WATCH: Mick Cronin Talks UCLA Men's Basketball's Heath, Schedule Needs
UCLA men's basketball coach Mick Cronin talked to the media Tuesday morning before practice, touching on everything from the team's journey with COVID-19 to the constant schedule reshuffling, the players' adaptability and the health of Cody Riley's knee.
MICK CRONIN
Everybody back at practice?
Yeah, we’re doing well, you know I think what people don’t realize, we only have 11 because unfortunately Will and Mac are out for the season and we really only had 10 because Cody, when we got shut down, our gym got shut down, so Cody was shut down for 10 to 12 days—actually 12 days, which eliminated him because of coming off a two-month knee injury. But he’s doing better now that he’s been back in the gym for so many days, which gets us back to 10. So we were at nine, so minus three, puts us to six. I know guys have questions about all that stuff. We just don’t have 13 like some other teams because of the injuries, but we’re back to 11 with Cody healthy. You know, the guys obviously are disappointed. We go through a morning routine, so they’re in the middle of that right now with our training staff and our strength coach before we get started, so I know they want to play. My problem is, we practice in the mornings, guys, because our class schedule for our team starts at 11 and doesn’t end until later in the day because we have so many smart guys like Myles and Russ who take these classes that Ben and I couldn’t get into. The problem is, I need to be on my phone right now because we’re trying to get games, so we’re trying to respond to text messages. What I found out is, multiple, multiple teams are dealing with COVID whether it’s the Big West or the WCC, the Mountain West, it’s really unfortunate right now but we’re not giving up, so we’re exploring all levels—we’re trying to get a D-I game first and then we’ve considered a D-II game as well.
Any chance of Arizona game coming before Cal?
And then obviously the Oregons went down yesterday, so that’s my concern for next week, so that’s another call to the Pac-12 that was already made, so we can’t schedule, like we can schedule our own nonleague games, but for Pac-12 team to get a Pac-12 game scheduled, that has to be done by the Pac-12 through their rescheduling protocol. So all we can do is voice the fact that we want another game Wednesday or Thursday and to be honest, I know it would be a loss but I’d take the Lakers at this point because our guys want to play, they’ve grown sick of me again.
Your COVID ordeal starting Dec. 15?
Yeah, somebody called me Rudy Gobert.
Take us back to your journey with COVID?
Well, I don’t like the story being about me, but I woke up feeling terrible, so I knew something wasn’t well, so I got tested right away and I was positive, so I wish I was one of those asymptomatic people. It seems the older you are, the less like that is, so for me I didn’t feel well, so once I didn’t feel well, obviously, we had traveled to Marquette and come back. At that point, I had even talked to Martin Jarmond the day before and said, ‘This is a huge concern’ because I think that was when the Rams had 22 people in protocol, the Lakers had shut down practice, all like a day or two before, and I know I told Martin, ‘Look at this,’ and I sent him some texts of the Rams and Lakers situations and all the NBA teams, like this is getting scary, so I jinxed myself, woke up the next day with it, so we had a series, so what people don’t realize, everybody didn’t text positive the same day so we went on protocol of LA County and UCLA and so over the next five days, we had over staff and players, over 10 positive tests but it didn’t happen all that day, so we tested for five days out to make sure because it takes people time to test positive and once we got over 10 players they shut the gym down, so our gym was closed, so even our negative guys could not get in the gym, so we had health and safety issues for, we only had three scholarship guys that were not positive, so even those guys could not get in our gym. So it was a problem. When we were finally able to get back, everybody had to test back after Christmas, I think our first day back we had four healthy scholarship players, so I was joking with Ben I was Norman Dale, so it was just a wild ride. I’m back, I feel better now. Being in the bedroom for 10 days is no fun at all, so like I said, I think there’s things out there, they say ‘It’s no big deal,’ I don’t know if that’s fair to the families of people that have lost loved ones throughout this, but I’m no expert on the disease, but I’m fortunate that I was able to fight through it, back on my feet now, so it was able to stop me from gaining weight over the holidays.
Timetable? When did you guys get back in the gym?
The 27th was the first day we had four healthy scholarship guys. So we practiced on the 14th, got shut down on the 15th, so we had to slowly add guys. Here at UCLA, if you had symptoms, our guys had to have a heart exam, so not only did they have to get through their 10 days and then they’ve got to get their myocarditis check, so we did have some guys with symptoms, so it’s not just they rushed back, throw them on the floor type of situation. So we weren’t able to, like you’ve got guys who haven’t been able to do anything for 12, 13, 14, some guys 16 days, you’ve got to ease those guys back in or they’re going to get hurt. You know, forget aside from COVID, they’re going to get injured, you’ve got guys locked in the bedroom for a long time, so the details—I’m not going to go through the details, I apologize, this guy on this day. Right now I’m more concerned with you guys all telling people out there to call UCLA if you’re interested in playing on Wednesday or Thursday but from the 27th through Jan. 1, we were slowly adding people, but guys’ first three days, especially their first two days, I know we tried to run one sprint—we did some half-court drills and tried to run a sprint and had some guys throwing up in the garbage can. When I see one high school with 30-second deal, but it’s time to play now because look guys, working out and practicing is one thing, games legs are totally different. We need to play a game because it’s still going to be a process because games are totally different. Plus guys want to play; it’s their career. I think that’s the thing that maybe gets lost at times our there; this is about them, we’ve got to keep it about them and their experience. When you do that, I think it helps everyone who has an opinion on COVID and let’s keep it about Jaime Jaquez and Johnny Juzang and Tyger Campbell. I was thinking about Jaime, guys, his first year, we catch fire, win seven of our last eight, lose at the buzzer [to USC], headed to the NCAA tournament and it’s shut down. His second year, there’s nobody on campus at UCLA, nobody at games, not even his parents, fortunately we go to the Final Four. Now he’s dealing with this again. Like, that has been his college [experience]; that was no Tyus Edney’s college career in Westwood, so for me, I try to stay, the players are what I love about this, they keep me young and being able to help them and their journey, so I think for all of us, the more you can keep it about them and not our own opinions on what should happen and just have some compassion because these guys want to play, so right now, if we can get the Lakers we’d probably do it on Thursday.
Two different processes of how to schedule conference game vs. nonconference game?
I was on the phone for four hours last night while having dinner with my longtime significant other girlfriend, Chrissy, that I promised to take out for sushi last night, which is hard to use the chopsticks with the phone in one hand. I'm not that good at it yet, you gotta remember I'm Irish, from the Midwest, but I'm improving Trace. So I have nothing to do with Pac-12 scheduling. I mean, we can give them our opinion, 'Hey we need a game, we'd like to play, whatever,' but it's their call. But non-league scheduling is us, so just like it would be in the offseason. So I spoke to some of my guys, my friend Trent Johnson last night from Northridge, who's just getting over COVID himself and they're coming off a pause. And literally, I just walked down, we're all looking at our phones, my entire staff right now. Like, I'm gonna have Chris Carlson sitting at practice because we have so many calls out. That's why I wanted Alex to get it out on Twitter last night that we're looking for a game so we can get a phone call. So we can schedule a game during practice, Chris Carlson gives me the hi sign here while we're practicing at 10 a.m. and he needs to talk to me, I'm gonna step off the floor and talk because it's obviously Tuesday morning. But as far as Pac-12, Tracy, that is all the conference.
Should NCAA tournament go back to a bubble?
Um, I'm gonna – I really – I'd say I would say this. They're gonna have to figure out whether we're gonna bubble or test. It's gonna be hard if you don't bubble and you have testing, but you don't know where the virus is going to be in March, what strain it is. So I know Danny Gavitt is a very close friend of mine, he helped with me in my early crazy years through the Big East as the basketball commissioner in that league and I have full faith in him. I don't envy his situation, I know he's probably working day and night on planning two different NCAA tournaments. I would assume they have two different tournaments planned, as you alluded to. Which way they'll pivot, you don't know. I know this, again, for the kids, I just want the tournament to be played and teams not to have to deal with what VCU dealt with last year. But that's down the road, I got one more bombshell for you guys, I'm gonna drop it on the Pac-12 today. The Oregons went down yesterday and we play them next week, and we did this last year, talked about it in our league, if you need to play teams three times. So SC's obviously 12 miles away, they have a great program, so if we both lose games next week, that would be a cause, well I don't care if we flip a coin for where the game's at or if we play at the Crypto Center, it doesn't matter to me. So we're at a point where you just gotta try to get games in, so I know that was a change we made last year if it needed to happen, in an effort to get games in. And just looking to next week, that's a concern, so that'll be something that I'll address today with the Pac-12.
Message to the players?
Well at the beginning, it was 'Make sure everybody's ok.' We did have some guys with some symptoms, one guy that had real symptoms, really didn't feel – he was like me, felt like crap. That and the message now to them is 'It's time to play.' On a side note, we had a few guys who didn't have COVID, so I tell them they have to put their bubble wrap on and go straight home after practice. But the rest of them, it's almost second nature to these guys, Rahshaun, like they really – it's almost like this is just how the world is and every day we get a chance to get in the gym, let's try and become a better player. And we know that the NCAA tournament is going to happen, so we gotta chase our individual dreams and our team goals and let's just keep trying to get better, man. Gotta be happy to be in here, I try to look at the positive side of things, things could be a lot worse on a lot of levels, You look at what happened to the young girl Valentina out of Burbank, I have a young daughter, there are just so many tough things in the world. So my message to all those guys is 'Hey man, you've got your health, we're in here, you're playing basketball at UCLA.' I know none of this is ideal, but I try to teach them that life's not always gonna be about your birthday party with 30 kids and ice cream cake like Ben Bolch had as a kid growing up. You have to deal with some things, but they've been great with it, to be honest with you. I think that's what helped us stay focused last year, I don't think it was my message as much as it was we just got real quality kids from quality families on this team. They really, I think they understand that they're in a good situation, they've got great opportunities.
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