‘We’re not coaching Little League’: Mick Cronin, Dan Hurley await another sideline dance

PHILADELPHIA — It’s called the City of Brotherly Love.

At Xfinity Mobile Arena, just less than seven miles from the Liberty Bell, the moniker rings true for two coaches.

UCLA’s Mick Cronin and UConn’s Dan Hurley skate sidelines in a spectrum of expressions. They both sport suits — a dying tradition in college basketball — below their bald heads during games. They both have logged dozens of technical fouls, berated officials and drummed up millions of social media impressions from blunt press-conference deliveries. 

Animated, the word Huskies’ senior guard Malachi Smith used to describe the two on Friday after both teams won their NCAA tournament openers, might be an understatement.

Cronin and Hurley aren’t blood related. But as coaches, they could pass for brothers.

Their methods, though mired in public critique, work internally. Both drive player-focused programs — having their teams bought in ahead of Sunday’s Round of 32 clash provides all the needed credibility.

“When [Cronin’s] fired up, we’re fired up,” Bruins’ senior guard Donovan Dent told 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 opposite coasts. The two programs haven’t played each other in more than three decades — the lone matchup came in the 1995 Elite Eight.

And yet Cronin and Hurley boast parallel journeys to the pinnacle of blue-blood basketball. Both are the sons of legendary coaches and grew up around the game.

Hurley watched his dad, Hall of Fame coach Bob Hurley Sr., build a dynasty with more 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 more than 400 career wins as a high school coach in Cincinnati.

“If you don't like me, you'd hate my dad. I bet Mick would say the same thing,” Hurley said. “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 pressure to win, no matter the coaching style and school pedigree, in modern college basketball. In an era with the transfer portal and NIL, he said the advantage 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 said. “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.”

Similarly to Cronin, his intensity fuels UConn.

“Sometimes we need someone to be on your ass a little bit,” Smith said of Hurley’s coaching style. “Excuse my language, but sometimes we need that.”

Hep Cronin watched his son lead UCLA to a Final Four appearance in 2021. Mick Cronin, who grew up in gyms across Cincinnati, learned his player-first mentality from him. He said he’ll “always be the son of a high school coach.”

For his dad, he said it wasn’t about money. It was about teaching lessons.

Those lessons from his dad, paired with a belief he embraced from current Los Angeles Clippers assistant coach Jeff Van Gundy, has shaped his coaching philosophy over the years — one that he said isn’t based off wins and losses.

“Legacy is the most overrated thing in life,” Cronin said at last weekend’s Big Ten tournament. “I’m worried about impact on my players.”

Cronin and Hurley have coached against each other three times in their careers, according to Yahoo Sports. The first meeting came in 2016 — Hurley at Rhode Island, Cronin at Cincinnati — before Hurley left for UConn in 2018.

Dent said it’s “gonna be funny” seeing his coach face off against Hurley in round four.

“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 a chance to cement their own legacies, whether they want to or not. It’ll likely match the intensity of a samba or jive, not a waltz or foxtrot.

But in the Big Dance, winning takes precedent over style.

“Do you think Coach Hurley is not supposed to be intense, but you want to win?” Cronin said. “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."