In this first part looking back over the UCLA season, we'll also look at the offensive and defensive metrics for this season, plus take a closer look at UCLA's NIL and Portal strategy.
Except I don't 💯 agree with the absolute need for NBA level talent or 5 star players. Sure it's great to have one or two amazing 5 star players...
But I would also like to fill the roster with young men who have great character and work ethic who will develop into true leaders with championship level skills.
I don't put as much focus on the number of stars behind a player's name as I do on the intangibles that come with a player that will lead to greatness.
Secretly, it's doing what UCLA seems to be doing the past few cycles, bringing in either four-star freshmen or guys who have played one season, and then working them into a team with more veterans. They're not expected to be major contributors, but they can see the path forward.
Spot on? Complaining about recruiting for years and when UCLA actively recruits the best guard in the portal, Baskets says that player is a moron if he chooses UCLA. Sorry, I vehemently disagree with his idiocy.
I 💯 don't agree with the moron comment, either. That was not called for, and I hate the name calling by anyone. No person is a moron for wanting to be a Bruin.
Great post Dimitri. I was expecting you would also address some of the issues that people continually critiqued Cronin during the season, vis-a-vis his substitution pattern and player playing position and playing time. Maybe on your next write up.
A lot of that is wrapped up in the Mara and Andrews discussion, so it made sense to wait for the next one to tackle those. I went more big picture on these ones.
Feel bad for Andrews. Nothing bad to say about him. But he is just not a starting PG on the elite team we strive to be. He'd be a fine addition to USC or a mid major.
It’s really crazy that freshmen who’ve never played a minute in college are commanding amounts that most nba draft picks don’t even get! If this is the future of hs recruiting, I’m ok just recruiting transfers year after year.
As for continuity, seems like we’ll have pretty good continuity for next yr with Clark, Bilodeau, Dailey, and Trent Perry all confirmed to be returning. Not sure what that means for Dent but it’s good to have Perry confirmed back!
Thanks (?) for proving me to be the idiot that I am--again!--with empirical evidence that the Crnin offense is leading and evolving. However, I say it’s spinach, and I say the hell with it!
Further, "seems long and meandering and lacking in a point" perfectly describes this season to me.
Yes, a foundation for next year, but absolutely no front court depth as of this writing.
I buried the lede since I'm gonna talk about it in part 2, but I thought I hinted at it enough times that Mara is returning barring an NBA team promising him a 1st round pick, and at that point you just need a backup big because Bilodeau is coming back with the understanding that he is going to primarily play his natural position at the four.
I’ll do it quickly here: you get a backup big who can give you 15 or so minutes at the 5, with Mara taking 25+. Bilodeau can take spot minutes here against certain lineups but he should be taking 25-30 at the four. Dailey takes the backup minutes there and at the 3, but for him to play at the 3 more consistently he needs to slim down. Brandon Williams is also an option that will be back at the 3/4, but UCLA will likely look for a 3andD wing that can play the 2/3 if they get Dent.
Great objective analysis supported by data and metrics! I agree, the inconsistent performance by this year's team sure made it difficult to judge whether it was indeed a successful season or not. I would still prefer to see more ball movement, screens, and pick-and-rolls in their offense. Coach Cronin's offense seems so much worse than the metrics whenever the 1-on-1, iso-ball offense stagnates (with the rest of the team just standing around), the shots don't fall (with no offensive rebounding), and the team in general is having a hard time scoring (especially against elite defenses). The Bruins also had no true, tough, go-to guy who was consistently successful in the iso-ball attack as in years past. I also hope someone on the coaching staff can figure out how to teach the players how to handle full-court pressure next season.
The ability to handle a full court pressure comes from an offense that is free flowing. When you have a team like this cronin coached teams, the goal is to get up and then hang on… that’s why games that should be blow outs turn into nail biters…
Contrast this with programs like duke, Florida, Alabama, Arizona who have the green light to step on the gas and shoot 3-pt shots when they’re open, to make a fast break layup instead of taking time off the clock. It’s why cronin basketball is boring to watch because as soon as he gets a lead, he completely joysticks every single possession! None of the players have freedom to actually play basketball anymore… they have to play cronin ball
The ball needs to move with quick passing instead of deliberate dribbling, with every player moving to open spots on the floor in some pre-planned fashion in order to be successful against a full-court press/front-court trap. If that's what you meant by "free-flowing" offense, then I would agree. What's interesting to learn is that Tennessee apparently has 3 different press schemes in their playbook, and the one they used against the Bruins hadn't been run as often and is actually the least agressive of the three. Guess it didn't take too much to cause a lot of havoc for the Bruins...
A free flowing offense is one where the players are given the ability to make their own basketball decisions real time. Cronin coached players have to check in with him before they can go to the bathroom. The reason his teams crack under full court pressure, or any defensive pressure for that matter, is because they no longer have the ability to check in with cronin on what to do with the ball.
In a free flowing offense, the player breaks the press and goes for a dunk or takes an open 3 pt shot regardless of how much time came off the clock. In a cronin coached world, the player who goes in for a dunk may actually get benched if cronin thinks more time should have been taken off the clock. The player who shoots the open three gets benched because cronin wanted to make the decision on what happened with the ball.
When you take away all creativity and ability for a player to think on their own, you wind up with a bunch of players who live a life of fear and can no longer think for themselves when it matters. A free flowing offense is one that is not joysticked by the coach. Where players are allowed to be creative and will learn to think for themselves. Cronin players don’t get this freedom and is why they always crack under pressure and blow large leads. They live life of fear afraid to make a mistake
Yep, I also had a lot of fun being involved in playground hoops as a kid. No coach needed to yell at us or to ask permission for bathroom breaks, either.
Agreed, better to have no coach than a coach who thinks he’s a rockstar. Cronin is clearly not someone who ever played elite basketball. Probably why he controls every little detail because he actually has no idea what it looks like as a player
Unbelievable. When we had Steve Lavin, the complaint was that the offense is too free flowing and not any coaching is done from the sidelines. Now the complaint is that the offense is not free flowing and the coach should not dictate on the sideline. I guess you can't win regardless.
The free-flowing comments regarding the UCLA offense and not needing a coach sure are entertaining! Unfortunately, recollection of any past Bruin HC named "Steve" has been erased from my memory...
Multiple checkmarked/legit X accounts are reporting sources say Dent to UCLA. Legacy media not reporting it yet though and these posts have been up for about 12 hours, so i'm skeptical. Would make us a potential top 5 team.
Ironically, Cronin had recruited Dent the same time we offered Andrews. When Andrews accepted, we had no scholarships left and New Mexico gladly took him. Not how we anticipated it would turn out.
I disagree we are a top 5 team with Dent… we are a top 25 team. I watched Duke play today… they are just so good. Even with Arizona playing top of their range, couldn’t take them down. Alabama also completely destroyed BYU. I mean… top 5 is basically a 1 seed…
The last guy that was as good in college as Cooper Flagg is was probably Anthony Davis.
I don’t think much of Jon Scheyer as a coach and he should be thanking his lucky stars that Flagg is going to take him all the way to the national championship and Scheyer just needs to stay out of his way lol
"The critics of Mick Cronin love to harp on this idea that Cronin is a bad offensive coach, but there never seems to be any empirical evidence to back these statements up." Bullseye.
Then what are the facts that the Bruin offense could defeat today's winners Alabama, FL, Duke and Tx Tech, or even losers MD, Arkansas, BYU or firing-on-all cylinders Arizona?
That’s the thing, if you know your offense is inferior you have to force them to play your game. Ben Howland did this too… we totally took the offense out of superior offenses like Memphis, Kansas, etc. Our best offensive players are Tyler and Skyy. Compare that to a Cooper Flagg or Caleb Love.
This season we beat Arizona 57-54 because we slowed the game down so much. If we play at their pace, we probably lose 9/10 times. If we force them to play at ours, it becomes more 50/50.
The problem with Cronins style is every game against a half decent team becomes close and is a nail biter to watch. And come NCAA tournament time, you need to be incredibly lucky to win a streak of coin flips…
Yes- Arizona has a better offensive team than us. They have better overall outside shooting, transition game, and guard play. You could make the argument that we have better bigs (offensively). But I stand by if we played at their pace I stand by we lose 9/10 times.
If we force them into playing a grinding game where we limit the number of possessions, we have a better chance of winning.
We did not have the talent to defeat most of those teams. It has nothing to do with coaching. Although we did beat Arizona. Our ceiling was always the Sweet 16. It is hard to make a run when you do not have a legitimate point guard. Nothing against Andrews, but that is just not him. Your reasoning can basically be summed up as follows: Cronin failed to build a Final 4 roster, therefore he is a bad coach.
Misstating and misrepresenting my points, again. I'll play along. Your reasoning can basically be summed up as follows: Crnin is a good coach because he's a good coach. (Alternately: He's a good coach because I said so.)
if you are gong to argue that he's not a good coach, then you have no credibility whatsoever. If you want to argue that he is a good coach but has flaws, we can talk.
“It has nothing to do with coaching”…. Said no intelligent person ever. It ALWAYS has at a minimum a little to do with coaching. If you didn’t think that was the case, then you’d stop spouting your love of cronin in these threads. Because if it has nothing to do with coaching, then it clearly makes zero difference if cronin is the coach or not… as you like to state, I call that last statement fact
I was going to let it drop, but thanks for stating the obvious--scouting, evaluation, acquisition and roster management have everything to do with coaching. Although, the miss on Dylan might be 20/20 hindsight. Regardless, the defense of Crnin used here actually is a criticism.
OK, fair point. But if that's true then doesn't Cronin deserve *some* credit for the Final Four run? If nothing else, keeping them focused and locked in enough that the first win momentum carried over - unlike UNC this year - and Juzang's "heater" didn't just turn into John Tonje scored 37 in a losing cause (and airballed the final shot... but I digress). And, if he really deserves no credit for the Final Four run, doesn't he then deserve no real blame for a Final Four-level, credible national champion contender being derailed by a non-contact season-ending injury to the national defensive player of the year right before the tournament? I know from other posts you are an admirer of Rick Barnes - same thing happened to him last year when Ziegler ruptured his ACL in early March and even with Dalton Knecht, he couldn't overcome it as a top 5 team... so is that also a failure of Barnes?
Bringing in Dent is a big win for the program and for Cronin- I think it's OK to celebrate that even if it doesn't mean everything is seashells and balloons.
And whose fault might it be that ucla doesn’t have a legitimate pg. could it be the man behind the curtain? Is this team assembled by the board of directors at ucla? Perhaps you assembled this team? Heck, I bet you could do a better job than cronin. If you’re going to make excuses for this team being poorly assembled, perhaps you should put SOME of the blame on the man running this program. You can blame the nil all you want, but as you so aptly pointed out, there are at least 40 other pg’s in D1 college basketball that are better than Andrews and not a one of them is playing for the man in charge right now… that’s cronins fault, make no ifs buts or huh about it
Our guards weren’t good. But Cronin did not develop Mara well. 2 years, and he’s not even a 1st rounder whereas coming in scouts had him as a lottery pick.
Also, why keep playing Andrews and Mack vs. developing Trent Perry? We should seen a gradual handoff where Andrews is coming off the bench with a Perry / Clark backcourt. Cronin rode Mack too long too… he just drives like a truck into traffic.
I would have supported Andrews losing playing time to Perry, but not a lot of overlap between Mack's and Perry's role. Mack was an important piece of our offense even though he underperformed. His decision to transfer less about this year and more bout next year. His minutes declined from 27 to 21 and were going to substantially decrease again next year.
and the fact is we got our butt kicked before the sweet 16 round. The offense speaks for itself. You don't need data. Just go watch the Tennessee game again.
The same Bama that then turned around and only scored 65 in the next game against Duke and went from 25 made 3s to shooting 25% from 3... guess Nate Oats must not be a very good coach by some folk's metrics...
Thanks for the stats to back your opinions as I clearly just bring the eye test to most of my analysis 😂
I clearly have an issue with this season being placed as a success. When finishing outside the top 25 season is still viewed as a success, that’s when I have an issue. Mediocrity is what the cronin supporters seem to have settled for. Cronin making those final fours was a fluke. I don’t think he’ll recreate it at ucla.
Also interesting to me how much effort was placed to support a clear egotistical asshole that cronin is! It’s funny how many people constantly harped on Alford and his morals… yet here we are with another coach who definitely competes with Alford when it comes to his level of ego. Cronin is clearly a very dislikable person outside of this group. It won’t take you long to find a plethora of post game interviews of cronin talking about how amazing he is while everyone else in his program is dog sh!t. Those that can support this type of person, kudos to you, but I can’t support this ahole
As for dent coming to ucla… if you actually think dent will go from a program where he could play how he wanted, to a program that has a coach that joysticks his offense, you must be delusional. If dent comes to play for cronin, then he’s an absolute moron. That would have been like Caleb love coming to play in a free flowing offense at UNC, to playing under cronin who controls every single possession. Sure, ucla offense is efficient because cronin makes sure they slow every single play down and decides who will get the ball for their iso opportunity. No actual nba prospect wants to play for cronin. They want to play for a program where they can make their mistakes and learn.
So sure, if you’re happy with this season and view it as a success, then cronin is your guy. If you like a joystick coach, who is a clear ahole, that isn’t bringing any nba level scoring talent EVER, then cronin is your guy. If you want a guy who know how to blame everyone but himself, cronin is your guy. If you enjoy coming up with a thousand end of season excuses to suffer through another season of mediocrity, cronin is your guy. If you like a boring slow style of play with a bunch of 4-star recruits… Cronin is your guy.
As for me, Cronin is clearly not my guy, I’m sick of the mediocrity, I’m sick of the joystick, I’m sick of the angry little man syndrome, I’m sick of no fun basketball and want something new. I’m sick of the leader of the program taking zero responsibility for his failures. I’m sick of seasons like this being brushed off as a success because it’s better than the last guy
I’m on the fence re: Cronin, but I wouldn’t count him out for another final 4 or NC run.
I agree that he’s kind of a prick but disagree with you that nobody wants to play for him. Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Eric Dailey loved playing for Cronin. It takes a certain type of “I’m gonna work my bottom off” type of player that works in his system. Cronin is like the Pat Riley of college basketball.
Cronin needs to take accountability but I do not have an issue of him throwing players under the bus if they rightly deserve it. Just because they are student athletes doesn’t mean they should be treated softly. After all, they’re making 7, maybe even 8 figures- yeah they better be able to take the heat when they don’t deliver. Most of them are mercenaries that have no loyalty to the program, so yeah they should be treated as such.
This is very true… my nba comments are definitely way over exaggerated. There will be some players that wind up here with nba level talent. The problem is that I just don’t believe in cronins ability to develop them. Mara is the easy player to point to this year and say, what the hell is cronin doing? Mara would be better off at a program like Purdue where he would be getting the most play time through a coach that has patience with his bigs.
Peyton Watson is another who you have to look at the season he had and wonder why cronin didn’t give him a real chance to make mistakes and learn.
I’d also say that bona was poorly developed at ucla. He was athletic enough to learn defense on his own. Under a coach that knows what to do with bigs, bona would have had a better opportunity to shine in college. I think Kansas for example would have been a better fit for him developmentally.
Doesn’t matter what I think. It’s clear the mediocrity supporters will get their wish of “one more season”!!!
I actually think Mara and Bona are two examples of pretty big successes of Cronin developing big men.
Mara went from a very raw talent to the best player on the team. He was setback by injuries and lots of illness this year which affected his conditioning.
Bona also went from someone with freak athleticism with no offensive game to a draft pick and now a regular contributor in the nba.
And we can’t forget guys like Tyger, Jaime, Jaylen Clark that all improved year after year under Cronin’s system.
Even his in-season development has been really good - Dailey improved, Skyy Clark’s offensive game became more consistent, and Kobe Johnson shook off a lot of bad habits on defense.
I would say the only miss that Cronin had in developing players during his ucla tenure is Dylan Andrews, which is surprising bc at the end of last season, Andrews looked like he could’ve been the best PG in the conference.
Jaylen Clark was a defender… Peyton wasn’t. Why did you expect some massive jump? Watson wasn’t willing to play defense the way Cronin wanted and would have spent another year on the bench. How does that equate to a massive jump? Serious question this time 🙂
There’s no way that you could ever support this argument. We are only talking about the results that were apparent during the time spent with cronin. You can’t just say if so and so had stayed another year then Cronin would have made them better… given the time he had with Watson, there was no visible evidence of improvement… give him more time they say… hogwash. That’s like saying if Watson had spent 40 more hours a week in shooting the ball he would have gotten better. It didn’t happen so all we have to go off of is the evidence at hand. The evidence at hand and the eye test during that season is that Watson didn’t improve, thus cronin failed. But whatever…
Another point of context, I could say the exact same thing thing about zach lavine. He certainly wasn’t a miss for Steve Alford because if he had just stayed one more year under Alford he would have made a significant jump. If zach had just stayed one more season at ucla I would’ve expected to see a massive jump in 3 pt percentage just like Bryce Alford! So by your logic, Zach lavine is a success under Steve Alford… do you see how far fetched that sounds?
Your calling Watson a success is no different than my fallacy above that zach lavine was a success under Alford… give them one more year! Cronin is the best coach ever! Sorry, but that’s just flat out wrong
Maybe we’re defining success differently? I would agree that Cronin did not play Mara as much as he should’ve and that definitely cost ucla some wins.
But Mara was just a tall kid last year that developed into B10 starter-level center this year, which was why we were all screaming at Cronin to play him more.
But like I said, injuries and illnesses probably hampered Mara’s already poor conditioning so perhaps that’s one reason why he didn’t see the court as much.
I think I’m defining success as proper development and proper use of players. I think everyone here can agree that cronin has completely misused Mara. So I would not define Mara as a success story given that he could be much better developed under a different coach who played him more minutes
If he didn’t have room for him, then why’d he have him come to ucla in the first place? There’s no 5-star in the country that plans to warm the bench in college. Minutes or not, Peyton Watson was a clear fail for cronin
well this guy faults Cronin for breathing, so ya he is. Cronin developed Watson into a first round draft pick who is now a key rotation piece on an NBA contender at the age of 22. Yeah...total fail.
I'm faulting Cronin for bringing 5-star recruits that he doesn't know how to develop. Peyton and now Mara...
Again, if you actually think Cronin developed Peyton during that season, then we must have been watching different games. Peyton was constantly lost, getting beat of the dribble, out of position, and 1 out of 5 stars on the offensive side.
Peyton was a shock first round draft pick. He was the very last pick. Here's an excerpt from an article on NBA.com about the pick:
"Watson's ascendance was anything but guaranteed. He was drafted with the very last pick of the 2022 first round. Moreover, he averaged the fewest points per game in college (3.3) of any player ever selected with the first 30 picks of an NBA draft. Still, Nuggets general manager, Calvin Booth, called it an "easy pick." In fact, he wanted to trade up for Watson."
Watson was drafted based on his length and potential alone... it had nothing to do with any development by Cronin.
Was I frustrated with how Mara was used this season? Yes. Is it possible that he was never consistently healthy to be fully utilized? Probably also yes. Is the book closed on Mara? I hope not... but if you don't think he made any progress, if you watched UCLA-zona in 2023 and Mara against Ballo and Indiana this season and don't see progress on Mara's part... not sure what I can say
Yes, you are right and I actually do agree, Mara clearly did make strides.
Would he have made better strides under a different coach? That's my ultimate question... and I think Mara's decision, and the reasons he wanted to leave shows that he probably shares some of my beliefs. I think Mara will be developed better under a different coaching staff then at UCLA. Just like Watson was better suited to be developed by different coaches in the NBA
Neither of us were "in the room" to know how much truth there is in the "demands" letter and its likely the truth may lie somewhere in between, but while I'll grant you that Cronin doesn't have a track record with bigs, it's also possible that one of the biggest impediments to Mara's development - along with health - might very well be Mara if almost any of the listed "demands" are factual - or at least the hanger's on, agents, AAU-types, and let's call them "stage parents" who have given him an over-inflated sense of self-importance... it wouldn't be the first time, right? Again, neither of us know, but his lack of fitness in the early season and clearly watching him get gassed after a brief run on the floor at various points not related to mono/noro does suggest fitness and maniacal dedication aren't exactly a priority of his, lending some credence to thinking some of what's in that document is real.
I agree that Watson was anything but a success for UCLA - FWIW, I'd of considered an arc like that of Amari Bailey at UCLA would have been a success at UCLA even if Watson is currently having more early NBA success which is a different discussion.
I think I fall somewhere within your group of opinionators. But Pat Riley has won championships, and I've been waiting forever (30 years now, and counting) for ANY head coach to do the same at UCLA.
Not taking anything away from Pat Riley but when he took over the Lakers, he already had Magic and Kareem on the team. And when he took over the Heat, he had a still dominant Shaq and Dwayne Wade just entering his prime. Nowadays even in college, you need that sort of talent. A bunch of good players that won’t be draft picks won’t get you anywhere these days no matter how good of a coach you are
For NIL, how do we know what specific recruits are asking for? Is there somewhere where they post how much they're asking per season? Is that like the first question a coach asks a potential recruit?
It’s usually not publicly broadcast, but in general the agent for the player will communicate the initial ask to a coaching staff early in the process. On the coaching side, they’re going to try and build the relationship first, then figure out if they have the NIL funds to make something happen later.
Sort of Off topic. What say the person who argued vehimently that Cronin would announce his departure last Tuesday? Maybe next Tuesday (buyout drops)??
Reading articles about Dent in the transfer portal, almost every elite team is "after" him. Most articles say Kentucky has the inside tract. And he will probably get far more than the 2 or 3 million that is mentioned by Dimitri.
It’s interesting. I see a lot of smoke around ucla, with the LA Times, CBS Sports, Sporting News, and a bunch of other Twitter accounts connecting him to ucla. I would say 50/50. He’s definitely the best player in the portal but who knows how he’ll handle the step-up in competition?
Why are you such a jerk? I guess all recruits who come to UCLA are morons, right? You're the type of fan UCLA doesn't need. You whine about UCLA's recruiting and when UCLA is actively recruiting the most elite guard in the transfer portal, you say that player is a moron if they come to UCLA. You're an idiot.
Dent is an elite offensive player who would flourish at a program that knows how to play offense. I think dent has made one of the biggest mistakes of his career in going to play for a joystick coach.
Players like Kobe who like to focus on defense are good recruiting decisions. I really don’t think cronin will know what to do with a guy like dent
Curious who will be the junior Joseph Nelly to compliment dent now that he’s at UCLA. Cronin doesn’t have a good defensive 5 anymore. Bilo is not a 5.
Now I agree that bilo and Skye can shoot the three, but that’s not cronins offensive scheme to have a free flowing offense that drives and dishes to the open player. He has the dribble drive to nowhere and pray iso offense perfected by players like Mack. If Cronin reinvents his offense, then we will see, but the style of offense that Cronin plays is the same. The better his defense, the easier it is to look efficient at offense.
Looks like Xavier Booker 6'11" former 5* 2023 McD All American who did little at Michigan State for 2 years has committed as far as who would fill the Nelly role as it were - tho when he played, he was more of shooting big than a true post by reports - clearly underachieved his ratings at Michigan St but maybe benefits from a change of scenery. Clearly going from Izzo to Cronin means he's prepared for and ok with the style (wouldn't be surprised if Izzo steered him towards Cronin the way Cronin promoted Dent to Richard Pitino once Andrews committed when they were both being recruited - that sort of thing happens more than we know behind the scenes)
This was one of my favorite Cronin comments this season… for part II can you at least comment on the dark side of Cronin and how poorly these comments reflect on the basketball program to incoming recruits?
“I don’t need to do anything else. I almost got 500 wins. I’m only 53,” Cronin said. “You’d think I’m coaching the Lakers. It’s a joke. I come in and I have more passion and energy and pride than everybody in there. That’s the problem.”
they are the ultimate bandwagon fans. A 3 game losing streak and the sky is falling, a 3 game winning streak and everything is fixed. Only as good or bad as the last game. Very pedestrian and lazy analysis imo.
A complete whip around, and my nerves were shot of a few days. I probably should have deleted my comment, but I didn't want to take anything away from Donovan Dent. His NIL agreement was not binding and he could have backed out of the deal when Mara entered the portal. Dent was fully committed and enrolled and for that I am grateful!
My opinions don’t matter… I’ve run out of hopium. Let’s see if cronin can recreate himself and bring a new brand of offense. Unless dent is now the new coach, the offense is going to look the exact same. The defense will be fine… the question has always been if cronins brand of iso offense is good enough to make ucla elite. Unless some substantial new coaching schemes reveal themselves, I just don’t see any reason to get excited.
Besides dent, who is making the baskets next year? Who are the three point shooters? Who is going to be the consistent scoring threat that compliments dent? Time will tell I guess…
I don't see that we have anymore PG minutes. Thomas is the #4 transfer recruit in the country. He's not going somewhere to be a backup. He'll be starting on a good team next year.
Do you wake up each morning, look in the mirror and say "I hate you"? Dent is coming to UCLA after "somebody" named Baskets said he would be a moron if he came. Who is the moron now?
One things for certain, we won’t actually know who the moron is until we see how next season goes. If dent leads ucla as a top 10 team for the entire 25-26 season, then yes I’ll be the moron and state the obvious that I was wrong.
If ucla struggles to stay relevant just outside the top 25 for another full season, then you can make your own conclusions… and also let me know that I was in fact right. We have another 10 months to draw any final conclusions
Howland, during his farewell tour, also rolled out a newer offense.
Cronin has had two seasons of experimentation and I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that this next one will also be categorized as experimental so that he can save his bass if it doesn’t work.
For some reason cronin has been given a really long leash to experiment as much as he pleases. Let’s just say I’ll be shocked if this years experiment sees ucla as a top 10 team that is relevant again. I’m not holding my breath as my hopium dealer decided to enter the transfer portal searching for a better nil deal
Dent will likely create offense and get his own shot more efficiently than Mack did but I still wish Mack had stayed... tough-minded kid who would have been a good back-up for Dent... if it means more minutes for Perry, that's probably a good thing but I hope Mack has success wherever he lands.
I have a soft spot for Mack, but I am a realist and figured he was not going to spend the upcoming season on the bench. I hope he does great wherever he lands.
He still would’ve been first off the bench over Perry and Freeny imo but he’s gotten recruited over two years in a row now so I’m guessing he wants to go somewhere he can start. Whoever picks him up will be lucky to have him, imo.
Just to put a bow on an earlier lengthy discussion - Willard officially to Villanova (only surprised it took a week after Maryland was eliminated, IMHO)
It’s more Nova is fully committed to basketball (since they don’t have football at the FBS level) while Maryland’s AD just left for another job like 2 weeks ago and Willard clearly was not happy with the basketball team’s treatment by Maryland. Go watch his press conference before their opening round (I think) where he just goes in on the AD who was about to leave.
SMU was doing "NIL" 40 years ago - ever watch the 30-for-30 "Pony Excess"? - and last year made a $200 Million payment (raising $100 million in a week!) and forwent 9 years of any TV revenue just to join the ACC after their chief booster was quoted as saying about the negotiations, "It's a couple hundred million dollars," Miller told Yahoo. "I'm not losing sleep over it."... the joke is, at SMU, "NIL" means "Now It's Legal"... So, if its "just about the bag"...
Ah yes I did a deep dive on some rumors earlier in the week and even unearthed a text string on Reddit about Willard not going to the team dinner before the last game. I figured it was only a matter of time before Villanova announced the hire. My niece who is a graduate sent me a copy of the announcement from this morning.
Except I don't 💯 agree with the absolute need for NBA level talent or 5 star players. Sure it's great to have one or two amazing 5 star players...
But I would also like to fill the roster with young men who have great character and work ethic who will develop into true leaders with championship level skills.
I don't put as much focus on the number of stars behind a player's name as I do on the intangibles that come with a player that will lead to greatness.
How do you create a developmental program in a transfer portal era?
Secretly, it's doing what UCLA seems to be doing the past few cycles, bringing in either four-star freshmen or guys who have played one season, and then working them into a team with more veterans. They're not expected to be major contributors, but they can see the path forward.
Spot on? Complaining about recruiting for years and when UCLA actively recruits the best guard in the portal, Baskets says that player is a moron if he chooses UCLA. Sorry, I vehemently disagree with his idiocy.
I 💯 don't agree with the moron comment, either. That was not called for, and I hate the name calling by anyone. No person is a moron for wanting to be a Bruin.
Great post Dimitri. I was expecting you would also address some of the issues that people continually critiqued Cronin during the season, vis-a-vis his substitution pattern and player playing position and playing time. Maybe on your next write up.
A lot of that is wrapped up in the Mara and Andrews discussion, so it made sense to wait for the next one to tackle those. I went more big picture on these ones.
Feel bad for Andrews. Nothing bad to say about him. But he is just not a starting PG on the elite team we strive to be. He'd be a fine addition to USC or a mid major.
We need a valid center or big forward in this recruiting class. Or both. The paint play was bad.
And guards that pass to the centers and forwards to score.
Great post!
It’s really crazy that freshmen who’ve never played a minute in college are commanding amounts that most nba draft picks don’t even get! If this is the future of hs recruiting, I’m ok just recruiting transfers year after year.
As for continuity, seems like we’ll have pretty good continuity for next yr with Clark, Bilodeau, Dailey, and Trent Perry all confirmed to be returning. Not sure what that means for Dent but it’s good to have Perry confirmed back!
Great breakdown!
Thanks (?) for proving me to be the idiot that I am--again!--with empirical evidence that the Crnin offense is leading and evolving. However, I say it’s spinach, and I say the hell with it!
Further, "seems long and meandering and lacking in a point" perfectly describes this season to me.
Yes, a foundation for next year, but absolutely no front court depth as of this writing.
Can't wait for Part 2!
I buried the lede since I'm gonna talk about it in part 2, but I thought I hinted at it enough times that Mara is returning barring an NBA team promising him a 1st round pick, and at that point you just need a backup big because Bilodeau is coming back with the understanding that he is going to primarily play his natural position at the four.
I understood so. However, my point:
Who subs for Mara?
Who subs for Bilo?
Who subs for Dailey?
I don't think there's anyone on the depth chart at the 5, 4, or 3, and Bilo out of position at the 5 proved untenable all season.
I’ll do it quickly here: you get a backup big who can give you 15 or so minutes at the 5, with Mara taking 25+. Bilodeau can take spot minutes here against certain lineups but he should be taking 25-30 at the four. Dailey takes the backup minutes there and at the 3, but for him to play at the 3 more consistently he needs to slim down. Brandon Williams is also an option that will be back at the 3/4, but UCLA will likely look for a 3andD wing that can play the 2/3 if they get Dent.
I understood so. However, my point, again:
Who subs for Mara?
Who subs for Bilo?
Who subs for Dailey?
None to date.
Sure, bring in a 5, but Bilo and Dailey playing musical chairs means too many total minutes, with too many of those minutes out of position.
Expecting DWill to contribute heavily in rotation off of a red shirt season, with 3 mpg as a freshman, is not Crnin's m. o.
I understand you can't engage in back-and-forth, so I appreciate your reply, and await your further analysis in Part 2.
Yeah, the off-season just started. Impatient much?
Dent's a Bruin. Now let's get some frontline support. Go Bruins.
I think you're mixing up the Williams. Brandon Williams played 17.4 mpg his freshman year prior to his redshirt, not 3.
Thanks. Corrected.
Great objective analysis supported by data and metrics! I agree, the inconsistent performance by this year's team sure made it difficult to judge whether it was indeed a successful season or not. I would still prefer to see more ball movement, screens, and pick-and-rolls in their offense. Coach Cronin's offense seems so much worse than the metrics whenever the 1-on-1, iso-ball offense stagnates (with the rest of the team just standing around), the shots don't fall (with no offensive rebounding), and the team in general is having a hard time scoring (especially against elite defenses). The Bruins also had no true, tough, go-to guy who was consistently successful in the iso-ball attack as in years past. I also hope someone on the coaching staff can figure out how to teach the players how to handle full-court pressure next season.
Go Bruins!
The ability to handle a full court pressure comes from an offense that is free flowing. When you have a team like this cronin coached teams, the goal is to get up and then hang on… that’s why games that should be blow outs turn into nail biters…
Contrast this with programs like duke, Florida, Alabama, Arizona who have the green light to step on the gas and shoot 3-pt shots when they’re open, to make a fast break layup instead of taking time off the clock. It’s why cronin basketball is boring to watch because as soon as he gets a lead, he completely joysticks every single possession! None of the players have freedom to actually play basketball anymore… they have to play cronin ball
The ball needs to move with quick passing instead of deliberate dribbling, with every player moving to open spots on the floor in some pre-planned fashion in order to be successful against a full-court press/front-court trap. If that's what you meant by "free-flowing" offense, then I would agree. What's interesting to learn is that Tennessee apparently has 3 different press schemes in their playbook, and the one they used against the Bruins hadn't been run as often and is actually the least agressive of the three. Guess it didn't take too much to cause a lot of havoc for the Bruins...
A free flowing offense is one where the players are given the ability to make their own basketball decisions real time. Cronin coached players have to check in with him before they can go to the bathroom. The reason his teams crack under full court pressure, or any defensive pressure for that matter, is because they no longer have the ability to check in with cronin on what to do with the ball.
In a free flowing offense, the player breaks the press and goes for a dunk or takes an open 3 pt shot regardless of how much time came off the clock. In a cronin coached world, the player who goes in for a dunk may actually get benched if cronin thinks more time should have been taken off the clock. The player who shoots the open three gets benched because cronin wanted to make the decision on what happened with the ball.
When you take away all creativity and ability for a player to think on their own, you wind up with a bunch of players who live a life of fear and can no longer think for themselves when it matters. A free flowing offense is one that is not joysticked by the coach. Where players are allowed to be creative and will learn to think for themselves. Cronin players don’t get this freedom and is why they always crack under pressure and blow large leads. They live life of fear afraid to make a mistake
Yep, I also had a lot of fun being involved in playground hoops as a kid. No coach needed to yell at us or to ask permission for bathroom breaks, either.
Agreed, better to have no coach than a coach who thinks he’s a rockstar. Cronin is clearly not someone who ever played elite basketball. Probably why he controls every little detail because he actually has no idea what it looks like as a player
He led Cincinnati high schools in 3 point shooting and assists before suffering a bad knee injury. He was elite then. 🤣
FYI, I was only sharing my own experience in free-flowing (or free-for-all, to be more exact) as a kid. Sure was fun!
Unbelievable. When we had Steve Lavin, the complaint was that the offense is too free flowing and not any coaching is done from the sidelines. Now the complaint is that the offense is not free flowing and the coach should not dictate on the sideline. I guess you can't win regardless.
The free-flowing comments regarding the UCLA offense and not needing a coach sure are entertaining! Unfortunately, recollection of any past Bruin HC named "Steve" has been erased from my memory...
Multiple checkmarked/legit X accounts are reporting sources say Dent to UCLA. Legacy media not reporting it yet though and these posts have been up for about 12 hours, so i'm skeptical. Would make us a potential top 5 team.
Ironically, Cronin had recruited Dent the same time we offered Andrews. When Andrews accepted, we had no scholarships left and New Mexico gladly took him. Not how we anticipated it would turn out.
I disagree we are a top 5 team with Dent… we are a top 25 team. I watched Duke play today… they are just so good. Even with Arizona playing top of their range, couldn’t take them down. Alabama also completely destroyed BYU. I mean… top 5 is basically a 1 seed…
The last guy that was as good in college as Cooper Flagg is was probably Anthony Davis.
I don’t think much of Jon Scheyer as a coach and he should be thanking his lucky stars that Flagg is going to take him all the way to the national championship and Scheyer just needs to stay out of his way lol
"The critics of Mick Cronin love to harp on this idea that Cronin is a bad offensive coach, but there never seems to be any empirical evidence to back these statements up." Bullseye.
That Mick Crnin sure has a purty offense.
Check the scores and play of today's S16 games.
Can the Bruin's #37 ranked ORtg compete with any of those teams?
The ready answer requires no empirical evidence.
facts don't have feelings.
Agreed
Then what are the facts that the Bruin offense could defeat today's winners Alabama, FL, Duke and Tx Tech, or even losers MD, Arkansas, BYU or firing-on-all cylinders Arizona?
That’s the thing, if you know your offense is inferior you have to force them to play your game. Ben Howland did this too… we totally took the offense out of superior offenses like Memphis, Kansas, etc. Our best offensive players are Tyler and Skyy. Compare that to a Cooper Flagg or Caleb Love.
This season we beat Arizona 57-54 because we slowed the game down so much. If we play at their pace, we probably lose 9/10 times. If we force them to play at ours, it becomes more 50/50.
The problem with Cronins style is every game against a half decent team becomes close and is a nail biter to watch. And come NCAA tournament time, you need to be incredibly lucky to win a streak of coin flips…
Our offense was inferior?!
Yes- Arizona has a better offensive team than us. They have better overall outside shooting, transition game, and guard play. You could make the argument that we have better bigs (offensively). But I stand by if we played at their pace I stand by we lose 9/10 times.
If we force them into playing a grinding game where we limit the number of possessions, we have a better chance of winning.
We did not have the talent to defeat most of those teams. It has nothing to do with coaching. Although we did beat Arizona. Our ceiling was always the Sweet 16. It is hard to make a run when you do not have a legitimate point guard. Nothing against Andrews, but that is just not him. Your reasoning can basically be summed up as follows: Cronin failed to build a Final 4 roster, therefore he is a bad coach.
Misstating and misrepresenting my points, again. I'll play along. Your reasoning can basically be summed up as follows: Crnin is a good coach because he's a good coach. (Alternately: He's a good coach because I said so.)
He’s a good coach because I said so 😂 …. Lmfao
if you are gong to argue that he's not a good coach, then you have no credibility whatsoever. If you want to argue that he is a good coach but has flaws, we can talk.
“It has nothing to do with coaching”…. Said no intelligent person ever. It ALWAYS has at a minimum a little to do with coaching. If you didn’t think that was the case, then you’d stop spouting your love of cronin in these threads. Because if it has nothing to do with coaching, then it clearly makes zero difference if cronin is the coach or not… as you like to state, I call that last statement fact
Piling on.
I was going to let it drop, but thanks for stating the obvious--scouting, evaluation, acquisition and roster management have everything to do with coaching. Although, the miss on Dylan might be 20/20 hindsight. Regardless, the defense of Crnin used here actually is a criticism.
Why isn’t Tamara scolding you for using insults here?
OK, fair point. But if that's true then doesn't Cronin deserve *some* credit for the Final Four run? If nothing else, keeping them focused and locked in enough that the first win momentum carried over - unlike UNC this year - and Juzang's "heater" didn't just turn into John Tonje scored 37 in a losing cause (and airballed the final shot... but I digress). And, if he really deserves no credit for the Final Four run, doesn't he then deserve no real blame for a Final Four-level, credible national champion contender being derailed by a non-contact season-ending injury to the national defensive player of the year right before the tournament? I know from other posts you are an admirer of Rick Barnes - same thing happened to him last year when Ziegler ruptured his ACL in early March and even with Dalton Knecht, he couldn't overcome it as a top 5 team... so is that also a failure of Barnes?
Bringing in Dent is a big win for the program and for Cronin- I think it's OK to celebrate that even if it doesn't mean everything is seashells and balloons.
And whose fault might it be that ucla doesn’t have a legitimate pg. could it be the man behind the curtain? Is this team assembled by the board of directors at ucla? Perhaps you assembled this team? Heck, I bet you could do a better job than cronin. If you’re going to make excuses for this team being poorly assembled, perhaps you should put SOME of the blame on the man running this program. You can blame the nil all you want, but as you so aptly pointed out, there are at least 40 other pg’s in D1 college basketball that are better than Andrews and not a one of them is playing for the man in charge right now… that’s cronins fault, make no ifs buts or huh about it
Our guards weren’t good. But Cronin did not develop Mara well. 2 years, and he’s not even a 1st rounder whereas coming in scouts had him as a lottery pick.
Also, why keep playing Andrews and Mack vs. developing Trent Perry? We should seen a gradual handoff where Andrews is coming off the bench with a Perry / Clark backcourt. Cronin rode Mack too long too… he just drives like a truck into traffic.
I would have supported Andrews losing playing time to Perry, but not a lot of overlap between Mack's and Perry's role. Mack was an important piece of our offense even though he underperformed. His decision to transfer less about this year and more bout next year. His minutes declined from 27 to 21 and were going to substantially decrease again next year.
and the fact is we got our butt kicked before the sweet 16 round. The offense speaks for itself. You don't need data. Just go watch the Tennessee game again.
What's the defensive metrics of those teams? BYU sucks at D. They gave up 113 to Bama.
The same Bama that then turned around and only scored 65 in the next game against Duke and went from 25 made 3s to shooting 25% from 3... guess Nate Oats must not be a very good coach by some folk's metrics...
Thanks for the stats to back your opinions as I clearly just bring the eye test to most of my analysis 😂
I clearly have an issue with this season being placed as a success. When finishing outside the top 25 season is still viewed as a success, that’s when I have an issue. Mediocrity is what the cronin supporters seem to have settled for. Cronin making those final fours was a fluke. I don’t think he’ll recreate it at ucla.
Also interesting to me how much effort was placed to support a clear egotistical asshole that cronin is! It’s funny how many people constantly harped on Alford and his morals… yet here we are with another coach who definitely competes with Alford when it comes to his level of ego. Cronin is clearly a very dislikable person outside of this group. It won’t take you long to find a plethora of post game interviews of cronin talking about how amazing he is while everyone else in his program is dog sh!t. Those that can support this type of person, kudos to you, but I can’t support this ahole
As for dent coming to ucla… if you actually think dent will go from a program where he could play how he wanted, to a program that has a coach that joysticks his offense, you must be delusional. If dent comes to play for cronin, then he’s an absolute moron. That would have been like Caleb love coming to play in a free flowing offense at UNC, to playing under cronin who controls every single possession. Sure, ucla offense is efficient because cronin makes sure they slow every single play down and decides who will get the ball for their iso opportunity. No actual nba prospect wants to play for cronin. They want to play for a program where they can make their mistakes and learn.
So sure, if you’re happy with this season and view it as a success, then cronin is your guy. If you like a joystick coach, who is a clear ahole, that isn’t bringing any nba level scoring talent EVER, then cronin is your guy. If you want a guy who know how to blame everyone but himself, cronin is your guy. If you enjoy coming up with a thousand end of season excuses to suffer through another season of mediocrity, cronin is your guy. If you like a boring slow style of play with a bunch of 4-star recruits… Cronin is your guy.
As for me, Cronin is clearly not my guy, I’m sick of the mediocrity, I’m sick of the joystick, I’m sick of the angry little man syndrome, I’m sick of no fun basketball and want something new. I’m sick of the leader of the program taking zero responsibility for his failures. I’m sick of seasons like this being brushed off as a success because it’s better than the last guy
I’m on the fence re: Cronin, but I wouldn’t count him out for another final 4 or NC run.
I agree that he’s kind of a prick but disagree with you that nobody wants to play for him. Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Eric Dailey loved playing for Cronin. It takes a certain type of “I’m gonna work my bottom off” type of player that works in his system. Cronin is like the Pat Riley of college basketball.
Cronin needs to take accountability but I do not have an issue of him throwing players under the bus if they rightly deserve it. Just because they are student athletes doesn’t mean they should be treated softly. After all, they’re making 7, maybe even 8 figures- yeah they better be able to take the heat when they don’t deliver. Most of them are mercenaries that have no loyalty to the program, so yeah they should be treated as such.
This is very true… my nba comments are definitely way over exaggerated. There will be some players that wind up here with nba level talent. The problem is that I just don’t believe in cronins ability to develop them. Mara is the easy player to point to this year and say, what the hell is cronin doing? Mara would be better off at a program like Purdue where he would be getting the most play time through a coach that has patience with his bigs.
Peyton Watson is another who you have to look at the season he had and wonder why cronin didn’t give him a real chance to make mistakes and learn.
I’d also say that bona was poorly developed at ucla. He was athletic enough to learn defense on his own. Under a coach that knows what to do with bigs, bona would have had a better opportunity to shine in college. I think Kansas for example would have been a better fit for him developmentally.
Doesn’t matter what I think. It’s clear the mediocrity supporters will get their wish of “one more season”!!!
I actually think Mara and Bona are two examples of pretty big successes of Cronin developing big men.
Mara went from a very raw talent to the best player on the team. He was setback by injuries and lots of illness this year which affected his conditioning.
Bona also went from someone with freak athleticism with no offensive game to a draft pick and now a regular contributor in the nba.
And we can’t forget guys like Tyger, Jaime, Jaylen Clark that all improved year after year under Cronin’s system.
Even his in-season development has been really good - Dailey improved, Skyy Clark’s offensive game became more consistent, and Kobe Johnson shook off a lot of bad habits on defense.
I would say the only miss that Cronin had in developing players during his ucla tenure is Dylan Andrews, which is surprising bc at the end of last season, Andrews looked like he could’ve been the best PG in the conference.
Peyton Watson wasn’t a miss for you?
Nope. If he had stayed another year, I would’ve expected to see a massive jump like Jaylen Clark.
Jaylen Clark was a defender… Peyton wasn’t. Why did you expect some massive jump? Watson wasn’t willing to play defense the way Cronin wanted and would have spent another year on the bench. How does that equate to a massive jump? Serious question this time 🙂
There’s no way that you could ever support this argument. We are only talking about the results that were apparent during the time spent with cronin. You can’t just say if so and so had stayed another year then Cronin would have made them better… given the time he had with Watson, there was no visible evidence of improvement… give him more time they say… hogwash. That’s like saying if Watson had spent 40 more hours a week in shooting the ball he would have gotten better. It didn’t happen so all we have to go off of is the evidence at hand. The evidence at hand and the eye test during that season is that Watson didn’t improve, thus cronin failed. But whatever…
Another point of context, I could say the exact same thing thing about zach lavine. He certainly wasn’t a miss for Steve Alford because if he had just stayed one more year under Alford he would have made a significant jump. If zach had just stayed one more season at ucla I would’ve expected to see a massive jump in 3 pt percentage just like Bryce Alford! So by your logic, Zach lavine is a success under Steve Alford… do you see how far fetched that sounds?
Your calling Watson a success is no different than my fallacy above that zach lavine was a success under Alford… give them one more year! Cronin is the best coach ever! Sorry, but that’s just flat out wrong
Peyton Watson was a smashing success.
🙄
lmfao... Evan actually agrees with me for a change. I assume this is some sarcasm. If you're serious, then I really don't know what to say
And also, you call Mara a success? Man, even army going to have a hard time supporting you on that one
Maybe we’re defining success differently? I would agree that Cronin did not play Mara as much as he should’ve and that definitely cost ucla some wins.
But Mara was just a tall kid last year that developed into B10 starter-level center this year, which was why we were all screaming at Cronin to play him more.
But like I said, injuries and illnesses probably hampered Mara’s already poor conditioning so perhaps that’s one reason why he didn’t see the court as much.
I think I’m defining success as proper development and proper use of players. I think everyone here can agree that cronin has completely misused Mara. So I would not define Mara as a success story given that he could be much better developed under a different coach who played him more minutes
Army wanted Mara to play more. LMAO. You don't know what you are talking about.
Whose minutes were you giving to Peyton Watson?
If he didn’t have room for him, then why’d he have him come to ucla in the first place? There’s no 5-star in the country that plans to warm the bench in college. Minutes or not, Peyton Watson was a clear fail for cronin
Are you seriously faulting Cronin for successfully bringing in a 5-star recruit?
well this guy faults Cronin for breathing, so ya he is. Cronin developed Watson into a first round draft pick who is now a key rotation piece on an NBA contender at the age of 22. Yeah...total fail.
I'm faulting Cronin for bringing 5-star recruits that he doesn't know how to develop. Peyton and now Mara...
Again, if you actually think Cronin developed Peyton during that season, then we must have been watching different games. Peyton was constantly lost, getting beat of the dribble, out of position, and 1 out of 5 stars on the offensive side.
Peyton was a shock first round draft pick. He was the very last pick. Here's an excerpt from an article on NBA.com about the pick:
"Watson's ascendance was anything but guaranteed. He was drafted with the very last pick of the 2022 first round. Moreover, he averaged the fewest points per game in college (3.3) of any player ever selected with the first 30 picks of an NBA draft. Still, Nuggets general manager, Calvin Booth, called it an "easy pick." In fact, he wanted to trade up for Watson."
Watson was drafted based on his length and potential alone... it had nothing to do with any development by Cronin.
Was I frustrated with how Mara was used this season? Yes. Is it possible that he was never consistently healthy to be fully utilized? Probably also yes. Is the book closed on Mara? I hope not... but if you don't think he made any progress, if you watched UCLA-zona in 2023 and Mara against Ballo and Indiana this season and don't see progress on Mara's part... not sure what I can say
Yes, you are right and I actually do agree, Mara clearly did make strides.
Would he have made better strides under a different coach? That's my ultimate question... and I think Mara's decision, and the reasons he wanted to leave shows that he probably shares some of my beliefs. I think Mara will be developed better under a different coaching staff then at UCLA. Just like Watson was better suited to be developed by different coaches in the NBA
Neither of us were "in the room" to know how much truth there is in the "demands" letter and its likely the truth may lie somewhere in between, but while I'll grant you that Cronin doesn't have a track record with bigs, it's also possible that one of the biggest impediments to Mara's development - along with health - might very well be Mara if almost any of the listed "demands" are factual - or at least the hanger's on, agents, AAU-types, and let's call them "stage parents" who have given him an over-inflated sense of self-importance... it wouldn't be the first time, right? Again, neither of us know, but his lack of fitness in the early season and clearly watching him get gassed after a brief run on the floor at various points not related to mono/noro does suggest fitness and maniacal dedication aren't exactly a priority of his, lending some credence to thinking some of what's in that document is real.
I agree that Watson was anything but a success for UCLA - FWIW, I'd of considered an arc like that of Amari Bailey at UCLA would have been a success at UCLA even if Watson is currently having more early NBA success which is a different discussion.
I think I fall somewhere within your group of opinionators. But Pat Riley has won championships, and I've been waiting forever (30 years now, and counting) for ANY head coach to do the same at UCLA.
Not taking anything away from Pat Riley but when he took over the Lakers, he already had Magic and Kareem on the team. And when he took over the Heat, he had a still dominant Shaq and Dwayne Wade just entering his prime. Nowadays even in college, you need that sort of talent. A bunch of good players that won’t be draft picks won’t get you anywhere these days no matter how good of a coach you are
Bitch, whine, bitch.
Dent committed to UCLA. Maybe you're the delusional one.
You’re right. I’m wrong. You’re the best. I’m the worst…
I think he’s making a gigantic mistake. We will see by the end of next season
Okay, Eeyore.
For NIL, how do we know what specific recruits are asking for? Is there somewhere where they post how much they're asking per season? Is that like the first question a coach asks a potential recruit?
It’s usually not publicly broadcast, but in general the agent for the player will communicate the initial ask to a coaching staff early in the process. On the coaching side, they’re going to try and build the relationship first, then figure out if they have the NIL funds to make something happen later.
Sort of Off topic. What say the person who argued vehimently that Cronin would announce his departure last Tuesday? Maybe next Tuesday (buyout drops)??
Reading articles about Dent in the transfer portal, almost every elite team is "after" him. Most articles say Kentucky has the inside tract. And he will probably get far more than the 2 or 3 million that is mentioned by Dimitri.
It’s interesting. I see a lot of smoke around ucla, with the LA Times, CBS Sports, Sporting News, and a bunch of other Twitter accounts connecting him to ucla. I would say 50/50. He’s definitely the best player in the portal but who knows how he’ll handle the step-up in competition?
Again, if dent comes to play at ucla he and his advisors are morons
Why are you such a jerk? I guess all recruits who come to UCLA are morons, right? You're the type of fan UCLA doesn't need. You whine about UCLA's recruiting and when UCLA is actively recruiting the most elite guard in the transfer portal, you say that player is a moron if they come to UCLA. You're an idiot.
Dent is an elite offensive player who would flourish at a program that knows how to play offense. I think dent has made one of the biggest mistakes of his career in going to play for a joystick coach.
Players like Kobe who like to focus on defense are good recruiting decisions. I really don’t think cronin will know what to do with a guy like dent
Well he committed, now what? Is he still a moron and are you still going to talk out of your ass?
he's still on the Cronin sucks at offense train. he's having a tough week.
Dent will play the Allen Iverson role. You surround him with 4 defensive players that can shoot 3s and run ISOs for him all day.
Curious who will be the junior Joseph Nelly to compliment dent now that he’s at UCLA. Cronin doesn’t have a good defensive 5 anymore. Bilo is not a 5.
Now I agree that bilo and Skye can shoot the three, but that’s not cronins offensive scheme to have a free flowing offense that drives and dishes to the open player. He has the dribble drive to nowhere and pray iso offense perfected by players like Mack. If Cronin reinvents his offense, then we will see, but the style of offense that Cronin plays is the same. The better his defense, the easier it is to look efficient at offense.
Looks like Xavier Booker 6'11" former 5* 2023 McD All American who did little at Michigan State for 2 years has committed as far as who would fill the Nelly role as it were - tho when he played, he was more of shooting big than a true post by reports - clearly underachieved his ratings at Michigan St but maybe benefits from a change of scenery. Clearly going from Izzo to Cronin means he's prepared for and ok with the style (wouldn't be surprised if Izzo steered him towards Cronin the way Cronin promoted Dent to Richard Pitino once Andrews committed when they were both being recruited - that sort of thing happens more than we know behind the scenes)
This was one of my favorite Cronin comments this season… for part II can you at least comment on the dark side of Cronin and how poorly these comments reflect on the basketball program to incoming recruits?
“I don’t need to do anything else. I almost got 500 wins. I’m only 53,” Cronin said. “You’d think I’m coaching the Lakers. It’s a joke. I come in and I have more passion and energy and pride than everybody in there. That’s the problem.”
I love Cronin's command of the English language 🤣 He frequently displays a lack of understanding of basic grammar.
it was a big f'ing problem. And kudos to him for putting everyone, including his assistant coaches, on blast. Solved that problem really quickly.
How quickly these 🤡s forget that 7 game winning streak.
they are the ultimate bandwagon fans. A 3 game losing streak and the sky is falling, a 3 game winning streak and everything is fixed. Only as good or bad as the last game. Very pedestrian and lazy analysis imo.
CDS
Dent has committed to ucla!!!!
Just read it! BRO reporting. You beat me to it, Chen.
Dent committed Baskets. I dare you to call him a moron to his face. 🤡
Huge get for CMC and MOW! Welcome home Donovan Dent! With the other players who have locked in status, I am really looking forward to next season!
Oh how I wish this aged better, mom. I went from really excited like you to gut punched in a couple days. Ah, such is UCLA MBB.
A complete whip around, and my nerves were shot of a few days. I probably should have deleted my comment, but I didn't want to take anything away from Donovan Dent. His NIL agreement was not binding and he could have backed out of the deal when Mara entered the portal. Dent was fully committed and enrolled and for that I am grateful!
My opinions don’t matter… I’ve run out of hopium. Let’s see if cronin can recreate himself and bring a new brand of offense. Unless dent is now the new coach, the offense is going to look the exact same. The defense will be fine… the question has always been if cronins brand of iso offense is good enough to make ucla elite. Unless some substantial new coaching schemes reveal themselves, I just don’t see any reason to get excited.
Besides dent, who is making the baskets next year? Who are the three point shooters? Who is going to be the consistent scoring threat that compliments dent? Time will tell I guess…
You make it sound like the roster construction is finished but there’s still 4 more scholarship spots.
Besides, Clark and Bilodeau shot 40% from 3 this season. Dailey shot 38%. Good, not great. It’s not inconceivable they improve on that for next year
Skyy Clark is a player that Cronin developed well- he should be our #2 option. We will have a solid backcourt with Perry playing backup minutes.
Mara and Dailey need to make some sort of jump for us to be competitive with top teams next year.
I am also hopeful we bring in Dedan Thomas Jr. as another elite PG to backup Dent, and Magoon Gwath to backup Mara.
I don't see that we have anymore PG minutes. Thomas is the #4 transfer recruit in the country. He's not going somewhere to be a backup. He'll be starting on a good team next year.
Do you wake up each morning, look in the mirror and say "I hate you"? Dent is coming to UCLA after "somebody" named Baskets said he would be a moron if he came. Who is the moron now?
Baskets is.
well he has CDS (Cronin Derangement Syndrome)
One things for certain, we won’t actually know who the moron is until we see how next season goes. If dent leads ucla as a top 10 team for the entire 25-26 season, then yes I’ll be the moron and state the obvious that I was wrong.
If ucla struggles to stay relevant just outside the top 25 for another full season, then you can make your own conclusions… and also let me know that I was in fact right. We have another 10 months to draw any final conclusions
You're the moron for talking shit about Dent.
Did you even read Dmitri's article? He stated with statistics that Cronin has a newer offense
Howland, during his farewell tour, also rolled out a newer offense.
Cronin has had two seasons of experimentation and I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that this next one will also be categorized as experimental so that he can save his bass if it doesn’t work.
For some reason cronin has been given a really long leash to experiment as much as he pleases. Let’s just say I’ll be shocked if this years experiment sees ucla as a top 10 team that is relevant again. I’m not holding my breath as my hopium dealer decided to enter the transfer portal searching for a better nil deal
Mack is entering portal. So Mack, DA, WK, and DW are all gone. Dent incoming. Perry, ED, Bilo, Skyy and Freeny all staying.
Other than WK, I don’t mind the losses. I am dreaming that we can also get Dedan Thomas Jr. as a backup PG and Magoon Gwath to back up Mara.
Dent will likely create offense and get his own shot more efficiently than Mack did but I still wish Mack had stayed... tough-minded kid who would have been a good back-up for Dent... if it means more minutes for Perry, that's probably a good thing but I hope Mack has success wherever he lands.
💯
there wasn't a spot for Mack. Writing was on the wall once Dent came in and Perry re-committed.
I have a soft spot for Mack, but I am a realist and figured he was not going to spend the upcoming season on the bench. I hope he does great wherever he lands.
He still would’ve been first off the bench over Perry and Freeny imo but he’s gotten recruited over two years in a row now so I’m guessing he wants to go somewhere he can start. Whoever picks him up will be lucky to have him, imo.
Just to put a bow on an earlier lengthy discussion - Willard officially to Villanova (only surprised it took a week after Maryland was eliminated, IMHO)
I don't know the hierarchy or their respective slush funding. Is Nova an upgrade over the Terps?
It’s more Nova is fully committed to basketball (since they don’t have football at the FBS level) while Maryland’s AD just left for another job like 2 weeks ago and Willard clearly was not happy with the basketball team’s treatment by Maryland. Go watch his press conference before their opening round (I think) where he just goes in on the AD who was about to leave.
That begs the question whether SMU is an upgrade over Maryland. More Peyton Place drama. What's not to love about college athletics?
Also of note, that Crnin was the predicted sure hire before he wasn't.
Thanks.
SMU was doing "NIL" 40 years ago - ever watch the 30-for-30 "Pony Excess"? - and last year made a $200 Million payment (raising $100 million in a week!) and forwent 9 years of any TV revenue just to join the ACC after their chief booster was quoted as saying about the negotiations, "It's a couple hundred million dollars," Miller told Yahoo. "I'm not losing sleep over it."... the joke is, at SMU, "NIL" means "Now It's Legal"... So, if its "just about the bag"...
What's not to love, indeed? Ugh.
It's a sordid scene, alright.
💯
Agreed, in general Villanova is a "basketball school". At least more than Maryland
Maryland was the self-ascribed UCLA of the East with Lefty Dreisell. They considered themselves in the top tier.
Ah yes I did a deep dive on some rumors earlier in the week and even unearthed a text string on Reddit about Willard not going to the team dinner before the last game. I figured it was only a matter of time before Villanova announced the hire. My niece who is a graduate sent me a copy of the announcement from this morning.
But Cronin was going to take the job, 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣.
he was Nova's backup if Willard stayed at Maryland
Cronin is not any other AD first pick… he’s the back up on most AD lists 😂 we agree on something else