Martin Jarmond reaffirms faith in Mick Cronin during tough UCLA season: 'I don't worry about Mick'

UCLA has corrected its record over the last two weeks to be at 15-6 overall. With that, athletic director Martin Jarmond, in an interview on the ‘Bruin Insider Show’ on Wednesday, says he has no concerns about Mick Cronin and the job that he is doing. Things got a little uncertain early in the month, but he keeps having faith in Cronin’s work and his team.

“It’s a credit to Mick Cronin. I mean, you know, he’s been a head coach for a long time. I don’t worry about Mick from the standpoint of how the season is going because he has a great ability to know what his team needs when they need it,” Jarmond said. “I have all the confidence in the world in Mick and the guys because they’re talented, they play hard, and, if there’s one thing that I know, he knows how to get the best out of that team and those guys and they play for each other. That’s a beautiful thing that you like to see.”

That’s coming off of the Bruins’ latest win on the road against their in-town rival on Monday.

“I was over at the Galen Center last night and there’s no better feeling than to see us, you know, quiet the crowd and the students were in the top section,” Jarmond noted. “Shoutout to the students. You guys came and brought it.”

UCLA, in their sixth season under Cronin, has gotten back on track to where they were earlier in the year. The Bruins started at 10-1 before losing five of six. That skid included each of their first four at the true tip of conference play at the calendar’s turn. However, they’ve since won four straight in league to be back to 15-6 and 6-4 in the Big Ten.

Jarmond also mentioned the change of conference for them as an adjustment that their team is dealing with.

“You’re in a Big Ten Conference. Everybody is good, you know. It’s a physical conference. It’s the best conference, in my opinion, in the country. And so no nights off,” said Jarmond. “So you’re going to have spells where you’re playing really well and you’re going to have spells where it’s not going as well.”

UCLA looks to be headed back towards the bracket now, where it has made the second weekend, with one appearance in the Final Four, in every trip under Cronin. Still, there’s plenty of season remaining, including three ranked matchups over the next four games for the Bruins.

“It’s great, you know. Men’s basketball is on a four-game winning streak, you know. And you’ve just got to – it’s a long season. You got to ebb and flow,” Jarmond said. “You know, again, a lot more season to go, you know, so there’s no stopping this team as far as what they can do and continue to accomplish as we get further along in the season.”