Mick Cronin jokes about ‘head coach disease,’ quotes Bill Walton on trade-offs at UCLA

UCLA‘s basketball team has eight games remaining on their regular season schedule, four at home and four on the road. Head coach Mick Cronin sent an email to the Bruins’ students to encourage them to attend their remaining home games. But at a recent press conference, Cronin made it clear that he wasn’t the sender, joking that he suffers from an interesting illness.

“Well the athletic department sent it out for me, I’m not very capable. See after certain years you get HCD, head coach disease. You can’t find your keys, can’t do anything but coach,” Cronin said.

Cronin shared a story about an example of him showing symptoms of head coach disease that happened recently on a UCLA game day.

“Last game I got here for Thursday, I came through mid-morning, shoot around, 6 o’clock game, somebody had to turn my car off for me. It was running all day,” Cronin admitted. “They talked to me about the email, I thought it was a great idea, but yeah I wasn’t the sender.”

Hopefully Cronin wins his fight with HCD, and hopefully the Bruins’ faithful can fill up Pauley Pavilion to close out the season, as he was also asked how much he wants a packed house for their four remaining home games.

“Hey man, I turn left on Sunset (Boulevard) to go to work so I’m not here to complain. Life in LA man, there’s nine pro teams, a lot of stuff going on, it’s 75 degrees outside, so I’m not looking to trade it. There’s tradeoffs,” Cronin explained. “Would I like it to be sold out every game? Yes, it would help recruiting. Would our players like that, do they deserve that? Yes. Am I extremely happy here? Absolutely.”

It’s clear that Cronin is happy in Los Angeles in his fourth season as UCLA’s head coach, and fully understands the pros and cons that come with it. And before he closed out his press conference paid homage to UCLA legend Bill Walton to put a cherry on top of his ode to LA.

“As you know taxes, traffic, late arriving crowds; trade offs of Los Angeles, is the way it is. You go to school, I don’t want to name certain places, but no truck stops here, quote Bill Walton.

Before they play at home, the Bruins hit the road in their next game, facing Oregon State on Thursday at 9:00 p.m. ET.