There hasn’t been a whole lot to nitpick about the UCLA men’s basketball team’s 11-2 start to the season, but head coach Mick Cronin isn’t one to kick his feet up over an eight-game winning streak.

At various points throughout the young season, Cronin has chided individual performances on defense and lately he’s wondered how the 11th-ranked Bruins will fare when the time comes to mount a comeback to win a game. Perhaps it’s that constant need to want more that has UCLA among the top 10 in both adjusted offense (116.8, fifth) and adjusted defense (89.0, 10th) in the KenPom, joining Connecticut (seventh and fourth, respectively) as the only schools to boast such a claim through Wednesday’s games.

An area Cronin wants to see improvement is on the defensive glass, where the Bruins rank 242nd of 352 teams at 24.46 boards per game on that end, not including 11 teams in transition of reclassifying to Division I.

It’s what Cronin considers “the last piece” of an otherwise “immensely” improved defense over the past month.

“We’ve got to improve on the defensive backboard,” Cronin said. “That could take us to a whole ’nother level.”