Mick Cronin, Big East Coach of the Year?
Jim Calhoun's comments about Mick Cronin deserving to be coach of the year so far this season were right on the money. No coach in the league has brought his team further along that Cronin has this season. I also loved Mick's response when I asked him about it in the post-game press conference. "Right now, I think I'm ready to fire myself," he said. If anyone has a right to lash out at his critics, it's Cronion, who took his share of heat last year and early this year from fans who didn't understand how bad the situation was that he inherited and then didn't understand how he was going about trying to fix it.
36 Comments:
I still don't understand how he is going to fix it.
At some point, we need to recruit one or two top flight recruits per year, to compete in the top 10 nationaly like we use to be rated under BH.
To date, MC top recruits are projects like Gates.
11:32am your expectations are too high. Nancy already said she would be satisfied to compete for the middle of the big east conference.
To date, Cronin's recruits have been recruited in just a little over 2 years time. And in that time he has done extremely well considering the circumstances.
You need to have some patience.
Gates is a project? Says who? Most freshman are "projects" if you look at it like that. It takes more than two years to build a Big East program. Patience. He's a tireless recruiter. It'll get done. They currently have no top flight recruits and they're still winning games in the Big East. And not games against Rutgers and South Florida. Villanova, Pitt, Louisville and Syracuse are pretty good reps from the BE wouldn't you say?
Part of the bad situation was created by the methods he was using for his "fix." He went after players who were available precisely because other coaches had done their homework, and knew that they wouldn't be eligible. He gambled, he lost, and we spent a year in the basement.
He gambled and lost how? By bringing in JC players who were still avaiable in March? Please oh please explain how he was going to bring in a roster of talented HS players still available in March with ZERO time to develop a relationship representing UC? Pull your head out.
hopefully, with time mick learns to "close the deal" along with the young players on his team. The last two games UC blew big leads late with sloppy play and stupid decisions.
Crowing about how Thabeet wanted to come to UC but signed with UConn does not impress me. It makes we wonder what MC lacks.
He got in on Thabeet VERY late in the game and still almost pulled it off. He got in late on McClain and DID get him. Imagine what he can do with a few years to develop relationships. He doesn't lack anything except size. :-)
I hope mick improves his game plan to defend Thabeet at UConn. Where was biggie Wed nite? Biggie could have played a little more and banged on Thabeet to disrupt his play. IF mcClain isn't good enough to play now, he should be talented enough to foul the other center HARD to disrupt the flow of his play.
Thabeet owned the paint last nite. Yea I know he is 7 foot plus. So what. With limited talent you defend better players by putting bodies on them and banging.
11:44 and 11:55 - You may be without a doubt be the biggest idiots on the planet. You have NO basketball knowledge. Period. Please, if you are that ignorant, keep your posts to yourself.
Developing relationships? What? MC has been recruiting D1 for 10+ years. You make no sense.
12:04 He was developing relationships with players of Murray State caliber NOT UC Big East caliber players. Does that make sense to you? Do you get it now? Moron.
12:02 / 12:08 Ouch! Calling people names is a very convincing argument on your part! Please choose to ignore what you do not understand or agree with.
I guess you forgot or conveniently ignored that he recruited at Louisville and UC. Ooopps!
Some of you are simply insufferable.
This team is playing so much better than its talent and depth belies and if Jim Calhoun thinks Cronin is coach of the year that's good enough for most every basketball expert in the country.
Sippin' Mick has had exactly ONE full recruiting class, and yet all some of you can do is compare game to game what Huggins and Kennedy are doing. If you care so much about their teams and the neverending revisionist history of the underachieving UC basketball program in the low-rent C-USA of the 1990s, go to their sites. Donate to their athletic departments.
This is about UC basketball now and based on the way this group started the season and where they are now, holy cow, they should be getting beat by 20 points a night by some of these teams.
Of course, some of you are the same people wanting to chase Kennedy out of town when UC got off to a shaky start two years ago, only to come on strong late in the year. Then you were whistling up his armpits to be hired full time. Unreal. Insufferable.
I'm very proud of how far they have progressed this year and have great hopes for more progress next year.
And Mick, a lot of us UC alums in the DC area will see you guys when you come to Washington to play Georgetown!
Did . . . did . . . did our messages suddenly appear in real time?
Did the people speak and the stodgy Enquirer actually listen?
Apocalypse is near.
No, I did not forget. I do KNOW that for the 3 years JUST prior to coming to UC he was recruiting for MURRAY STATE. Not a top D1 school that recruits the same players as UC. Can I explain it any easier for you? Maybe you can call your mom down to the basement and have her help you. Not calling names, just stating the obvious.
"Part of the bad situation was created by the methods he was using for his "fix." He went after players who were available precisely because other coaches had done their homework, and knew that they wouldn't be eligible. He gambled, he lost, and we spent a year in the basement."
That has to be one of the most stupid things I have ever read on a blog. I'm serious.
What in the world did you expect him to do with the situation he came into?
I feel for Mick. I really do. No matter what he does. No matter how many games he wins at UC. No matter how far they go in the NCAA tournament every year, he will ALWAYS have the detractors ie Huggins, Kennedy fans/Nancy haters/X losers/morons in general. It's one thing to recruit to play competitive basketball in the Big East, that's hard enough, and something I believe he can do. But, to have to battle the idiots around here is just ridiculous. I'm sure he can handle the criticism-it comes with the job. But, please let's try to be rational with the comments. Use some sense...and your brain if you have one.
It's going to get very frustrating for you people who don't like or don't want Mick around. What are you going to do with yourselves for the next 20 years? I'm sure you'll find something to do or say that will be mind-bogglingly stupid.
Honestly...do any of you so called UC fans have brains. I am beginning to think the only people that post on this blog are folks without any knowledge of the game of basketball. You cannot expect Mick to be winning games at the rate our former coach did during the years he cared. Mick inherited a program that was pretty much given the death penalty. Our former coach stopped recruiting the last two years because the writing was on the wall and why did he care? Kennedy couldn't recruit because he had no idea where he was going to be. This is literally 2-3 years without recruits. The schools where our previous coaches went had lots of young players that are now upper classmen and those two are reaping the benefits of those circumstances. MICK HAD NOTHING HERE BUT CEDRIC MCGHOWAN, RONALD ALLEN, and BRANDON MILLER. He had to get players from anywhere he could pull from - including the football team. This year has been a total shock to me and for coaches like Calapari, Calhoun, Pitino, Wright, Dixon, and Boeheim to say Mick has done a wonderful job is huge - I think those men know a little about basketball?
There's a lot of stupidity being put on display in this discussion. A lot of no clue about the realities of the basketball world idiocy.
In the next five years, we are going to be so much better off in the direction of this program than what we had previously it's not even funny.
If anyone wants to compare Mick to Huggins they should be comparing what their respective teams are doing this year. What Mick has done with one full recruiting year and with the development of the JC players is unheard of. And to be honest, the number of fans now attending the games is similar to that in Huggins last two years.
Go Bearcats.
I think everybody fails to remember that Huggins won all his games in Conference USA, and was a NIT coach in the Big 12... not the Big East. Ask Calhoun and Boehiem if they think Bob Huggins can win the Big East every year. Mic will have the bearcats competing just like every other Big East program. No one school will dominate a conference like the Big East.
The point is most of the negative posts about Cronin here are not from UC fans. I suspect most are just trolling X or O$U fans trying to get UC fans worked up.
Coach of the year stuff is premature and doesn't equate too anything at this point. UC could lose their next 7 in a row, or they could win 5 of the next 7. I hope it is the latter. I just hope UC can make it to NYC and win there. That should get them into the post season.
Obviously (or maybe not) the coach of the year talk is to this point of the season because, ya know, they haven't played the rest of the year yet. Duh.
I'm glad the screening has been removed for open posting. The only downside is tolerating the name calling and the one guy who has a fixation with his mom.
But I'll gladly tolerate that person, in favor of open posting.
Go Bearcats!
I'm not a UC fan - but any objective observer of college BB has to acknowledge MC's accomplishments.
He was dealt a bad hand, but a sign of his leadership is that this team has greatly improved.
It'll only get better as he brings in more of his recruits.
The sad fact about some so called UC fans is that they were really fans of Huggs and not the UC BB program.
Patience is called for,no doubt.But I get extremely tired of this no talent business.Total BS.WVU and OLE MISS have no more talent collectively than this team.UC wouldn't be competetive if they had no talent.Yeah, I guess Vaughn is terrible too.
4:27...go root for WVU and Ole Miss. Neither of those coaches are at UC anymore. Take it somewhere else.
Calhoun was pandering to the Cincinnati fans and press.
However, Mick has been huge. He seems tireless and devoted to basketball. Most of luck has gone the wrong way, but hang in there.
In Mick we trust
6:02 can you read? I mean where are you even coming from?
I remember a coach taking over and starting a walk-on! He won 15 games his first year.
mick tm has a long way to go - I hope he gets BE COY. But there is a lot of this season left. mick had the longest UC losing streak in over 60 years, has everyone forgotten?
Just wondering about those who question Micks recruiting strategy/tactics/selections....? At the point when he started, just who in the hell was he supposed to get to fill out the roster? Tyler Hansbrough? I still don't know how he got Vaughn. Deonta is a freaking BEAST. Mitchell? McLain? Warren? Talk about getting some plums after getting a late start...All of that with ZERO MOMENTUM. How often were they on TV last year? How much recruiting was done prior? So many of you people are so clueless as to how it works. Cronin has been working his ASS off and it's been paying off. He's building momentum and the fruits will REALLY start to pay off. Pay attention over the next year or two. Things are happening...
7:44...sorry, I did read it wrong. My fault.
9:27 you're alright.Takes a man to say he's wrong even if it is on a blog.No harm,no foul.
MIck Cronin blew the game for UC by getting the technical foul, which ultimately cost them the game.
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