Tag: Mick Cronin

What Mick Cronin said after UCLA loss to Washington State

Here’s what Mick Cronin and others said after the loss.

The UCLA Bruins men’s basketball team lost again, this time to Washington State on the road.

After a six-game winning streak, the Bruins have come crashing back down to earth and have now lost four in a row.

Mick Cronin has gone viral a few times for some fiery postgame interviews this season, including last time against Washington a few days before.

This time, it wasn’t as honest. Nonetheless, here’s what Cronin said after the game, including a quote from Dylan Andrews after he had another strong performance despite UCLA losing the game.

Mick Cronin’s fiery comments after UCLA’s ugly loss to Washington

Mick Cronin was fed up after UCLA’s 17-point loss to Washington.

The UCLA Bruins men’s basketball team had another ugly performance. This time, it came on the road against the Washington Huskies.

The Huskies shot the lights out and scored 92 points, including 50 in the second half, to hand UCLA its third consecutive loss after a six-game winning streak.

Once again, Mick Cronin expressed his displeasure with the team following the game (a recurring theme this year), and there are plenty of reasons why the UCLA head coach is fed up with the way the season has gone.

Cronin unloaded plenty of viral comments, and here’s some of what he said following the loss.

Everything Mick Cronin said after UCLA’s loss to USC

Mick Cronin had a lot to say after UCLA lost to USC.

The UCLA Bruins men’s basketball team lost a frustrating game against crosstown rival USC on Saturday. Fans flocked to Pauley Pavilion to see the UCLA-USC showdown, and the Trojans came out on top, 62-56.

UCLA scored just 22 points in the second half as both Sebastian Mack and Lazar Stefanovic struggled from the field.

UCLA’s recent streak has come to a crushing end with a loss to USC, who moves to 11-16 on the season.

After the game, UCLA head coach Mick Cronin had a lot of negative things to say about the performance — and rightfully so.

It could be a long week in Westwood.

Badgers Wire ranks Mick Cronin-DeShaun Foster UCLA HC combo 10th in Big Ten

@thebadgerswire has UCLA’s HC duo as 10th in Big Ten.

The UCLA Bruins have a big move ahead of them with the Big Ten Conference debut in 2024. UCLA, USC, Washington, and Oregon are joining the conference next season, making an already talented conference even better.

With UCLA losing Chip Kelly to Ohio State and hiring first-time head coach DeShaun Foster, as well as Mick Cronin’s basketball program taking a step back this year, it could make for a rough transition.

Ben Kenney of Badgers Wire ranked the Big Ten’s best basketball-football head coaching duos, and the Cronin-Foster pairing is 10th. Here’s what Kenney wrote:

Mick Cronin is considered one of the best coaches in college basketball — despite UCLA’s struggles this season.

Football head coach DeShaun Foster hasn’t coached a college game yet. But Cronin’s stature is enough to get the duo inside the top 10.

Even with Cronin’s squad having a down year, his resume speaks for itself and is worthy of UCLA being in the top 10. Things can change depending on how Foster does, but this is a good spot for UCLA despite being in an adjustment period in both sports.

It’s also worth noting that Kenney has the Dan Lanning-Dana Altman Oregon dup as the best in the Big Ten.

CBS Sports tabs UCLA’s Mick Cronin as possible Ohio State candidate

CBS Sports lists Mick Cronin as a candidate for the Ohio State opening.

The Ohio State Buckeyes men’s basketball program fired Chris Holtmann and suddenly they are in search of a new head coach.

And, believe it or not, UCLA Bruins coach Mick Cronin was listed as a potential candidate, per Kyle Boone of CBS Sports. Here’s what Boone wrote about Cronin:

Cronin has made it clear throughout this season he is unhappy about the support his program got during the offseason on the NIL front. He won 58 games the two seasons prior to this year, so it’s unlikely he’s looking for an exit even amid a down year, but a return to Ohio — where he previously led Cincinnati — would at least be worth Bjork’s time to make a phone call and kick the tires.

Cronin leaving for another Big Ten job, and another UCLA head coach going to Ohio State, would not go over well in Westwood. However, Cronin’s name popping up for the Buckeyes job isn’t all that surprising.

It will be an interesting few months for the UCLA basketball program.

Trojans Wire Q&A: Will Mick Cronin leave UCLA?

@TrojansWire site editor Matt Zemek answered the Mick Cronin-Louisville question.

For some reason, Mick Cronin’s name has popped up in some other college basketball job conversations. The biggest question is whether or not the UCLA Bruins coach will leave for a different job.

When Chip Kelly left for Ohio State, Trojans Wire site editor Matt Zemek answered a series of questions, one of them being about Cronin.

The question: Will this football mess make Mick Cronin think about leaving for Louisville or another quality basketball coaching job later this year?

Here’s what Zemek wrote:

 I think Cronin is looking at the mess at UCLA and is seriously questioning if he will get the resources and overall support he needs to keep UCLA basketball a top-tier power. Louisville will definitely give him top-level support. I’m not sure UCLA can match that.

There are plenty of questions about the state of UCLA athletics, although things could change with the move to the Big Ten Conference. Nonetheless, if UCLA misses out on the NCAA tournament, and Cronin gets a call, he could potentially dash for another job.

UCLA coach Mick Cronin goes viral after another last-second loss

Mick Cronin is back in the limelight after UCLA’s crushing loss to Utah.

UCLA Bruins head coach Mick Cronin has had a whirlwind of a season. After a brutal start, hot seat quests arose. Then, UCLA won a string of games to be an outside contender for a bubble spot.

On Sunday, the Bruins lost to Utah on a buzzer-beater by Branden Carlson, ending the losing streak.

Suddenly, Cronin became a topic of conversation for yet another last-second loss. This is just another reminder of how quickly things can change while coaching a program with expectations such as UCLA.

The reactions on social media were a wide array involving Mick Cronin after another questionable loss.

Boogie Ellis starts hot but can’t repeat 2023 heroics vs UCLA in USC’s fifth straight loss

Boogie Ellis couldn’t carry USC with Isaiah Collier still injured.

Hoping for a revival of their stagnant offense, the USC Trojans entered the Galen Center on Saturday with a plan. They pinned their hopes against UCLA on the comeback of Boogie Ellis. When Ellis was unable to play in recent road games, along with freshman sensation Isaiah Collier, the simple fact of the matter is that USC’s offense collapsed. Missing their two primary ball-handlers and leading scorers has been disastrous for the Trojans’ hopes of making the NCAA Tournament.

Boogie, who was sidelined for three weeks due to a hamstring injury, came out against UCLA on fire. In the opening seven minutes of the game, he contributed eight of USC’s initial 10 points by making two 3-pointers and hitting a contested jump shot from the elbow.  However, this initial burst faded quickly, as he struggled to shake the rust off after missing the previous three games. Ellis finished the night going 3-10 from the floor and 2-5 beyond the arc. His eight points fell well short of his season average of 18.7 points per game. USC’s offense bogged down in a dispiriting 65-50 loss to UCLA.

Last year when UCLA visited the Galen Center, USC trailed by double digits in the first half as well, but the Trojans came back to win the game on Boogie Ellis’s 31 points, 27 coming during the second-half comeback.  The stage was set for an encore, but Ellis couldn’t get his sea legs back, which derailed any hopes of a Hollywood ending.

Andy Enfield’s squad has averaged 18.3 turnovers per game with Collier and Boogie out. Ellis’s return saw that number drop to eight against an aggressive Mick Cronin defense. Unfortunately, poor shooting in the paint, a 22-2 run by by the Bruins late in the first half, and giving up 17 second-chance points to the Bruins squandered that improvement.

The Trojans have now lost five straight games, dropping their record to 8-12 (2-7 in conference) and they are now in sole possession of last place in the Pac-12. Ellis and the Trojans hope to get back on track this Thursday at the Galen Center against the Oregon Ducks.

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After fourth straight loss, is UCLA even an NCAA Tournament team?

Mick Cronin and the UCLA Bruins have lost four straight and lack the talent necessary to make a serious run, and could fall out of the NCAA Tournament picture.

Heading into December the UCLA Bruins were 5-2 on the season, including a 4-0 record at home with their only losses coming in the Maui Invitational to then No. 4 Marquette (by two points) and then No. 11 Gonzaga (by four points).

Sure the one point win over UC Riverside was less than convincing, but at the time there was little concern Mick Cronin’s very young team, littered with international players, wouldn’t find their way into being a top 25 caliber program and compete for second place in the Pac-12 behind Arizona.

The month of December, however, has been anything but kind to UCLA. The Bruins managed just 56 points against a struggling Villanova squad on the road, and then had a horrible shooting day in an eventual 67-60 loss to Ohio State in Atlanta.

Those two losses in a vacuum are not resume killers, but coming back home and falling to Cal-State Northridge (237th at KenPom) and then again to a seriously struggling Maryland team, who was up by 20 at times and eventually won by nine, is cause for real panic at the Pauley Pavilion.

Currently the Bruins are an astonishing 172nd in the NET rankings, with an 0-4 record in Quad 1 games and 0-1 in Quad 3. They are down to 84 at KenPom, sandwiched between future Big Ten partners Indiana and Minnesota, and have the 151st ranked offense in the country.

Cronin has discussed multiple reasons for this team’s struggles, including a lack of disciplined players which resulted in freshman Sebastian Mack losing his starting role for being late to a meeting, as well as complaints about the school’s lack of NIL funding which made making transfer portal additions a struggle.

If Cronin truly feels he’s incapable of building a roster that can compete heading into the Big Ten, will he jump ship? Could Louisville entice him with an offer this offseason assuming they move on from Kenny Payne? Would being closer to his hometown of Cincinnati get a deal done?

Those are all things worth monitoring this offseason, but for now Cronin and the Bruins have just one objective: right the ship enough to still go dancing in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

The resume right now is, frankly, nowhere near an at-large bid, but picking up a handful of Quad 1 wins in conference play is certainly possible if this team can find a go-to scorer against teams like Colorado, Arizona State, USC, and of course Arizona.

UCLA has a few days off before heading to Corvallis to take on Oregon State on December 28 followed by Oregon two days later.

Picking up a pair of wins in the state of Oregon may not move the resume needle all that much, but it would at least end the calendar year on a high note for Cronin and the Bruins.

National commentator blasts UCLA basketball’s NIL failures, speculates about Mick Cronin

Doug Gottlieb did not hold back.

The outlook for UCLA basketball gets worse by the day. The Trojans lost their fourth straight game Friday night, and they absorbed a second straight home-court loss at Pauley Pavilion after winning their previous 29 games at home. Maryland — which, by the way, is not having a particularly good season — went into Westwood and handled the Bruins fairly easily, building a 20-point lead and eventually winning by a comfortable nine-point margin, 69-60.

UCLA’s offense is a disaster. The Bruins simply lack high-end scorers and shooters. They don’t have elite talent. This is UCLA basketball we’re talking about, and the Bruins have been very good in recent years. They made the Final Four in 2021. They were a top-four seed in each of the last two NCAA Tournaments. UCLA basketball is not a program we cheer for here at Trojans Wire, but objectively speaking, UCLA has been good, and when UCLA is good in basketball, it should not have any problem landing top talent. Yet, as we noted earlier this week, coach Mick Cronin basically conceded that the Bruins’ NIL operation is deficient and has failed to bring in elite transfers.

Following the Maryland loss, Doug Gottlieb of Fox Sports not only made light of the Bruins’ NIL problems; he said Mick Cronin might get restless as a result. That point might be going too far — we think Cronin loves living in Los Angeles and won’t want out of UCL — but the focus on UCLA’s NIL deficiencies is impossible to ignore right now. It offers a parallel to what USC football is going through, and it’s something we’re going to continue to talk about.

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