After a 100-day coaching search conducted about as publicly as it could’ve been, and after swinging and—more importantly—missing on coaches more interested in creating leverage for raises at their current jobs, UCLA finally has its man: Mick Cronin, the 47-year-old firebrand who built Cincinnati into a perennial NCAA tournament participant.
Right now, it’s too early to know whether Cronin’s middle-America toughness will translate to the palm-tree-filled streets of Westwood. What is clear, though, is what the hiring process says about a program with more national championships than any other: UCLA is farther than it’s ever been from college basketball’s pantheon of bluebloods.