Mick Cronin on 2023-24 struggles: ‘Our NIL program just wasn’t what it needed to be’

Mick Cronin acknowledged there were plenty of struggles for UCLA during the 2023-24 season, including with their NIL program.

But now, it’s a new day for Cronin and the Bruins as they enter the Big Ten this coming season. He told CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein that UCLA is in a much better place financially.

Heck, NIL is practically needed for transfer portal purposes too.

“Night and day,” Cronin said on College Hoops Today. “Our NIL program just wasn’t what it needed to be. There’s no crying over spilled milk, it’s a waste of time talking about it. But it wasn’t a reality for us to be competitive in the portal so we ended up with a lot of freshmen. But now it is. (Of) course now they are announcing that the rules are changing again. 

“We’ll see how that shakes out. But the bottom line is were able to be really successful in the portal and if you were to come watch us practice now, you’d be pretty impressed with the veterans we have out there and our talent level and our level of maturity, versatility of our team.”

Cronin is 115-53 in five years at UCLA including a Pac-12 regular season title in 2023. He’s led the Bruins to the NCAA Tournament three times, including to the Final Four in 2021.

Cronin is 480-224 overall with Murray State, Cincinnati and UCLA.

It seems like Cronin is all in on returning UCLA to prominence, despite rumors he was in the running for the Kentucky opening this offseason.

He went on to explain that the expectations at a place like Kentucky are just so immense, when talking to Colin Cowherd.

“No, seriously, we talked about this last time,” Cronin said. “Some of these jobs, the expectations are so high, the magnitude of the job, you can’t feed the beast forever. When you build the beast early and he had unbelievable success, and when you can’t repeat that, it’s really hard. It’s a hard existence.”

Cowherd chimed in, saying, “you have to give up chunks of your life.” Cronin responded “there you go” and explained how life has to take a backseat to coaching at Kentucky.

“Your normal is to work all the time as a college coach and everything else is secondary,” Cronin said. “So those are the guys that tend to be successful in our business, that it’s normal that your life is secondary. But that job is really different than any other job. It just is because of the fanbase.”