Thursday, July 4, 2019

NBC asks an interesting question

After all the upheaval at UCLA, Mick Cronin moved there from Cincinnati. Here is what NBC had to say about that move:

But what makes UCLA’s decision to hire him to replace Steve Alford such an interesting storyline is that he is the polar opposite of the kind of coach that you would think the flagship program in Southern California would need to hire. Cronin is tough, he’s no-nonsense, he’s intense and he preaches a brand of basketball that resembles rugby more than it does the pace-and-space era. He’s Ben Howland, only shorter and angrier, and Howland was run out of Westwood despite reaching three Final Four in ten years and winning the Pac-12 the year that he was fired.

Should be fun to watch. Who will win this stylistic battle? Will Cronin win ballgames and play his own style regardless and force the LA crowd to accept it? Or will he eventually wilt before the cultural shock? Stay tuned.

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