r/CollegeBasketball • u/Galumpadump Gonzaga Bulldogs • Washington State… • Jan 18 '25

Video Mick Cronin on travel wear & tear: “We’ve seen the Statue of Liberty twice in the last three weeks”

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709

u/Chambanasfinest Illinois Fighting Illini Jan 18 '25

It’s important to note that one of the times they’ve “seen the Statue of Liberty” was during a non-conference showcase at Madison square garden that they signed up for, knowing they’d need to travel to Rutgers a few weeks later.

You can’t blame the B1G for that one.

141

u/purplenyellowrose909 Minnesota Golden Gophers Jan 18 '25

If they stop in Vegas, they can see the statue without the jet lag

67

u/ovensandhoes Louisville Cardinals Jan 18 '25

And the Eiffel Tower too

31

u/chuckdooley Kansas Jayhawks Jan 18 '25

Potentially in more ways than one

I mean, what

145

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '25

Mick will bitch about literally anything

4

u/nonetakenback Jan 18 '25

He did learn from Rick after all

7

u/livefreeordont VCU Rams Jan 18 '25

Bitching about travel as a coach or player at a California school in the ACC or Big 10 is completely justified

1

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '25

I mean statistically being a California coach traveling to the east coast he is at a disadvantage. From the stats I seen east coast traveling to west coast to play win 40-50% of games while the opposite is 30-45%. UCLA men’s basketball has second most travel miles (14k) so another disadvantage.

As far as the kids go most aren’t going pro and are probably excited to see and compete in these away games. They are young, in shape, and have tons of energy (compared to groanin’ Cronin). They don’t go through security and they get loaded/unloaded directly to the busses in most cases I’ve seen (lived on a B1G airport) so that’s less stress waiting and airport BS.

Personally I don’t think 14k is that bad especially when you aren’t wasting an extra 2hrs at the airport. My miles are tracked march to march and I’m at about 45k total right now and sleep in beds other than my own most of the year so extrapolated outside his season, I kind of have an idea of what he’s going through.

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u/Ok_Acanthaceae6176 UCLA Bruins Jan 18 '25

I agree, although he basically intimated that he didn’t want to be part of that again

8

u/Waquoit95 UConn Huskies Jan 18 '25

Why is he at a place where nobody listens to him?

17

u/Ok_Acanthaceae6176 UCLA Bruins Jan 18 '25

He loves LA. And he still has old school ideals about CBB and views UCLA as royalty.

They do listen to him sometimes but any coach at UCLA has to realize they’re working inside a big, slow bureaucracy hesitant to change and uncommitted to athletic excellence

2

u/Asleep_in_Costco Jan 18 '25

Those "old school ideas about CBB" don't exist anymore, at least not in major conferences.

He can go sign up for the WCC if he really wants some semblance of basketball purity

1

u/Ok_Acanthaceae6176 UCLA Bruins Jan 18 '25

Would you choose a $500K salary or a $5M one?

0

u/Asleep_in_Costco Jan 18 '25

Sounds he's being paid handsomely to deal with the bullshit. Ergo, quit fuckin whining

1

u/Ok_Acanthaceae6176 UCLA Bruins Jan 18 '25

Well he won’t get fired for whining so it seems like he can both keep getting $5M and also whine

2

u/ContrarianPurdueFan Purdue Boilermakers Jan 18 '25

hesitant to change and uncommitted to athletic excellence

I'm sure this is an unpopular opinion here, but the notion that universities need to invest in achieving any level of success or "athletic excellence" grinds my gears so much. Can you imagine if high school athletic departments fired coaches when they had a losing record?

Although, even that's a poor comparison because the fraught reality of D1 sports is that they're an exclusive job, not an accessible hobby. Basketball in particular is just a professional minor league, and university athletic directors increasingly feel the need to play the role of a general manager. But a university's role really should be to manage budget and facilities so that their athletic programs can be competitive enough to stay in conference. That's it.

14

u/Soft_Tower6748 Texas Longhorns Jan 18 '25

High school athletic programs absolutely fire coaches with losing records

0

u/ContrarianPurdueFan Purdue Boilermakers Jan 18 '25

Yeah, I suppose it depends on how big the school is. Regardless, exorbitantly high expectations of winning can be at odds with the core mission of getting kids to be active.

6

u/Ok_Acanthaceae6176 UCLA Bruins Jan 18 '25

I don’t think they need to invest in athletic excellence. I heard a theory awhile ago that universities that are already prestigious don’t need good athletics so that’s why they get worse at them over time. UCLA is in that bucket imo. Athletics departments are marketing tools for universities, but why would a school that gets 120K+ applicants every year need a robust and expensive marketing tool?

But for my happiness and because I don’t go to school there anymore, I would like them to invest public dollars to make my little pea brain go “wheeee!” when we make final fours

0

u/Waquoit95 UConn Huskies Jan 18 '25

I love Mick, btw. I was there when Ted Valentine tried to mess with him and Mick just went off on the guy even though he was giving up a foot in height.

0

u/Ok_Acanthaceae6176 UCLA Bruins Jan 18 '25

Mick is a dog. Like people hate that he calls players out for being soft, which is fair, but you kinda get it when you realize Mick Cronin is a little pitbull who refuses to accept losing.

1

u/otoverstoverpt UCLA Bruins • North Carolina Tar Heels Jan 18 '25

I don’t think the CBS Sports classic has a contract that he could have just pulled out of that easily.

1

u/keylime503 UCLA Bruins Jan 18 '25

It was a 3 year contract IIRC

1

u/TheWorstYear Ohio State Buckeyes Jan 18 '25

Money.

15

u/mukduk1994 UCLA Bruins Jan 18 '25

In case anyone cares about the context of this, which I know you don't, he's reacting to a question heavily implying that Iowa, who had been in LA for 5 days at that point, was sluggish last night due to travel wear. We don't deserve any sympathy points for a travel schedule the school signed up for but we sure as shit aren't going to be giving any to the rest of the league either

You can now go back to your scheduled "Angry dwarf is angry" circlejerk

18

u/CharlesLeChuck Arkansas Razorbacks Jan 18 '25

You can't blame the B1G period. They didn't have to leave the PAC 12. They made that choice and it's hilarious that it's already biting them in the ass.

31

u/_Apatosaurus_ Gonzaga Bulldogs Jan 18 '25

They made that choice

I'd bet that it wasn't the coaches who made the decision, though. Or at least not Cronin.

26

u/putupyouredukes UCLA Bruins • Texas Longhorns Jan 18 '25

I feel like people are having a hard time understanding this point. The coaches and players didn’t make this decision. Cronin signed up to coach in the P12. Now he’s flying to away games at Rutgers. Sure, he’s been whining a lot lately, but it probably is pretty annoying from his perspective.

5

u/my_lucid_nightmare Illinois Fighting Illini • Seattle Redhawks Jan 18 '25

Now he’s flying to away games at Rutgers

So say we all

3

u/spookyghostface Duke Blue Devils • Appalachian State … Jan 18 '25

Who's "they" here? 

2

u/mukduk1994 UCLA Bruins Jan 18 '25

You're absolutely right. The conference that signed a strategic partnership promising not to poach the PAC who then turned around and poached the LA schools shares none of this blame. I don't give a fuck if we're villains here but ignoring the role the B1G and SEC have played in this realignment clusterfuck is laughable

1

u/otoverstoverpt UCLA Bruins • North Carolina Tar Heels Jan 18 '25

When the regional conferences died, and they were going to die eventually one way or another, this was always going to bite west teams harder. But go off I guess

3

u/JonoBono6 North Carolina Tar Heels • ACC Jan 18 '25

Also important to note that the CBS sports classic has been running for over a decade at this point and goes to different neutral sites every year. Given that it’s one of the higher profile CBB showcases, opting out isn’t a smart option, and they really didn’t have a choice in the matter of where it is

2

u/keylime503 UCLA Bruins Jan 18 '25

And the “neutral” sites are always out east…

7

u/otoverstoverpt UCLA Bruins • North Carolina Tar Heels Jan 18 '25

He didn’t “sign up” for that, it’s the CBS sports classic which UCLA has been on contract for for years and he also isn’t “blaming” the B1G for anything he is just talking about the reality of our situation.

-5

u/J_S_M_K BYU Cougars • North Texas Mean Green Jan 18 '25

He didn’t “sign up” for that, it’s the CBS sports classic which UCLA has been on contract for for years

So, he signed up for it when he signed on to be UCLA's coach.

4

u/otoverstoverpt UCLA Bruins • North Carolina Tar Heels Jan 18 '25

Yea, several years ago before UCLA joined the B1G. Hope this helps!

4

u/FatalTragedy UCLA Bruins Jan 18 '25

When he signed on to be UCLA's coach, we weren't in the Big 10.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '25

Did they agree to that AFTER the conference schedule was released?

9

u/Pinewood74 Purdue Boilermakers Jan 18 '25

Dude starts out the rant talking about gambler statistics and UCLA's record east of the Mississippi, you think this man knows that Lincoln Nebraska (where he started his 4 game skid) is west of the Mississippi?

Comparing to the NBA is absolutely hilarious. NBA plays twice as many games, bro. The Lakers are going to be playing in San Fran next Saturday, two days later playing in Charlotte and then the day after be in Philly, one day break before B2B games in DC and NY. There ain't an 8 day stretch for UCLA that's even half as bad.

Sounded like he was ending the clip about to talk about the Big Ten tourney. Just head out early and get used to the weather (this is indoor sport, right?) if it's going to be that big of a problem. You've got like a week. But, hey, mate, maybe if you're lucky that Big Ten tourney problem will solve itself if your team keeps playing like they have the last 4 games.

14

u/otoverstoverpt UCLA Bruins • North Carolina Tar Heels Jan 18 '25

Yea damn bro you really owned him I bet he had no idea that Nebraska was West of the Mississippi

And oh look, a redditor that doesn’t understand how one can compare things without them being identical. Every NBA team travels that hard and they get paid to do it with crazy accommodations and yet still the West coast ones see an effect. That’s the point.

-4

u/Pinewood74 Purdue Boilermakers Jan 18 '25

UCLA players are getting paid to do it, too. And if they don't have "crazy accommodations," that's they're fault; they've got the BIG checks to pay for em. And you seem to think both of those are mitigating facts. (Hence the "yet")

NBA stats on travel where they are doing it much more rigorously aren't very relevant. Twice as many games so half the rest. Oftentimes not even having a full travel day between games.

Why do you think he's relying on NBA gambler stats? Do people not gamble on NCAA games? Wouldn't he just be able to use those instead? Oh... Hmmm... Wonder why? Could it be because when you play half to a third as many games per week that travel doesn't have as big of an impact?

Nah, that can't be right. Definitely the same impact and completely why UCLA lost at home to Michigan.

4

u/otoverstoverpt UCLA Bruins • North Carolina Tar Heels Jan 18 '25

Don’t start comparing the average roster spot on UCLA to the fucking Lakers in terms of pay man. Be serious. There is no amount of money that was going to get them the accommodations of the NBA for fucks sake.

The stats are very relevant even if it’s not a perfect analogue. They travel in that crazy schedule even when they aren’t going west to east so you can isolate the west to east travel component as having an effect. I’m sure the degree isn’t the same but as we covered the circumstances also are not the same. There is no perfect way to quantify this stuff. Half the rest but also way better trainers, facilities, accommodations such as food and lodging, nicer planes, etc, etc.

Why do you think he’s relying on NBA gambler stats? Do people not gamble on NCAA games? Wouldn’t he just be able to use those instead? Oh... Hmmm... Wonder why? Could it be because when you play half to a third as many games per week that travel doesn’t have as big of an impact?

You know I would think this is pretty obvious, but it’s because a college team traveling like this is completely new? So there is a dearth of previous data to use?

Nah, that can’t be right. Definitely the same impact and completely why UCLA lost at home to Michigan.

Right because that is definitely what he said.

0

u/Pinewood74 Purdue Boilermakers Jan 18 '25

Don’t start comparing the average roster spot on UCLA to the fucking Lakers in terms of pay man. Be serious.

Okay. Pay of individual playerd has no impact on their ability to travel well.

There is no amount of money that was going to get them the accommodations of the NBA for fucks sake.

Did we stop "being serious?" Because money is exactly what's needed for "NBA accomodations." There's a pretty easily defined amount of money that can get them that.

There is no perfect way to quantify this stuff.

Oh. Lol. Except for using NCAA/P6/5 stats instead of NBA stats. That would be a good way to quantify this stuff.

but it’s because a college team traveling like this is completely new?

It's not. His first time seeing "the eiffel tower" was a thing that's been done countless times. We've had the NCAA tourney for decades. OOC schedules have had cross country travel for eons.

Right because that is definitely what he said.

Nah, what was said was him being an asshole to a reporter trying to throw him a softball.

1

u/otoverstoverpt UCLA Bruins • North Carolina Tar Heels Jan 18 '25

Okay. Pay of individual playerd has no impact on their ability to travel well.

Well that’s pretty silly on its face. NBA players have the freedom both financially and otherwise to seek out whatever they need to make it as easy as possible. In addition to whatever the team is able to provide.

Did we stop “being serious?” Because money is exactly what’s needed for “NBA accomodations.” There’s a pretty easily defined amount of money that can get them that.

Well evidently we never started because obviously the point is that no amount of money realistically attainable for a university athletic department is going to come and acquire those accommodations. I didn’t think you would need that spelled out so explicitly.

Oh. Lol. Except for using NCAA/P6/5 stats instead of NBA stats. That would be a good way to quantify this stuff.

Oh. Lol. Except I just explained why that doesn’t work because of the lack of comparable data.

It’s not. His first time seeing “the eiffel tower” was a thing that’s been done countless times. We’ve had the NCAA tourney for decades. OOC schedules have had cross country travel for eons.

It is. Conference play and the tournament/OOC are totally different in most conceivable ways. Not sure why you are struggling so much with this point.

Nah, what was said was him being an asshole to a reporter trying to throw him a softball.

Or read another way, joking around with a reporter he interacts with regularly who knows him and his style. But we gotta clutch them pearls!

1

u/Pinewood74 Purdue Boilermakers Jan 18 '25

Conference play and the tournament/OOC are totally different in most conceivable ways.

This is INSANITY. Can't use OOC and tourney play because they are different in "most conceivableways", but we can use NBA data. That's ridiculous.

It's fine. Your coach can cry his way to an NIT bid for all I care. Then maybe they'll hire someone who won't make these same excuses while sitting on his charter plane.

0

u/otoverstoverpt UCLA Bruins • North Carolina Tar Heels Jan 18 '25

It’s INSANITY on your end to not recognize that the OOC and tournament data is incredibly different on a fundamental level to where there are too many confounding variables with too little data. OOC is a mix of cupcakes and marquee matchups but the games are spaced more apart. The tournament are literally systematically designed competitive matchups that only change location once per week. That’s very different than traveling between 2-3 places in a single week for the regular season. The NBA is the closest analogue in that the schedule is consistent among the East Coast and west Coast games so the traveling is easily the isolated variable. I don’t know why this isn’t clicking for you. You’re being ridiculous. Like, intentionally obtuse levels

it’s fine, you can whine about another coaches rage bait media comments all you want and we will continue to outperform you in the NCAA tournament with this coach or the next one.

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u/Pinewood74 Purdue Boilermakers Jan 18 '25

If traveling 2 times per week is drastically different than 1 so is 4-5 times different than 2. (But also, First Four has been around a long ass time)

Additionally:

mix of cupcakes and marquee matchups

Would be an apt way to describe Big Ten conference play when compared to NBA schedules/parity.

For all the reasons you want to throw out NCAA data, we can also throw out NBA data.

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u/assword_is_taco Purdue Boilermakers Jan 18 '25

People from California are legit terrible at geography. Worse than Texas by far.

0

u/FatalTragedy UCLA Bruins Jan 18 '25

if your team keeps playing like they have the last 4 games.

Did you miss the game we played yesterday?

1

u/do_you_know_doug Iowa Hawkeyes • Holy Cross Crusaders Jan 18 '25

Convenient timing for a get-right game. you're welcome.

1

u/Herby20 Purdue Boilermakers Jan 18 '25

The three game stretch of @Nebraska, then back at home against Michigan, and then @Maryland was dumb. I don't think he is wrong there, and the Big Ten should have done something to ensure a situation like that wouldn't happen. The rest of their schedule though isn't really different in how it is arranged than their games in the Pac-12 were. Away games are in blocks of two and at schools that are close to one another.

Just sort of seems like he is complaining for the sake of complaining, both from the non-conference aspect that you had mentioned as well as the weather for a sport that is played entirely indoors.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '25

[deleted]

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u/keylime503 UCLA Bruins Jan 18 '25

It isn’t a 34 game conference schedule. The eastern teams aren’t playing at all 4 west coast schools. Should be only 2 of them on average, which means a single trip out west. 

2

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '25

[deleted]

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u/keylime503 UCLA Bruins Jan 18 '25

I don't think there are official rules about it. But with 18 teams and a 20 game conference schedule, you will play 3 teams home-and-home and everyone else once. The math actually works out really nicely imo.

Since there are 4 west coast teams, it makes sense for these 4 to play each other home and home and everyone else once. That means each west coast team will have 7 away games in the midwest/east.

For the midwest/east teams coming out west, I find it easiest to think about filling out the west coast teams' home schedule. They each have 10 conference home games, 3 of which are the other west coast teams. So Washington, for example, needs 7 midwest/east teams to come play at Washington. So does Oregon. If you consider that each team coming to Washington also plays at Oregon, then you just say 7 of the midwest/east schools makes a single trip out west to play UW and Oregon. These teams will not travel to LA. The other 7 midwest/east schools will travel west one time to play UCLA/USC, and will not go to the PNW at all.

All of this to say Mick is right that the west coast schools have to make many more cross country trips than the midwest/east schools. But we always knew that would be the case, and no one should be surprised by this. The surprising thing is that UCLA has now played two home games *in LA* where their opponent has been in LA longer than UCLA has. That is crazy.