In Reply to: The Greatest Coach Of All Time, In Any Sport, In A Word.......... posted by NYBruin on January 20, 2026 at 13:10:46
to Daren Savino. First off who the heck is he other than a long time friend of Cronin. He played some D III hoops and some no name school…stands 6’2” and shows little ability to adapt to his personnel. UCLA has had several stud posts (I use the word lightly) in Bona and Mara and on D, they were both used like they were 6’8” forwards…pulled away from the hoop to switch off on guards and be out of position to either defend the hoop or rebound. I know, I know, the game has changed but you need to adapt especially when you are getting murdered both on interior D and rebounds. I nearly fell off my chair when I heard Booker proclaim that the coaches told him to play D by just putting his hands up and that his height would alter shots…you can see all of our bigs mostly doing it (including T.Bil). Sounds like a short guy looking up at someone 6’11”.
I can’t count how many times I’ve screamed when Book or Jamerson’s sprint (too late) to try and disrupt an open 3 … taking them out of any interior D and rebounding and opening the paint for easy cuts to the hoop. STOP IT! You are not gonna block or disrupt the 3 and our interior game becomes limp with (maybe) E.D. or T.Bil trying to fill the void.
None of our bigs are athletic enough to guard the paint and the 3 point line…it is
just beyond them. So park them in the paint with only two jobs … Get a freaking rebound and clobber anyone who dares to enter their zone…in other words implant them with a David Meyers spirit.
Sorry for the rant, but what we have been watching on D the last three years is the definition of insanity (JMO) and for god’s sake get a big man coach and
O coordinator who knows how to evaluate, coach and use bigs (could be the same guy) Sorry Daren.