On his way to becoming the second winningest coach in UC men’s basketball history, former Bearcats head man in charge Mick Cronin had a major restoration job to complete first. The program was in shambles due to the controversial dismissal/forced resignation of UC’s all-time winningest head coach Bob Huggins prior to the 2005 season. When Cronin took over in 2006 most of the city, sponsors and fans alike had turned their backs on the program as a result. The pending instability had steered recruits away from even considering UC as a possibility for playing their college basketball careers. His first four years on the job were spent recruiting and rebuilding the basketball program from scratch and the Cats’ missed the NCAA tournament each of those seasons. Cronin would finally lead his troops back to the NCAA tournament following the 2010-11 season, doing so for nine straight seasons up to his resignation after the 2018-19 campaign when he accepted the head coaching position at UCLA. Today we look back at the 5 most important recruits of the Mick Cronin era, who helped bring Bearcats basketball back to respectability.
