Some college coaches withhold severe criticism from young players for fear of damaging fragile egos and causing some of the more sensitive ones to transfer to other schools.
UCLA’s Mick Cronin is not one of them.
Cronin’s Bruins fell to 11-4 on the season following their near blowout 94-75 loss to 24th-ranked Michigan. In his post-game press conference, Cronin left no doubt as to who was to blame for the embarrassing loss.
Hint: It’s not him.
“But we, we don’t play — we’re soft,” Cronin said, “So don’t tell me you want to win. Like, just don’t tell me you wanna win. So don’t, just don’t tell me you want to win. It’s crazy, you know. And it’s every day. I’m tired of it. It’s every day. I have the most energy of anybody at practice every day. I’m upset with everybody in that locker room — my assistant coaches and my players.”
“I mean, I don’t need to do anything else. I almost got 500 wins. I’m only 53. I mean, it’s a joke. It’s a joke; but yet, I come in and I have more passion, and energy, and pride than everybody and that’s the problem… So what the truth of it has been, it’s really hard to coach people that are delusional,” he continued. “The hungry dog gets the bone. We got guys that think they’re way better than they are. They’re nice kids. They’re completely delusional about who they are.”
Yikes.
The 22nd-ranked Bruins will continue conference play on Friday with a matchup against Maryland.
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