LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The text messages have gone back and forth from Knights Hall to Pauley Pavilion for two years.
When Bellarmine defeated Howard last December for its first Division I victory, the first text that coach Scott Davenport received was from UCLA head coach Mick Cronin:
“Congrats. That’s why I show my team video of the way your team runs its offense every week.”
When UCLA beat Alabama last Sunday to advance to the Elite 8 of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, Davenport fired back to Cronin, including a picture that showed both of them in the Churchill Downs winner’s circle with Forever Unbridled, a champion filly.
Davenport’s message:
“You’re back in the winner’s circle again. Keep going.”
Cronin kept going, all right. On Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Cronin’s UCLA team will play top-ranked and unbeaten Gonzaga in the national semifinals.
When one of your best friends joins the Final Four coaching club, it stirs memories of the victories, the losses, the practices, the lessons and the challenges that you have experienced in your coaching careers.
Cronin and Davenport traveled parallel paths. Both are Division I head coaches who started as high school assistants at the junior varsity and freshman level. They washed laundry, swept floors and took care of equipment.
They got to the top floor the old fashioned way — step by step by step.
Cronin and Davenport met in 1986 at a high school basketball holiday tournament, trading scouting notes at an IHOP restaurant until 2 in the morning. Davenport coached Louisville Ballard. Cronin was at Cincinnati Woodward.
Bellarmine coach Scott Davenport before a Knights postseason practice on Tuesday, March 16, 2021.
Fifteen years later, Rick Pitino recruited them for his first staff at the University of Louisville. Davenport said Cronin and Seton Hall head coach Kevin Willard would gather in Davenport’s office at 6 a.m. every weekday morning.
On his drive to work, Davenport stopped at a newspaper box several blocks from the U of L campus and purchased a Courier-Journal. Davenport, Cronin and Willard devoured each section so they could answer every question from Pitino in the morning staff meeting.
Recruited from Bob Huggins’ staff at Cincinnati, Cronin worked on U of L’s staff for two seasons before Murray State hired him. He helped recruit and develop Francisco Garcia, Taquan Dean and Brandon Jenkins, foundational pieces of Louisville’s 2005 Final Four squad.
At Murray, Cronin won nearly 74% of his games and directed the Racers to two NCAA Tournaments. When Cincinnati needed a coach to replace Huggins, the Bearcats turned to Cronin.
He won nearly 67% of his games in 13 seasons at UC. The Bearcats made the NCAA Tournament during Cronin’s last nine seasons. But they only made one Sweet 16. And Mick Cronin was not Bob Huggins. You didn’t have to strain to hear that from Cronin’s critics.
In 2019, after UCLA whiffed while trying to hire TCU’s Jamie Dixon and Rick Barnes of Tennessee to replace Steve Alford, the Bruins hired Cronin while concluding a search that lasted 100 days.
As they say in the coaching and media business, it wasn’t an announcement that won the press conference. But you know the rest of the story. Without Cronin, Cincinnati is in the tank. With Cronin, the Bruins are in the Final Four.
Last season, UCLA went 19-12, finished second in the Pac-12 and would have made the NCAA Tournament, which was canceled by the novel coronavirus.
This season, UCLA lost its top recruit to the G-League and its top scorer to a knee injury. Heck, the Bruins also lost their last four games and wobbled into the NCAA Tournament as an 11-seed. They’ve been underdogs in three of their five tournament games while picking off Michigan State, Brigham Young, Abilene Christian, SEC champion Alabama and Big Ten champion Michigan.
Now Cronin and the Bruins are in the Final Four — matched against Mark Few and Gonzaga, with Kelvin Sampson and Houston against Scott Drew and Baylor on the other side of the bracket.
How has a 5-foot-7-inch guy who didn’t play basketball beyond high school succeeded at the program that John Wooden turned into an international brand name?
“One, there is nobody more passionate than Mick,” Davenport said. “Two, there is nobody more detail oriented than Mick.
“And, three, Mick is 100 percent transparent. He’s stern, but he’s honest. He tells his players what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. That’s the way Mick has always been.”
Davenport does not plan to drive to Indianapolis on Saturday to watch his friend try to deliver what would The Upset of this NCAA Tournament.
With COVID restrictions, tickets remain at a premium. There’s no reason to bother anybody with a ticket request.
But Davenport, his staff and the Bellarmine players will make the UCLA-Gonzaga game appointment viewing.
Guess which teams will be on the Bellarmine schedule next season?
“UCLA and Gonzaga,” Davenport said. “We’ll be glued to the TV.”
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