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He spoke of losing his team, of failing miserably, of wanting to fire himself.
The season was 1 game old.
Over the next few months, things never got any easier for Mick Cronin.
A UCLA basketball coach known for defense couldn’t get his team to defend, never mind rebound.
“Twenty-three years as a head coach,” Cronin told The California Post during a half-hour conversation, “I’ve never experienced it.”
Star players disappointed, if not disappeared. The best defender missed more than a month with a hamstring injury. The team barely won any games on the road. Having started the season ranked No. 12, the Bruins were unranked by the start of December.
A bottoming out came during a blowout loss on a frigid night in East Lansing, Michigan. In a shocking move, Cronin threw his own player out of the game against Michigan State for committing a hard foul.
One couldn’t turn on a sports talk show, much less open a sports section, the next day without seeing the image of Cronin tugging on Steven Jamerson II’s jersey as the coach pointed toward the locker room.
A month later, Cronin said he didn’t see or hear any of that criticism.
“Oblivious, man,” he said. “I’m oblivious.”
Fortunately, there was another dramatic turn left in perhaps the most trying season of Cronin’s career. Rather than splinter, his players united, spurred on by their relentlessly demanding coach.
The defense tightened. Effort became more consistent. Players never tuned out Cronin, no matter how biting his critiques.
“At the end of the day, no matter what the tone is,” guard Trent Perry told The California Post, “he always has a great message behind it.”
Once fighting just to get into the NCAA Tournament, the seventh-seeded Bruins (23-11) are now a fashionable pick to do some damage. What they hope is a deep run starts Friday (4:25 p.m. PT) at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia against 10th-seeded UCF (21-11) in the first round of the East Region.
“I’m proud of where we are now,” Cronin said. “It hasn’t been easy.”
Salvaging this team has required uncomfortable conversations, schematic adjustments and lineup changes, not to mention the throwing of his suit jacket and intentionally walking 10 feet onto the court to pick up a technical foul when he thought officials weren’t treating his players fairly.
Early intervention was needed. Cronin benched four starters to open the season’s fifth game, against Sacramento State.
“There’s a button,” Cronin said of his maneuvering. “I mean, you’ve just got to keep trying — I’ve been trying stuff all year.”
Maximizing Donovan Dent’s potential has been tricky. The transfer point guard struggled with injuries, confidence and playing at college basketball’s highest level after spending his first three seasons at New Mexico.
By the middle of January, Cronin needed a new approach with a player who remained too passive. He told Dent that he couldn’t just stand by and watch his career collapse. Start making things happen, Cronin said. Go down swinging.
His message coincided with a defensive adjustment in which the Bruins started trapping the post from the baseline, along with other tweaks that have helped compensate for poor individual defenders.
UCLA also started using a three-guard lineup once Skyy Clark returned from a hamstring injury. Forward Tyler Bilodeau moved back to center, allowing the Bruins to get more shooters on the court at the same time.
“Just trying to play to your strengths,” Cronin said, “with your offensive talent.”
Perhaps the biggest button that Cronin pushed came before his team played Nebraska. Realizing how the Cornhuskers were able to thrive defensively despite limited athleticism, Cronin showed his players a comparison of their record and statistics to those of a team whose best athlete was Sam Hoiberg, a 5-foot-11 coach’s son.
“Really,” Cronin said, “almost trying to shame us into it.”
A funny thing happened on the way to the Bruins’ expected demise. All those tactics worked.
UCLA notched three wins over top-10 teams and has ranked third in the nation in offensive efficiency since the start of January, mostly thanks to the passing wizardry of Dent. Their defense has helped them persevere on nights when shots aren’t falling.
And all that heat that Cronin took for ejecting his own player? Cronin apologized to Jamerson and said he was only trying to uphold the standard of John Wooden’s program given that he thought in the moment that Jamerson could have hurt someone.
“Pretty simple,” Cronin said. “I mean, if you had any sense, obviously you thought that’s what I thought happened. So what’s the big deal?”
Clark said players have learned to never take anything that Cronin does — or says — personally, understanding that he’s only doing what he feels is needed to nudge them into the best version of themselves.
Cronin’s greatest hit jobs have included calling his players “delusional” and “unbelievably soft,” once adding that they “act like somebody stole our favorite toy and we’re a 3-year-old.”
His messages haven’t just been received but embraced.
“Every time he does it, we usually turn stuff around,” Clark said, “and he does it to motivate us, which makes a lot of sense. The new term is rage-baiting, so he’s kind of rage-baiting us so that we can play better.”
His teams may change, but even in a trying season like this, Cronin is going to stick with what he does, consequences be damned.
“You just keep trying to push buttons, man” Cronin said. “We’ll keep pushing.”
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