‘We’re not coaching Little League’: Mick Cronin, Dan Hurley await another sideline dance
PHILADELPHIA — It’s known as the City of Brotherly Love.
At Xfinity Mobile Arena, simply lower than seven miles from the Liberty Bell, the moniker rings true for 2 coaches.
UCLA’s Mick Cronin and UConn’s Dan Hurley skate sidelines in a spectrum of expressions. They each sport fits — a dying custom in school basketball — beneath their bald heads throughout video games. They each have logged dozens of technical fouls, berated officers and drummed up tens of millions of social media impressions from blunt press-conference deliveries.
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Animated, the phrase Huskies’ senior guard Malachi Smith used to explain the 2 on Friday after each groups gained their NCAA event openers, could be an understatement.
Cronin and Hurley aren’t blood associated. But as coaches, they might move for brothers.
UConn Huskies head coach Dan Hurley reacts within the first half throughout a primary spherical recreation of the lads’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
UConn Huskies head coach Dan Hurley reacts within the first half throughout a primary spherical recreation of the lads’s 2026 NCAA Tournament at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Their strategies, though considered in public criticism, work internally. Both drive player-focused packages — having their groups purchased in forward of Sunday’s Round of 32 conflict gives all of the wanted credibility.
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“When [Cronin’s] fired up, we’re fired up,” Bruins’ senior guard Donovan Dent informed The Sporting Tribune on Saturday. “When he [has] good energy, we’re a whole different team. He’s been on that lately, and that’s why I feel like we’ve been thriving.”
UCLA and UConn border reverse coasts. The two packages have not performed one another in additional than three a long time — the lone matchup got here within the 1995 Elite Eight.
And but Cronin and Hurley boast parallel journeys to the head of blue-blood basketball. Both are the sons of legendary coaches and grew up across the recreation.
Hurley watched his dad, Hall of Fame coach Bob Hurley Sr., construct a dynasty with greater than 1,000 wins and 26 state championships in 39 years at St. Anthony High School in Jersey City. Cronin’s dad, Harold “Hep” Cronin, logged greater than 400 profession wins as a highschool coach in Cincinnati.
Mar 20, 2025; Lexington, KY, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Mick Cornin through the second half in opposition to the Utah State Aggies within the first spherical of the NCAA Tournament at Rupp Arena.
Jordan Prather-Imagn Images
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Mar 20, 2025; Lexington, KY, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach Mick Cornin through the second half in opposition to the Utah State Aggies within the first spherical of the NCAA Tournament at Rupp Arena.
“If you don’t like me, you’d hate my dad. I bet Mick would say the same thing,” Hurley mentioned. “You just have a special relationship… to the lifestyle of being a coach when you’re a coach’s kid. It’s so personal for coaches like me and Mick.”
Hurley understands the strain to win, irrespective of the coaching type and college pedigree, in trendy school basketball. In an period with the switch portal and NIL, he mentioned the benefit of coaching at a “big-branded school” has diminished.
“There’s a lot externally that you deal with. The criticisms, the critiques, the comparisons,” Hurley mentioned. “Just having a great brand doesn’t get you a whole lot in today’s day and age… I certainly understand the microscope that you’re under all the time.”
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Similarly to Cronin, his depth fuels UConn.
“Sometimes we need someone to be on your ass a little bit,” Smith mentioned of Hurley’s coaching type. “Excuse my language, but sometimes we need that.”
Hep Cronin watched his son lead UCLA to a Final Four look in 2021. Mick Cronin, who grew up in gyms throughout Cincinnati, realized his player-first mentality from him. He mentioned he’ll “always be the son of a high school coach.”
For his dad, he mentioned it wasn’t about cash. It was about instructing classes.
Those classes from his dad, paired with a perception he embraced from present Los Angeles Clippers assistant coach Jeff Van Gundy, has formed his coaching philosophy through the years — one which he mentioned is not based mostly off wins and losses.
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“Legacy is the most overrated thing in life,” Cronin mentioned ultimately weekend’s Big Ten event. “I’m worried about impact on my players.”
Cronin and Hurley have coached in opposition to one another thrice of their careers, in accordance with Yahoo Sports. The first assembly got here in 2016 — Hurley at Rhode Island, Cronin at Cincinnati — earlier than Hurley left for UConn in 2018.
Dent mentioned it is “gonna be funny” seeing his coach face off in opposition to Hurley in spherical 4.
“It’ll be interesting to see them on the sideline together, talking to the refs and stuff like that,” Smith added.
Sunday marks another sideline dance between two coaches’ sons with an opportunity to cement their very own legacies, whether or not they wish to or not. It’ll possible match the depth of a samba or jive, not a waltz or foxtrot.
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But within the Big Dance, profitable takes precedent over type.
“Do you think Coach Hurley is not supposed to be intense, but you want to win?” Cronin mentioned. “We’re not coaching Little League, buddy. Everybody doesn’t get an at-bat. Come on, man. They’re paying us a lot of money to win games.”
