Coach Foster has compiled a staff of phenomenal coaches, and he is creating a culture of winning through his dedication to DRE (discilpine, respect and enthusiasm). Players are having fun again, and Foster is creating a connected family of players, former players, alums, students, fans and donors. And yes, recruiting efforts are in full swing and he understands what he needs to add especially in the trenches. I disagree that Foster is not the long term answer for success. He is showing he has everything it takes as a coach and true leader to be exactly that. Time will obviously tell.
On the basketball front. I believe Harris has two years left due to covid year and a redshirt year due to injury when at Gonzaga. I believe Kobe Johnson is the player who has just one year left. Cronin has done a great job in filling the voids from last season, but the big question is can he develop these portal players with current players into a group that has chemistry on the court and plays as a true team. If he does, then we will have a great team. No small task for sure.
Men's Volleyball made quick work of Fort Valley State with a 3-0 win in their first round matchup and will face UC Irvine in the semi-finals on Thursday. GO BRUINS!!
Looks like Berke has entered the transfer portal. I think he got a raw deal. He worked really hard to get into UCLA and had to battle NCAA for eligibility and injury issues that set him further back. He showed real promise in early games but injuries really held him back. Hope he finds a good landing spot
1. How many national championships have been won in the last 25 years without a 5-star player on the roster? And please don’t tell me that we’ve still got Mara, because we all know he was never properly assessed.
2. Which of these transfers is everyone so excited about? Not a single one of them played for a team that made the tournament I think… so they were the 2nd and 3rd best players on teams that couldn’t even make the tournament? I’m confused about the hype.
3. This will be cronins second season filled with players that he recruited and created. It’s also another extremely new coaching scheme that he has to create and he has never done before. What makes all of you so sure this season experiment that we can call the transfer experiment will be different than the last? Cronin proved last year that he can’t develop international players and can’t coach an all freshman team. This will be an all experienced team from every corner of the country.
4 when will everyone stop giving cronin credit where credit is not due. The next person to tout cronin making a final four needs to be booted from having opinions because that season was awful. Cronin pulled a rabbit out of his a$$ when ucla made the tournament when they shouldn’t have just in time for juzang to have the run of his life at the perfect time. That was not some magical coaching season. That was luck!
5. I’m going to make an early prediction that ucla doesn’t get into the tournament this year. Cronin will come up with a few more magical excuses and throw a few more kids under the bus along the way. Teams that win the championship tend to have a strong scoring center that can also rebound. Cronin has never had one of these. Is it because Cronin can’t develop centers or is he just extremely unlucky? The last nationally known dominating scoring and rebounding center Cronin coached was… fill in the blank because I don’t think he’s ever developed any scoring rebounding centers… ever
Ok, I was thinking about it and I had to add one additional point. This will either be the first of many opportunities to say I was right, or the start of many opportunities to say I was wrong. The topic that I’d like to address to all the cronin lovers, Cronin apologists, or even if you’re a straight cronin supporter.
There are MANY of them at the start when Cronin wasn’t recruiting very well that said things like, Cronin doesn’t have any available scholarships, or Cronin is so loyal to his players, or Cronin is showing that he keeps players that are doing poorly so that he can demonstrate that he can develop them…. I’d like all those people to take a step forward and tell me that you still feel the same way. Cronin not only trashed his players and threw them under the bus. He took away their scholarships in a pretty harsh way to make room for players that may not wind up being that much better. Sure you can say McClendon injury made him incapable of keeping up. You can also say that fibleil didn’t have enough offensive talent. Or that vide just couldn’t cut it at the college level… but I’ve got to wonder what he’s thinking in letting berke go. There’s now talk that Mack could go as well… player loyalty? NO, cronin just couldn’t find any better players to replace the others that were struggling so yall made an excuse for his inability to recruit.
And let’s talk about the players listed above so that all of you can make some excuses for the man you’ve put on a pedestal. Fibleil when he played one minute every three to 4 games certainly showed flashes of good defense. Many said he looked a lot like Clark when he first started. I would agree! Clark was not an offensive player when he started but was molded and developed into a player that eventually got drafted. What happened to fibleil?
Vide, while slow, also had some room to grow. Think about how slow Campbell was when he started. He wasn’t a good pg when he started as he recovered from his acl injury, but cronin stuck with him and turned him into a very capable college pg.
McClendon was slow, but he was also recovering from acl injury just like singleton was. Singleton stuck around and become one of their best 3 pt shooters. McClendon, thrown out like trash.
Berke, also injury prone in his first year but showed promise and several flashes of jaquez like talent… scholarship rescinded….
And possibly Mack now! Mack is like the Norman Powell’s or the Jules Bernard’s of the world. Fully capable of being developed, but will be the first to go on the chopping block to be replaced by another… 4 star player!
Now, you might all be asking, what’s your point baskets? My point is that cronin isn’t the guy you’ve all been saying he is. He had a poor season last year where he demonstrated that he can’t develop fully capable players. Instead of showing that’s he’s a capable coach who is a fierce defender of his guys and a loyal coach, he ran away and demonstrated his true colors. He threw his players under the bus. He talked about how bad they were all season. He took zero responsibility for the team failures. In today’s win now at any cost game (the NIL game that is), he showed that he really doesn’t give a damn about these players. He just cares about himself.
Now I’m honestly not impressed by this years strategy at all. He will have a big opportunity to prove me wrong for sure. But if you look at what he’s doing, he’s bringing back what one true starter in Andrews? Stef may not even start this year.
He’s grasping at straws again. He doesn’t care about these guys. It’s the first time I get to say I told you so… will there be a lot more of those in my future, or will cronin demonstrate that he’s truly a god like coach? The bad news for me is that cronin gets this season as another excuse if things go awry. He’s trying something completely new in a brand new conference. Just give him a chance they’ll say. He made 3 sweet 16’s and a final four! You know who else made three sweet 16’s don’t you?
If you actually think about it, it’s quite amazing what cronins pr team has done for him. He’s deceived everyone into believing that last year’s fiasco had nothing to do with cronin. He recruited the perfect team for the 23-24 year. It’s just that none of the players he recruited were developable! That’s why he’s replaced them all! Genius that man. It also means he doesn’t have to accept any of the blame because those players were all just garbage… that’s why he threw them out. Undevelopable garbage is the message he’s communicated. Cronin = elite coach. Cronin recruited players = garbage. Coaching inefficiencies = 0%. Player inefficiencies = 100%. Coaching mistakes made in 23-24 season = 0. Player mistakes in 23-24 season = 2,345,298. Man I love this guy.
If only I could figure out how to destroy my workplace, blame it on all the bad people I hired and work with, fire them all, and collect my millions of dollars at the end of the year. You gotta hand it to him, he’s certainly a very smart person
Men's Volleyball squeaked by UC Irvine with a 5 set victory, eking out a tight final set nailbiter at 15-12. You can watch the replay here: https://www.ncaa.com/game/6290844
The #1 Bruins will meet #2 Long Beach St - in their gym - for the National title on Saturday at 2:10 PT on ESPN. GO BRUINS!!!
DD If Perry commits, is red shirting an option for Freeny, the Williamses, or Mack to keep everyone in the fold?
Coach Foster has compiled a staff of phenomenal coaches, and he is creating a culture of winning through his dedication to DRE (discilpine, respect and enthusiasm). Players are having fun again, and Foster is creating a connected family of players, former players, alums, students, fans and donors. And yes, recruiting efforts are in full swing and he understands what he needs to add especially in the trenches. I disagree that Foster is not the long term answer for success. He is showing he has everything it takes as a coach and true leader to be exactly that. Time will obviously tell.
On the basketball front. I believe Harris has two years left due to covid year and a redshirt year due to injury when at Gonzaga. I believe Kobe Johnson is the player who has just one year left. Cronin has done a great job in filling the voids from last season, but the big question is can he develop these portal players with current players into a group that has chemistry on the court and plays as a true team. If he does, then we will have a great team. No small task for sure.
Based on what’s happening on campus, is he now Coach Bananas Foster?
Men's Volleyball made quick work of Fort Valley State with a 3-0 win in their first round matchup and will face UC Irvine in the semi-finals on Thursday. GO BRUINS!!
Looks like Berke has entered the transfer portal. I think he got a raw deal. He worked really hard to get into UCLA and had to battle NCAA for eligibility and injury issues that set him further back. He showed real promise in early games but injuries really held him back. Hope he finds a good landing spot
It’s me, I’m back. I have a few questions.
1. How many national championships have been won in the last 25 years without a 5-star player on the roster? And please don’t tell me that we’ve still got Mara, because we all know he was never properly assessed.
2. Which of these transfers is everyone so excited about? Not a single one of them played for a team that made the tournament I think… so they were the 2nd and 3rd best players on teams that couldn’t even make the tournament? I’m confused about the hype.
3. This will be cronins second season filled with players that he recruited and created. It’s also another extremely new coaching scheme that he has to create and he has never done before. What makes all of you so sure this season experiment that we can call the transfer experiment will be different than the last? Cronin proved last year that he can’t develop international players and can’t coach an all freshman team. This will be an all experienced team from every corner of the country.
4 when will everyone stop giving cronin credit where credit is not due. The next person to tout cronin making a final four needs to be booted from having opinions because that season was awful. Cronin pulled a rabbit out of his a$$ when ucla made the tournament when they shouldn’t have just in time for juzang to have the run of his life at the perfect time. That was not some magical coaching season. That was luck!
5. I’m going to make an early prediction that ucla doesn’t get into the tournament this year. Cronin will come up with a few more magical excuses and throw a few more kids under the bus along the way. Teams that win the championship tend to have a strong scoring center that can also rebound. Cronin has never had one of these. Is it because Cronin can’t develop centers or is he just extremely unlucky? The last nationally known dominating scoring and rebounding center Cronin coached was… fill in the blank because I don’t think he’s ever developed any scoring rebounding centers… ever
Ok, I was thinking about it and I had to add one additional point. This will either be the first of many opportunities to say I was right, or the start of many opportunities to say I was wrong. The topic that I’d like to address to all the cronin lovers, Cronin apologists, or even if you’re a straight cronin supporter.
There are MANY of them at the start when Cronin wasn’t recruiting very well that said things like, Cronin doesn’t have any available scholarships, or Cronin is so loyal to his players, or Cronin is showing that he keeps players that are doing poorly so that he can demonstrate that he can develop them…. I’d like all those people to take a step forward and tell me that you still feel the same way. Cronin not only trashed his players and threw them under the bus. He took away their scholarships in a pretty harsh way to make room for players that may not wind up being that much better. Sure you can say McClendon injury made him incapable of keeping up. You can also say that fibleil didn’t have enough offensive talent. Or that vide just couldn’t cut it at the college level… but I’ve got to wonder what he’s thinking in letting berke go. There’s now talk that Mack could go as well… player loyalty? NO, cronin just couldn’t find any better players to replace the others that were struggling so yall made an excuse for his inability to recruit.
And let’s talk about the players listed above so that all of you can make some excuses for the man you’ve put on a pedestal. Fibleil when he played one minute every three to 4 games certainly showed flashes of good defense. Many said he looked a lot like Clark when he first started. I would agree! Clark was not an offensive player when he started but was molded and developed into a player that eventually got drafted. What happened to fibleil?
Vide, while slow, also had some room to grow. Think about how slow Campbell was when he started. He wasn’t a good pg when he started as he recovered from his acl injury, but cronin stuck with him and turned him into a very capable college pg.
McClendon was slow, but he was also recovering from acl injury just like singleton was. Singleton stuck around and become one of their best 3 pt shooters. McClendon, thrown out like trash.
Berke, also injury prone in his first year but showed promise and several flashes of jaquez like talent… scholarship rescinded….
And possibly Mack now! Mack is like the Norman Powell’s or the Jules Bernard’s of the world. Fully capable of being developed, but will be the first to go on the chopping block to be replaced by another… 4 star player!
Now, you might all be asking, what’s your point baskets? My point is that cronin isn’t the guy you’ve all been saying he is. He had a poor season last year where he demonstrated that he can’t develop fully capable players. Instead of showing that’s he’s a capable coach who is a fierce defender of his guys and a loyal coach, he ran away and demonstrated his true colors. He threw his players under the bus. He talked about how bad they were all season. He took zero responsibility for the team failures. In today’s win now at any cost game (the NIL game that is), he showed that he really doesn’t give a damn about these players. He just cares about himself.
Now I’m honestly not impressed by this years strategy at all. He will have a big opportunity to prove me wrong for sure. But if you look at what he’s doing, he’s bringing back what one true starter in Andrews? Stef may not even start this year.
He’s grasping at straws again. He doesn’t care about these guys. It’s the first time I get to say I told you so… will there be a lot more of those in my future, or will cronin demonstrate that he’s truly a god like coach? The bad news for me is that cronin gets this season as another excuse if things go awry. He’s trying something completely new in a brand new conference. Just give him a chance they’ll say. He made 3 sweet 16’s and a final four! You know who else made three sweet 16’s don’t you?
If you actually think about it, it’s quite amazing what cronins pr team has done for him. He’s deceived everyone into believing that last year’s fiasco had nothing to do with cronin. He recruited the perfect team for the 23-24 year. It’s just that none of the players he recruited were developable! That’s why he’s replaced them all! Genius that man. It also means he doesn’t have to accept any of the blame because those players were all just garbage… that’s why he threw them out. Undevelopable garbage is the message he’s communicated. Cronin = elite coach. Cronin recruited players = garbage. Coaching inefficiencies = 0%. Player inefficiencies = 100%. Coaching mistakes made in 23-24 season = 0. Player mistakes in 23-24 season = 2,345,298. Man I love this guy.
If only I could figure out how to destroy my workplace, blame it on all the bad people I hired and work with, fire them all, and collect my millions of dollars at the end of the year. You gotta hand it to him, he’s certainly a very smart person
Men's Volleyball squeaked by UC Irvine with a 5 set victory, eking out a tight final set nailbiter at 15-12. You can watch the replay here: https://www.ncaa.com/game/6290844
The #1 Bruins will meet #2 Long Beach St - in their gym - for the National title on Saturday at 2:10 PT on ESPN. GO BRUINS!!!
Something something Mick Cronin can’t recruit.
Can we finally put that argument to bed?
Any idea on why Dominick Harris has not been officially announced by UCLA as being signed?
Softball wins the final Pac12 title - 2-1 over Utah and *should* be in position to host a regional