In Reply to: We've seen Cronin continually adjust to changing posted by ej on July 09, 2026 at 20:41:27
It seems like every season, Mick says he wants to play faster, but every season, he doesn't. Here are the Adjusted Tempo for every season Cronin was at UCLA. (The number of teams has been between 353 and 365.)
YEAR TEMPO
2010 325
2011 341
2012 277
2013 235
2024 353
2025 312
2026 308
Last season lots of fans speculated that since Donovan Dent thrived in the open court, we would play more uptempo. We didn't.
Sure it's hard to run when you aren't a good rebounding team, but how often did Dent slowly walk the ball up the floor and then wait a few seconds before initiating the offense.
Cronin like a slow-paced game. I suspect this is because he wants to be in control, and a fast pace seems less controlled to him.
I agree that Cronin has had to change in some ways as the college landscape has changed, but in other ways he is fixed in his ways. He wanted Aday Mara to play his style of defense, instead of adapting the defense to Mara's strength of shot blocking.
In some ways, I think this puts a cap on Cronin's ability to succeed at UCLA. However, I think UCLA puts a cap on any coach's ability to succeed. I don't think we will every be able to compete with the top programs on NIL, admissions standards, student and fan support, etc.
Maybe Chesney will prove this wrong in football, but football and basketball aren't the same.