By Kenneth Miller|Sports Editor
“So what the truth of it has been, it’s really hard to coach people that are delusional,” –UCLA Men’s Basketball Coach Mick Cronin
The storied UCLA men’s basketball program is playing its first season since leaving the PAC-12 for the Big Ten and still in search of its first National Championship in 30 years.
Under 6th year head coach Mick Cronin, the Bruins are in 5th place in the rugged Big Ten with an 9-5 conference record and 18-7 overall and projected to be a six seed in the NCAA Tournament in March.
For any team to go dancing in March is a big deal, but for a program such as UCLA which has won 11 National Championships, more than any other collegiate program, the expectation is always to be the last team standing.
Every athletic director that accepts the job at UCLA knows that and every head coach who paces the sidelines embraces that.
However, being the head basketball coach at UCLA is not only winning, but how you win and how you represent the legacy of the greatest basketball coach ever John Wooden.
“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”-John Wooden
It has been six years and I believe that Cronin has shown us who he is.
Yes, he’s a pretty good basketball coach leading the Bruins to 133 victories against 60 defeats, 3 NCAA’s and one Final Four. He is locked into a massive contract that pays him in excess of $4 million per season with hefty buyouts if he is fired or leaves for another job.
A Rick Pitino disciple, who hails from the midwest region of Ohio, Cronin expected to be in the mold of John Wooden who hailed from Indiana.
UCLA thought they had found a Wooden clone in Steve Alford, the former Indiana star who was another highly successful mid-major pilot.
Ben Howland is the second winningest coach behind Wooden, he coached for 10 years and appeared in 7 NCAA’s and 3 Final Fours, but was run off.
Jim Harrick, the only living coach to win a National Championship at UCLA in 1995, led his team to the tournament in each of his 8 years at the helm before a recruiting scandal forced him out.
Then Steve Lavin was elevated from lower level assistant coach to the most prestigious position in college basketball and lasted 7 years with 6 NCAA appearances.
Most if not all of these coaches embraced the legacy of John Wooden, especially Harrick and Lavin.
Each of them understood how important it was to protect and project The Pyramid of Success.
Wooden’s Pyramid of Success was a roadmap for individual and team excellence—the same roadmap he used to build a legacy unmatched in the game of basketball.
The Pyramid of Success had no explicit reference to basketball or athletics. The coach’s diagram was simply a roadmap to being a better person.
Which leads me to Mick Cronin, the diminutive cigar smoking tirade launching, player and coach degrading UCLA employee.
During a recent Bruins home game, Cronin was heard shouting so many MFers at his players that one spectator in attendance felt embarrassed for the university.
UCLA Athletic Director Martin Jarmond is the man responsible for extending Cronin after rumors circulated he was a prime candidate for Louisville to keep him in the fold.
This year the Indiana job is available and it’s likely they will kick the tires to check the temperature of Cronin whose buyout is down from $20 million to $10 million after March 31.
That is still a big number but after watching Cronin this season berate his players and coaches and even the UCLA athletic department support staff, Indiana may think long and hard about bringing in Bobby Knight 2.0.
“We’re just not very smart,” he said after the Stanford loss.
“Aptitude is a big issue for us right now … the most important thing for a teacher is for his students to have aptitude or they can’t learn, they can’t apply, so your rate of progress and development is way too slow,” he said.
One thing is for certain though and that is Mick Cronin has worn out his welcome in Westwood, complaining about referees in the Big Ten to lack of NIL money at UCLA.
“I don’t remember the last time I had a technical,” he said. “I had enough. I’m sending a message. I’m tired of it. I know we’re the outsider and all that — us, SCand Oregon — but that was ridiculous.” Cronin said after losing to Maryland 79-61 in January.
There have only been four UCLA coaches to last 8 years or more and Lavin is the other one who made it to 7 years.
Regardless how this UCLA Bruins season ends, they are likely to have more players in the transfer portal than ever before and it will be interesting to see who wants to come to play for Cronin.
