Love Mick Cronin. I just don't see how this fits. UCLA got desperate because they botched this search from the beginning.

I don't know if there is a number that Cincinnati could have matched any way. It's UCLA. It's on the list of Top 10 Programs you want to coach for and you'll take it every time.

Rick Barnes didn't want the job for $5 million.

How much of the Barnes /Jamie Dixon turn downs of UCLA had to do with their buyouts I wonder?

to me the most interesting thing is who gets the UC job. John Brannen has to be a candidate...

I never understand what Rick Barnes is doing. Even in crunch time.

I laughed really hard at this. It seems like Rick Barnes' best skill in life is getting teams that wear a shade of orange to give him a lot of money and stayed leveraged against those orange teams for longer than he has any rights.

You're about the 4th person to mention Nicky V for the job. My question is this: Why would UC want him - besides on his name as a great player in the history of UC? To my knowledge, he has never coached in College/D1, and therefore has never had to recruit, which means no recruiting ties that established coaches have. I'm obviously a Bearcat fan, and have memories of Van Exel as a player before I was ever an Ohio student, but I can't see the appeal of him as a coach.

Nothing to do with anything, but I miss Nick Van Exel. Has any player ever looked cooler playing basketball?

^^^^^^^ I just wondered if there was something I was missing. The issue I see with it is the lack of experience recruiting players that Van Exel has.

He's currently on the staff of the Memphis Grizzlies.

I loved Nick as a player that defined a golden era for UC hoops. However, I think that it could be an awkward fit for the university. It would definitely create some buzz at the time of the hire but if things were to go south could tarnish his rapport with the entire UC nation and that's the last thing I would want for him.

While not Duke or Kentucky, UC is still an upper tier program that has pretty high expectations. I think Mike Bohn needs to hire someone with proven merit.

Personally, I think it's John Brannen's to lose as most of UC's recent hires have come from regional programs (Luke Fickell from OSU, Michelle Clark-Heard from Western Kentucky).

As a UC fan I have kind of mixed feelings on the whole situation. Cronin deserves a ton of credit for putting the team back to its current perch, but I also think he had a ceiling that was as much of his own doing as it was the conference the Bearcats play in. I am interested to see what someone else can do with the team and a different style of play. Also pleased to hear that Samari Curtis is still committed to the Bearcats.

I made the point below about UCLA in another thread, but I think it is relevant here. After that I think the successor to Coach Cronin comes down to about five names. In any case, Coach Cronin is financially set making 4 million a year. I am sure he would have never thought this was possible when he was an assistant at Woodward High school in the mid and late 90s.

On a recent business trip out west, I found myself engaged in conversation with a big UCLA fan in Los Angeles who was wistfully talking about the old days quoting Coach Wooden and Bill Walton chapter and verse like a faithful believer would quote Scripture. The man looked to be around 70 years of age and he dressed and acted like he was right out of the 1970s. He almost seemed the antithesis of Coach Wooden. Even Bill Walton with all of his tie dye apparel and Grateful Dead musings seems steeped in Coach Wooden's stripped down approach and relentless work ethic. Coach Wooden was the antithesis of the splash and dash culture that permeates out of the area. Sadly, too many of their fans just don't seem to get it.

As for the Bearcats, Matt McMahon at Murray State and John Brannen at Northern Kentucky seem logical replacements. I suppose they could hire Nick Van Exel a la Dayton's hiring of Anthony Grant, though Coach Grant was a head coach unlike Nick Van Exel. There's always the impact hire with someone like Thad Matta or Rick Pitino. Who knows, but the safe hire might be Coach McMahon or Coach Brannen.