LOS ANGELES — Jeff Kaufman and Mick Cronin fall into the same healthy debate when the two reconvene. The Coronado High head coach has built a strong reputation of developing offensively gifted guards, while the UCLA men’s basketball head coach builds teams that hang their hats on defense. Their visions may clash, but they wholeheartedly respect one another’s opinions.
About three years ago, Kaufman approached Cronin with the idea of selling him on his senior guard, Sebastian Mack.
“If you’re in a fight,” he told Cronin, “this is the kid you want on your side.”
A Mick Cronin kind of player, Kaufman called him.
Mack backed that up, dropping 36 points, with Cronin watching, in a game against Montverde Academy in the Border League, a high school basketball tournament that takes place each fall in Las Vegas. But Cronin remained on the fence, Kaufman said, unsure why his colleague was so convicted that Mack, a score-first slasher, was the perfect player for him.
But after Mack toured UCLA and Cronin later visited a Coronado practice, they each realized Kaufman was right about the fit.
Their similarities weren’t a coincidence, rather the result of two individuals who were brought up around the same demanding, Midwest coaching style. Mack and Cronin each gravitate toward people who give it to them straight. They seek the truth regardless of how harsh it is. Cronin dishes out constructive criticism and Mack learns from it.
“I feel Cronin keeps it clear and cut,” Mack said. “He’s always gonna tell me something that’s going to help better me.”
Their connection led to a trust that lured Mack to UCLA and convinced him to stay this past offseason despite the Bruins adding three guards out of the transfer portal and two through recruitment.
In Mack’s freshman season, he had no leash. The Bruins were trying to patch the loss of a strong senior class and Mack was their only effective off-dribble shot-creator.
They finished the season with a losing record (16-17), but he gained valuable experience operating as the engine of their offense.
Four games into the season, Mack sustained an injury known as turf toe. He dealt with the pain and it began to subside until he re-aggravated it in the Bruins game at USC on Jan. 27.
“Basically,” Mack said, “I was playing on one foot.”
His mom, Leslie Johnson, remembers him hopping around and having to be removed midway through the second half of that game against the Trojans.
“I felt like he should rest,” Johnson said. “Those were the worst conversations I’ve probably ever had with him because he was so devoted and dedicated to playing.”
In a season where the Bruins’ NCAA Tournament hopes went out the door early, Mack could have taken the route his mom was suggesting without receiving backlash. But it’s not in his nature to sit out with an injury he felt he could manage, regardless of the Bruins’ record. He played in all 33 games.
After the season, he took about two months off basketball, occasionally sneaking into UCLA’s practice facility for solo stationary shooting drills.
“That helped me a lot, mentally,” Mack said.
The Bruins had restocked their backcourt and whispers swirled that Mack might be the odd man out. He sought out Cronin, knowing he could rely on his straight-shooting coach.
“People thought he should transfer because we signed all the guards,” Cronin said. “I said, ‘That’s the last thing you should do. You should stay here, let me coach the hell out of you.’”
Cronin challenged Mack to improve his defense, his shot selection and his passing. He saw that when Mack drove, he had tunnel vision. He also made it clear that Mack had to earn his playing time as much as anyone else. The depth, he felt, would be a positive for Mack as it would reduce the burden on him, offensively.
“We had that conversation, and that’s what really made me stay,” Mack said. “I was like, ‘I trust you.’”
Cronin’s blunt honesty wasn’t going to scare away Mack then. Not after he had raved about it to his mom throughout the recruiting process, assuring her that was the type of coach he wanted to shape his college career. Cronin’s candid approach to coaching may not suit every player, but Mack says it reminds him of home.
In fact, Johnson described one of Mack’s first coaches as a Mick Cronin for 7- and 8-year-olds.
Shawn Frison had a 7-year-old Mack doing two-ball dribble drills. If he, or any of his teammates, botched a layup, they’d have to stop and do 10 pushups, even if the game was still going.
“He was the same as Mick,” Mack said of Frison. “If you don’t like it, you could go home.’”
Growing up in the Midwest, that was the norm for basketball coaches. They were taught to set a high bar for their players, and they passed that philosophy along. For example, Frison played for former Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan and imbued that same stringent coaching style upon Mack.
Naturally, Mack gravitated toward Cronin, who came up under hard-nosed coaches such as Bob Huggins and Rick Pitino.
“Where we come from, guys can fight and shake hands,” Cronin said about the Midwest.
Mack and Cronin have never got to that point, but that sentiment explains why Mack’s ego wasn’t defeated when Cronin critiqued his game and told him he’d have to compete for his spot in the rotation.
On a deep Bruins roster, where players are still figuring out their roles, Mack seems assured in his. He’s the sixth man, the Bruins’ own version of Sonic the Hedgehog, bursting off the bench with energy, providing instant offense.
Through the first few games of this season, Mack struggled to understand how he could contribute to winning without having a perpetual green light. He was scared, he said, to mess up. When he eventually did make a mistake, though, Cronin kept him on the court and allowed him to figure it out.
Cronin, however, wouldn’t tolerate Mack’s poor preparation.
During the Bruins game against Prairie View A&M on Dec. 17, he benched Mack after playing just three minutes.
“Sent him a message,” Cronin said in the press conference after that 111-75 win. “He wasn’t ready to play. Didn’t deserve to play.”
Mack took that tough love and turned it into 22 points in the Bruins next game, which they ultimately lost 76-74 to North Carolina on Dec. 21.
A player enjoying as hot a start to the season as Mack easily could have questioned their coach’s decision to pull them. But he’s no stranger to accountability. He’s been held to that standard his whole life.