Skip to main content

Mick Cronin opens up on the emotions of winning on senior night, sends message to fans

On3 imageby:Dan Morrison03/08/23

dan_morrison96

Mick Cronin
Meg Oliphant / Contributor PhotoG/Getty

On Saturday, UCLA got a win over an excellent Arizona team on senior night, sending off an excellent class of seniors in style. For head coach Mick Cronin, it was an emotional night.

After the game, Cronin explained those emotions and sent a message to UCLA’s fans.

“Well, what I would say to our crowd is, imagine if it was like that every night — how big of an assist that would be for our team,” Mick Cronin said. “But it is what it is.”

Mick Cronin, after asking for better support on a more consistent basis, returned to speaking about his players on senior night.

“You asked about the players. I didn’t think they’d let us lose today,” Cronin said.

“Look, when you’re coaching and you grab your schedule and you look at those last four games and you’re trying to figure out whose senior day do I have to play at, because that is a big disadvantage. It’s hard to go win against a real team on senior day. It just is.”

After winning the Pac-12 regular season, UCLA earned the top seed for the conference tournament. The Bruins’ first game will play the winner of Washington vs. Colorado on Thursday, March 9th.

Mick Cronin on Jaime Jaquez winning player of the year

Jaime Jaquez was named Pac-12 Player of the Year. As Mick Cronin explained, this was an honor he more than earned.

“Great,” Cronin said.

“Very happy for him. Jaime has a lot of goals. I think stuff like this for a player like Jaime is something they’ll be able to reflect on when they’re older. Right now, it’s like ‘Jaime, you’re in the pool swimming laps, man. You can’t stop.’ His race isn’t over. He’s got team goals he wants to accomplish, he’s got career goals he wants to accomplish.”