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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: NASHVILLEMarch 17, 2018Mick CroninNashville, Tennessee THE MODERATOR: Head coach of the Bearcats is here, Mick Cronin. We're going to ask him to start off with a statement, then we'll go to questions. Mick, please. MICK CRONIN: Well, Happy St. Patrick's Day to all my Irish friends out there, Terry Nelson. Anybody streaming this back home, make sure you go to Salem Gardens. It's the best Irish place on the east side. Obviously, we're happy to still be playing. But focused on Nevada. I hope my guys said their name right. I tried to tell them it's Nevada. Eric's a great coach, has been for a long time, and they're a veteran team that's ninth in the nation in offensive efficiency. So they present a tremendous challenge as far as their offense. They spread you out, they can really pass. It's a mark of great coaching when you watch a guy's team play and they pass a ball the way Eric's team passes the ball. And it's impressive. Obviously, they have shot makers, and they compete. They got veteran guys because of the transfers and the sit-out stuff. They're an older team. And I think for most of us, we have to be older to win. We don't get the one-and-done guys. So they're really good. Impressive comeback yesterday that did not surprise me at all because of the resolve of their team. You know, they're a team built on competitive toughness. So I watched them closely never give in. You could see they would not give an inch. They would not back down. They kept digging in until they finally got some shots to fall. Once they got some shots to fall, then they were able to keep grinding and get enough stops to win the game. So I expect an extremely hard-fought game with them. Q. At this point, Virginia's gone, Miami, Arizona. Do you look at how open this region suddenly is, or do you use Virginia, maybe, as a cautionary tale for your players before tomorrow? MICK CRONIN: I say this with all due respect, I think every region is open. Every year, whether we're an 8 seed, a 6 seed, everybody puts their pants and shoes on the same way. We try -- I try to build my program not to take a back seat to anybody. I try to teach my kids that. All of them may not hear this growing up, but they're going to hear it from me, that they can be whatever they want to be, whatever they're willing to work to be. And they should turn off the TV. People are going to tell them whether they can win or not or how good they are, it's irrelevant -- if you let that stuff affect you. So I feel bad for teams that lost. But other than that it doesn't really mean any -- we won't talk about that. We're worried about Nevada. That's all that matters. We don't beat Nevada, whatever happened at some other site is completely irrelevant to us. And I say that with -- you know, I hold Virginia in high reverence because of their defensive numbers and they have one of the classiest coaches in the country. But that being said, my point to you is we always think that we can win the tournament. We always think that we can win the game, no matter who we're playing. Q. Mick, you alluded to that just a second ago, about having to have older guys to win and you've talked about your program as a developmental program. Can you elaborate on that a little bit? Is that a conscious decision you made when you got the job that you were going to have to approach it that way? Do you think it's good for college basketball to have those programs, given what's going on in the country now? MICK CRONIN: I don't want to bore people, but when I got the job, we had no players, old or young. But I think whatever -- when you get a job, you've got to understand the demographic of your situation, of the 99 percentile. Obviously, we got Lance Stephenson, but we got him really late because the blue bloods didn't take him. So you've got to figure out who you can get, and then you've got to figure out who you can get that you can win with and what is your pathway to success. And if you get away from it, there's plenty of examples of people that maybe stayed on it, then got away from it and lost their success, and they had to get back to it. So we have to develop players. That's just who -- that's just really who we are. Doesn't mean we don't try to recruit a lot of guys, you know. Luke Kennard is in the NBA, played two years at Duke. He's from 45 minutes north of Cincinnati. We tried hard to get him. It wasn't going to happen. It was what it was. Instead, we got a guy named Jacob Evans. So sometimes you win because you get a guy for four years instead of two. But there's a lot of decisions to be made when you're running a program, and I think that you got to have a mix. It doesn't mean that we wouldn't like to get a guy like Marvin Bagley. So you get the best guys you can get that are going to help you win games, and you got to make them better players. My message to all those one-year guys is we're pretty good at development. We have to develop players. Give us a shot. Imagine what you could do with Larry Davis working you out every day. Look at the guy. He looks like he's 27. He's 62. Q. We're here in Nashville with two large Cincinnati-based programs here. I wonder if you could play tour guide for a bit and explain what you think distinguishes and characterizes the City of Cincinnati among the basketball places that you've been. MICK CRONIN: I haven't been that far, because I went a little south to Louisville and a little further south to Murray State. So, you know, I wouldn't just say Cincinnati. For the people in college basketball, you know, there's Tobacco Road. But the NBA scouts would tell you they fly to Cincinnati because you can stay downtown Cincinnati and go see Cincinnati and Xavier practice. Then you can drive to Louisville in Kentucky the next day. You can drive back and go to Ohio State and Indiana. Dayton's got tremendous basketball history. And I didn't mention Butler. You know, so we're in the college basketball elite belt. I mean, it's hard to recruit in our area. There's a lot of big-time programs. Purdue is, what, three hours from us. You keep throwing them out there. So it's very competitive. It's hard to continue to be good, because you have to get some kids from outside the region, because it's tough. It's just tough. There's not enough kids for all of us to win. And I will tell you, you know, obviously we both have higher seeds this year. But Cincinnati and Xavier have been good for a long time. But it's not just -- it's not just in our city. I mean, we're surrounded by it. I would throw this to you. We both have 13 scholarships, and there's only one guy from Ohio on our teams. And Chris and I recruit Ohio. It's just hard. You know, there's a little conference called the Big Ten. Q. Mick, it's been said in the wake of Virginia's loss that their reliance on defense -- and one of the best defenses in the country -- but their reliance on defense is kind of a precarious way to live in the NCAA tournament that you need to score to be successful in the tournament. Your thoughts on that? MICK CRONIN: I say this, and I'm not trying to be funny. What other people say doesn't really mean anything to me, unless, you know, like this morning I was talking to Ralph Willard about something that I think Nevada might do strategically to us, because I think he's a retired genius of a basketball coach. Later today, I'll talk to Rick Pitino while Kevin Willard is playing and I'm rooting for Seton Hall. But what people say is irrelevant to me. I think that, you know, people want to bang on Virginia. They ought to look at Pittsburgh. Because they relied on toughness and defense, and it wasn't enough for them. And they caused a great, great man to go back to his alma mater, and now TCU is in the NCAA tournament. And Jamie Dixon, one of the best coaches in our game. I know how Pitt won. I was in the Big East with them. I think the NCAA tournament is a one-game shot. It's called March Madness for a reason. So I'm going to start rooting for Tony Bennett now when he's not playing me every game. I think it's just unfair. You do know -- do those people know he lost one of his best players to an injury? I think that's more important than the style of play. Let's give the other team some credit that played great against them. Q. Nevada goes out with a very perimeter-oriented approach. MICK CRONIN: It's Nevada. Q. Nevada, okay, comes out with a very perimeter-oriented approach. Obviously, your front court is a strength. Do you see any situation and what would be the situation where you would go small with Gary Clark at the 5? MICK CRONIN: Well, usually, when we do that, it would be Tre Scott at that position. We change a lot during a game. Sometimes we go big, and we snuck one in on you where we had Gary at the 3 in the conference tournament for a little bit. We had foul trouble. Jarron Cumberland was in foul trouble. I was playing Gary, Tre and Kyle together. So it's just matchups. We try to adjust as we go. Look, Eric's a really good coach and his pro background has -- they do a good job of figuring out what you're doing and getting the isolation situation that they want. So I think it will be a game of multiple adjustments. That would only be just one of them. But yes, I could see that happening. Q. Two questions. What did you know about Nevada before the tournament started and what have you learned as you've started to delve into it a little bit? MICK CRONIN: You mean as a team? Q. Yes. MICK CRONIN: I got to watch them because they play late. During the season, I'm a basketball guy. Out of the season, I get away, other than July. So I've seen them play games on -- they play a lot of CBS Sports Network games. So, you know, not focusing in on them, I was like, you know, these guys are a nightmare to play defense against. Just watching them, a lot of high scoring games. I think they've only scored less than 70 twice this year, which is unbelievable. And then, you know, since doing game prep for them, really impressed with the Martins and their development. They're way better, which is a credit to Eric Musselman and his staff. Way better players than they were. Jordan Caroline we recruited when he transferred. Way better player than he was at Southern Illinois. And Kendall Stephens, you know, those are guys that -- I didn't get to see Hallice a lot. Darren Savino knows Hallice Cook well. They're both St. Anthony's guys. Those four players I had seen them in high school and at their previous stops. They're way better players. So their player development on those kids has been tremendous. They're really, really high level players. Q. Second question, if I may. How much have teams tried to post up Jenifer a little bit, given the 5'10" height? MICK CRONIN: Not as much as -- we've prepared for it more than you would think. He and Cane Broome, teams that have tried to post him. Our changing defenses, you know, I don't know if a lot of college teams do that. But to be able to post up guards, your other guy's got to be able to shoot. So a lot of teams, they can't post up our point guards because their other guys can't shoot. So whoever you go -- you take your 5-man, stand him outside the line, we're not going to go out there. So the challenge, what they do a good job of is when Martin goes to the back down, obviously, Jordan Caroline, Jordan, he can shoot the ball. So they can go to a spread and a back-down and put four shooters around their posted-up point guard, which you rarely see. SMU was the only team that did it when Shake Milton was healthy. They did it to us when he was healthy. Florida did it a little to us in Newark in a neutral site game. But, again, they didn't have the shooters quite. But we've seen it. Q. Mick, if you could speak to Jarron Cumberland's fearlessness, his tenacity, but also what does he need to do at both ends of the court to take his game to an even higher level? MICK CRONIN: Well, he's got to learn to eat a salad first. The guy's -- I mean, if Jay Bilas is right and these kids are going to be able to get endorsements, he's Kraft Mac & Cheese's main man. You've never seen anything like it. He's not a man of many food groups. So it's been a fight, you know, because of his body type, when I recruited him, my pitch wasn't that he was great. I was going to let him shoot every time. He came with us because I sat there and told him what he needed to get better at. He needed to get his body fat down, because he's a guard. And he's down. And I'm still fighting with him on the food groups. And he's got to work on his flexibility. His strength's not an issue. So I have the best guy in the country for that, Mike Rehfeldt. So continuing to try to get his body loosened up and his body fat down and just get his conditioning to where he can be a guy that, you know, when we had Sean Kilpatrick as a senior, it's hard to average 21 a game. You've got to run around, shoot every ball, and not get tired. So conditioning is big, maturity is big. He's made a huge jump, though, from his freshman to his sophomore year. But just continue to develop his body, get his body fat down, his conditioning up and his ball handling, his left hand. But these are all things I presented to him during his visit. And fortunately, he was somebody that respected that. He wanted coaches that were going to help him get better. Q. The Wolf Pack are known for their offense. What challenges does their defense present to you? MICK CRONIN: I will say, in fairness to a team that scores the ball as well as they do, and they can score it fast, their possessions are higher. So your points per game that you're going to give up is a little higher. They front the post. They're similar to us in a lot of ways. They scrap, they fight, they front the post, they switch a lot. And their scouting report, they're a scouting report team. All you got to do is watch their bench while they're watching film. They know every play you run. They're going to be sitting all over -- you're not going to trick them. You're going to have to take whatever they decide to take away from you, you're going to have to use it to your advantage. But their preparation is tremendous. They've got a lot of fight in them. It all starts with Jordan Caroline. He plays so much bigger than he is. So much. That's why we wanted him. We tried to get him when he transferred, because he's got a lot of his dad's traits as far as physical toughness. THE MODERATOR: Mick, thank you very much. Best of luck. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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