Long time lurker, first time poster: as the great Bubbles of TPB oft said, this is ****** boys.
Hopefully the Cronin detractors are starting to understand just how tenuous the type of success UC has enjoyed over the last decade actually is. When (if) they ever get back to enjoying the same degree of success, hopefully everyone's a little more appreciative about it and doesn't stare the proverbial gift horse in the mouth again--especially if they're still stuck in the AAC or a similarly awful conference when that ultimately happens.
When people were calling for Cronin's head after the Iowa loss I cautioned them that they shouldn't take what Cronin had achieved for granted and that there wasn't necessarily a unicorn coach out there ready to just come riding in to "take UC to the next level." Based on how things have played out the last five weeks--and especially based on where things currently seem to be headed--I'm (quite sadly) being proven correct; Brannen certainly isn't the unicorn the less patient UC fans have been waiting for, and even if he turns out to be a decent coach in the long run this is going to get a lot worse (13-win seasons) before it gets better.
The sad fact of the matter is that UC occupies a very awkward niche in the college sports landscape between pure mid-major and actual power program. By that I mean this: the tools generally required to sustain high level success over the long run simply aren't there: they're not in a power 5 conference, and thus not getting good TV money (to pay McDonald's AA's and would-be NBA players to come play for them), they're not on national TV for most of their games, and they won't get a whole lot of seeding consideration come tournament time. And yet, the fans have experienced *just enough* historical success to believe in their heart of hearts that UC is basically a blueblood and should produce blueblood results (sweet sixteen or bust, baby!)
That's not really an attractive job if you're a coach (which is why a guy whose biggest accomplishment was winning the Horizon League twice got hired), and it's not really an attractive destination either if you're a 4-star player who has options--why not go play for Purdue, Maryland, Virginia Tech, Tennessee, Oregon, or Texas Tech instead? They all play on national TV pretty much every game and their fans aren't ******* nuts.
It's unfortunate, but here's the reality: on top of all the above, UC has compounded their own situation by letting their biggest selling point--a coach that basically guaranteed an annual tourney appearance--to simply walk out the door. They've even further compounded it by hiring a guy who has never beaten an opponent from the P5 + 2 and has proven utterly incapable for reasons we can only speculate about of keeping a really close-knit team together, although I'm not going to beat Brannen up too hard about it because, again, in light of the above, he really probably was the best option at the end of the day (which is why UC should've held on to Cronin for dear life.)
The state of the program is thus this: their biggest asset (Cronin) is gone, a bunch of his players are gone too (with still more likely to leave), we're almost on week five and the head coach doesn't have an assistant staff in place, and there don't appear to be any recruits--certainly not any of any real significance--in the pipeline. There are about to be seven (7!) scholarships open for next year, and it's almost mid May!
Tl;dr: sorry to bust the optimists' collective bubble, but until something happens to prove otherwise, this is a legitimate dumpster fire, and UC by and large lit the match on itself. We're talking 3-4 years before UC makes the tournament again, and that's giving Brannen the benefit of the doubt and assuming he's actually competent and can turn this thing around quickly.
I don't have much else to add, but here's some practical advice to anyone who's been as pissed off about it all as I have lately: just stop giving a shit. Unlike the post-Huggins fallout this was entirely self-inflicted because the school was too incompetent or arrogant to recognize a good thing when they saw it in Cronin. They screwed up big time, and while you should certainly wish for the best because Brannen seems like a nice guy and the (remaining) players are all good kids, the University don't really deserve your material support after screwing up this bad.
Cancel your season tickets; buy/upgrade some UC football tickets instead--that team's actually worth watching and you might get to be front/center for the best season in school history. Don't bother going to the games if the team sucks; it's just going to piss you off anyway, you already tolerated a half-decade of futility, and you shouldn't be expected to sit through another five year (or longer) rebuild because Mike Bohn and the Board of Trustees was too proud/stupid to pay Cronin what he was worth. Lord knows a lot of people are going to see it that way and your tickets will be waiting for you in 5+ years when they're actually relevant again.
Anyway, that's my take and you don't have to agree. I hope I'm wrong, but this is pretty much what I hypothetically envisioned *before* Cronin even walked; hopefully we get a Monday morning surprise to ease the pain bbefore Cumberland announces he's withdrawing from the draft but still going to Europe, but I'm not holding my breath.
Everyone take your meds but don't drink too much, and go Bearcats!
