In Reply to: Per K. Johnson, Mara & CMC were together on the eve of the draft posted by BabyBear on June 30, 2026 at 21:48:39
What I would have asked him during that conversation is: at what point do the actual results start to matter?
Personally, I believe UCLA should be landing more impact players than it has over the last several years. In my opinion, those recruiting misses have directly contributed to the team's end-of-season results.
It's great that his players love playing for him, but ultimately that doesn't mean much if the program isn't bringing in enough talent. Do I expect a top-10 recruiting class every year? No. But I do believe a UCLA coach should be able to build a roster capable of competing for a championship at least once every four years. We haven't seen that happen recently, and nothing that has occurred this year gives me much confidence that it's going to happen anytime soon. That's what concerns me.
To be clear, I think Cronin is a good coach, and I expect the team to be solid this coming season. But I don't think I'm alone in believing that first-weekend tournament exits aren't enough. That's the reality. Over the last three years, we've either missed the tournament entirely or been eliminated during the first weekend. While I like the returning roster, it doesn't currently project as a team capable of making a deep tournament run either. At some point, the question becomes: how long do we wait to see if he can turn things around?