In Reply to: Persective posted by BruinNCs on January 11, 2026 at 10:44:57
First, let me say that no one hopes for the scenario you describe more than I do.
That said, there are some important differences.
The biggest, to me, is that Cronin inherited players who had never been asked to play the way he wanted. It took time for them to buy in, but eventually they did. While this team is often described as “new,” I don’t think that’s true in the areas where we’re seeing the biggest deficiencies. We have two new centers, a bench SF, and a new point guard—but three of the five starters are returning players. I’d argue that the majority of the minutes are going to four returners.
The biggest issue is this: there has been virtually no defensive improvement from Tyler this season. He’s essentially the same player he was midway through last year. There’s no indication that this is simply a matter of him needing more time to “get it.” He struggles to defend strong, skilled interior players, and that hasn’t changed. What’s more concerning is that Cronin has shown little indication of adjusting, aside from the most recent game. And even then, it’s fair to ask whether that was a deliberate decision to play Jamerson or simply a result of Tyler being in foul trouble. Based on last year’s experience with Mara, I suspect it is the latter.
All of that said, we could still see improvement from the other bigs, Brown and Dent. Dent, in particular, did a poor job of staying in front of his man yesterday.