A redshirt doesn't solve the issue of having too many scholarship players, it just helps with playing time (as-is, I would almost expect Freeny to redshirt next year unless he makes it hard not to play him).
Yup, which is why we know Berke just went into the portal. If we see another name revealed in the next few days, then we'll know UCLA really is a landing spot for Trent Perry, and if not then he likely will be at Virginia.
Other schools have used NIL to bring in "preferred" walk-ons. Don't think California has any laws limiting NIL. So if there are no self imposed restrictions, the team could have two "preferred" walk-ons. Still doesn't solve the playing time issue.
just kind of circular and would not work. If we bring in that freshman who de-committed from USC, but give him NIL in lieu of a scholarship, someone else is going to transfer anyway because of playing time. the scholarship would open up no matter what.
Perry commited!!! Used NIL money as a 'scholarship' so technically Perry doesn't have a scholarship but he is funded as if he did and probably a lot more.
We are going to have quite the team if Cronin can put it all together chemistry wise. We are deep at every position so competition will be fierce for playing time.
We will find out how much a player values a UCLA education and competing for a natty, if he is not getting the floor time he wants.
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
I still would rather see Berke leave than either D Wills or B Wills. I also hope he finds a good school where he can develop.
College ball has turned pretty ruthless - it is truly sad and has taken away a lot that was so great about college sports. In many ways it's worse than the pros in terms of loyalty.
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
One last thing. Cronin does have some really good things going with this crop of 6 transfers. They’re all coming from other programs where they may have been truly developed. He might get lucky with some players developed under someone else. In the case where they play poorly, he can just claim that it was really hard task to undo the poor coaching that the last guy did… it’s really a win win for cronin because he’ll have another season where he will take zero responsibility when things go awry
I hope this team pans out but Cronin will need to mesh the portals with the currents in a way that creates chemistry and a team that knows and can actually execute their roles. If he can then we will be darn good.
But honestly, after a day of pounding the keyboard trying to get a feature story done, I am exhausted. And your text made me 🤣 in a good way 💙💛 Ahhh the irony of it all!
1. No, you aren't allowed to decide Mara doesn't count just to fit in your narrative. Especially in a question where you are again asking other people to do the work for you. As I'm sure you're well aware, a 5-star rating refers to what recruiting services believe their pro ability to be, not so much what they will produce in college. Mara absolutely qualifies as a 5-star on his height alone, no matter how he produced this past season. (Also, to answer your question, Kansas and Baylor both did not have a 5-star. I went and checked, so that was a really good gotcha that didn't even last five years).
2. Dominick Harris was third in the country in three-point percentage, something that was desperately needed on last year's team. Kobe Johnson provides the defensive wing pivot that was missing from last year (I've said it before he was by far my favorite player on last year's Southern Cal team and just makes so many winning plays for a team that actually cares). Tyler Bilodeau gives Cronin a version of what he had with Jaime Jaquez, a four that can create their own shot from multiple levels while also playing solid defense. Eric Dailey and William Kyle III bring a ton of athleticism to a squad that was lacking it last season. It's also weird to equate not making the tournament with not being good; history is riddled with players who were very good on bad teams and moved somewhere else and saw more success as a result. It's just more lazy analysis on your part.
3. I don't think the coaching scheme changes all that much; if anything, Cronin now has more players similar to his first few years that can better isolate and use their athleticism on defense. If there's really a shift, it's that this team is more similar to the ones we saw under Cronin the previous four years than the one from last year.
4. I categorically reject this line of thinking, because you refuse to give him credit for the things he has accomplished while raking him over the coals for the things he has not. Either he gets to own all of it or he gets to own none of it. Your call.
5. See, it's statements like this that make me believe you really haven't watched much basketball in the past decade. The age of the dominant center has passed, no matter what the endless Zach Edey coverage would lead you to believe. The last decade of national champions have been dominated by scoring wings and guards, with the game pushed out more to the perimeter than ever. The job of a center these days is to act as more of a rim protector and finisher at the rim; even rebounding has shifted to being more of a team-focus (just for example, Donovan Clingan led last year's UConn team with 7.4 RPG, but right behind him was guard Tristen Newton at 6.6, and Newton was doing that with almost double the minutes that Clingan played). Teams have shifted their approaches to the perimeter because finding a center that can demand that sort of attention (and keeping them away from the NBA) is essentially impossible.
As usual, I appreciate the passion you have for UCLA basketball, but you have got to stop coming at this whole enterprise by letting the hate you have for Cronin cloud your vision to the point where you continually post these takes from the hip that only serve to push people further from your point of view. There's room for reasoned criticism of Cronin's tenure (for example, I continue to hate how he doles out minutes to his bench during the season and think the offense could stand to use more motion to set up isolation) but whatever this continues to be is not it.
That was a really great reply Dimitri… kudos for answering the questions with some great reasoning. I can appreciate all of your opinions.
On thought number 5, I think you slightly agree with my point when you said finisher at the rim was important. Cronin has not developed a versatile center that can finish at the rim in multiple ways that keeps the opposing teams honest. Finishing at the rim involves skilled footwork and a variety of finishing talents like hooks, banks, and layups right? Which of cronins players have fit that bill? I think rim protection is important, but you can’t discount the value that a capable center rebounder has. In Clingan’s case, he had newton who was right there with him, but newton was far more athletic and was a strong 4 type player no? For ucla last year as an example, stefanovich averaged more rebounds than bona…. Stefanovich was a junior transfer who learned rebounding skills under another coach. Why is it that bona struggled so much in this category given his athleticism? Don’t you see that as a possible coaching problem?
Finishing is more grabbing a rebound and putting it back in, or catching a ball off a lob or on the pick-and-roll and completing the play. There aren't a lot of teams that post-up their bigs anymore, and even the ones that did like Purdue with Edey were doing so higher up so that they could unlock their wings. A team will still go down into the post on occasion but it is very deemphasized in today's game at multiple levels.
Newton was a combo guard, not a four by any stretch.
Stefanovic averaged 6.1 RPG compared to Bona's 5.9, but that is easier to explain when you realize Stefanovic averaged almost 10 more minutes per game than Bona. If you go down to per 40 minute rate stats, Bona grabbed 8.9 rebounds per 40 compared to only 7.1 from Stefanovic.
I think Bona's struggles were less him and more a weird emphasis that Cronin has where he wants the wings crashing down on boards while his post focuses on clearing out the opposite post from the rebounding zone. UCLA has operated with more undersized centers under Cronin (Bona was 6-10, Cody Riley and Kenneth Nwuba were 6-9) so they never really had the height or length you would see from that spot. Interestingly enough, when Cronin had Myles Johnson (6-11), he proved to be an elite rebounder and posted what was by-far the best rebounding rates on that 2021-2022 team. I think Mara can get closer to that with a year of conditioning and speeding up because he has the natural length (and his rebounding per 40 minute stats were already 4th-best on the team and better than Stefanovic's rates).
Thanks for the reply… I know how I can get under your skin sometimes, but your points are well taken. I do still think a center capable of keeping the opposing defense is an area cronin has lacked at ucla. If your center has a lot of tools, then the opposing defense has to make adjustments that lead to you 3 pt shooters being more wide open, especially when you don’t have 3 or shooters that can create their own shot. Example of teams that have demonstrated 3 or shooters off the dribble include the Baylor and Arizona type teams for example… that’s another story though. I think it’s much easier to defend a team like ucla when you don’t have to worry about the center making any good post moves vs a center like drew timme (I just threw up writing that) who really opened up Gonzaga’s offense at the college level and allowed the rest of his teammates to thrive. It’s an offensive weapon that cronin has never had as he either can’t develop that ability, chooses not to, or doesn’t recruit the right player to fit that offensive hole that ucla has had during his tenure at ucla
Timme wasn't a center, though; he was a skilled wing who could moonlight as a center in small lineups. If anything, UCLA has had a Timme-like player under Cronin in Jaquez, one who can operate in the low post and score while drawing defensive attention that can open up other players. I think focusing on center in particular is missing the forest for the trees in this regard.
I’m sorry, but I don’t remember timme playing “wing” in college. I only remember him playing as their center. Comparing timme to jaquez also isn’t fair. Timme was much heavier than jaquez and did not usually cover jaquez in any of the games they played… I could obviously be wrong, but timme played as Gonzaga’s center
I had to go double check to make sure that I wasn’t going crazy. Calling timme a “skilled wing” really makes you look bad. Sure that’s what it says on his player profile, but timme played the 5 at Gonzaga and acted as their center. He defended other centers, posted like a center, and didn’t take jump shots like a forward.
Comparing timme to jaquez is also got to be one of the worst comparisons I’ve seen from you my friend. Anybody else that supports you is also grabbing at straws. Tim shot about 1 3 pt per game and made almost none of them. He also wasn’t a jump shooter. He worked the post like all the other college centers. Timme’s skillset was NOTHING like jaquez. It’s why jaquez is doing well as a forward in the nba and timme… does he even play in the nba? No because he was a college center that’s not big enough to be a center in the nba and an nba built forward that can’t actually play like a forward the way jaquez does
I also went and looked at some numbers for the 22-23 year for those two players. Skilled wings are taking a good clip of 3 pt’s on average and making a good number of them. Jaquez shot 33-104 from three that year, a year that he played as a junior I believe? Maybe a super junior? Timme shot 4-24 from 3 pt range as a senior? Timme was not a “skilled wing” in college. He played the 5 and anybody that watched Gonzaga at all during timme’s lengthy career at Gonzaga would say the same thing. Timme and jaquez were very different college players with different skill sets. As a self proclaimed basketball expert even you know this to be true
Wasn’t Skyy Clark Louisville’s leading scorer last season?
Attempt to dismiss Cronin as a player developer is also off the mark. You can’t simultaneously dismiss these players as 2nd and 3rd best on terrible teams while also saying any success Cronin has will be because he recruited players that was already developed. That narrative doesn’t even work for Eric Dailey, who’s coming in as a sophomore. Cronin does have a knack for developing players. People love pointing at Jaquez as an example but I see Jules and Juzang as better indicators of Cronin’s ability to turn raw players/benchwarmers into pro prospects.
And making the final four when you snuck into the NCAA is a sign of great coaching, not bad. In that run, he basically destroyed Juwan Howard’s promising coaching career too.
Louisville was 3-17! I don’t get the hype for the leading scorer coming from a 3-17 team last year! That’s who you’re going to tout? Granted, he could get better, but being the highest scorer on a 3-17 team isn’t really something that goes on your resume
You’ve also supported my post further that this will be another season where cronin can do no wrong. If the players play well he’ll claim all the credit. If they play like hot garbage, he’ll throw them out like last years crop of European players… you can’t really believe that fibleil berke and vide were all un developable players. Cronin failed them last year, threw them under the bus, then left them out to dry…. Everyone talked about cronins loyalty to his players… except last year when he wasn’t and gave their scholarships to new players.
Louisville was not a tournament team. My point is that if Dylan Andrews was transferring to Kansas, duke, North Carolina, Arizona, or UConn, they wouldn’t be touting him as a magical player that was going to take them to a national championship. They’d probably be disappointed that they got the leading scorer coming out of a ucla team that had an awful season, very poor offensive game play, and couldn’t make the big dance. Why should ucla be any different?
Hunter Dickinson was the best player on a Michigan team that didn't make the NCAA Tournament and vastly missed their preseason expectations, and Kansas spent all year touting him as the frontrunner for Player of the Year. They did the same thing with Remy Martin, leader of some bad Arizona State teams, the year prior.
I think teams are capable of understanding when good players end up on bad teams that it is not indicative of that player also being bad.
I just have to add, that since you’re replying to me in this thread, your day job like me is not basketball analyst. You’re just going off of the stats like everyone else and reading what the other experts have written about these players. Let’s be honest, you haven’t watched sky Clark play much or any college basketball. Unless you’re a die hard Louisville fan that watched them go 3-17 in conference play last year which I highly doubt you were locked into their games.
Again, I’m putting myself out there to be wrong here, but let’s also keep in mind that these experts talking about the greatness of this transfer class are the same experts that said Mara, vide, and berke could be one and done players at ucla. They are clearly wrong some of the time. Mack as the second leading scorer at ucla probably has just as much potential as sky at the collegiate level, but he’s on the chopping block for another incoming 4-star freshman!
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!!!
Per ESPN, Perry was quoted as saying, "Throughout the process, Cronin expressed how much he wanted me but he also cares about me outside of basketball. That was a big thing," Perry said. "He values me and my game. Whatever he says, he means. He's an honest and straightforward guy. He does not beat around the bush. He is demanding but it comes from a good place and heart."
It does seem something changed from last year when he was chasing a lot of unproven European players after missing on local kids compared to this year when he was landing a lot of well sought after transfers and inking a highly ranked local HS prospect. I don't imagine Mick himself changed lol. Do you think there was just more NIL money available or was there something else to account for the dramatic difference in the source of his recruits?
It's pretty clear that UCLA has vastly increased its NIL pool - some reports have them as a Top 5 operation currently - and that is allowing Cronin to actually go after domestic prospects he wants, whereas last year he was hamstrung by a poor NIL operation that could not financially compete with many other schools (Cam Spencer in particular comes to mind here).
Still have not found anything but speculating that he is being treated as a walk-on. Christian Horry is joining the team as a walk-on. Horry re-stated he was going to UCLA at the Harvard-Westlake signing day on 5/9. There is nothing about Horry on the UCLA site.
DD If Perry commits, is red shirting an option for Freeny, the Williamses, or Mack to keep everyone in the fold?
A redshirt doesn't solve the issue of having too many scholarship players, it just helps with playing time (as-is, I would almost expect Freeny to redshirt next year unless he makes it hard not to play him).
D'oh! I should have figured that out. Otherwise teams could stockpile players.Thank you.
not to mention Mack and probably not the Williams would not agree to redshirt.
Especially since Devin Williams kinda already did this past season
when does the portal close?
Players must be in the portal by May 1.
Yup, which is why we know Berke just went into the portal. If we see another name revealed in the next few days, then we'll know UCLA really is a landing spot for Trent Perry, and if not then he likely will be at Virginia.
Does this mean the Williams are definitely staying?
Other schools have used NIL to bring in "preferred" walk-ons. Don't think California has any laws limiting NIL. So if there are no self imposed restrictions, the team could have two "preferred" walk-ons. Still doesn't solve the playing time issue.
just kind of circular and would not work. If we bring in that freshman who de-committed from USC, but give him NIL in lieu of a scholarship, someone else is going to transfer anyway because of playing time. the scholarship would open up no matter what.
Perry commited!!! Used NIL money as a 'scholarship' so technically Perry doesn't have a scholarship but he is funded as if he did and probably a lot more.
We are going to have quite the team if Cronin can put it all together chemistry wise. We are deep at every position so competition will be fierce for playing time.
We will find out how much a player values a UCLA education and competing for a natty, if he is not getting the floor time he wants.
This is a huge get. Signing a true point guard from a local Bball power is a big freakin deal for Cronin.
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
I still would rather see Berke leave than either D Wills or B Wills. I also hope he finds a good school where he can develop.
College ball has turned pretty ruthless - it is truly sad and has taken away a lot that was so great about college sports. In many ways it's worse than the pros in terms of loyalty.
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
One last thing. Cronin does have some really good things going with this crop of 6 transfers. They’re all coming from other programs where they may have been truly developed. He might get lucky with some players developed under someone else. In the case where they play poorly, he can just claim that it was really hard task to undo the poor coaching that the last guy did… it’s really a win win for cronin because he’ll have another season where he will take zero responsibility when things go awry
I hope this team pans out but Cronin will need to mesh the portals with the currents in a way that creates chemistry and a team that knows and can actually execute their roles. If he can then we will be darn good.
But honestly, after a day of pounding the keyboard trying to get a feature story done, I am exhausted. And your text made me 🤣 in a good way 💙💛 Ahhh the irony of it all!
Can't believe I'm going to do this.
1. No, you aren't allowed to decide Mara doesn't count just to fit in your narrative. Especially in a question where you are again asking other people to do the work for you. As I'm sure you're well aware, a 5-star rating refers to what recruiting services believe their pro ability to be, not so much what they will produce in college. Mara absolutely qualifies as a 5-star on his height alone, no matter how he produced this past season. (Also, to answer your question, Kansas and Baylor both did not have a 5-star. I went and checked, so that was a really good gotcha that didn't even last five years).
2. Dominick Harris was third in the country in three-point percentage, something that was desperately needed on last year's team. Kobe Johnson provides the defensive wing pivot that was missing from last year (I've said it before he was by far my favorite player on last year's Southern Cal team and just makes so many winning plays for a team that actually cares). Tyler Bilodeau gives Cronin a version of what he had with Jaime Jaquez, a four that can create their own shot from multiple levels while also playing solid defense. Eric Dailey and William Kyle III bring a ton of athleticism to a squad that was lacking it last season. It's also weird to equate not making the tournament with not being good; history is riddled with players who were very good on bad teams and moved somewhere else and saw more success as a result. It's just more lazy analysis on your part.
3. I don't think the coaching scheme changes all that much; if anything, Cronin now has more players similar to his first few years that can better isolate and use their athleticism on defense. If there's really a shift, it's that this team is more similar to the ones we saw under Cronin the previous four years than the one from last year.
4. I categorically reject this line of thinking, because you refuse to give him credit for the things he has accomplished while raking him over the coals for the things he has not. Either he gets to own all of it or he gets to own none of it. Your call.
5. See, it's statements like this that make me believe you really haven't watched much basketball in the past decade. The age of the dominant center has passed, no matter what the endless Zach Edey coverage would lead you to believe. The last decade of national champions have been dominated by scoring wings and guards, with the game pushed out more to the perimeter than ever. The job of a center these days is to act as more of a rim protector and finisher at the rim; even rebounding has shifted to being more of a team-focus (just for example, Donovan Clingan led last year's UConn team with 7.4 RPG, but right behind him was guard Tristen Newton at 6.6, and Newton was doing that with almost double the minutes that Clingan played). Teams have shifted their approaches to the perimeter because finding a center that can demand that sort of attention (and keeping them away from the NBA) is essentially impossible.
As usual, I appreciate the passion you have for UCLA basketball, but you have got to stop coming at this whole enterprise by letting the hate you have for Cronin cloud your vision to the point where you continually post these takes from the hip that only serve to push people further from your point of view. There's room for reasoned criticism of Cronin's tenure (for example, I continue to hate how he doles out minutes to his bench during the season and think the offense could stand to use more motion to set up isolation) but whatever this continues to be is not it.
That was a really great reply Dimitri… kudos for answering the questions with some great reasoning. I can appreciate all of your opinions.
On thought number 5, I think you slightly agree with my point when you said finisher at the rim was important. Cronin has not developed a versatile center that can finish at the rim in multiple ways that keeps the opposing teams honest. Finishing at the rim involves skilled footwork and a variety of finishing talents like hooks, banks, and layups right? Which of cronins players have fit that bill? I think rim protection is important, but you can’t discount the value that a capable center rebounder has. In Clingan’s case, he had newton who was right there with him, but newton was far more athletic and was a strong 4 type player no? For ucla last year as an example, stefanovich averaged more rebounds than bona…. Stefanovich was a junior transfer who learned rebounding skills under another coach. Why is it that bona struggled so much in this category given his athleticism? Don’t you see that as a possible coaching problem?
Finishing is more grabbing a rebound and putting it back in, or catching a ball off a lob or on the pick-and-roll and completing the play. There aren't a lot of teams that post-up their bigs anymore, and even the ones that did like Purdue with Edey were doing so higher up so that they could unlock their wings. A team will still go down into the post on occasion but it is very deemphasized in today's game at multiple levels.
Newton was a combo guard, not a four by any stretch.
Stefanovic averaged 6.1 RPG compared to Bona's 5.9, but that is easier to explain when you realize Stefanovic averaged almost 10 more minutes per game than Bona. If you go down to per 40 minute rate stats, Bona grabbed 8.9 rebounds per 40 compared to only 7.1 from Stefanovic.
I think Bona's struggles were less him and more a weird emphasis that Cronin has where he wants the wings crashing down on boards while his post focuses on clearing out the opposite post from the rebounding zone. UCLA has operated with more undersized centers under Cronin (Bona was 6-10, Cody Riley and Kenneth Nwuba were 6-9) so they never really had the height or length you would see from that spot. Interestingly enough, when Cronin had Myles Johnson (6-11), he proved to be an elite rebounder and posted what was by-far the best rebounding rates on that 2021-2022 team. I think Mara can get closer to that with a year of conditioning and speeding up because he has the natural length (and his rebounding per 40 minute stats were already 4th-best on the team and better than Stefanovic's rates).
Thanks for the reply… I know how I can get under your skin sometimes, but your points are well taken. I do still think a center capable of keeping the opposing defense is an area cronin has lacked at ucla. If your center has a lot of tools, then the opposing defense has to make adjustments that lead to you 3 pt shooters being more wide open, especially when you don’t have 3 or shooters that can create their own shot. Example of teams that have demonstrated 3 or shooters off the dribble include the Baylor and Arizona type teams for example… that’s another story though. I think it’s much easier to defend a team like ucla when you don’t have to worry about the center making any good post moves vs a center like drew timme (I just threw up writing that) who really opened up Gonzaga’s offense at the college level and allowed the rest of his teammates to thrive. It’s an offensive weapon that cronin has never had as he either can’t develop that ability, chooses not to, or doesn’t recruit the right player to fit that offensive hole that ucla has had during his tenure at ucla
Timme wasn't a center, though; he was a skilled wing who could moonlight as a center in small lineups. If anything, UCLA has had a Timme-like player under Cronin in Jaquez, one who can operate in the low post and score while drawing defensive attention that can open up other players. I think focusing on center in particular is missing the forest for the trees in this regard.
I’m sorry, but I don’t remember timme playing “wing” in college. I only remember him playing as their center. Comparing timme to jaquez also isn’t fair. Timme was much heavier than jaquez and did not usually cover jaquez in any of the games they played… I could obviously be wrong, but timme played as Gonzaga’s center
I had to go double check to make sure that I wasn’t going crazy. Calling timme a “skilled wing” really makes you look bad. Sure that’s what it says on his player profile, but timme played the 5 at Gonzaga and acted as their center. He defended other centers, posted like a center, and didn’t take jump shots like a forward.
Comparing timme to jaquez is also got to be one of the worst comparisons I’ve seen from you my friend. Anybody else that supports you is also grabbing at straws. Tim shot about 1 3 pt per game and made almost none of them. He also wasn’t a jump shooter. He worked the post like all the other college centers. Timme’s skillset was NOTHING like jaquez. It’s why jaquez is doing well as a forward in the nba and timme… does he even play in the nba? No because he was a college center that’s not big enough to be a center in the nba and an nba built forward that can’t actually play like a forward the way jaquez does
I also went and looked at some numbers for the 22-23 year for those two players. Skilled wings are taking a good clip of 3 pt’s on average and making a good number of them. Jaquez shot 33-104 from three that year, a year that he played as a junior I believe? Maybe a super junior? Timme shot 4-24 from 3 pt range as a senior? Timme was not a “skilled wing” in college. He played the 5 and anybody that watched Gonzaga at all during timme’s lengthy career at Gonzaga would say the same thing. Timme and jaquez were very different college players with different skill sets. As a self proclaimed basketball expert even you know this to be true
Wasn’t Skyy Clark Louisville’s leading scorer last season?
Attempt to dismiss Cronin as a player developer is also off the mark. You can’t simultaneously dismiss these players as 2nd and 3rd best on terrible teams while also saying any success Cronin has will be because he recruited players that was already developed. That narrative doesn’t even work for Eric Dailey, who’s coming in as a sophomore. Cronin does have a knack for developing players. People love pointing at Jaquez as an example but I see Jules and Juzang as better indicators of Cronin’s ability to turn raw players/benchwarmers into pro prospects.
And making the final four when you snuck into the NCAA is a sign of great coaching, not bad. In that run, he basically destroyed Juwan Howard’s promising coaching career too.
Louisville was 3-17! I don’t get the hype for the leading scorer coming from a 3-17 team last year! That’s who you’re going to tout? Granted, he could get better, but being the highest scorer on a 3-17 team isn’t really something that goes on your resume
You’ve also supported my post further that this will be another season where cronin can do no wrong. If the players play well he’ll claim all the credit. If they play like hot garbage, he’ll throw them out like last years crop of European players… you can’t really believe that fibleil berke and vide were all un developable players. Cronin failed them last year, threw them under the bus, then left them out to dry…. Everyone talked about cronins loyalty to his players… except last year when he wasn’t and gave their scholarships to new players.
Haha! 3-17 *in conference play*… man baskets is such a tool… get it right buddy
Ok, and he put up good numbers as a freshman on an NCAA tournament team. What's your point here?
Louisville was not a tournament team. My point is that if Dylan Andrews was transferring to Kansas, duke, North Carolina, Arizona, or UConn, they wouldn’t be touting him as a magical player that was going to take them to a national championship. They’d probably be disappointed that they got the leading scorer coming out of a ucla team that had an awful season, very poor offensive game play, and couldn’t make the big dance. Why should ucla be any different?
Hunter Dickinson was the best player on a Michigan team that didn't make the NCAA Tournament and vastly missed their preseason expectations, and Kansas spent all year touting him as the frontrunner for Player of the Year. They did the same thing with Remy Martin, leader of some bad Arizona State teams, the year prior.
I think teams are capable of understanding when good players end up on bad teams that it is not indicative of that player also being bad.
well he didn't play for Louisville when he was a freshman.
I just have to add, that since you’re replying to me in this thread, your day job like me is not basketball analyst. You’re just going off of the stats like everyone else and reading what the other experts have written about these players. Let’s be honest, you haven’t watched sky Clark play much or any college basketball. Unless you’re a die hard Louisville fan that watched them go 3-17 in conference play last year which I highly doubt you were locked into their games.
Again, I’m putting myself out there to be wrong here, but let’s also keep in mind that these experts talking about the greatness of this transfer class are the same experts that said Mara, vide, and berke could be one and done players at ucla. They are clearly wrong some of the time. Mack as the second leading scorer at ucla probably has just as much potential as sky at the collegiate level, but he’s on the chopping block for another incoming 4-star freshman!
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?
I'd hope the Trent Perry commitment - reported per ESPN - would help tuck that argument under a nice warm blanket...
Per ESPN, Perry was quoted as saying, "Throughout the process, Cronin expressed how much he wanted me but he also cares about me outside of basketball. That was a big thing," Perry said. "He values me and my game. Whatever he says, he means. He's an honest and straightforward guy. He does not beat around the bush. He is demanding but it comes from a good place and heart."
Sounds like Cronin was honest with him about his playing time since he’ll be competing with two upperclassmen PGs
It does seem something changed from last year when he was chasing a lot of unproven European players after missing on local kids compared to this year when he was landing a lot of well sought after transfers and inking a highly ranked local HS prospect. I don't imagine Mick himself changed lol. Do you think there was just more NIL money available or was there something else to account for the dramatic difference in the source of his recruits?
It's pretty clear that UCLA has vastly increased its NIL pool - some reports have them as a Top 5 operation currently - and that is allowing Cronin to actually go after domestic prospects he wants, whereas last year he was hamstrung by a poor NIL operation that could not financially compete with many other schools (Cam Spencer in particular comes to mind here).
in fairness, it was really only 3 people here who were/are almost purposely ignoring NIL realities to falsely claim he cannot recruit.
Any idea on why Dominick Harris has not been officially announced by UCLA as being signed?
Still have not found anything but speculating that he is being treated as a walk-on. Christian Horry is joining the team as a walk-on. Horry re-stated he was going to UCLA at the Harvard-Westlake signing day on 5/9. There is nothing about Horry on the UCLA site.
Softball wins the final Pac12 title - 2-1 over Utah and *should* be in position to host a regional