Plan C

The two other finalists for the job were Rick Barnes and Jamie Dixon.

Per Bolch:

Cronin could be considered UCLA’s Plan C after a messy sequence of events prevented the school from hiring Texas Christian’s Jamie Dixon or Tennessee’s Rick Barnes. The Bruins failed to reach a deal with Dixon because of his $8-million buyout and couldn’t come to terms with Barnes after a series of intense negotiations resulted in the veteran coach remaining in Knoxville.

So how did that turn out?

Dixon 107-80 .572 Won 2 NCAA tournament games. Highest conference finish T-5th.

Barnes 134-56 .705 one S16, one E8, one conference championship.

Cronin 134-61 .687 two S16, one F4, one conference championship.

Dodged a bullet with Dixon, and Barnes hasn't done any better than Cronin.

So given what was available at the time, Cronin wasn't a bad choice at all.

Follow Ups:

• Are you forgetting Calipari? UCLA offered him $48M. Since then... Born2BBruin 11:19:30 02/21/25 (0)
• Plan K mh 17:40:12 02/20/25 (2)
  • Re: Plan K BruinsFTW 18:52:05 02/21/25 (0)
  • not sure where you got your source... Michael.Walter.Cronin 18:44:27 02/20/25 (0)
• Barnes seems to be behated, but he wins a lot NorthBruin40 16:42:54 02/20/25 (4)
  • Re: Barnes seems to be behated, but he wins a lot BruinsFTW 16:58:40 02/20/25 (3)
    • I worry that NorthBruin40 17:05:04 02/20/25 (2)
      • Re: I worry that BruinsFTW 17:10:45 02/20/25 (1)
        • That's very dangerous ... that's how you get Hazzard and Alford NorthBruin40 20:14:14 02/20/25 (0)
• Re: Plan C BruinsFTW 15:19:20 02/20/25 (2)
  • Who is deluded? Dr.Bruin 17:44:36 02/20/25 (1)
    • Re: Who is deluded? BruinsFTW 08:33:00 02/21/25 (0)

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