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The City of Cincinnati has a proud sports tradition that starts with the Cincinnati Reds, the first professional baseball team, goes through Oscar Robertson - not only at the University of Cincinnati, but with the Cincinnati Royals - and runs up until now with the Cincinnati Bengals. One constant throughout that period is the city's passion to follow one of "it's own."
Cincinnati head basketball coach Mick Cronin is just that ... a hometown guy who grew up in the neighborhoods of Cincinnati and is now coaching the hometown team. He was a part of the success in the past and is now putting his signature on one of college basketball's all-time great programs as the school's 26th head coach.
Since taking the reins of the program in late March of 2006, Cronin has been busy assembling his program piece by piece, recruiting the likes of UC's first back-to-back all-BIG EAST guard Deonta Vaughn and 2008-09 BIG EAST All-Rookie forward and Cincinnati native Yancy Gates. Over Cronin's three years at Cincinnati, the team has shown improvement each step of the way posting more overall victories each season (11 in 2006-07, 13 in 2007-08, and 18 in 2008-09). Last year, the program won 18 games, finished ninth in the BIG EAST Conference, and posted its first winning season since Cronin took over.
To retool a program in three years and make the climb up the standings in one of the country's deepest and most competitive basketball conferences, you have to make things happen quickly, people need to take personal responsibility, and the small details must be covered. Those core attributes describe Mick Cronin.
For Cronin, the idea of becoming the head coach at the University of Cincinnati started when he was just a child following his father Harold, a highly-successful local high school coach, around the gyms of Cincinnati. A product of LaSalle High School, Cronin had his coaching career start sooner than expected when a promising playing career ended due to a knee injury in high school.
That did not stop his desire to find his place in basketball. He punched his own ticket coaching varsity and junior varsity high school basketball, spending time as a video coordinator, and then as an assistant coach for the likes of Rick Pitino and Bob Huggins. His hard work and dedication made him one of the nation's top recruiters and one of the most highly-sought coaches when he accepted his first head coaching position in 2003 at Murray State University.
Cronin honed his skills as a head coach for three years at Murray State, compiling a 69-24 record and earning a pair of berths to the NCAA Tournament. In his debut season as head coach, Cronin directed the Racers to a school-best 28-6 record, the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament championship, and an NCAA Tournament appearance. His 28 wins are the sixth most in NCAA history for a first-year head coach.
Before coming to Cincinnati, Cronin led Murray State to another OVC crown with a 24-6 overall record and 17-3 conference mark in 2005-06. The Racers laid claim to their second NCAA Tournament appearance in three years as they won the conference tournament and earned Cronin OVC Coach of the Year honors.
In 12 short years as an assistant and head coach, Cronin has built a reputation for his ability to evaluate and recruit top talent.
In his stint at UC as an assistant coach from 1997-2001, Cronin made an immediate impact by recruiting several top players, including Steve Logan, a two-time Conference USA Player of the Year and possibly one of the five greatest players in the program's history. Besides Logan, who was drafted by the NBA's Golden State Warriors, four other Bearcats standouts went on to be selected in the NBA Draft -- DerMarr Johnson, Parade Magazine National Prep Player of the Year and C-USA Freshman of the Year (Atlanta); Pete Mickeal, a junior college national Player of the Year selection (Dallas); Kenny Satterfield, a McDonald's All-American (Dallas); and Jason Maxiell (Detroit).
Those players helped build a recruiting base that included two Top 5- and a Top 10-rated classes over his final three seasons.
His work as a coach and recruiter paid dividends for Cincinnati as it compiled a 108-26 record, five C-USA regular-season titles, and a pair of tournament crowns.
Following the 2000-01 season, Cronin was offered the opportunity to coach and gain new experiences with another of college basketball's greats, Rick Pitino, as the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at Louisville.
In his very first year, he helped attract a Top 10 recruiting class, including Francisco Garcia, who went on to earn C-USA Freshman of the Year in 2003 and eventually was drafted by Sacramento.
Cronin was quickly becoming one of the most recognized and respected assistant coaches in the country, and began to draw attention from several national sports publications. He was rated as the top assistant coach in the nation in 2002-03 by Athlon and the top assistant in Conference USA by Lindy's. That same year, The Sporting News named him the top recruiting assistant in the nation and the top assistant in C-USA. Cronin continues to solidify that reputation today as the Bearcats' 2009-10 recruiting class is highlighted by McDonald's High School All-American Lance Stephenson.
While completing his undergraduate degree at UC, Cronin served as assistant varsity coach and head junior varsity coach at Woodward High. He compiled a 57-3 record as junior varsity mentor and helped the varsity claim three city championships. He helped develop six players who went on to play Division I college basketball, including former Bearcat Damon Flint, UC's 19th all-time leading scorer (1,316 points).
Cronin made the jump from high school to college coaching during the 1996-97 season, serving as the Bearcats' video coordinator.
Mick is the second generation of the Cronin family in the coaching ranks. His father, Harold "Hep" Cronin, compiled over 400 victories in his high school coaching career and is now recently retired from being a Major League Baseball scout for the Atlanta Braves.
Cronin and his three-year old daughter Samantha reside in Cincinnati.
