With Mick Cronin taking the UCLA head coaching job, Cincinnati Basketball finds themselves suddenly in a coaching search. Let’s take a close look at some candidates to lead the program.
Following thirteen seasons with Cincinnati Basketball, head coach Mick Cronin is off to UCLA, the man hired after a long and winding coaching search by the Bruins. Cronin went 296-147 with the Bearcats, making each of the last nine NCAA Tournaments with the Big East and now AAC school. He once again built this program into a consistent winner, which led to UCLA’s interest in him.
Cronin landed at Cincinnati in 2006 after three seasons at Murray State. He made a pair of NCAA Tournaments with the Racers, including a close loss to 4-seed North Carolina in 2006 with his best Racers squad. Cincinnati was Cronin’s alma mater and he also spent time as an assistant under Bob Huggins, while also spending a couple of seasons under Rick Pitino at Louisville.
When he returned as head coach, Cronin had entered a very bleak situation. He would be replacing interim coach Andy Kennedy after Bob Huggins had been dismissed right before the 2005-06 season began. There hadn’t been much recruiting done in the meantime, and Cronin was forced to throw together his initial team, which finished 11-19 and last place in the old Big East. Four years later, the Bearcats had 26 wins and were making their first of nine straight NCAA trips.
Unfortunately for Cronin, his teams just couldn’t get it done when they got to the Tournament. His 2012 team made the Sweet Sixteen as a 6-seed, but that was the only time his Bearcats got out of the opening weekend. They lost several games to teams better than them, but last year’s collapse against Nevada and their loss to Harvard in 2014 were clearly both unacceptable losses.
There will be higher expectations for Cronin at UCLA, but let’s focus on what he leaves behind in Cincinnati. We’re going to look at a few of the candidates to replace him as head coach of the Bearcats. The next head coach has a great shot of leading this team to a tenth straight NCAA Tournament appearance. The question on the minds of every Bearcats fan is can their next head coach actually win multiple Tournament games?
We’ve identified five potential candidates, so let’s take a look at analyzing these potential hires.