In Reply to: Recruiting posted by BuscH on February 13, 2026 at 07:50:27
that may or may not be close to the reality of this situation. Assume that you're a very talented 18 year old basketball player. Everyone wants your services. You're being offered a big load of cash from everywhere. You're from southern California and perhaps you want to stay close to home and you want to play big time basketball.There are really only two choices, maybe three. You have UCLA, USC, and maybe San Diego State. Everyone is offering you big money and the keys to the kingdom. San Diego is really the poor relation in this scenario. So maybe you're resally down to two schools.
One is offering you everything including they are going to run everything through you, you're going to be given the ball and a green light on top of all that money. And you have a coach who is quietly bombastic and seems to be youthful and talks the talk of young B-ball players and a personality that doesn't seem like a hard nosed dad.
At the other place you have a guy who talks about defense and fundamentals and maybe you will earn a place in the starting lineup but you're going to have earn it by learning how to defend before any of that happens. The guy is very old school, seems kind of like a tough love kind of guy who may have your best interest at heart but the path he's offering you looks arduous, long, tough, and with no guarantees of anything that may lie beyond all that effort. And maybe, on top of all that, the money isn't quite as much as the other place.
Which place are you going to choose? It seems pretty clear to me. I think it would take a very special kind of player who would choose the latter. I think those kind of players are out there but they're probably few and far between.
Just like in another era, it took a special kind of guy to want to go to Bobby Knight U. I'm not saying Cronin is an abusive coach. I think he's far from that. But, like Knight, he is a demanding coach and not every young man wants demands placed upon him - not when others may be offering him the world.
But then there still isn't any commitment and anything can happen in recruiting. But, I would think Cronin offering Philon, who is a similar to Collins as a player, is an indication that they are not doing well with Collins. But, who knows? C'est la guerre!