Mick Cronin raves about behind-the-scenes impact of walk-on Russell Stong

Most college basketball fans forget about walk-ons until the few seconds or minutes they get to play at the end of blowouts. However, at UCLA, one walk-on in particular is a massive help behind the scenes and his name is Russell Stong. At head coach Mick Cronin’s media availability this week, he was asked about Stong and what sort of impact a guy like him has on the program that fans may not know about.

Well, that prompted a lengthy and very complimentary response from Coach Cronin, who explained all the little ways Stong and walk-ons like him help the program, even if they aren’t putting on a show during the actual games.

“I will say this about Russell Stong—impact on the program, practice is really important; people don’t know that on the outside. Russell’s a very good player, so when Tyger (Campbell) needs rest, Russell’s in there. When we have injuries, Russell’s in there. And he’s good — he can make shots, he takes care of the ball,” said Cronin.

“People see he gets in at the end of games and he’s the walk-on guy who gets in at the end of games — Russell really can play. Like, there’s levels that he would have been a good player, aside from his character, his locker-room presence, all the obvious things that you would think about with a guy like Russ that are awesome.”

Cronin further praised Stong for his commitment as a team player on and off the court and especially in the classroom, where he’s a remarkable student and young mind.

“What people don’t know is that he’s a very, very good player in practice and that is extremely valuable when Amari (Bailey) is out for a month and Russ is practicing a lot and you don’t have a drop-off because you don’t have a guy in there that people don’t have to guard, so he’s going to be missed.

“It’s really important to have a guy like him that can help you in practice, so his character’s unbelievable, he’s a tremendous student with a double major at UCLA, which is almost unheard of, so if you could buy stock in somebody’s future success, he would be the first guy I would buy stock in.”

High praise for the walk-on. It’s nice to see less-heralded team members like Russell Stong get recognition for the value they provide in so many areas of the program.