Tickets In all the commotion of the the Sean Kilpatrick announcement last week and end of spring football with interesting comments from Tommy Tuberville (You can read about SK here and here. As well as key spring football observations here), a number of other interesting storylines based on comments from the head coaches developed.
I wanted to piggyback one Bill Koch touched on this weekend with his piece on Cronin's dedication to UC.
The current cross-section of faith between Mick Cronin, Tommy Tuberville, Whit Babcock and President Ono is as strong as possible right now. They all are very much on the same page and understanding belief in the direction of the department in both the short/long term. At least, they are saying repeatedly in public with us media types.
That's a prevailing reason Cronin is so happy here and why the University has reciprocated their desire for him to stay.
Look around, folks. To have a coach with the success Cronin's enjoyed and dedication to staying for the long haul is rare. Consider the new American Athletic Conference.
Here are your AAC basketball coaches with tenure at the school and record:
Louisville: Rick Pitino (12): 310-111
UC: Mick Cronin (7): 135-99
Temple: Fran Dunphy (7): 158-75
USF: Stan Heath (6): 85-109
Memphis: Josh Pastner (5): 106-35
UCF: Donnie Jones (3): 97-75
Houston: James Dickey (3): 47-46
UConn: Kevin Ollie (1): 20-10
SMU: Larry Brown (1): 15-17
Rutgers: Interim (0)
--- That's right, only one coach -- Rick Pitino, who will be gone after one season -- has spent more years at one school. Half of those coaches have spent three years or less.
--- If you want to take a shot at The American, here's the Catholic 7 with their coaching tenures at the school and record. Cronin holds up there as well with only two coaches owning more years on the bench.
Villanova: Jay Wright (12): 257-154
Georgetown: John Thompson III (9): 277-130
Marquette: Buzz Williams (5): 122-35
DePaul: Oliver Purnell (3): 30-64
St. John's: Steve Lavin (3): 40-30
Seton Hall: Kevin Willard (3): 49-48
Providence: Ed Cooley (2): 34-32
And Mick will return next year with statements like this one from Wednesday repeatedly on the record:
"There is a lot of commitment. There is a lot of forward-thinking people in charge. That's exciting because we want to continue to upgrade everything. Not just basketball stuff, football stuff. It's a process. We have challenges, there's no doubt about it, but we have people that aren't afraid of them that are in charge. For me, it's comforting but it's exciting.
"I'm happy to be here. Everyone knows where I want to be. That's not a secret with me. The end of the day when I get a chance to huddle with Whit we both know we got challenges, but we are both young guys looking to forge ahead and we are willing to sit down and attack it."
--- Combine stability in the most important positions along with a proactive administration and it's clear why Cronin finishes answers to questions like he eventually did the above quote: "They know I'm all-in."
Remember, send any comments, questions or thoughts on this or anything else UC sports to me at pauldehnerjr@gmail.com or hit me up on Twitter @pauldehnerjr.
--- Let's eat ...
--- If you missed the men's basketball highlight video from Video Shane Harrison, then you need to take 10 minutes and check this out.
--- He also put together the women's highlight video, equally cool. Watch that here. Somebody give our guy an ovation followed immediately by a day off, please.
--- Dan Hoard wrote about Tion Green. All indications are he'll be sharing duties along with RDAIV in the fall. The two junior college transfers will add depth, but Green earned the inside track.
As Tuberville says in this piece, Eddie Gran is very high on Green and Gran knows his backs. He's specialized as a RB coach on his rise to coordinator.
--- Grantland took a long-form look at Lance Stephenson (along with Ricky Davis), who will be a key figure in the NBA Playoffs this season. He's now a starting guard for Indiana. He scored a season-high 22 points Sunday in a return to The Garden.
The Pacers patience has certainly paid off with Born Ready.
--- Had this question fired off to me a few times on The Twitters after my SK maturity story last week.
This particular one from follower "@nheld: unless we are talking about Europe does killa's decision show maturity or common sense?"
The answer to that and my response to Nick, was if you take a look around college basketball right now you realize you can't have one without the other. They are mutually exclusive. The maturity to listen to those around you and understand the common sense reality of a situation as a kid in your early 20s is much more difficult than for those of us on the outside -- particularly older folks with some perspective.
Consider some others projected for 2nd round or undrafted that declared, according to this Chad Ford ESPN Insider piece: C.J. Aiken (St. Joe's), C.J. Leslie (N.C. State), Eric Moreland (Oregon State), Marshawn Powell (Arkansas), Phil Pressey (Mizzou), Adonis Thomas (Memphis).
That's just where the list stands now, there are dozens more still on the fence, many of which won't make "common sense" decisions.
--- I said in my spring football observations the linebackers could be the best at their position group in The American. Andrea Adelson wrote a piece about that as well coming off a conversation with Greg Blair.
--- After writing about freshman pitcher Mitch Pattishall last week, it seemed like pitching well on the big stage of the GABP game could have been a turning point for this talented prospect. He backed up that thought process Saturday throwing 6 2-3 innings of one-run, three-hit baseball in the team's 3-2 win at Rutgers.
--- Randomness ...
--- The Dagger reviews the 10 funniest moments of the college basketball season. Marquette's been full of chuckles this year, including the Bradley Center bat at No. 1. I would have thrown The Marshall Henderson gif in there, although the prickly Ole Miss star did make an appearance for his "it's Saturday night, I'm out" postgame presser.
--- Oh, newspaper industry, just when I read positive developments, these two charts show up and make me want to head to the fetal position for you.
--- I know if I woke up from a coma the first thing I'd want to do is seek out a Bob Seger concert.
--- Fantastic photo o f Adam Scott after a thrilling Masters win.
--- KMart may be Wal-Mart's unemployed, spiraling older brother and generally lack any quality goods or services, but I'll be damned if they don't have an incredible viral video commercial campaign.
--- I've been a massive Zach Galifianakis improv fan for a while now (if you haven't seen Comedians of Comedy, you need to do so), pretty jacked to see he's coming back to host SNL again May 4.
--- Been loving the new Fall Out Boy jam, My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark. It has anthem written all over it. Have a great day everybody.