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Mick Cronin blasts his UCLA roster as ‘soft’ and ‘completely delusional’ after loss to Michigan

Paul Harvey

By Paul Harvey

Published:

Mick Cronin is no stranger to going off on anything when it comes to UCLA basketball. Sometimes it’s the media, sometimes it’s the opponent, and sometimes it’s even his own roster.

That was the case on Tuesday after UCLA lost to Michigan, 94-75, in Los Angeles. Vladislav Goldin led the Wolverines with 36 points in the blowout win while Michigan shot over 50% (15-for-28) from 3-point range.

Meanwhile, UCLA was just 2-for-20 from deep and got outrebounded 35-to-27 in the game. Afterward, Mick Cronin put his roster on blast as “soft” in his postgame press conference.

“We don’t play (hard), we’re soft — so don’t tell me you want to win. Just don’t tell me you want to win. It’s crazy, you know, and it’s every day,” expressed Cronin. “I’m tired of it. It’s every day.”

While that may seem harsh enough to some, Cronin continued to go all in on the Bruins. He claimed to have the most energy of anyone in the program and was critical of everyone else, including his assistant coaches, in the locker room.

Cronin followed that up by describing his UCLA players as “completely delusional” about their ultimate status:

“I have the most energy of anybody at practice every day. I’m upset with everybody in that locker room, the assistant coaches and my players,” Cronin said. “I mean, I don’t need to do anything else. I almost got 500 wins, I’m almost 53.

“It’s a joke. But yet I come in and have more passion and energy and pride than everybody else, that’s the problem… It’s really hard to coach people who are delusional. The hungry dog gets the bone. We got guys that think they’re way better than they are — they’re nice kids. They’re completely delusional about who they are.”

Regardless of whether or not you view this as Cronin trying to motivate his players or a prominent head coach needlessly airing out frustrations about his roster, UCLA has slipped considerably since starting the season 10-1. The Bruins are 1-3 in their last 4 games, including the particularly ugly home loss to Michigan.

Paul Harvey

Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.