Mick Cronin is the youngest energetic coach . In his brief time as UCLA’s head basketball coach, he has guided the workforce to at least one Closing 4 and two Candy 16 appearances.
This season’s workforce at present has 20 wins and is within the high 5 within the aggressive Large 10 Convention standings.
However that’s not sufficient for Invoice Plaschke, on his gamers when he calls them out in public. He’s robust on them as a result of (a) that is and has all the time been his type, and (b) it will get outcomes. A bit over 50 years in the past, a UCLA coach calmly instructed his star, two-time All-American heart that if he didn’t get his hair reduce and shave his beard that the workforce would miss him that season. Information of this taking place immediately would ship Plaschke off on a tirade, I’m positive. However the participant heeded his coach’s phrases, obtained the haircut and shave, and the coach and participant — John Wood and Invoice Walton — went on to get pleasure from an ideal season and, extra importantly, a unbelievable, lifelong relationship.
Mick Cronin just isn’t John Wood. No one expects him to be. However he’s an ideal coach, a confirmed winner, instructor, and chief. Shouldn’t that be sufficient?
Steve Kaye
Oro Valley, Ariz.
I recognize Invoice Plaschke, however his current Cronin piece simply missed. Coach Cronin isn’t right here to win a recognition contest — he’s right here to win basketball video games and construct males of character. And guess what? He does each. Positive, he’s fiery. Positive, he’s robust. However final I checked, John Wood’s pyramid didn’t embrace “make everybody really feel heat and fuzzy.”
Cronin’s monitor document speaks for itself — he’s constructed winners at Murray State, Cincinnati and, now, UCLA utilizing the identical relentless, defense-first type. His gamers don’t simply depart as higher athletes and basketball gamers; they depart as more durable, extra disciplined younger males prepared for all times past the court docket.
David Manheim
Los Angeles
