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Weekend Brunch: How Mick Cronin quickly made UCLA into arguably college basketball’s most intriguing team

Mick Cronin enjoys a few select things in life.

The 52-year old coach loves a good cigar with a quality glass of red wine, horse racing, and most of all, winning.

In fact, Cronin’s famous quote when he was introduced as UCLA’s head coach in April of 2019 was that he spelled fun, “W-I-N”.

He didn’t have much fun last season.

The Bruins’ 16-17 record was Cronin’s worst in Westwood and his first sub .500 season since 2007-08, which was his second year at Cincinnati. It was the first time that Cronin missed the NCAA Tournament since 2009-10 as he took his teams to 12 straight editions of March Madness from 2011-23, highlighted by a trip to the Final Four in 2021.

The mission to get back to college basketball’s most hallowed showcase began the moment that UCLA was eliminated from the 2024 Pac-12 Tournament. Nearly two months and seven new players later, the Bruins are arguably college basketball’s most intriguing team entering the 2024-25 season.

After rarely dipping his toe in the transfer market in previous years, Cronin adapted quickly, securing commitments from six different transfers — Skyy Clark (Louisville), Dom Harris (Loyola Marymount), Kobe Johnson (USC), Eric Dailey (Oklahoma State), Tyler Bilodeau (Oregon State), and William Kyle (South Dakota State) — who all averaged at least 9.3 points last season. UCLA also received a commitment from former USC commit and McDonald’s All-American Trent Perry earlier this week, a 6-4 point guard who along with Top-100 wing Eric Freeny will comprise the Bruins’ freshmen class.

Those eight players will combine with a returning nucleus of Dylan Andrews (12.9 points, 3.7 assists), Sebastian Mack (12.1 points), Lazar Stefanovic (11.5 points, 6.1 rebounds), and Brandon Williams (3.1 points, 2.2 rebounds). 7-3 sophomore Aday Mara and Devin Williams also return.

The competition for minutes figures to be fierce.

With the exception of the lightning quick Andrews — who averaged 16.7 points and 3.5 assists in the final 10 games of last season — the rest of the Bruins’ lineup is currently TBD.

It would be wise though to expect both Clark and Johnson to play significant roles.

Well embedded moles in Westwood believe that Cronin likes the idea of playing the 6-3 Clark (13.2 points) and Andrews together in the backcourt, which is a dynamic that UCLA lacked last season. Clark though, will have to improve his ball security to flourish under Cronin as he had just 87 assists to 88 turnovers during his one year at Louisville.

The 6-6 Johnson (10.9 points, 4.6 rebounds) meanwhile, should instantly resemble former UCLA star Jaylen Clark, who was the National Defensive Player of the Year in 2023 before suffering a torn achilles tendon prior to the 2023 Pac-12 Tournament.

That leaves a pair of freshmen — Perry and Freeny — to battle for leftover minutes on the perimeter with a pair of proven college veterans in Mack and Stefanovic. The 6-3 Harris — who made 65 three-point shots in 24 games last season — also figures to challenge for playing time because of his ability to stretch the defense. Harris shot 44.8 percent from three-point range last season while the Bruins shot just 33.2 percent as a team.

With Adem Bona no longer a part of the Bruins’ program, Cronin has three options — Mara, Kyle (13.1 points, 6.6 rebounds), and/or Bilodeau (14.3 points, 5.7 rebounds) — in the pivot. Mara is a traditional option at center while the 6-9 Kyle is more of a rim running, athletic post player.

Bilodeau is the sleeper of UCLA’s transfer class.

Armed with good size at 6-9, the former Oregon State forward can stretch the defense from the center spot and is a walking mismatch on offense. He averaged 17.8 points and 5.9 rebounds in the Beavers’ final eight games of last season. Either he or Dailey (9.3 points, 4.8 rebounds) is likely to be in the mix to start at power forward. The versatile Dailey has plenty of similarities of the types of players that Cronin won a massive amount of games with at both Cincinnati and UCLA.

“Eric is a big guard, built in the Jaime Jaquez mold,” Cronin said. “He can rebound like a big, but he is a young man with guard skills in a big, strong body.”

John Wooden once said “don’t mistake activity for achievement”.

He was right.

Just because UCLA is bringing in eight new players doesn’t automatically mean that the Bruins are going to be back among the nation’s elite next season.

It’s also imperative to remember that in addition to molding together a new team, Cronin also has to adapt to a new conference as UCLA — along with USC, Oregon, and Washington — is set to begin a new chapter in the Big Ten.

Still, even with all those variables, all of the issues that plagued the Bruins last season — experience, depth, and lack of offense — appear to be solved.

Could this be Cronin’s deepest team ever?

It’s definitely within the realm of possibility.

The Bruins don’t have the star power that they possessed when Johnny Juzang led this program to the Final Four in 2021 or when Jaquez willed it to a two seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, but on paper, UCLA’s strength is the potential of its overwhelming depth.

Who will start?

Who will finish?

How deep will the rotation be?

And early on, will the Bruins’ practices be more competitive than their games?

All of these questions are why UCLA is arguably college basketball’s most intriguing team entering the 2024-25 season.

On The Side

  • College Hoops Today reported on Thursday that UCLA and Gonzaga are finalizing an agreement to start a two-year series next season at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. There will be a return game in Seattle during the 2025-26 season.
  • Duke’s annual game at MSG next season will be against Illinois.
  • Arkansas is now ranked 13th in the ROTHSTEIN 45.
  • Kentucky’s Mark Pope will be next week’s guest on the College Hoops Today Podcast.
  • South Florida’s Amir Abdur-Rahim has received a contract extension through the 2029-30 season, a source told College Hoops Today on Thursday. The 43-year old Abdur-Rahim was the AAC Coach of the Year this past season and led the Bulls to a 25-8 record and an outright AAC regular season title.

Leftovers