Throughout the 2024-25 college basketball season, if there’s one coach who isn’t afraid to be outspoken in his postgame press conferences, it’s UCLA Bruins’ head coach Mick Cronin. Following UCLA’s 86-70 thrashing by the Wisconsin Badgers to eliminate the Bruins from the Big Ten Tournament, Cronin had a doozy of a postgame presser when responding to a question about the Badgers’ physicality with UCLA big man Aday Mara, as per UCLA reporter Spencer Brown.
“I don’t need the headline in your paper saying I complained about the refs when I didn’t,” Cronin said. “We got our a** kicked, that’s the headline.”
With the loss, the UCLA is out of the Big Ten Tournament while Wisconsin moves on to the semifinals against top seed Michigan State. UCLA and Mick Cronin now await their possible NCAA Tournament fate with Selection Sunday approaching on Mar. 16.
Last season, amidst a young roster full of freshmen and after losing several key upperclassmen, UCLA failed to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since Cronin took over as head coach. During his first season at the helm in 2019-20, the postseason was canceled due to the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since 2019, Cronin has complied a record of 137-62. The Bruins have finished with a winning record in five of the six seasons that Cronin has been the head coach. He reached his 500th career win this year, coming on Bill Walton Day no less.
UCLA finished this season at 22-10 including their loss in the Big Ten Tournament to Wisconsin.
The Bruins seemed to be surging in mid-January amid a seven-game win streak. But they finished the regular season at just 4-3, although they did win their final two games of the year. Before the Big Ten Tournament, the Bruins were widely considered to be a shoe-in for the NCAA Tournament. But following their loss to Wisconsin, their postseason future might not be as clear.
The post Mick Cronin gets brutally honest on getting ‘a** kicked’ by Wisconsin appeared first on ClutchPoints.
