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Rise and Shine: Cronin Chronicles

By Jonathan Lidskin

AP Photo/Terrance Williams
AP Photo/Terrance Williams

If you’ve watched college basketball long enough, you know that the outlook of a team’s season can change on a dime. That has been the case for UCLA this season who looked to be in for a bounce-back year after a disastrous season for Mick Cronin and co. a season ago.

The Bruins woke up on December 29th at #11 in KenPom following a 65-62 win over Gonzaga. At that point in the season, UCLA was 11-2 with wins over Arizona and at Oregon in addition to the Gonzaga win. The two losses were both on neutral floors to solid teams, so they had three great wins and nothing too damaging to counter that.

Since then, well, things have spiraled in many ways.


January 4, 2025: Nebraska 66, UCLA 58

UCLA was never a great offensive team even when they were winning basketball games and Nebraska in its’ current state is a tough road environment. The Bruins shot 4-28 from three and scored just 0.82 points per possession in the defeat while dealing with injuries. It was reasonable to chalk this one up as a bad performance as the Bruins' defense still played well even while being short a couple of guys.


January 7, 2025: Michigan 94, UCLA 75

Do you ever want to allow 1.31 points per possession in a game? Absolutely not. The result here wasn’t the most notable thing though. UCLA dropped the game at home after surrendering a fast start and a late push by Michigan. The loss in itself would’ve been bad enough, but then last season’s Mick Cronin came back out.

"I have to run on the court to get guys to play hard,” said Cronin. “It’s crazy, you know? And it’s every day. I’m tired of it. It’s every day. I have the most energy of anybody at practice every day, I’m upset with everybody in that locker room–my assistant coaches and my players.”

If that wasn’t bad enough, Cronin followed that up with some comments that some might call egotistical.

"I mean, I don’t need to do anything else,” said Cronin. “I’ve almost got 500 wins, I’m only 53. You’d think I’m coaching the Lakers. I mean, it’s a joke. Again, I come in and I have more passion and energy and pride than everybody in there and that’s the problem."

The words "soft" and "delusional" were also used in the postgame by Cronin.

Just 10 days and two games after the massive Gonzaga win, things are getting out of control with a two-game road trip coming up.


January 10, 2025: Maryland 79, UCLA 61

UCLA’s struggles on both ends of the floor seemed to be the storyline until just over five minutes to play in the game when Cronin was hit with two technical fouls and tossed out of the game.

After the game, Cronin said that he tried to get tossed saying that he “had enough” and “I have to defend my players.”

I am all for sticking up for your guys, but when Cronin got tossed out of the game it was a nine-point game. The game was still within striking distance and seven game seconds after the technical, Ja’Kobi Gillespie hit four free throws and Julian Reese made a layup to push the lead to 15.


January 13, 2025: Rutgers 75, UCLA 68

This was a matchup between two teams that were reeling coming in. UCLA had their share of chances to win it, but Rutgers ultimately pulled away to get the home victory. Cronin, naturally, had his reasons for the loss.

He said in the postgame that defense has been the reason for the decline as well as saying the “guys’ minds are on other things.”


Where do they go from here?

To defend Cronin and his players for a minute, it cannot possibly be easy to stay focused with what is going on with the wildfires in Los Angeles. That situation is very tragic and I imagine it is much more difficult to continue to play basketball through that.

I also said in the first sentence of the article that in college basketball, your season can change on a dime and UCLA can still absolutely start playing well again. I think what is frustrating though, is that there seems to be very little accountability from the man who is in charge of the team.

Mick Cronin is a fantastic basketball coach. He has been to a Final Four and has built great teams at multiple places, but this whole “throwing others under the bus” act needs to stop. There’s no way that these comments are motivating and helping the culture in that locker room.

There are a lot of questions that need answers in the UCLA men’s basketball program in the long term. Is Mick Cronin a good fit for UCLA, how does UCLA get back to building consistent winning teams, is the program in the best spot moving forward, etc? UCLA can’t answer those questions with actions right now and neither can anyone else. What they can answer, is how this season gets back on track.

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