Cronin thinks UC could have won national title

[bearcat jeff]

To this day, UC coach Mick Cronin still believes that if the Bearcats had found a way to beat Connecticut in the third round of the NCAA Tournament last year, they would have had a chance to win the national championship that the Huskies claimed.

“I told the team before the game when we beat Missouri in the locker room that UConn is the best team we’ll play the rest of the tournament and if we can get by this next game, we can win the national championship,” Cronin said today. “ We’re going to the Final Four and we could win the whole thing if we can get by UConn.”

As it turned out, the Bearcats did not get past UConn, which beat UC, 69-58.

“It wasn’t a surprise to me,” Cronin said. “I don’t feel like I was going out on a limb. All you had to do was watch them in the Big East tournament. They beat four ranked teams in a row in four consecutive days and they had the best player in the country (Kemba Walker) on their team with the ball in his hands.”

The fact that UC lost to the eventual national champion provided no solace to the UC players.

“I guess you would always want the team that you lost to, to win it because it makes you feel better,” said point guard Cashmere Wright. “But I still didn’t like it. I didn’t like the whole situation. I felt like that should have been us, not them. I felt like whoever won that game was going to go far.”

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/uc/2012/01/16/cronin-uc-could-have-won-national-title-last-year/

 

[UCBearcats]

Ha! I guess you gotta like his confidence. Was he drunk when Bill Koch was asking him these questions?

Seriously though, he said exactly what I'd expect him to say. We aren't a mid-major, we're from a power conference, we should expect to make a deep run. If you're not there to win why even bother showing up?

 

[JasonS]

Ha! I guess you gotta like his confidence. Was he drunk when Bill Koch was asking him these questions?

Seriously though, he said exactly what I'd expect him to say. We aren't a mid-major, we're from a power conference, we should expect to make a deep run. If you're not there to win why even bother showing up?

I remember thinking the same thing though to be honest. We were hot, playing good ball, and just dominated a really good Missouri team. The bracket we were in was extremely favorable to make a Final Four run. Unfortunately, we had to play another Big East team in the second round and the hottest one in the country at that.

 

[bearcat jeff]

I remember thinking the same thing though to be honest. We were hot, playing good ball, and just dominated a really good Missouri team. The bracket we were in was extremely favorable to make a Final Four run. Unfortunately, we had to play another Big East team in the second round and the hottest one in the country at that.

Jason I remember thinking the same thing about a possible final four run if we could get past UConn. I thought they had a legit elite 8 shot if they could beat the Huskies.

 

[UCBearcats]

I remember thinking the same thing though to be honest. We were hot, playing good ball, and just dominated a really good Missouri team. The bracket we were in was extremely favorable to make a Final Four run. Unfortunately, we had to play another Big East team in the second round and the hottest one in the country at that.

Without going back and looking it up I'm pretty sure that UConn had to get by a very good SDSU team in the 16 then beat Arizona in the 8. They also had to beat UK to make the championship game. In fact, I don't need to look it up, I'm positive that was the progression.

Yeah, we were playing pretty well, to assume a win over UConn gets you past those 3 teams is probably just a little bit on the optimistic side.

 

[Bearcat_NTS]

Micky being Micky...

 

[JasonS]

Without going back and looking it up I'm pretty sure that UConn had to get by a very good SDSU team in the 16 then beat Arizona in the 8. They also had to beat UK to make the championship game. In fact, I don't need to look it up, I'm positive that was the progression.

Yeah, we were playing pretty well, to assume a win over UConn gets you past those 3 teams is probably just a little bit on the optimistic side.

San Diego State was the weakest 2 seed in the Tourney, hands down. I don't think it is a stretch to say we had a pretty good look at the Final Four if we beat UCONN. Of course, we'll never know.

 

[TheLongHaul]

I want what you guys are smoking. I mean I guess, sure, they "could" have, even though the likelihood would have been about 1%.

UC was "hot"? Their final game prior to the NCAA tournament they lost by 48 points....48 points. I seriously think Koch writes these horrible articles to make Mick look bad.

 

[TheLongHaul]

Micky being Micky...

I think it's more Koch being Koch. Mick probably mentioned to Koch at a bar that he said those things to his team and Koch ran with it. And I wouldn't blame Mick at all for saying those things to his team to motivate them.

 

[bearcat jeff]

Without going back and looking it up I'm pretty sure that UConn had to get by a very good SDSU team in the 16 then beat Arizona in the 8. They also had to beat UK to make the championship game. In fact, I don't need to look it up, I'm positive that was the progression.

Yeah, we were playing pretty well, to assume a win over UConn gets you past those 3 teams is probably just a little bit on the optimistic side.

I agree but that is what the tourny is for.

 

[bearcat jeff]

I want what you guys are smoking. I mean I guess, sure, they "could" have, even though the likelihood would have been about 1%.

UC was "hot"? Their final game prior to the NCAA tournament they lost by 48 points....48 points. I seriously think Koch writes these horrible articles to make Mick look bad.

We can get you a bag.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

I think the point Mick was making was that UConn was the best team they would face and if they were good enough to beat them then they were good enough to beat anyone else they would've faced. I think some of you are taking too much out of this. He'll probably tell the team something similar before playing Syracuse next week.

 

[ralph1950]

If only the refs had called the obvious travel on Kemba Walker UC would be the reigning National Champions.

 

[dp3113]

mick has a tendancy to exaggerate things.

 

[bcb1224]

Once your in the tourney you never know what can happen. I do think we were better than both VCU and Butler, and we finished ahead of UCONN in the standings. That being said it was a long shot last year and we ran into the hottest team in the country. It was in the past and i dont think that Mick needs to worry about last year becase this years team is very talented and can make a nice run.

 

[TheLongHaul]

mick has a tendancy to exaggerate things.

he most definitely does but I don't think that's really the case here. All Mick said in the article is he told his team at half time that if they get by UConn they can win the national championship. I'd say that's more a motivation technique than exaggerating...at least that is all that is in the blog. Maybe he said more to Koch but Koch hasn't published it.

 

[Ryno99]

If he said they couldn't have we'd all be upset. To me that's the attitude you want your coach to have. Hungry, confident and motivating. I see nothing wrong at all with the comments.

 

[Thegreatone]

If only the refs had called the obvious travel on Kemba Walker UC would be the reigning National Champions.

That was a terrible non call.

We had our chances in that game. Uconn had the best player in the country and he was the difference.

 

[User Name:]

I think its an absurd statement to say publicly. Mick has a tendency to say some ridiculous things.

Stop babbling and just coach.

 

[User Name:]

If only the refs had called the obvious travel on Kemba Walker UC would be the reigning National Champions.

This is an absurd statement.