Mick Cronin would lay in his bed at night, 2,000 miles away from Westwood, watching the Bruins.
He never thought he would have the chance to lead UCLA men’s basketball from the sidelines, but he wondered what he would do if he ever got the job.
“You’re saying to yourself, ‘What if I ever got that opportunity?'” Cronin said. “When it was coach (Jim) Harrick, coach (Ben) Howland, coach (Steve) Lavin or coach (Steve) Alford, I’m sitting there as a young coach and I’m watching. … What if I ever could get the opportunity to coach at the elite program in America with 11 national championships? How would I handle it? What would I do?”
The former Cincinnati coach was introduced as UCLA’s next coach in an introductory press conference in Pauley Pavilion on Wednesday, one day after he signed a six-year, $24 million contract with the Bruins. Cronin, who was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, said saying goodbye to the Bearcats was one of the toughest things he’s ever had to do.
“It’s the most difficult thing I’ve ever done in my life other than burying my mother,” Cronin said. “I mean, the most difficult thing in my life was yesterday, and I never thought I’d have to do it. But relationships are real. ‘Nothing great is accomplished without struggle’ – Frederick Douglass, not me. So it’s just part of it. It’s something that you have to be a big boy and handle it right, and I was appreciative of our administration there to let me handle in the right way. I was committed to making sure I was the one who told our players. That was really important to me.”
[RELATED: Mick Cronin leaves Cincinnati to join UCLA men’s basketball as new head coach]
Cronin graduated from Cincinnati in 1997 and earned his first collegiate job as an assistant for his alma mater. He went 296-147 with the Bearcats from 2006-2019 and has not missed the Big Dance since 2010.
Despite his affection for the school where he has spent 22 years, Cronin made it clear UCLA was his dream job.
“This is not a hard decision,” Cronin said. “Not when you’re Irish and you’re a little bold and you’re not afraid. You gotta embrace it, you only live once.”
Joining the search for the Bruins’ next coach was Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers, who played for UCLA from 1993-1997. Myers said he admired Cronin and what he had accomplished so far in his career but that the resources and branding of UCLA can help him do even more.
“(Cronin’s) had great success,” Myers said. “But now we’ve given him, I feel, a tool that he’s never had. So I’m supportive of him and I’m happy that I think we’re on our way back to a good place.”
Cronin’s teams have built up a reputation of running hard-nosed, defensive teams, backed up by the Bearcats’ annual high rankings in the defensive KenPom ratings. In the 2017-2018 season, Cincinnati ranked No. 2 in the country with an 86.8 adjusted defensive rating.
With a roster consisting of multiple former five-star recruits and several top-ranked incoming prospects, Cronin will have to instill his mindset in Westwood.
“Here’s how I spell fun: W-I-N,” Cronin said. “Culture is everything – on the floor, off the floor, who we are, what we’re about … whether you’re a one-year player or a four-year player.”
Cronin – outside of a handful of family vacations to Santa Monica over the past few years – hasn’t been around Southern California for too long, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t aware of the power the UCLA brand holds.
“If you get the chance to put the four letters on, you owe,” Cronin said. “You don’t get to shoplift the four letters, OK? Because the four letters, as we know, they do a lot for your life. And you have to pay back by the way you conduct yourself as a person, as a student and by playing to win.”
From this point on, Cronin won’t be watching the Bruins in his bed.
He’ll be wearing shorts to work, running practices, developing players and recruiting five-star athletes to play for UCLA – and he said he wouldn’t want it any other way.
“I’m overwhelmed a little bit, but trust me, I’m prepared,” Cronin said.