Given the stark contrast between Coach Close vs Cronin, and the way Lauren 💯 embraced and lived the loving, joy filled, connected, selfless, high character and growth mindset culture of the Lady Bruins team and staff, I can't see Cronin matching up an any level with Dylan and the Betts family, IMHO.
Coach Close coaches very much like Coach Wooden did as he was her teacher. I doubt Coach Wooden would agree with your assessment.
The exact same teaching principles of the Pyramid of Success can apply to both men and women. And the Pyramid of Success is foundational to how Coach Close teaches and coaches.
I doubt the Betts family embraces the way Cronin coaches as it strays quite a ways from the Pyramid of Success.
Cronin is who he is... some like him, some don't. Some think he's a good coach, some don't.
But his last three seasons have been below average and that seems to be the new standard for the men's team.
Tamara, I fully understand your point. Unfortunately I don't agree with it.
I also knew Coach Wooden also. During my years at UCLA from 1971 to 1975, I worked at Powell Library. One of the tasks I was assigned to when I first start working there was to visit Coach Wooden once a week at his office next to the old Men's Gym. I would pick up his reading list of books and collect the books that he had read that week and return with his selected books. I won't bore you with the details, but I knew Coach Wooden probably as well as some of the players on the teams. We developed a friendship over those years, because like Coach Wooden, I was an avid reader, having grown up inside libraries. My mother was a librarian in the LA Public Library system and she often took me to work with her and I would sit and read and I read everything I could get my hands on.
Coach Wooden and I would often discuss the books we both read. He enjoyed his history books, both ancient and modern, biographies, philosophy, science, the great novels, and everything else. I even brought him science fiction books to see if he might enjoy them. It was not quite in his wheelhouse.
Coach Wooden would never judge a book by its cover.
In particular, I remember a very deep conversation we had about the book "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison. He had a very craftful way of cutting away at the peripheral context and finding the core message of the author or the lesson of events or the symbolism of thought. He was an English major at Purdue; I was an English major at UCLA and we both enjoyed the exploration of words and meaning. At the time, Invisible Man was a controversial book and was subjected to bans in public school libraries. I think Wooden enjoyed the book as he checked it out of Powell several times, probably to dig deeper into Ellison's quest for individual identity.
After Coach Wooden retired, I remained in contact with him by letter. He maintained an office on campus for awhile after retiring and I would visit him on occasion (usually when I was attending a game), but by then I had taken a job that required constant travel and our exchanges became less and less frequent.
I think Coach Wooden would displeased to know his many friends, players, and students who would come to his home and sit on his couch would be treated by media, fans, and on-lookers as if they touched by the hand of God. He considered himself to be an ordinary man who found success because he had a principled means of finding that success. If anything, he would hope that their successes came about because of their own individual determination and dedication to excellence and that it would be recognized that they paved their own way to success through their own unique effort.
Sure, Coach Close hung out with Coach Wooden and found success with this year's team. But in Wooden's retirement years, almost every UCLA coach sat on his couch. Farmer, Hazzard, Harrick, Lavin, Alford. I believe Larry Brown stayed away and did his own thing. But those who did chop it up with Coach Wooden did not find a lot of success, the exception being one Tyus Edney beeline to the hoop. Tyus probably sat on Coach Wooden's coach so that explains his rim run.
These guys tried their best, but their best was not good enough so perhaps sitting on Coach Wooden's coach is all that magical.
Coach Wooden certainly would not have the expectation that his living couch would spawn championship coaches. He would have said, if you want bad enough, go and get it, but have a principled approach and to accept failure as an opportunity to become better.
I most certainly think he would not view Cronin as a failure because Wooden would never judge a book by its cover. Nothing good ever comes from judging people without having personal insight. It's much the same as calling for JJ Redick's head on platter just because he dumped on 3 of his players quite publicly. People don't understand that the intensity level of mens basketball is like war and the court is a battlefield. Emotions flare up. It's part of the game.
I think Coach Wooden would understand that he could never have the success that he had in today's college basketball play for pay environment because players, especially in the mens' game, are playing for a bag of money and not for the coach. The women's game has not gotten to that point, yet... The womens team NIL money is fractional compared to what the men receive. The women play for each other because there's only a pittance of money to play for.
I believe it is incorrect to solely blame Cronin for the past 3 seasons when it is clear there is a lack of institutional control between the coach and the NIL collectives and that institutional responsibility belongs to the Athletic Director. Considering the coach is in charge of the recruiting but has no control over the NIL purse strings, the pay to play system is an unmanageable system that, at some point in time, will implode. The coach recruits a player based on fit in his system, he negotiates an amount of money agreeable to that player, yet his ability to obtain the funds for that player has to be agreed upon by a 3rd party, the NIL collective, who has the right of refusal to pay that negotiated amount of money.
Who can successfully run a company when the operating money is required to come from a 3rd party source that is 1) not company controlled and 2) funded by donations and corporate sponsors and 3) the timing and availability of these funds are very irregular as both donors and corporate sponsors come and go.
The intermediary or bridge between the coach and the NIL fund is Martin Jarmond. The recent failures of the basketball and football teams lie in the hands of Jarmond.
The entire Joey Aguilar and Nico Iamaleava fiasco which undermined DeShaun Foster's season before the season even started was entirely Martin Jarmond's fault. Joey Aguilar spent 4 months on campus with his new teammates, then had the rug pulled out from under him when somebody (certainly not Foster) decided Nico was the more marketable player.
The loss of Mara was entirely Jarmond's fault. Again, Dent was the shiny new thing and the most buzzworthy player in the portal. Dent probably was making $50-$100K at New Mexico, who decided to give him $3 million? Keep in mind, Cronin doesn't control the money. Someone needed to understand that the guys you want to keep on the team need to eat first before the new guy. That person should be Jarmond.
And how did Jarmond not know that James Washington's collective (Bruins for Lifetime Sentences) was fraudalently masquerading as a 501(3)C charity? Where's the vetting process? Where's the institutional controls? Who has the conn? Who is steering the ship?
Answer: It's the guy who tried to push the football games into Sofi Stadium without first reading the breach terms of the Rose Bowl contract.
And this is all contained within one year of quality work put forth by the AD.
I am not going to complain about any UCLA coach especially when it comes to player personnel or performance so long as Martin Jarmond is steering the Titanic.
I'm perfectly fine with Cronin. As I've said, the men need to kick ass and take names. There is no parallel with the women's game other than it's played with 2 hoops and a ball. And as someone who coached AAU level boys and girls teams, I can say this as a fact.
I agree with your assessment Misterioso, as to MJ being the main problem......my question is, if our assessments (and I say "our" because many on this board have voiced this same opinion) are accurate, why hasn't our Chancellor, Dr. Julio Frenk, acted? Is he possibly looking for "cause" so that he doesn't have to pay any buy out (poor performance is not "cause")? If he is, maybe he is waiting for information to come out of the JW Collective or Rose Bowl contract legal matters that amount to something more that poor performance (possible illegal or at least insubordinate conduct). One can only hope that an AD change has some priority on his "list of things to do" before the next academic/athletic year.
Firing with cause almost never works unless the person being fired has committed some type of act that goes against societal norms, i.e. sexual harassment, public intoxication, assault and battery, etc. Coaches who are fired with cause simply for poor performance inevitably get their payout or settle for a reduced payout, but they never walk away empty handed.
To fire Mick Cronin today, it would cost the university $22.5M. To fire Martin Jarmond today, it would cost a few clicks over $7.1M. It would be money well spent.
Frenk can't fire Martin Jarmond without setting off a political firestorm of criticism.
Sorry misterioso, maybe I did not express myself well. I am not advocating for Cronin's firing.......and I would agree that even if one interpreted that his recent short trips to the NCAA's are his fault, that such performances would in no way amount to "cause." I was referring to our AD. Again, poor performance is not cause, but doing something illegal or insubordinate is.......firing Jarmond would not create a "political firestorm," maybe a "camp fire," but the extent of his involvement with the JW Collective or the Rose Bowl fiasco's (or the fact that they at least took place on his watch) would create enough leverage to "push him out" with a significantly lowered buy-out and reasons enough to obviate any real political response especially at a diversity oriented University like UCLA. I would like to see Frenk act decisively in this regard, as he did in letting go of his Chief Financial Officer Agostini.
The verdict in the alleged fraud of 'Bruins for Lifetime Sentences' could take years. So the 'powers that be' and the PR gang at UCLA can rest easy, stay silent and do nothing.
The RB-SoFi case will also take a long time to conclude. Meanwhile it is costing UCLA millions of $$$, while the negative fallout grows. But, the powers that be had a simple plan to pacifiy...
Because the RB case is still in a long drawn out process, the UCLA PR gang jumps on the podium and states how they are listening to fans and so UCLA will remain at the RB for football this coming season. BS, they are not listening, they don't care, they simply had no choice!
Back to the central issue, jelly 2.0.
Firing jelly 2.0 and paying his buyout is far less expensive than the monetary damages and public humiliation from these two cases, let alone the chipster fiasco, Foster fiasco, and on and on.
Frenk seems to lack the courage to do the right thing and fire his illustrious AD. And UCLA is doing great in sports this spring, so the full cover for him fits nicely.
The verdict in the alleged fraud case of 'Bruins for Lifetime Sentences' could take years. So the 'powers that be' and the PR gang at UCLA can rest easy, stay silent and do nothing.
The RB-SoFi case will also take a long time to conclude. Meanwhile it is costing UCLA millions of $$$, while the negative fallout grows. But, the powers that be had a simple plan to pacifiy...
Because the RB case is still in a long drawn out process, the UCLA PR gang jumps on the podium and states how they are listening to fans and so UCLA will remain at the RB for football this coming season. BS, they are not listening, they don't care, they simply had no choice!
Back to the central issue, jelly 2.0.
Firing jelly 2.0 and paying his buyout is far less expensive than the monetary damages and public humiliation from these two cases, let alone the chipster fiasco, Foster fiasco, and on and on.
Frenk seems to lack the courage to do the right thing and fire his illustrious AD. And UCLA is doing great in sports this spring, so the full cover for him fits nicely.
The verdict in the alleged fraud case of 'Bruins for Lifetime Sentences' could take years. So the 'powers that be' and the PR gang at UCLA can rest easy, stay silent and do nothing.
The RB-SoFi case will also take a long time to conclude. Meanwhile it is costing UCLA millions of $$$, while the negative fallout grows. But, the powers that be had a simple plan to pacifiy...
Because the RB case is still in a long drawn out process, the UCLA PR gang jumps on the podium and states how they are listening to fans and so UCLA will remain at the RB for football this coming season. BS, they are not listening, they don't care, they simply had no choice!
Back to the central issue, jelly 2.0.
Firing jelly 2.0 and paying his buyout is far less expensive than the monetary damages and public humiliation from these two cases, let alone the chipster fiasco, Foster fiasco, and on and on.
Frenk seems to lack the courage to do the right thing and fire his illustrious AD. And UCLA is doing great in sports this spring, so the full cover for him fits nicely.
Saw Lauren, Kiki & Gabriella were on GMA today. Makes sense since all six seniors/grads are in NY for the WNBA draft today. Is it me or have our Lady Bruins been getting a lot more media attention than the Michigan men?
Team of mercenaries versus a team that grew together. One is a great story while the other feels like everything wrong with college athletics at the moment.
Cronin better get off his butt and send Dylan Betts an offer soon. He's already received offers from Purdue, Washington, and UNLV.
https://247sports.com/player/dylan-betts-46150993/
Given the stark contrast between Coach Close vs Cronin, and the way Lauren 💯 embraced and lived the loving, joy filled, connected, selfless, high character and growth mindset culture of the Lady Bruins team and staff, I can't see Cronin matching up an any level with Dylan and the Betts family, IMHO.
LOL. So now we need Coach Cronin to gather invite his players into his home for a bake brownies, knit doilies, and watch Broadway musicals?
There's a reason why there are men coaching women'a sports but no women coaching men's sports. We want our men to kick ass and take names.
Hi mist,
You missed my point.
Coach Close coaches very much like Coach Wooden did as he was her teacher. I doubt Coach Wooden would agree with your assessment.
The exact same teaching principles of the Pyramid of Success can apply to both men and women. And the Pyramid of Success is foundational to how Coach Close teaches and coaches.
I doubt the Betts family embraces the way Cronin coaches as it strays quite a ways from the Pyramid of Success.
Cronin is who he is... some like him, some don't. Some think he's a good coach, some don't.
But his last three seasons have been below average and that seems to be the new standard for the men's team.
So it's been reported that UCLA got it's first transfer, Arkansas guard Bonnie Deas.
https://247sports.com/college/ucla/article/ucla-womens-basketball-arkansas-transfer-guard-bonnie-deas-has-committed-to-bruins-280972757/
Well, Coach Close will have a lot of players to choose from. Somewhere between 1100 and 1200 players have entered the transfer portal.
1199 because Bonnie is off the board.
Tamara, I fully understand your point. Unfortunately I don't agree with it.
I also knew Coach Wooden also. During my years at UCLA from 1971 to 1975, I worked at Powell Library. One of the tasks I was assigned to when I first start working there was to visit Coach Wooden once a week at his office next to the old Men's Gym. I would pick up his reading list of books and collect the books that he had read that week and return with his selected books. I won't bore you with the details, but I knew Coach Wooden probably as well as some of the players on the teams. We developed a friendship over those years, because like Coach Wooden, I was an avid reader, having grown up inside libraries. My mother was a librarian in the LA Public Library system and she often took me to work with her and I would sit and read and I read everything I could get my hands on.
Coach Wooden and I would often discuss the books we both read. He enjoyed his history books, both ancient and modern, biographies, philosophy, science, the great novels, and everything else. I even brought him science fiction books to see if he might enjoy them. It was not quite in his wheelhouse.
Coach Wooden would never judge a book by its cover.
In particular, I remember a very deep conversation we had about the book "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison. He had a very craftful way of cutting away at the peripheral context and finding the core message of the author or the lesson of events or the symbolism of thought. He was an English major at Purdue; I was an English major at UCLA and we both enjoyed the exploration of words and meaning. At the time, Invisible Man was a controversial book and was subjected to bans in public school libraries. I think Wooden enjoyed the book as he checked it out of Powell several times, probably to dig deeper into Ellison's quest for individual identity.
After Coach Wooden retired, I remained in contact with him by letter. He maintained an office on campus for awhile after retiring and I would visit him on occasion (usually when I was attending a game), but by then I had taken a job that required constant travel and our exchanges became less and less frequent.
I think Coach Wooden would displeased to know his many friends, players, and students who would come to his home and sit on his couch would be treated by media, fans, and on-lookers as if they touched by the hand of God. He considered himself to be an ordinary man who found success because he had a principled means of finding that success. If anything, he would hope that their successes came about because of their own individual determination and dedication to excellence and that it would be recognized that they paved their own way to success through their own unique effort.
Sure, Coach Close hung out with Coach Wooden and found success with this year's team. But in Wooden's retirement years, almost every UCLA coach sat on his couch. Farmer, Hazzard, Harrick, Lavin, Alford. I believe Larry Brown stayed away and did his own thing. But those who did chop it up with Coach Wooden did not find a lot of success, the exception being one Tyus Edney beeline to the hoop. Tyus probably sat on Coach Wooden's coach so that explains his rim run.
These guys tried their best, but their best was not good enough so perhaps sitting on Coach Wooden's coach is all that magical.
Coach Wooden certainly would not have the expectation that his living couch would spawn championship coaches. He would have said, if you want bad enough, go and get it, but have a principled approach and to accept failure as an opportunity to become better.
I most certainly think he would not view Cronin as a failure because Wooden would never judge a book by its cover. Nothing good ever comes from judging people without having personal insight. It's much the same as calling for JJ Redick's head on platter just because he dumped on 3 of his players quite publicly. People don't understand that the intensity level of mens basketball is like war and the court is a battlefield. Emotions flare up. It's part of the game.
I think Coach Wooden would understand that he could never have the success that he had in today's college basketball play for pay environment because players, especially in the mens' game, are playing for a bag of money and not for the coach. The women's game has not gotten to that point, yet... The womens team NIL money is fractional compared to what the men receive. The women play for each other because there's only a pittance of money to play for.
I believe it is incorrect to solely blame Cronin for the past 3 seasons when it is clear there is a lack of institutional control between the coach and the NIL collectives and that institutional responsibility belongs to the Athletic Director. Considering the coach is in charge of the recruiting but has no control over the NIL purse strings, the pay to play system is an unmanageable system that, at some point in time, will implode. The coach recruits a player based on fit in his system, he negotiates an amount of money agreeable to that player, yet his ability to obtain the funds for that player has to be agreed upon by a 3rd party, the NIL collective, who has the right of refusal to pay that negotiated amount of money.
Who can successfully run a company when the operating money is required to come from a 3rd party source that is 1) not company controlled and 2) funded by donations and corporate sponsors and 3) the timing and availability of these funds are very irregular as both donors and corporate sponsors come and go.
The intermediary or bridge between the coach and the NIL fund is Martin Jarmond. The recent failures of the basketball and football teams lie in the hands of Jarmond.
The entire Joey Aguilar and Nico Iamaleava fiasco which undermined DeShaun Foster's season before the season even started was entirely Martin Jarmond's fault. Joey Aguilar spent 4 months on campus with his new teammates, then had the rug pulled out from under him when somebody (certainly not Foster) decided Nico was the more marketable player.
The loss of Mara was entirely Jarmond's fault. Again, Dent was the shiny new thing and the most buzzworthy player in the portal. Dent probably was making $50-$100K at New Mexico, who decided to give him $3 million? Keep in mind, Cronin doesn't control the money. Someone needed to understand that the guys you want to keep on the team need to eat first before the new guy. That person should be Jarmond.
And how did Jarmond not know that James Washington's collective (Bruins for Lifetime Sentences) was fraudalently masquerading as a 501(3)C charity? Where's the vetting process? Where's the institutional controls? Who has the conn? Who is steering the ship?
Answer: It's the guy who tried to push the football games into Sofi Stadium without first reading the breach terms of the Rose Bowl contract.
And this is all contained within one year of quality work put forth by the AD.
I am not going to complain about any UCLA coach especially when it comes to player personnel or performance so long as Martin Jarmond is steering the Titanic.
I'm perfectly fine with Cronin. As I've said, the men need to kick ass and take names. There is no parallel with the women's game other than it's played with 2 hoops and a ball. And as someone who coached AAU level boys and girls teams, I can say this as a fact.
We disagree on Cronin, but I am so grateful for your thoughtful response and for sharing so much about Coach Wooden 💙💛
I agree with your assessment Misterioso, as to MJ being the main problem......my question is, if our assessments (and I say "our" because many on this board have voiced this same opinion) are accurate, why hasn't our Chancellor, Dr. Julio Frenk, acted? Is he possibly looking for "cause" so that he doesn't have to pay any buy out (poor performance is not "cause")? If he is, maybe he is waiting for information to come out of the JW Collective or Rose Bowl contract legal matters that amount to something more that poor performance (possible illegal or at least insubordinate conduct). One can only hope that an AD change has some priority on his "list of things to do" before the next academic/athletic year.
Firing with cause almost never works unless the person being fired has committed some type of act that goes against societal norms, i.e. sexual harassment, public intoxication, assault and battery, etc. Coaches who are fired with cause simply for poor performance inevitably get their payout or settle for a reduced payout, but they never walk away empty handed.
To fire Mick Cronin today, it would cost the university $22.5M. To fire Martin Jarmond today, it would cost a few clicks over $7.1M. It would be money well spent.
Frenk can't fire Martin Jarmond without setting off a political firestorm of criticism.
Sorry misterioso, maybe I did not express myself well. I am not advocating for Cronin's firing.......and I would agree that even if one interpreted that his recent short trips to the NCAA's are his fault, that such performances would in no way amount to "cause." I was referring to our AD. Again, poor performance is not cause, but doing something illegal or insubordinate is.......firing Jarmond would not create a "political firestorm," maybe a "camp fire," but the extent of his involvement with the JW Collective or the Rose Bowl fiasco's (or the fact that they at least took place on his watch) would create enough leverage to "push him out" with a significantly lowered buy-out and reasons enough to obviate any real political response especially at a diversity oriented University like UCLA. I would like to see Frenk act decisively in this regard, as he did in letting go of his Chief Financial Officer Agostini.
The verdict in the alleged fraud of 'Bruins for Lifetime Sentences' could take years. So the 'powers that be' and the PR gang at UCLA can rest easy, stay silent and do nothing.
The RB-SoFi case will also take a long time to conclude. Meanwhile it is costing UCLA millions of $$$, while the negative fallout grows. But, the powers that be had a simple plan to pacifiy...
Because the RB case is still in a long drawn out process, the UCLA PR gang jumps on the podium and states how they are listening to fans and so UCLA will remain at the RB for football this coming season. BS, they are not listening, they don't care, they simply had no choice!
Back to the central issue, jelly 2.0.
Firing jelly 2.0 and paying his buyout is far less expensive than the monetary damages and public humiliation from these two cases, let alone the chipster fiasco, Foster fiasco, and on and on.
Frenk seems to lack the courage to do the right thing and fire his illustrious AD. And UCLA is doing great in sports this spring, so the full cover for him fits nicely.
The verdict in the alleged fraud case of 'Bruins for Lifetime Sentences' could take years. So the 'powers that be' and the PR gang at UCLA can rest easy, stay silent and do nothing.
The RB-SoFi case will also take a long time to conclude. Meanwhile it is costing UCLA millions of $$$, while the negative fallout grows. But, the powers that be had a simple plan to pacifiy...
Because the RB case is still in a long drawn out process, the UCLA PR gang jumps on the podium and states how they are listening to fans and so UCLA will remain at the RB for football this coming season. BS, they are not listening, they don't care, they simply had no choice!
Back to the central issue, jelly 2.0.
Firing jelly 2.0 and paying his buyout is far less expensive than the monetary damages and public humiliation from these two cases, let alone the chipster fiasco, Foster fiasco, and on and on.
Frenk seems to lack the courage to do the right thing and fire his illustrious AD. And UCLA is doing great in sports this spring, so the full cover for him fits nicely.
The verdict in the alleged fraud case of 'Bruins for Lifetime Sentences' could take years. So the 'powers that be' and the PR gang at UCLA can rest easy, stay silent and do nothing.
The RB-SoFi case will also take a long time to conclude. Meanwhile it is costing UCLA millions of $$$, while the negative fallout grows. But, the powers that be had a simple plan to pacifiy...
Because the RB case is still in a long drawn out process, the UCLA PR gang jumps on the podium and states how they are listening to fans and so UCLA will remain at the RB for football this coming season. BS, they are not listening, they don't care, they simply had no choice!
Back to the central issue, jelly 2.0.
Firing jelly 2.0 and paying his buyout is far less expensive than the monetary damages and public humiliation from these two cases, let alone the chipster fiasco, Foster fiasco, and on and on.
Frenk seems to lack the courage to do the right thing and fire his illustrious AD. And UCLA is doing great in sports this spring, so the full cover for him fits nicely.
UCLA got its second transfer commitment. Elina Aarnisalo is returning.
https://247sports.com/college/ucla/article/ucla-womens-basketball-unc-transfer-elina-aarnisalo-commits-to-bruins-281031851/
Donovyn Hunter is our third transfer.
https://247sports.com/article/ucla-women-basketball-bruins-tcu-transfer-donovyn-hunter-commits-ucla-bruins-281577690/
Berke entered the portal? Damn, i wouldn't mind having him back. He knows how to board, plays D, and plays without the ball.
Saw Lauren, Kiki & Gabriella were on GMA today. Makes sense since all six seniors/grads are in NY for the WNBA draft today. Is it me or have our Lady Bruins been getting a lot more media attention than the Michigan men?
I agree. they are everywhere. the whole team is so likable. The Sparks should blow up their whole team and draft all 6 Bruins.
Team of mercenaries versus a team that grew together. One is a great story while the other feels like everything wrong with college athletics at the moment.
Cignetti & May have become the architects of the blueprint to a quick title. Now schools will spend more money to get a faster turn around.