Mick Cronin

Michael Walter Cronin (born July 17, 1971) is an American men's college basketball coach who is the head coach of the UCLA Bruins of the Pac-12 Conference.

He led the city in assists and was second in 3-point shooting percentage during the 1989–90 season.

A knee injury to his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) near the end of his junior season ended his playing career.

As a student at the University of Cincinnati, while accompanying his dad to scout a Cincinnati Woodward High School game, Cronin was offered a job coaching the freshman team and assisting with the varsity by then-Bulldogs coach Jim Leon.

From 1991 to 1996, he served as a varsity assistant coach and junior varsity coach at Woodward High.

Cronin compiled a 57–3 record in three seasons as JV coach, and as a varsity aide, Woodward claimed three city championships.

While at Woodward, Cronin helped develop six players who went on to play Division I college basketball, including former University of Louisville players Eric Johnson and Dion Edwards, and former Cincinnati guard Damon Flint.

He was director of the 1994 Pittsburgh high school Roundball Classic national all-star game.

Cronin has coached and served on the selection committee for the Adidas camp and spent four summers on the staff of the Five-Star Teaching Camp.

Cronin received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Cincinnati in 1996.

In the spring of 1996, Cronin coached the East team in the Magic Johnson Roundball Classic.

Cronin took his first college coaching job as a video coordinator under Bob Huggins at the University of Cincinnati in 1996–97, and the following season was elevated to assistant coach, a post he held at UC until 2001.

Cronin built a reputation for his ability to evaluate and recruit top talent; at UC as an assistant for Huggins from 1997 to 2001, Cronin recruits included NBA draft selections Steve Logan (Golden State Warriors), DerMarr Johnson (Atlanta Hawks), Pete Mickeal and Kenny Satterfield (both drafted by the Dallas Mavericks), and Jason Maxiell (Detroit Pistons).

Cronin became the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at Louisville under Rick Pitino, beginning with the 2001–02 season.

In his first year, Cronin helped attract a top-10 ranked recruiting class.

Cronin's first head coaching job was at Murray State, where he was hired in 2003.

After the 2005–06 season, he was hired as Cincinnati's coach, replacing interim coach Andy Kennedy after the dismissal of Bob Huggins.

Cronin had to pick up the pieces from a depleted program after Huggins was asked to resign with no warning three months before the 2005 season, and a temporary coach was used for a season.

Due to the school having done little to no recruiting for nearly a year, Cronin was forced to scrounge for players.

He even had a couple players on the football team play, one being future NFL linebacker Connor Barwin.

Although Cronin's teams struggled early in his UC career, he improved the school's win total each of his first five seasons.

Prior to joining Cincinnati in 2006, he coached the Murray State Racers from 2003 to 2006.

Cronin grew up on the west side of Cincinnati, the son of Peggy and Harold "Hep" Cronin.

Hep Cronin was a high school coach with more than 400 career wins in Cincinnati.

Mick was one of three children along with older brother, Dan, and sister, Kelly.

Not only did his father coach basketball, he also was a teacher, a baseball scout for the Atlanta Braves, and an employee at River Downs race track during the summers.

Attending La Salle High School, the 5 ft Cronin, playing point guard for his dad, earned all-city honors in basketball at LaSalle.

In three seasons at Murray, Cronin led the team to the NCAA tournament twice and was named the 2006 Ohio Valley Conference coach of the year.

For the 2009–10 season, Cronin was able to successfully recruit Lance Stephenson, the all-time leading scorer in New York state high school basketball history who later had NBA stints with multiple teams.

During his one season at Cincinnati, Stephenson was named the Big East Rookie of the Year.

In 2011, the University of Cincinnati board of trustees approved a contract extension for Cronin through 2017 with an average pay of $1.5 million a year.

It included an increase in salary for his staff, as well as an increase in the basketball program budget.

Cronin is also the only UC coach to ever lead the Bearcats to a win over a higher seed in the NCAA tournament, when 6th-seeded Cincinnati defeated 3rd-seeded Florida State in 2012.

It was the only season that the Bearcats advanced to the Sweet Sixteen under Cronin.

Cronin had been named the coach of the year of the American Athletic Conference (AAC) in 2014 and guided Bearcats' program to nine straight NCAA tournament appearances (through 2018–19).

From the beginning of the 2010 season to February 3, 2017, the Bearcats had amassed a 166–63 record, spent 45 weeks ranked in the AP Poll, and reached six straight NCAA tournaments, while picking up four tournament wins.

In 2018–19, Cincinnati appeared in its ninth straight NCAA tournament, but was eliminated in the first round by Iowa.

Cronin was named the Pac-12 Coach of the Year in his first season with the Bruins in 2019–20.

The following year, his team went to the Final Four.

Cronin arrived at UCLA having previously served as the head coach for the Cincinnati Bearcats for 13 seasons.