Mick Cronin, The Right Man For The Job

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I touched a little on this in the last article I wrote, but felt it deserved more. Mick Cronin is the right man for the job for the Cincinnati Bearcats. Yeah I was one of the ones that was pissed when Bob Huggins was fired and was frustrated with UC Basketball for the past few years. I'm an impatient fan like everyone else and wanted this team to be good. The thing is no coach on Earth could've had success the first few years taking over the team that Mick inherited.

The job he has done both this year and in the overall rebuilding process has been remarkable. This team isn't exactly loaded with talent like some of the past teams here, but they are playing as a team better than any team I can remember. I'm 29 years old so I don't remember the teams of the sixties, since I wasn't born. Anyway the way this team has come together is amazing. Right now they are playing about as good as anyone in the country, and there isn't a single team in college basketball that they couldn't beat on any given night. I was waiting for the team to fall apart coming down the stretch like most I've heard on the local talk shows, but it hasn't happened and that's a credit to Mick. He has this team playing so well that they have handily beaten Louisville, Marquette, and Georgetown twice coming down the stretch and are going back to the NCAA tournament where they belong.

It's time for this city to fully get back behind this team like it was when Huggins was the coach here. This is Mick's team now and he is the right man for the job. He is a hometown guy, a man who wanted this job, a person who has paid his dues as an assistant here and a head coach at a smaller school. There is no doubt in my mind that he is the right person to be head coach at the University of Cincinnati. He has taken this program that was in disarray and has them back to being a team that has a chance to make a deep run in March. It took five years and honestly that's about how long I expected it to take and to think otherwise really would be foolish. Players didn't want to come here right after a legendary coach had been fired and they didn't know where the program was headed.

Now I think we have the makings of another legendary coach on our hands. This team isn't exactly the most talented team, but it's playing like a top 25 team right now. I don't care if they are ranked or not, they are one of the best 25 TEAMS in NCAA Basketball. That's a credit to Mick he has gotten the most out of this team. I think it's safe to say the end of the rebuilding process is officially here. UC has a very good recruiting class coming in next year and a lot of the key players from this years team will be back. I look for this team to be even better next year and the recruiting classes are going to continue to get better and better. We are now going from rebuilding process to the winning process.

When Mick got here I remember in one of his first press confrences he said he was here with the goal of winning a National Championship. I was skeptical and thought with the condition this program was in he may be lucky to still be the coach here in six years. Well I am no longer skeptical. I'm thinking if he has this team playing this well, when he gets even more talent in here imagine how good they can be. Even with teams with average talent they have played pretty well in the Big East Tournament the past few years, advancing further than anyone thought last year. That tells me this man is a coach that knows how to win in tournament play and that has me excited thinking about what this team can do in the NCAA Tournament this year and in future years when we have even more talented players on this team. I love Bob Huggins as a coach, but there were a lot of years that loaded teams made second round exits in the NCAA Tournament. I honestly think Mick will be a better NCAA Tourney coach than Huggins was and believe he's the right man to lead this team to it's first NCAA Championship in almost 40 years.

So Cincinnati, it's time to get behind this coach and give him some props. It's time to get excited about UC Basketball once again if you haven't been for the last few years. The Bearcats are back and it's because of Mick Cronin, a hometown guy. It's only going to get better from here so get out those Danny Fortson jerseys and start wearing them proudly once again. Go down to DuBois Bookstore and get some new UC gear. Lets start filling up that arena and give this team a real home court advantage. Start hating Louisville with a passion once again. Get ready to buy some T Shirts that say Big East Champs, 2012!