In Reply to: Cronin Speaks and a little bit of practice posted by ej on January 09, 2026 at 13:46:17
couple other points he made - he was asked if this team has caused him to rethink his recruiting strategies, perhaps get him to focus on recruiting HS players more, maybe just look to take one or two from the portal. He replied maybe focus more on recruiting players who already have the work Babits and skills you require. He noted that before the transfer portal when you recruited HS kids you had three years to get to know them and their families. Very different focusing on the portal. He don't have the time to develop them and it's so easy to leave now after one year or two.
He also opened up with a flat statement - you can't win if you're giving up 42 or 45 points to an opponent in the first half. You have to improve your defense or you can't win. And you have to do whatever you can do to get that done, to get the team to play defense.
I think that's right and it's especially so for Mick Cronin who conceives of the game looking at defense first. Glad to hear it. Not sure we have the personnel to accomplish what he believes is necessary but I'm glad to hear him say it