In Reply to: CMC Prioritizes D. posted by NYBruin on January 07, 2026 at 20:38:08
Is how this supposed Basketball Defensive Genius has seemingly developed a style of defensive play that no college basketball players are actually capable of playing. If none of the players can do it then the obvious is answer is "it's the players" and the obvious solution is major roster overhaul. Only we have seen that 3 times in the past 3 seasons with nearly the exact same results. Cronin raves about the makeup of his roster in the offseason and then decries them all for being soft, lacking heart, lacking toughness, not being smart and above all, being incapable of playing the style that he demands once the season starts, and end of season autopsy is "woe is me, I was forced to make the best out of all of those hacks that I handpicked, but after handpicking a whole new team for next year, everything is going to be different.
CMC's UCLA tenure has really amounted to one really good postseason that in a COVID altered environment is looking more and more like a fluke, and one really good regular season with a post season that was derailed by injuries. The rest, a couple of solid regular seasons that fizzled in March, and a whole lot of mediocrity, and the trend definitely tilting more in the direction of more mediocrity.
His winning percentage is nearly the same as Alford's and save for the COVID year fluke, his postseason record is no better.