NCAA Basketball: 5 most underrated head coaches heading into 2020-21

1. Mick Cronin, UCLA

You probably will recognize Cronin from his time at Cincinnati, and rightly so. But Cronin has been successful at two schools, and he’s just getting started at UCLA.

Cronin started at Murray State in 2003 and spent three very successful seasons in Murray. He amassed a 69-24 record and two Conference Championships, including a near-upset of UNC in the 2006 NCAA tournament.

Then, Cronin jumped ship to Cincinnati. He struggled his first two years to find his footing with the Bearcats in a tough Big East Conference. But in the 2008-09 season, Cronin and the Bearcats went 18-14 and he hasn’t had a losing season since. Cronin made nine straight NCAA tournament appearances from 2011 to 2019, and successfully transitioned the Bearcats from the Big East to the AAC with 2 AAC Regular Season titles. By the time Cronin left Cincinnati, he had a record of 296-147 with a 67% win percentage and nine consecutive 20-win seasons.

So where did Cronin’s next challenge take him? Los Angeles to rebuild a once-dominant UCLA program. In the 2019-20 season, Cronin won the Pac-12 Coach of the Year and the Bruins overperformed to a 19-12 record and he probably would have made his 10th consecutive NCAA tournament if not for the virus.

And the steam isn’t slowing down for Cronin, he has four of his top five scorers returning. The leading scorer, Chris Smith, is still once the fence too. Despite a career win percentage of 67.7% in over 500 games and being in the national spotlight for over a decade now, Cronin and his success never received their deserved national coverage. Hence, making him one of my choices for one of the most underrated coaches in college basketball.

Next, we move to the WAC to find our next underrated coach.