(Nashville, TN) – Former Murray State coach Mick Cronin has had amazing success in during his college basketball coaching career. His Cincinnati teams have won 20 or more games for eight straight seasons, and they are participating in their eighth straight NCAA Tournament.
His Murray State teams won 74% of the time and went to a pair of NCAA Tournaments during his three seasons with the Racers. Cincinnati (31-4) is looking to advance to the Sweet Sixteen today against Nevada (28-7) in a 5:10 p.m. (CT) tip here in Nashville.
Cronin has always believed in the process of developing players. He often says, if programs can’t recruit the so-called ‘one and done’ players, then to be good, you have to get old.
Cincinnati and in-town rival Xavier are both playing in this ‘pod’, but are in different regions. The Bearcats are the second seed in the South Region, while the Musketeers are the top seeded team in the West. Ironically, neither of these teams are very successful (currently) recruiting players from the State of Ohio.
Cronin says the geography of Cincinnati, and the quality of high school and college play in the region make recruiting the ‘Queen City’ and the state very competitive.
Loyola Chicago fans will be watching this game, because the winner of this contest between the Bearcats and Wolfpack determines the Ramblers’ opponent for Thursday’s game in Atlanta. With all of the major upsets that have taken place in this year’s tournament, including Loyola’s two victories, Cronin was asked if he uses that information to instruct his players.
The winner of over 67% of his games (337 victories) says flatly, ‘he couldn’t care less’ about what goes on in other brackets, locations and games. He only cares about playing Nevada.
Cronin’s team will be led into the contest tonight with the American Athletic Conference’s ‘Player of the Year’, ‘Defensive Player of the Year’ and the ‘Sportsmanship Award’ winner. Oh, and they are all the same player.
Senior Gary Clark turned that trifecta. He averaged 12.9 points, 8.7 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game, leading the American in rebounding.
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Editor: Featured image courtesy of gobearcats.com.
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