLS wins have been by shutout.

In the 18th minute, Martínez scored with a left-footed shot from the left side of the box to the upper left-central zone. Mark Delgado assisted.

Shortly after halftime, Long connected with a left-footed shot from the center of the box to the bottom left corner.

John Pulskamp had two saves for Sporting KC (0-4-1).

LAFC leads the all-time regular-season series with Sporting KC with a record of 8-4-2 and is unbeaten in its last eight MLS matches against SKC dating back to 2021.

​ Orange County Register 

UCLA gymnastics captures program’s first Big Ten title with record-setting performance

• March 23, 2025

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Top-seeded UCLA scored 198.450 at the Big Ten Gymnastics Championships to win its first Big Ten title and 21st conference championship overall. The Bruins, who won the regular-season title with a 9-0 conference record, became the first UCLA team to claim both the regular-season and championship titles in the Big Ten.

UCLA’s score of 198.450 is the highest in Big Ten Championship history. This year’s meet featured four perfect 10s, the most ever at the event. The Bruins became the first team to have three different gymnasts record perfect scores in the same Big Ten championship.

Chae Campbell won the all-around with a score of 39.725. Jordan Chiles and Brooklyn Moors each earned a perfect 10.0 to share the floor exercise title, and Ciena Alipio scored a perfect 10.0 to win on balance beam.

Head coach Janelle McDonald was voted Big Ten Coach of the Year.

Michigan State finished second with a score of 198.150. Minnesota was third at 197.425, and Michigan placed fourth with 197.325.

​ Orange County Register 

Fred Couples, Miguel Angel Jimenez lead 2nd round of Hoag Classic

• March 23, 2025

NEWPORT BEACH — In golf parlance, it’s a horse race going into Sunday’s final round of the 2025 Hoag Classic.

With perfect scoring conditions and very little wind on Saturday, a birdie-fest broke out at Newport Beach Country Club, featuring numerous players in the lead before hometown favorite Fred Couples and Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez emerged from the pack as 36-hole co-leaders at 11-under 131.

Couples, a two-time Hoag Classic champion bidding to become the first three-time winner of the tournament, shot a 7-under 64 – one shot lower than his age – and Jimenez matched him with a 64 playing in the same group. They will be in the final threesome on Sunday with Freddie Jacobson of Sweden, first-round co-leader and PGA Tour Champions rookie who is one shot back at 10-under after a 4-under 67 on Saturday.

Tour veteran Michael Allen is in fourth at 9-under after a second-round 68 that included a double-bogey on the 16th hole after incurring a two-shot penalty for hitting the wrong ball. The leaderboard logjam includes five players at 8-under, including 2024 Charles Schwab Cup winner Steven Alker, major winner Stewart Cink, and two-time Hoag champion Ernie Els, a World Golf of Famer with four PGA Tour majors on his resume.

That means there are nine players within three shots of the lead going into the final round, but it is unmistakable who the favorite is by the chants of “Fred-die! Fred-die! Fred-die!” reverberating throughout the large galleries.

Couples, 65, draws the biggest moving gallery in Newport Beach every year he plays because he is a resident of nearby Corona del Mar and is an honorary member at NBCC and at neighboring Big Canyon Country Club.

He’s also popular because he’s always in contention at the Hoag Classic when he’s healthy. He has won twice at NBCC (in 2010 and 2014), has two second-place finishes, six top-5s and has finished out of the top 10 only once at the Hoag Classic.

This week, he has been battling a head cold, but it hasn’t slowed him down, as attested by his eight birdies on Saturday.

“I’ve played a million rounds sick . . . I can get around,” Couples said, dismissing his symptoms as annoyances. “My head hurts a little bit, but the weather is perfect. I’m not sick-sick; it’s just all clogged up and I’m a little dizzy. I don’t even know what I shot.”

But he certainly heard the encouragement from the crowds following him.

“There’s always a lot of people here for this tournament; this is one of the top two or three (draws) on the Champions Tour. In Newport, they come out and they’re very vocal,” he said.

“People are rooting for him, but that doesn’t bother me,” said Jimenez, a 14-time winner on PGA Tour Champions, like Couples. “He’s from here.”

At one point on Saturday, there were five players tied for the lead – Jimenez, Cink, Y.E. Yang and Friday co-leaders Jacobson and Brendan Jones – with Hall of Famers Couples and Els among a group of six players just one shot back. The horse race was on.

After some struggles with distance control on his putting in the opening round, Couples solved that by hitting it a lot closer on Saturday, converting short birdie putts on No. 1, No. 3, No. 7 and No. 8 en route to a 6-under 30 on the front nine to tie for the lead.

Aggressive with his driver all day – “I swung as hard as I could all day with the driver,” he said – he crushed his tee shot on the 333-yard, par-4 first hole into the throat of the fairway, between the two greenside bunkers, and chipped his second shot close for a tap-in birdie. He added a two-putt birdie on the par-5 third, then rolled in a 15-footer from the right side of No. 5, and pitched it close for another tap-in on No. 7.

In retrospect, equally important as his fast start was Couples’ scrambling ability when his tee shots strayed right and left from the ninth through the 14th holes – “pulled a few, pushed a few” is how he described it. But he was able to save par after wild tee shots on the ninth hole (where he got a free drop from hospitality tents on the right), 10th hole (in the trees left) and 12th hole (trees left).

Interestingly, after Couples’ three-putt bogey from the fringe on No. 14, the only blemish on his scorecard, he moved back into a share of the lead with a birdie on the par-5 15th after Cink, Jacobson and Jones all missed short putts behind him.

That was the first of three consecutive birdies by Couples – including a 30-footer on No. 16 and a 20-footer on the par-3 17th – that temporarily gave him sole possession of the lead at 11-under until Jimenez birdied the 18th.

Couples has won only one Champions Tour event since 2017, so he is looking forward to another opportunity on Sunday.

“It’s going to be a battle tomorrow with Miguel and whoever finishes up there with us, but I have a good shot,” Couples said.

​ Orange County Register 

Alexander: Tennessee proves too much for UCLA in NCAA Tournament

• March 23, 2025

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Maybe this was a microcosm of UCLA’s men’s basketball season. Impressively good at some points, frighteningly bad at others.

For around 14½ minutes Saturday night, the Bruins went toe-to-toe with the Tennessee Volunteers, the No. 7 seed in the Midwest Regional slugging it out with No. 2 in what was very much a road game in the heart of Southeastern Conference country.

It was 23-21 UCLA, after a 3-pointer by freshman Trent Perry, who was in the game largely because Eric Dailey Jr. and Skyy Clark both had two fouls a little over three minutes into the game. But the Bruins were staying with the Vols. And then they weren’t.

Tennessee outscored UCLA 11-2 in the final 3:46 of the half, blitzed the Bruins early in the second half with a slew of 3-pointers, many of them wide open, and cruised to a 67-58 victory – made that close only because of a late Bruins’ flurry – that sent them to Indianapolis and the Sweet 16, to the soundtrack of repeated renditions of “Rocky Top.”

At full volume.

This maybe shouldn’t have been totally unexpected. The Bruins (23-11) were a No. 7 seed for a reason. Throughout the season they could be impressive, sublime even, at some points, ragged and inconsistent and sometimes sputtering at others. Their misfortune Saturday night may have been to draw a really impressive Tennessee team, now 29-7, composed of experienced players who could attach the defensive clamps … and could make wide open shots.

“I think it was the press that got it started,” Clark said. “I think that killed us. With some turnovers and just some fouls, gave them easy points at the free-throw line, especially fouling the wrong person.”

Former Etiwanda High star Jahmai Mashack said the press and trapping weren’t necessarily in the original game plan.

“I think going in we have a lot of things built in but honestly we’re a team of adjustments,” he said. “So we know how to adjust. We don’t want to give every team our first look. We see how the game is flowing and how they’re handling the ball, and see if their passes are a little long or short or whatever the case may be.

“But we’re pretty good at adjusting to the situation, so it wasn’t a planned thing. You just go out and do it and try to execute perfectly.”

And once they started trapping and saw that the Bruins were a little rattled, maybe they smelled blood.

“We went into the locker room with a lot of energy,” Tennessee guard Zakai Ziegler said. “Because we knew it was going to be a dogfight going into the game, you knew it was going to be a lot of ups and downs, but the last couple of minutes in the first half we had a lot of energy. Getting turnovers and those loud plays, it really picked us up.”

That outburst at the end of the first half gave Tennessee a 32-25 lead at intermission. Clark’s 3-pointer cut Tennessee’s lead to 37-31 with 17:44 left in the game, but Chaz Lanier hit a trey from the right wing. Moments later, Jordan Gainey made a 3-pointer after a kickout pass from Ziegler, after a UCLA shot clock violation. Then Lanier made another three. Nine unanswered points in 1:53, and if it wasn’t the end, you could see it from there.

That started a 21-8 Vols run, which included additional 3-pointers by Mashack and Gainey again, for a 58-39 lead.

“The fouls, then rebounding, too,” UCLA’s Tyler Bilodeau said. “We got outrebounded and I think we didn’t stop Chaz Lanier as good as we should have. He got hot there, hit some big threes for them. But, yeah, I would say those are some of the other things.”

And then there’s this.

“Look, they’re a hell of a team,” coach Mick Cronin said. “There was a time they were No. 1 in the country, I think. (Forward Igor) Milicic’s a fourth or fifth-year guy, Lanier is a fourth or fifth-year guy, Zakai is a four-year starter, Mashack is a senior, Gainey is a senior, (Darlinstone) Dubar is a senior, Okpara is a hell of a junior.

“… We got off to a terrible start (on the glass). We were stopping them and I don’t have the first half stats but I think they had nine or ten offensive rebounds at halftime. (It was nine.) Our defense couldn’t have been much better early, but we didn’t do a good job on the glass in the first half for sure. Second half was even but the first half – it was 9-0 second-chance points at halftime. I told our guys this game was going to be won by other things: Who gets the ball when it comes off the rim, who is strong with the ball.

“They screened better than we screened.”

Maybe this was predictable as well: When you have two defensive-minded teams, led by two defensive-minded coaches, every point matters.

“Guys, they only scored 67,” Cronin said. “It’s not like we gave up 97, they scored 67. Not going to win many games (when) you get 58.”

Bruin fans can say that it’s a disappointment, and certainly the players’ demeanor in the locker room afterward confirmed that. Some players had stunned looks on their faces. Kobe Johnson, one of two seniors in the Bruins’ regular rotation, had his head in his hands and at one point put a towel over his head, discouraging any conversation.

In another sense, while losing in the second round of the tournament is not up to the program’s traditional standards, at least the Bruins got back to the tournament this year, after missing it altogether a season ago.

And while Cronin wasn’t yet ready to talk about the future,  or even to disclose when he might start thinking about next season – “Not next year; not right now, guys,” he said when I asked – he gently contested the idea that the team fell short.

“Look, we restored us back to where we need to be, in the NCAA Tournament,” he said. “We had the (No.) 4 seed in the Big Ten Tournament out of 18 teams. After having almost no NIL (money) and having to go to Europe to try to find cheap players … (last season’s 16-17 finish)  put us a year behind, okay?

“So I thought this group of guys did as good as they could do … You have a team where literally your four most important players are transfers. They came together and had a heck of a year.”

That brings us to how the new rhythms of college basketball affect the future. No longer can a coach or a team bank on having a certain number of returning players or a group of seniors that has built continuity. Instead, the question in the locker room tends to be, “Are you going to be back next year?”

So maybe Cronin had it right when he said this (even though he said he wasn’t going to discuss the future yet):

“Continuity is irrelevant if you don’t have talent.”

jalexander@scng.com

​ Orange County Register