In Reply to: I'm not calling for a coaching change posted by Cachorro on February 06, 2026 at 15:17:06
Cronin stifles players are coming mostly from those who don't understand basketball, coaching, player development, and what's really going on with the college sports culture.
In Cronin's recent presser he said Dent and Booker are not the players they were when they first came to UCLA. There's a learning curve and a period of adjustment when players are actually going through development. This is true for anyone in any profession - when you push yourself into unknown territory in order to grow and improve, you are going to look bad - for awhile.
I agree with Cronin. It is very clear, just watching them on TV that Dent and Booker are playing much better than they were at the beginning of the season. They are not the same players they were. That's development. We saw it with Jaquez, Campbell, Jaylen Clark, Bernard, Nwuba, Riley, Juzang, Singleton, Bona, Bailey, Mara, Bilodeau, Skyy Clark, Dailey, and Perry. You think that just happens? It happens with guidance and help from coaching.
Cronin's not perfect, but he too has grown. He's learning and adapting, all while coaching this team and trying to navigate through a tough season and get his guys into the tournament. We'll see how this all evolves, but from my distant vantage point I think Cronin has done a good job this season considering the trouble he has had. He had to deal with a key returning player suddenly leaving requiring Cronin to scramble at a late date to get some 5's on his roster. He then had to coach these guys up probably more then he thought. He had to deal with injuries to key players that probably had a lot to do with some of their losses. His prize transfer needed more work then maybe he realized and didn't anticipate just how this learning curve was going to affect him. And he had to deal with a roster that was defensively limited probably more than he realized, requiring not only more coaching but also adapting to these limitations.
All of this while he and every other coach are dealing with the changing landscape in college basketball that affects recruiting, coaching styles and methods, year long strategy, and also what kind of schemes one can practically run with close to yearly complete roster changes. Also, all of this looms under the heavy influence of money and getting it.
Every coach has to go through travails every season. In this respect Cronin is no different. We'll see how his recruiting goes for next season, but all in all, Cronin is a good coach, and, at least in opinion, is doing a very good job in spite of all the problems and challenges.
Cronin isn't for everyone, but I don't think he stifles players. He's definitely old school and many young players don't want to go through an old school style of development. What they don't understand is that process will make them much better players and unleash their innate talents.
The sad truth perhaps is that modern basketball has, IMO, digressed into a sport where innate abilities are more important and maybe the most important thing There's nothing wrong with that, but IMO it's at the expense of the quality of basketball played. The athletes are greater than ever. The things they can do today the player of yesterday could only dream of doing. And yet, with you this "improved" play I think the quality of basketball played is less than it had been. I think that's why I have lost interest in the NBA. And now I believe college basketball is going in the same direction.