Call it the Mick Cronin Say Something Nice Challenge.
Not something nice-ish, not a chocolate-covered diss or an insult teased as affirmation. Just a compliment, no chaser.
Itโs not impossible, it turns out.
โWe have great guys,โ Cronin said about his team, which demolished USC 89-68 at Galen Center on Saturday to finish the season 21-10. โI have to make myself yell at some of these guys, because theyโre such good guys. And I did that by design.โ
Heโll have a funny way of showing it, but Cronin likes the guys he recruited or plucked from the transfer portal. He really, really likes them.
They put up with him, after all. They get him.
Coming after an impressive 72-52 triumph against No. 9 Nebraska on Tuesday, Saturdayโs victory launched his Bruins menโs basketball team into tournament play, starting with a third-round Big Ten tournament game Thursday, and then the NCAA tournament.
And, no, the controversial coach wonโt likely be excused from his post anytime soon. Not with another four years on his contract, a current buyout price of $22.5 million and now a not-terrible finish to this strange season of all peaks and valleys and no plateaus.
The Bruins are on the way up at the right time, even playing enough defense for Croninโs taste โ though, of course, heโs prepared for that to change.
โIโve been around these guys for five months,โ he said, โso I know that the fight is not over with that. We can go right back to who we were, which was a bad defensive team.โ
What can you say? The manโs service might be questionable, but his backhands are unparalleled.
UCLA coach Mick Cronin talks about the Bruinsโ win over USC on Saturday.
His opening statement the last time UCLA clocked USC, 81-62 on Feb. 24: โProud of the guys, they got the job done …โ and, wait for it, โIโm well aware youโre going to ask about rebounding, and as I tell people, you canโt be great at everything. And weโre surely not.โ
There was the time he actually fell on the proverbial sword after his teamโs 86-74 loss to Ohio State: โBlame me โ blame me,โ he said, only kidding: โI recruited โem, I signed them as free agents.โ (The bums!)
He isnโt exactly dropping jewels of inspiration suited to be posted in classrooms beside John Woodenโs โPyramid of Success.โ
But after five up-and-down months with him, his players say theyโre cool with Cronin, who has shaken off what feels like an annual wave of national criticism. This time it hit after he booted his own center Steven Jamerson II from a game at Michigan State on Feb. 17, overreacting because he mistook a clean basketball play for something else.
UCLA coach Mick Cronin shouts instructions to a player during the Bruinsโ win over USC on Saturday.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
โIโve adapted to how he coaches and how he runs stuff,โ said Donovan Dent, the Bruinsโ sure-handed point guard who had 25 points on 11-of-15 shooting to go with his seven assists without a turnover Saturday.
How does he coach? โFun, very fun,โ Dent laughed, acknowledging that, yes, โabsolutelyโ players have to have some thick skin if theyโre going to play for Cronin.
โHe can get on you,โ Dent said, โbut he just wants the best for you.โ
โI mean,โ forward Tyler Bilodeau said, โheโs intense. Coach Cronin has no off days, he is who he is every single day. You gotta respect that.โ
And Croninโs bait-and-switch bit? It would kill at a comedy club, but working a locker room? Maybe heโs found the right audience of young athletes.
โIโm at a point in my career, I want guys who are good guys,โ said Cronin, whose team went 17-1 at Pauley Pavilion and 4-9 away from it. โI donโt want to be fighting with guys, I donโt have the energy for it. I won enough games, itโs not worth it.โ
Well, about that.
The Bruins will have made the NCAA tournament five times in Croninโs seven-year tenure with the team, and theyโve advanced to the Final Four and twice to the Sweet 16. But the Final Four run was six seasons ago, and in the past two years, UCLA made just one tournament appearance and got only as far as the second round.
That hardly seems sufficient for a UCLA program thatโs regularly supposed to be breathing rarefied air without caveats or qualifiers.
But he thinks heโs found the right players to roll with his punchlines, and to play defense too.
โWe can keep winning games,โ Cronin said, โif we stop the other team.โ
Wouldnโt that be nice?