30 Comments

Thank you for writing what I’m sure was a difficult article. Appreciate your honesty.

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Listening to Cronin's presser, he truthfully set out all of the teams flaws--can't shoot, unforced turnovers (even though the other team packed in under the paint and did not pressure the ball), fouls and at one point said something about not being very smart (stupid), and of course nobody able to hit the three. He also said that some/all of these things are not on him, it is on the players. When asked about improvement going forward, he said something like other teams adjust but his players can not adjust "on the fly" so his team does not improve. The sound on the presser was not good so I may not have heard some of the things he said properly. Bottom line, my opinion is that Cronin has given up on this team and it will continue to go down hill. Side note, I have tickets from my good U$C friend to see UCLA play U$C at Galen and I cringe to think watching UCLA in another terrible performance sitting next to my U$C friends.

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As I mentioned last eve, Cronin threw his players under the bus and took little to no responsibility for this team's glaring issues. Honestly, I hate when Coach's say that their players are not smart or stupid - to me that is abusive and unacceptable. Yes, I have strong opinions in this area.

It is squarely on Cronin's shoulders to recruit the kind of players that will thrive in his system and thrive as a team. He has not done this successfully with this team. It is also on his shoulders the incessant stubborness of sticking with players like Stef who simply should not be starting.

This team doesn't have natural shooters. But a great coach and staff can develop shooting skills, passing skills, and overall offensive skill sets in their players.

Yes we had recruiting misses. But we have enough players that have raw skills that can be fostered and jeshed together.

We are a rudderless team because of Cronin and his staff. I do mot like how Cronin talks about his players publicly. I can only imagine how he treats them behind the scenes. I am not saying Croninis a terrible coach but he is showing he has stark flaws that are his alone and not the players.

Perhaps Cronin can move on to another school if he truly believes his players are stupid.

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Meshed not jeshed. Darn iphone keyboard and my flying fingers 🤣

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Lousiville may be calling Cronin. If the noise gets too loud, I wonder if he will leave - just saying. The only prob would be Jarmond choosing a new coach - I shudder to think of his choice if this comes to pass.

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Just me but besides blaming the players and basically saying they are not too smart during the presser, his looks of irritation and disgust from the bench during the game is enough to intimidate and scare off current players and recruits.

Agree about Stef not starting although I do not think there is any player on the team that would do better if he started. Perhaps B Williams just to give him experience for next year.

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I do believe B Wills should start in place of Stef...

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"Disgust"

Maybe he recognizes that the recruits aren't coming, and that he's peaked?

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Could very well be the case.

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Jan 4·edited Jan 5

Actual statements, paraphrased:

PRESS: Coach, how do you explain Mack's [and others'] poor play lately?

CMC: When Mack doesn't play well, he loses confidence. And when he loses confidence, he doesn't play well. It's a self feeding loop.

Also CMC: The guys are stupid, can't adjust on the fly, can't shoot, make careless plays and thoughtless turnovers.

Small wonder the lack of confidence.

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https://www.latimes.com/sports/ucla/story/2024-01-03/ucla-bruins-basketball-stanford-cardinal

The quotes from Cronin in this story by Bolch say it all. I am losing all respect for Mick. If I was a player, I would not want to play for him. Perhaps Mick is the one who lacks the aptitude to coach and could learn a thing or two from Coach John Wooden.

These are young men who certainly don't deserve this kind of public bashing from their coach.

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Jan 5·edited Jan 5

CMC was welcomed with open arms when he came to Westwood because he "got" UCLA, which was so refreshing in contrast to Alfie. His starry eyes were admirable and endearing.

But he has changed since the FF appearance. (Disclaimer: I'm not a psychoanalyst. Psycho, yes. Psychoanalyst, no.) He now thinks he's a Self or Roy Williams who hasn't quite made it to the mountain top, when actually he's closer to Frank Martin with that appearance.

He similarly had some harsh words for his team after some lackluster play several years ago. TMB take was, "What a master psychologist! He knows just which buttons to push to light a fire under his players!" Whereas I was mortified by his throwing the players under the bus.

His post game (was it the Terps? Villanova? Ohio St? I've forgotten) demeanor was despicable, and the content and extent of his Stanford comments were reprehensible.

Yes, Mick, some humility and self examination, which you expect of your players, is required.

He is not going to change, and his game philosophy is cemented.

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Beautifully stated Sea and with a dash of humor my friend 💙💛

I am definitely migrating to Baskets camp and believe we are headed toward doom in both basketball and football in the BIG.

The one saving grace with basketball is the fan base has very little tolerance for what we are seeing on the court and for Mick's tirades. Coach Wooden is not smiling 😞

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author

“I’ve talked about it before and I talked about it over the holiday break. We need to get some humility,” Cronin said. “It’s my opinion that some of it's youth and some of its arrogance for no reason. Our fate isn’t going to change until we get some humility ... If all you're worried about is getting 12 points, regardless of the outcome for our team, it’s going to continue. My message was, at what point are they going to challenge each other? I can only do so much.”

“I apologize to our fans for our defensive effort once again,” Cronin said. “Our metrics are horrible. You can’t defend, you can’t win. ... if you hold the ball long enough, we’ll break down. We’re not good enough to win with offense. We have to win with defense. I apologize to people that took the time out of their Saturday that had to come and watch this. Our defensive effort is beyond sickening. Beyond sickening. Sickening at the highest level.”

"As the game goes on our softness shows up. Our selfishness at times is evident on the offensive end," Cronin said. "We have guys that just refuse to listen and follow orders, so they don't get to play. I had to keep playing certain guys that I don't think deserve to play."

Those are all Cronin quotes...from the 2019-2020 season (hell, that last one was from the Stanford loss at home that season!). Cronin has always used press conferences as a way to reach his players, and is not that dissimilar to other coaches like Nick Saban. People are just more critical of this when the team is losing, and are more than ok with it when the team is winning.

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Telling it like it is, thanks, Dmitri!

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It would be nice if Bona learned when to anticipate an inside dish.

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Jan 5·edited Jan 5

DD had a thoughtful column earlier on the "process over results," to manage our expectations and to ask for patience in this non-Tournament year.

But what if the process is all wrong?

The wrong starters, questionable substitutions, mismatched players on the court, poor end of game clock management.

But overall it's the offense, and this is nothing new. He has a long track record of this criticism, it was the knock on him when he came to Westwood ("Negative recruiting!," complained CMC), and it's true now. Excerpts from a Bearcats fansite nearly 5 years ago (emphasis added mine) still apply:

"...the offense...has been Cronin’s weakness for OVER a decade now. When he first started at Cincinnati, he had to focus on defense because that was his philosophy and his first few recruiting classes greatly lacked offensive prowess due to the status of the program at the time. The great equalizer for those early teams was their gritty defense and affinity for grinding out games. This led to wins in games they probably should not have won.

"...Mick Cronin has the SAME flaws as a coach that he had TEN years ago. Some fans go way too far and call Cronin a bad coach which he isn’t. You don’t make it to the tournament eight seasons in a row (soon to be nine) being a bad coach. Cronin just has very defined limitations and they stem from recruiting and his invasive coaching style.

"Cronin’s recruits all virtually have the same basketball DNA. High 3-star, low 4-star recruit, plays good on-ball defense, but needs work on the offensive end...Cronin is not a good offensive coach. [players] did not or will not develop into dynamic offensive options over their college careers because Mick refuses to focus on developing players’ offensive skill sets.

"Couple this with the fact that officiating rules have changed in favor of faster and more offensive-oriented basketball and the Cincinnati Bearcats look like they are PLAYING IN THE STONE AGES..."

"..... At some point, you have to hit shots. You can beat the dregs of the AMERICAN with these numbers but you are not going to consistently beat the best teams in the conference, let alone the country, by consistently shooting under forty percent from the field. And the worst part is that this IS NOT NEW in the Cronin era."

"... Cronin is a MICROMANAGER during a game. He yells at his point guards and tells them which play to run on almost every trip down the floor and he is quick to pull out any and everybody that makes a mistake. This is probably Cronin’s worst trait as a basketball coach. You cannot take players out each and every time they make a mistake because they will lose their confidence and rhythm when you initially take them and when they realize the pattern, they will only focus on not making mistakes so they aren’t taken out instead of just trying to win the game. How many times have you seen a Bearcat player turn the ball over or commit a foul and then look over to the bench to see if they are coming out? That should never be the case. Players should not play in fear of making mistake because then the focus isn’t on the game itself. This causes players to play tight and they do not let the game come to them.

"...he recruited those players and the amount of guys that provide no outside shooting threat is staggering...That type of recruiting is simply not paying attention to the CHANGING BASKETBALL LANDSCAPE.

"...Again, Mick Cronin is not a bad coach. He just has severe limitations that will keep him from making a deep run in the tournament..."

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Jan 5·edited Jan 5

And recruiting!

He whiffed (why is that?) on 2 dozen offers, and had no choice but to go international lest he fill his roster with walk-ons.

The talent evaluation and readiness to play of those interntnls were wrong or overrated. Or I was shined by the UCLA hype machine.

Mara was the second coming of Wemby, but he's Ralphie2.0.

Dylan was the next Tyus or DC, but he's...not even a pg?

He's turning FIBA all star, multi-weapon Berke into AC Green.

Laz is the next instant offense deep threat Tripleton. NOT.

OMG! I've become Baskets!

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Oh my goodness... this commentary has yet another mountain of evidence this season. And when you look back at how great the players were last season but still there were offensive problems where the team would go several minutes with little to no scoring. Tyger and Jaime and Clark and Singleton were just so good as players and leaders that we made comebacks and won.

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Jan 5·edited Jan 5

I've liked CMC flaws and all because he's gone to bat for his players. But now? And his pining for the good ol' days of Cincinnati are getting tiresome. Did you hear him? With great swagger, boast of how he won 5 straight when the team shot under 37%? That's the future of UCLA basketball. What valued recruit in this day is saying, "I want to be the top ball tipper in the B1G, and I think CMC can get me there!"

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We are in trouble.

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Jan 5·edited Jan 5

When he says, "I can't shoot the ball for them," then we know it's all over.

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Motivation is a good thing. Calling your young players lacking of aptitude, as Ben Bolch headlined his article in the LA Times yesterday, is not motivation--it is bullying and humiliation. Tom Knight type "motivation" aka intimidation. Coach felt that Knight was a great X and O man but not a very good human being. Is this where our current coach is headed? His antics on the bench during the game--quick pulls and a face of total anger--does not bode well.

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💯The bullying is unacceptable.

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Jan 6·edited Jan 7

Belaboring the point.

Publicly trashing your players (whom you recruited and assembled) is not motivation or instruction. But it is unprofessional and immature conduct.

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One more comment...

Mick stating that freshman don't or can't get better as the season progresses is yet another indictment of his coaching. He uses the excuse that opposing teams know how to play the freshman as the season progresses so apparently he never watched Toby Bailey or JR Henderson or Amari Baily play...

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Jan 7·edited Jan 7

Good point. I was scratching my head over that excuse. His argument makes no sense. Opponents improve over the course of a season, have more film of your play, and are better able to prepare and play you? That assumes that his team in contrast is fixed, has made no progress, and plays at the same level. He admits to being static?

We have decades of evidence that CMC is one dimensional and has not evolved. That was acceptable because he was thought to be a teacher and developer of young men. Also, it was thought that CMC could attract the high profile athletes to UCLA that he was unable to get at Cincinnati, and that he then could play the type of ball he had wanted to play. He hasn't and he isn't. (One '24 commit to date, sg Eric Freeny.)

I'm not asking for the terms of his buyout, but I am asking that he takes measures to consider his conduct, and become a more complete coach (doubtful). It took 5 years to be rid of Azz, and we are at the equivalent term in hoops to find an offensive mind for the staff.

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💯And how ironic that Mick belittles the players that he recruited... unbelievable.

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