PS - I am not a fan of his personality. I wish he were more like Wooden. Don't like the aggressive swearing and yelling. Yet his players respond and are behind him. I would much rather have Cronin than Calapari and many other well thought of coaches.
PS - I am not a fan of his personality. I wish he were more like Wooden. Don't like the aggressive swearing and yelling. Yet his players respond and are behind him. I would much rather have Cronin than Calapari and many other well thought of coaches.
I'm sure Coach Cronin's publicly unfiltered and angry demeanor would be even more of a issue if the performance of any of his teams regressed or showed absolutely no improvement by the end of the season, or if it led to a mass exodus of players. Despite the subpar roster the Bruins had last year, he pushed them to a .500 regular season record in the Pac-12 (10-10, 5th place). I learned my lesson during the tail end of Year-1 and then during the Final Four run in Year-2 about doubting his coaching ability at UCLA.
We're so very lucky to have had the great Coach Wooden teach here, where "Goodness Gracious Sakes Alive!" was typically his strongest display of anger. Seems more college coaches these days are the aggressive, yelling, and swearing type and open to publicly criticizing specific players. But lots of other things have changed since Coach Wooden's era:
the higher number of talented players out there (along with their attitudes), one-and-done NBA possibilities, the transfer portal, NIL, etc.
PS - I am not a fan of his personality. I wish he were more like Wooden. Don't like the aggressive swearing and yelling. Yet his players respond and are behind him. I would much rather have Cronin than Calapari and many other well thought of coaches.
I'm sure Coach Cronin's publicly unfiltered and angry demeanor would be even more of a issue if the performance of any of his teams regressed or showed absolutely no improvement by the end of the season, or if it led to a mass exodus of players. Despite the subpar roster the Bruins had last year, he pushed them to a .500 regular season record in the Pac-12 (10-10, 5th place). I learned my lesson during the tail end of Year-1 and then during the Final Four run in Year-2 about doubting his coaching ability at UCLA.
We're so very lucky to have had the great Coach Wooden teach here, where "Goodness Gracious Sakes Alive!" was typically his strongest display of anger. Seems more college coaches these days are the aggressive, yelling, and swearing type and open to publicly criticizing specific players. But lots of other things have changed since Coach Wooden's era:
the higher number of talented players out there (along with their attitudes), one-and-done NBA possibilities, the transfer portal, NIL, etc.
Wooden didn't get the ironic "St. John" nickname by chance. He talked a lot, quietly, while on that bench.