Mick Cronin Signs New 6-Year Contract With UCLA Men's Basketball
The Bruins are keeping their leading man around for a while.
UCLA men's basketball came to terms on a new six-year contract with coach Mick Cronin, the school announced Thursday morning just moments before the NCAA tournament was set to tip off. The deal will keep Cronin in Westwood through the 2027-2028 season.
This is already the third separate contract Cronin has signed with UCLA, the first being a six-year, $24 million deal that brought him over from Cincinnati in April 2019. After guiding the Bruins to the Final Four in 2021, Cronin immediately signed a two-year extension worth $8 million.
The extension he signed last April didn't give him much of a raise, however, with his average annual salary of $4 million staying constant. While the university did not announce the terms of Cronin's new contract, a report from ESPN's Pete Thamel claims that Cronin will become the highest-paid coach in the Pac-12 and among the top 15 in the country.
"I believe we have created a culture of success and competitive greatness at UCLA," Cronin said in a statement released by the team. "I am totally committed to seeing this process through with the goal of becoming national champions and one of the elite programs in college basketball."
Earlier in the season, Cronin was tied to the opening at Louisville once the Cardinals fired Chris Mack in January. Cronin was formerly an assistant under Rick Pitino at Louisville, and he was born and raised less than 100 miles away at Cincinnati before defining his coaching career there as well.
Cronin told All Bruins that it would be "inappropriate" for him to comment on another school's opening at the time.
As it turns out, Cronin will not be returning to Louisville this spring. Amid the news of the latest extension, Cronin's brother Dan tweeted "No poaching allowed zone lol."
In his three seasons as UCLA's head coach, Cronin has gone 66-29. Cronin started off 8-9 across his first two months with the Bruins, but he wound up leading the team to a 9-2 finish and presumptive NCAA tournament bid.
March Madness was canceled that year due to COVID-19, but Cronin still won Pac-12 Coach of the Year for his efforts throughout the rest of the season.
UCLA was sitting at 17-5 in Cronin's second year, well on its way to its first conference title since 2013, but three-straight losses to end the regular season and a one-and-done trip to the Pac-12 tournament wiped out the promising start. The Bruins barely crawled into the NCAA tournament, making the First Four as a No. 11 seed.
After beating Tom Izzo and Michigan State in the play-in game, UCLA upset its way all the way to the Final Four. It took a buzzer-beating half-court shot for undefeated Gonzaga to best the Bruins in one of the most iconic games in modern college basketball history.
UCLA opened the 2021-2022 season as the No. 2 team in the country, and it hung around in the top-five for most of the first three months of the campaign. The Bruins wound up making it to the Pac-12 championship game in Las Vegas a week ago, and even after losing, they still went into March as a top-10 team in the NET, KenPom, BPI, RPI and BARTHAG.
That all resulted in a No. 4 seed for UCLA in the NCAA tournament, their best since Cronin arrived.
Under Cronin, guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr., guard Tyger Campbell and guard Johnny Juzang have developed into borderline All-American-level players. Guard Jules Bernard would arguably be a No. 1 option on several other Pac-12 teams, and guard Jaylen Clark has become a defensive ace with Cronin's guidance.
On the recruiting trail, Cronin earned a five-star commitment from guard Daishen Nix before he ever coached a game for the Bruins. While Nix wound up backing out in favor of a G-League contract during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cronin hauled in five-star guard/forward Peyton Watson the next cycle.
UCLA has a top-10 class coming to Westwood in 2022, highlighted by guard Amari Bailey, center Adem Bona and guard Dylan Andrews.
"Mick Cronin is one of the best coaches in the country, and this deal signifies our commitment to keeping him at UCLA and competing for national championships," said UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond. "Mick is the right leader for our program because he knows what it means to represent the four letters, he won't settle for less than being an elite program, and he wins with integrity. He has done a tremendous job of developing young men, and his players respect him."
Cronin has had the same staff around him in all three seasons he's coached at UCLA, with Darren Savino being associate head coach and Rod Palmer and Michael Lewis standing in as assistant coaches.
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