The dust has settled and, for better or worse, the Mick Cronin era has begun.
UCLA men’s basketball hired Cronin to be the program’s 14th head coach April 9, one day after a deal fell apart with Tennessee’s Rick Barnes. A week earlier, TCU’s Jamie Dixon and Kentucky’s John Calipari were also rumored to take charge in Westwood before returning to their respective teams.
Despite what Athletic Director Dan Guerrero says, it’s clear Cronin was not UCLA’s first choice.
There’s nothing wrong with that on the surface. Even blue-blood programs like UCLA can’t always get what they what. I can’t blame Guerrero – he swung for the fences, even if he did get a little stingy with buyouts for comparable candidates. I also can’t blame Cronin – he’s just the guy who took the job and the $24 million.
To be clear, I think Cronin is a good hire. Not a home run, not a triple, but a solid double. Would a home run – like Calipari – have been better? Of course, but there’s nothing wrong with a double.
One thing Calipari would never do, however, is lose out on a top prospect in his own backyard like Cassius Stanley.
The four-star guard committed to Duke on Monday after the Blue Devils made a late push to sign him. UCLA had been the favorite to reel in Stanley, the No. 3 recruit in California, but Cronin was unable to seal the deal.
I don’t want to blame Cronin completely for this, considering he just got to Westwood and competing with Mike Krzyzewski is always a major challenge. But it does raise the question: Will Cronin be able to recruit up to the Bruins’ typically high standards?
Fresh off a National Coach of the Year Award, Cronin reeled in the No. 65 class in the country in 2018. Cronin’s recruiting classes haven’t broken into the top 50 since 2014 and they only finished inside the top 25 once in his 13-year tenure with the Bearcats.
I will admit that it is difficult to recruit players to Cincinnati, but it is clear that Cronin does not have ample experience working with and signing five-star talent.
Having a great coach is paramount for Power Five programs, but to compete in the Pac-12, you need talent too. With Arizona and USC posting top-five classes and sophomore guards Kris Wilkes, Jaylen Hands and, presumably, freshman center Moses Brown all going pro, UCLA is probably going to start next season at a disadvantage.
Rising redshirt freshmen forward Shareef O’Neal and guard Tyger Campbell – both four-star recruits last year – will finally take the court in 2019, so that should make up for the lack of 2019 commits. Four-star forward Jaime Jaquez and three-star forward Jake Kyman are talented local scorers, but neither rank inside the top 80.
Cronin spoke a lot about former coach John Wooden at his introductory press conference April 10. His admiration for the Hall of Famer is comforting, but Wooden’s teams weren’t just well-coached – they had stars.
UCLA has more alumni in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame than any other school and boasts former stars such as Bill Walton, Kevin Love, Reggie Miller, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Gail Goodrich.
Cronin’s consistency — making nine straight NCAA tournament appearances — is something that I expect to translate to his time with the Bruins, along with his signature defensive intensity.
However, consistency and philosophy can only get you so far – there’s a reason why Cronin’s Bearcats only made it to one Sweet 16 in those nine tries. UCLA will be relevant again with Cronin on the bench, and that’s great.
But in order to make it back to the mountaintop of the college basketball world, Cronin needs to prove he can bring in talent that can stand beside those all-time greats.