In Reply to: To be fair, Cronin's players improve defensively and his teams posted by ej on November 11, 2025 at 14:35:30
He averaged 15.3 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game as a Freshman. His stats dropped the following 2 seasons before his scoring increased to 17.8 ppg his senior year. Most of what improvement there was over the course of his career at UCLA can be attributed to physical maturity, getting stronger, and experience more than anything Cronin did.
Clark was a great defender the moment he stepped on campus was like Jaquez was extremely motived to improve his game. His offensive skills (like so many Cronin players) were largely untapped and under utilized.
Tyger developed and improved over the course of his 4 seasons and I would agree that coaching did play a role in his development.
Bona's game developed marginally at best under Cronin. I would argue that he would have developed more under a different coach.
And even allowing that all the development of these 4 guys was due to Cronin, that is 4 players in 6+ seasons, which isn't exactly a stellar track record.