In Reply to: Cronin was also calling out assistant coaches posted by bruinplusplus on January 10, 2025 at 01:34:06
Mick is facing a constrict of his own making. 1) he needs to teach these young men how to win as a TEAM. He has a fair amount of individual talent but the majority come from losing programs. Blending them to a point where they play as a team who KNOWS how to win is a daunting job. So far he has done OK but that is not good enough for a championship or for UCLA. 2) He is missing two key elements of a championship team, an exceptional PG and a dominant big. We are OK at PG with Clark and Dylan but that won’t cut it. I think either guy has the potential but neither has steped up in the context of a team so we are a tier down. I also think more was expected if Kyle IIII. He was supposed to be an elite D player. To date, he has been a marginal player…I don’t know if he has been suffering from an injury … there was minor surgery … or if he was just oversold …if it was the former, we may have some hope to get better at the 5 …3) Given the shortcomings we need to dig deep in the toughness area … we need 110% from every kid at every moment. It is a monumental personal task that we have not come close to meeting yet….hence the frustration from Mick. Most players don’t know how to play at a championship level and not all can learn it. I believe that CMC believes we have the talent to be a top team but are falling short in the mental part of the equasion. I also feel that Mick thinks our guys can master the mental aspect needed to excel but for some reason they just are not doing it. If he can crack the toughness, playing to the absolute max of your potential nut … he could have a special group…We’ll see if he can pull it off … Can he bring in an O coordinator half way through the season and make it work…maybe but doubtful … but maybe worth a try. Houdini anyone??? ;-)