Collegehoopsnet - Interview With Murray State Coach Mick Cronin

Murray State head coach Mick Cronin is entering his second campaign as the head man of the perennial mid-major Ohio Valley Conference power. Under Cronin’s tutelage, the Racers’ improved from a mediocre 17-12 campaign in 2002-03, to post an impressive 28-6 record that culminated with an OVC tournament championship and a number 12 seed in the NCAA tournament. Only two scholarship players return from last season, but Cronin has brought in a highly touted group of transfers and freshmen, and expectations are high among the followers of Murray State basketball.

I was fortunate enough to have Coach Cronin sit down and answer a few questions for CHN.

CHN: First off coach, thank you for taking the time to sit down and answer a few questions for Collegehoopsnet.com

Mick Cronin: No problem, anytime.

CHN: Coach, you’re entering your sophomore season at the helm of the Racers, after coming off the most successful coaching debut-season in Racer basketball history. In fact, the Racers’ 28 wins was third best in the nation, among Division I schools last season. Did you ever imagine enjoying that level of success your first season as a Division I head coach?

Cronin: I’ve sure I dreamed about it (laughs). How realistic it was…? I consider myself to be extremely fortunate to have coached a group of guys who wanted to win. That crew was just hungry to win. They were hungry for instruction and they were receptive to my demands, as far as getting them into shape. Not often does an older team accept a new coach. Usually, older teams fight a new coach, but they were very receptive and I was very appreciative. It turned out to be a great marriage for us and it really turned out to be a season to remember and it is one I’ll never forget.

CHN: Talk a little bit about the things you learned as a first year head coach.

Cronin: I used to wonder why (Louisville) Coach (Rick) Pitino and (Cincinnati) Coach (Bob) Huggins would get so upset with bad calls. It’s a lot easier not to worry about it when you are sitting down and it tends to bother you a lot more when you are the one standing up. The game is a lot faster, but it settled down for me pretty fast. The Wagner game (Cronin’s coaching debut) was a blur. It seemed like we were tied, then all of a sudden we were up by 26. I’m sure it seemed that way to the fans too. We kind of settled into a rhythm, which is big with our style of play and the way I play -- bringing in Coach Pitino’s commitment to full-court basketball. What I learned was, it took us a little while -- although we had a very gaudy record in December; most mid-major teams struggle early -- and I knew we were not playing our best basketball. We starting playing our best basketball after the (Texas A&M) Corpus Christie game. We were able to win five games without (junior point guard) Adam (Chiles) and I really feel if he hadn’t have gotten hurt during the game (February 14^th loss at Austin Peay), things would have been different on Valentine’s Day. Then we had the distractions for the Illinois game. As far as really clicking in our style of play, we hit it in February. We were really peaking and it showed in the OVC tournament, with the draw. I mean the three teams that were picked in the conference to start the season, were Tennessee Tech, Morehead and Peay and that is who we had to beat to win it. I’ve learned I’m going to have to be patient, although I don’t believe in taking losses (laughs). We are going to have to show patience and know that we are going to be playing our best basketball late. So whether we win or lose early, we need to keep our eye on getting better every day.

CHN: I’ve heard a lot of negative comments about ESPN’s Bracket Buster, especially among non-BCS teams’ fans. A lot of fans feel like it has been diluted with the inclusion of 64 teams and feel that it may be a prelude to a mid-major tournament. Can you discuss your feelings on the event in general, your feelings about the Racers’ appearance in the ESPN Bracket Buster and the implications for the program.

Cronin: Well, my plan is to be one of the 22 teams on national television and that is why we are in it (laughs). My intentions are extremely clear -- to get us some national exposure, to get our program some exposure, nationally, and to get our name more recognition and maybe put us in a position to get into the (NCAA) tournament, at-large. Also, we are a road team and that will get us a team in here and give us a quality opponent coming here to Murray. Now as far as the 64 teams, I’m a high-major guy and come from the high-major world and I’m not sure how the Bracket Buster began. I can tell you that there will be no changes in March Madness and the Cinderella stories. That is what everybody pays for and money drives everything, so I wouldn’t worry about a mid-major (NCAA) tournament. I’m sure the expansion of (the Bracket Buster) has to do with monies being put up by the Horizon League, the Mid-America Conference and the Missouri Valley, as far as guaranteeing all their teams a spot in the field.

CHN: Give me your thoughts on this Racer team, considering all the new faces and the fact that most are now your own recruits, fitted to the style of basketball you want to play at Murray.

Cronin: My original thought that excites me is our depth. I think our depth is more reality this year, although (incoming freshman) Mike McCoy is on scholarship, but can’t play until next year. We have 11 quality scholarship guys, where last year we had nine. (Senior) Petar (Roncevic) was hurt and we went with nine scholarship guys, where now we have 11, plus three non-scholarship guys who can all really shoot the basketball. I think we will be able to play our style against everybody, where last year, we couldn’t press everybody and we had to mix and match a lot and couldn’t run with everybody -- for instance, (Murray’s NCAA Tournament first-round opponent) Illinois. We really had to cat-and-mouse them a little bit. Hopefully we have enough talent to impose our style and our will upon people for 40 minutes. That will be the biggest change, hopefully, between last year’s team and this year’s team. I know our fans were excited during the times that we were really able to turn up the heat and I’m hoping we will be able to turn it up from the time they start the clock until the time the clock ends, every game this year.

CHN: What are your feelings on the other OVC teams this season? More specifically, a quick rundown of who you see really making some noise, besides the Racers of course.

Cronin: Well, I think Tennessee State is definitely a team to watch. They signed (junior guard) Wayne Arnold who started his career in Georgia. They have a 6-4 guard in Bruce Price. They sat out (senior center) Rod Flowers from Cincinnati, (junior forward) Eric King from St. Johns and they also have (senior forward) Roshaun Bowens back. They have five guys who can really play. Tennessee-Martin, if they are healthy, is a team who developed some players last season, in the absence of (senior guard Earl) Bullock and (junior guard) Justin Smith. If those guys are able to come back healthy and I know they have the guy back from the Morman mission (senior forward J.C. Howe), who played before I was in the OVC, and I know Coach (Brett) Campbell is high on him. And then Austin Peay. As long as Coach (Dave) Loos is on the sidelines, they are always going to be a tough out. Eastern Kentucky has a lot of guys back and I’m sure somebody else will jump up who nobody even thought of.

CHN: Coach, I spend a lot of time on other teams’ message boards and I constantly am reading about college basketball in general. It seems like your name and Manhattan Jaspers head coach Bobby Gonzalez’s name surfaced as a possible candidate for just about every Division I head coaching opening, either on a message board or in a newspaper or website. Could you comment on that for us and does that put any unwanted or unnecessary pressure on a young coach?

Cronin: Not me, because I don’t read them. I’m only 33 years-old and I’m fortunate to have a job with great support for its basketball program. Bobby Gonzalez is somebody I know and I can tell you that Manhattan doesn’t have the crowds at their home games, like Murray State. Manhattan doesn’t have the Regional Special Events Center with a revamped locker room and two weeks from opening their own weight room for men’s and women’s basketball. We have a little bit more amenities and I couldn’t be happier with the opportunity that was afforded me to lead the program. So I don’t really think about stuff like that to be honest with you. The pressure on myself is self-induced, to put the kind of team on the floor that our fans can be proud of and is going to lay it on the line every night. My biggest challenge this year is I’ve got a lot of guys that I have to teach what Racer basketball has become, hopefully, under Mick Cronin, which is guys diving on floors, all-out and team basketball and unselfish basketball, playing to win and playing with your heart.

CHN: What were some of the major differences associated with coaching at the non-BCS level, as opposed to coaching at say Louisville or Cincinnati, particularly the scheduling aspect, as well as other major issues?

Cronin: There are two main ones. Your first one is scheduling. Scheduling is so much tougher when you are at a tradition-rich, so-called, mid-major power, such as a Murray State. People know what they are in for if they come to Murray….

CHN: Like a 40-point blowout that Southern Miss took here last season (both laughing)….

Cronin: So they are not looking to come here. You know, I respect a guy like (head coach) Tim Carter from Texas A&M-San Antonio, who thinks he’s going to have a good team and wanted a quality-like, home-and-home opponent and we were able to hook up for a quality home-and-home series. We run into the same fight that Western Kentucky and Southern Illinois runs into. It’s almost impossible to get the high-majors to come to you. We have to get to the point where we are a team that would be “in vogue” to lose to. They will play Gonzaga and if they lose to them, it doesn’t hurt them -- their fans understand, their boosters understand. If we can win in the (NCAA) tournament and establish more credibility, nationally, where we become a team “in vogue,” so to speak, like Gonzaga, then scheduling could become a little bit easier and maybe we could at least get a neutral-site game against a BCS conference team. The second biggest difference is, we do not typically deal with….our players here are in anonymity, which enables them to work -- which is a positive -- on their games, on their academics and to develop who they are as a person. This allows us to really build our program, in somewhat anonymity, where at the highest level, you have the newspapers everyday. You have so many agendas, with high-ranked players and people wanting them to go pro so fast. Here, our players are trying to gain recognition and for me to help them get recognition, we have to win and win big, and then somebody will put a microphone in front of my face, from a national radio or television show and I can tell them, “Hey, I do have very good players, let me tell you about them.” So, for us to get that recognition, we have to win and win big and our guys understand that. Really, that is a big advantage for us at this level and I don’t have to deal with all the distractions, the agents, the hangers-on, that are around the high-major programs.

CHN: I believe it was the National Association of Basketball Coaches who initially proposed a fifth year of eligibility for NCAA basketball. I believe they have since scrapped that proposal and I am curious as to your feelings on that proposal.

Cronin: I’m not sure where we (the coaches) were going with that. I think from a coach’s standpoint, we were thinking that our biggest problem with guys that do not graduate is that they get close, then in the spring of their senior year -- their last year of eligibility -- they get knocked out of the tournament and guys drift. If you give them that extra year, then they’ll graduate. If you’ll look at Murray State last year, for instance, and (former pre-Cronin-era Racer players) Antonio Henderson and Chiwale Bideau had the discipline to do it on their own, after their eligibility (had expired). It made it much easier on (last season’s graduating seniors) Kevin (Paschel) and Antoine (Whelchel) to have me there to force them to graduate, because they were part of the program. I think that is what we (coaches) were looking at, to make players graduate, at a higher rate.

CHN: Now, I’ve read about a new proposal that would allow Div. I-A football players to transfer one time, without losing a year of eligibility. Also, the proposal called for extending that one-time transfer to two or three other sports, such as college basketball. Wouldn’t that really benefit the BCS schools and maybe hurt the non-BCS programs? I mean, that could possibly lead a player like a (former Racer forward) Cuthbert Victor or a (former Morehead guard) Ricky Minard -- a diamond in the rough if you will, that slipped under the radar of the BCS programs’ recruiting -- to do a (former Western Kentucky and present U.K. guard) Patrick Sparks and maybe transfer.

Cronin: I don’t think it is going to happen. It would create too much instability. I mean, we went in the other direction with the five and eight rule, which was the result of a year with a ton of transfers, so I can’t see the NCAA ever allowing players to transfer without a year penalty, in men’s basketball. I can’t ever see that happening.

CHN: One last question coach, can you give us your rundown on who will make noise nationally this season; who you see in the final four and ultimately, who you see winning it all?

Cronin: Well, obviously I’m hoping the Louisville Cardinals will be a team to be reckoned with. I think if they can stay healthy -- (junior guard) Taquan Dean’s health will be paramount to their success -- with the return of (senior forward) Ellis Myles and with the addition of (freshman forward from Oak Hill Academy) Brian Johnson and (freshman forward from Our Savior New American) Juan Diego Tello Palacios, along with (junior forward) Francisco Garcia, who I recruited and was probably the best player I’ve ever recruited and could be the best player in America this year. If you look at the Big East, I think Connecticut is going to be extremely good again. They are huge up front and they did a great job of recruiting and they have great scorers on the wings. I’m trying to think…is there anybody else I’m missing?

CHN: I like Oklahoma State this year.

Cronin: Yeah, first of all, Oklahoma State is always going to be tough with (head coach) Eddie Sutton and the way they play defense. They’ve got (senior guard) John Lucas back, the (senior forward Joey and senior guard Stephen) Grahams are back and they are going to be a tough out. I also know, being friends with the Kansas staff, they are really high on their team right now. With the addition of (freshman center) C.J. Giles and they’ve added some scoring punch on the wings…they think they have a chance to be really, really good.

CHN: Thanks for the interview Coach and best of luck to you and the program this season.

Cronin: No problem Jeff, anytime.

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