Q and A with Mick Cronin

[JimmyTwoTimes37]

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20101014/SPT0101/10150356/1062/SPT/Q-A-with-Mick-Cronin

Question: You seem to be very optimistic about the 2010-11 season. Why?

Answer: Our chemistry has been great. There's no doubt that they felt last year, especially after the season started, that the NCAA Tournament was going to be a given for them. They know why they didn't make it. They know they let it slip away and they know how they let it slip away.

Q: How do you deal with the criticism you've received?

A: As a coach, John Wooden said it best. You ignore criticism, you always deflect praise because when you win, you're the greatest and when you lose, you're the worst. That's the just the way coaching is. I just tell people there are only five programs that have won more games each year in the past four years in big-time, BCS conferences and we're one of them. And we're going to win more games this year.

Q: Will this team look different from your previous four UC teams?

A: Yes, because of the offense and the depth. We've got size. We've got depth and you will see us offensively sharing the ball. Lance (Stephenson) was a guy that commanded the ball a lot and Deonta (Vaughn) was a guy who, for the betterment of his career, we were limited offensively, so we depended on him to try to get him shots. Now it's five guys working together to get the best shot we can get.

Every year its the same excuse...

"INSERT PLAYER HERE is going to have a breakout year. He's used last year as motivation. He's improved ten fold"

"The refs weren't on our side"

"We play in the Big East"

"We had too much talent, not enough role players"

http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab82/NBow37/Mickstooges-dentist-2.jpg?t=1287498799

[xubrew]

I just tell people there are only five programs that have won more games each year in the past four years in big-time, BCS conferences and we're one of them. And we're going to win more games this year.

well, the big east increasing it's conference schedule from sixteen game to eighteen games probalby helped.

also, it is a feat to increase your win total in conference every year for four years, yet never eclipse a .500 record. it isn't often you see that.

[STL_XUfan]

Question: You seem to be very optimistic about the 2010-11 season. Why?

They know why they didn't make it. They know they let it slip away and they know how they let it slip away.



That quote pretty much sums up Mick Cronin. No personal responsibility at all.

[boozehound]

It really is amazing to watch somebody who takes so little personal accountability for their 'results'. He is the head coach of the team, and has been for years now. At what point do you own your results?

If you are CEO of a company can you just go the board every year and say that you had a bad year because the people that work for you are morons and couldn't get it done?

You coach a basketball team. You are charged with recruiting, developing, and retaining talent. Own it. Take responsibility.

[GoMuskies]

Mick Cronin sucks at life. I LOVE that he's their coach.

[XU 87]

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20101014/SPT0101/10150356/1062/SPT/Q-A-with-Mick-Cronin

Q: Will this team look different from your previous four UC teams?

A: Yes, because of the offense and the depth. We've got size. We've got depth and you will see us offensively sharing the ball. Lance (Stephenson) was a guy that commanded the ball a lot and Deonta (Vaughn) was a guy who, for the betterment of his career, we were limited offensively, so we depended on him to try to get him shots. Now it's five guys working together to get the best shot we can get.



That answer pretty much sums up Cronin. When all else fails, throw your players under the bus, even the guy who was a four year starter. The Vaughn comment about "for the betterment of his career" insinuates that Vaughn was a selfish player.

[joe titan]

XU 87: Sorry but I did not read Cronin's quote that way. To me Cronin was stating that for most of Vaughn's career UC depended on him solely to be their entire offense. Certainly that is true; when Vaughn was Freshman/Soph. he was essentially all UC could muster as a go-to guy. No other UC player had any offensive skills to speak of and they were quite dependent on Vaughn to start their feeble offense and to score consistently.

I do not think Cronin was insinuating Vaughn played selfishly or was looking to better himself at the team's expense.

Still, many believe Cronin is way off base to suggest his team now is some offensive machine w/multiple scoring weapons. Other than lacking shooters, finishers, ball movement and rebounding, UC's offense is just fine.

[XU 87]

So what do you think he meant when referring to "the betterment of his career", particularly in the context of talking about how last year's team didn't share the ball well?

Cronin also gave an interview a few months ago where he said in so many words that the team was better off now that Vaughn (and Stephenson) were gone. So I'm using that interview for some background.

[smileyy]

I read "betterment of his career" as a mistranscription or malapropism of "better part of his career". The sentence makes no sense (gramatically) with "betterment" in there.

I read that sentence as long rambling version of: "For the past 4 years, we had two guys who were extremely ball-dominant".

[MADXSTER]

Cronin's answers were hard to read and understand.

Joe, I too read it as Vaughn was selfish. After reading it a second time, I felt that Cronin probably meant, betterment of the team. Then re-read again and thought, no, he took a shot at Vaughn.

[MADXSTER]

I read "betterment of his career" as a mistranscription or malapropism of "better part of his career". The sentence makes no sense (gramatically) with "betterment" in there.

I read that sentence as long rambling version of: "For the past 4 years, we had two guys who were extremely ball-dominant".

This makes more sense. Hey smiley, you make more sense than Cronin. Lord, If we can't follow the guy, how do ya think his players must feel. LOL Imagine him explaining something in a time out.

[XU 87]

I read "betterment of his career" as a mistranscription or malapropism of "better part of his career". The sentence makes no sense (gramatically) with "betterment" in there.



Your interpretation makes some sense.

I first thought that Cronin really meant to say for "the betterment of his career", and then caught himself, and then tried to make it sound a little better than saying he was selfish.

That said, I'm not sure how losing your two top scorers makes for a better offense. And even with two good scorers, why can't a team still share the ball on offense? Crawford took a significant percentage of Xavier's shots, but by December, X shared the ball pretty well.

[surfxu]

Crawford took a significant percentage of Xavier's shots, but by December, X shared the ball pretty well.

That's because Xavier has a good coach and knew how to reign in a guy that was used to being the offensive focus and get him to believe in the bigger picture which in turn will lead to better opportunities not only for your teamates but also yourself.

I too read Cronin's comment about Vaughn as " for the better part of his career he was forced to be the offensive focus"...but now that you guys have mentioned it, I think he really did mean what he actually said...that Vaughn tried only to help his basketball career and wasn't a team player. That's not only a shot at Vaughn but also at his own inability to control a player and the team as a whole. Cronin is an idiot.

[Cheesehead]

You ever notice how Mick tries to bend the conversation so he always comes out looking good?...or at least he thinks he looks good. The guy is really quite the douche.

[DoubleD86]

That said, I'm not sure how losing your two top scorers makes for a better offense.

Haven't we talked about how even though we lost Crawford and Love we could have a harder to defend offense because we could have lots of guys coming at you at any time? And didn't the Xavier team of a couple of years ago have an improved offense from the year before based on a balanced and more consistent (less likely to struggle with one or two players struggles) attack?

Don't get me wrong, I don't think UC will be good offensively, but I do not necessarily think that the above thinking is completely off. Granted, I would rather have a Crawford every year but many in the Xavier fan base prefer the "no star but balanced offense" set, or at least many claimed they did prior to this year. Early on this past year people were claiming we needed to get back to our balanced ways and not have Crawford shoot so often.

Edit: Still, Mick is a douche and has no accountability. And just to go on record, because my opinion matters so much, I also read the quote like smiley did as saying for the "better part of his career"

[CinciX12]

Mick is just a bad person. And all bias aside, and granted there is a lot of it, but if you just read that from a neutral perspective that isn't a human being I'd ever like to get to know. He comes off as so damn arrogant like he knows everything there is about this sport. Yet he doesn't have a single shred of credibility to back it up.

Honestly, the world would be a better place with less Mick Cronin's in it. And that has nothing to do with the sport of basketball or the University of Cincinnati. Guy is seriously a piece of trash.

[JimmyTwoTimes37]

Mick just said Yancy will be "all Big East".

"Sean Kilpatrick will be a prolific scorer"

Does this guy ever stop? He just heaped a ton of pressure on a freshman with no experience and a perennial underachiever. He's the guy at the bar when the Bengals are down 10 with 1 minute to go who says "We're ok. We just need a stop here, a timeout, a touchdown, then a recovered onsides kick and were back in it"

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/uc/2010/10/21/does-cronin-know-something-that-we-dont/

[Xman95]

Honestly, the world would be a better place with less Mick Cronin's in it.

Have you seen the size of that guy? How much less can you have before he just vanishes?

[xu05usmc]

That said, I'm not sure how losing your two top scorers makes for a better offense. And even with two good scorers, why can't a team still share the ball on offense? Crawford took a significant percentage of Xavier's shots, but by December, X shared the ball pretty well.

As a UC grad student/TA, I saw a lot of UC games last year. Cronin's statement that by losing the top 2 scorers they will be better offensively makes a lot of sense to anyone who watched them extensively last year. Stephenson was a purely ISO player, Vaughn was better off screens. Basically the top 2 options really couldn't play together, but since they were the two best players they sort of had to be out there. My guess is that UC's offense will make more sense this year, but probably won't be much better.

[RealDeal]

Guy quotes Wooden to defend himself in the same interview where he admits that he can't effectively use the talent on his team. That should be illegal. He needs to be choked out.

[DoubleD86]

He needs to be choked out.

I don't know why, but this response is hilarious to me. Well done, reps!