Illinois Basketball: Five Head Coach Candidates to Replace John Groce
By Eric Bruce
No. 1 Mick Cronin
Cronin has coached his hometown university and alma mater – Cincinnati – since 2007. Before that, he coached Murray State for three years, taking the Racers to the NCAA tournament twice. It took Cronin four years to turn Cincinnati around, but once he did he never looked back.
The Bearcats have danced the past six years. The only criticism of Cronin is that he’s only gotten Cincinnati to the Sweet 16 once. That doesn’t seem like a significant downside to me in light of all the good he has done.
Perhaps of all of my top five, I consider Cronin the best actual coach. Why? Because of what he has done with the players he gets.
Cronin honed his recruiting skills early in his career under Bob Huggins at Cincinnati, and then Rick Pitino at Louisville, before landing at Murray State. Since arriving at Cincinnati as head coach, he has recruited well, including a top 25 class in 2013 and a top 40 class last year.
This year, though, the Bearcats sit at No. 61 in recruiting. He is a good recruiter but Cincinnati was a casualty of the Big East’s explosion and ended up in the A10. The A10 is a good mid-major conference, but it’s no Power 5 and it isn’t on par with its mid-major cousin, the Big East.
Mick Cronin is an outstanding coach who is screaming to get to the next level. I realize that he has said he has no desire to leave Cincinnati, but after a substantial courtship with UNLV last year, I simply don’t believe him. He must be frustrated at Cincinnati because of the general weakness of the conference and the negative impact that has on recruiting.
But Cronin is a solid Cincinnati boy and the university pays him very well and is apparently meeting some of his demands with respect to facilities upgrades and other amenities. If the Illini could lure him away, that would be a big get in my opinion, but it wouldn’t be easy and it wouldn’t be cheap.
Next: The Case for Fred Hoiberg as Next Illini Head Coach
Miller, Krystkowiak, Martin, Mack, and Cronin are all-star coaches in my book. Whitman needs to aim for the caliber of coach represented by these gentlemen, or not aim at all and wait another year. Personally, I hope Whitman is taking aim.