Mick Cronin when asked if Kentucky called him for open job: 'I'd turn left on Sunset'
Mick Cronin certainly got put under the gun when joining The Herd with Colin Cowherd on Monday, as the Fox Sports radio host asked him point blank if he’d take the Kentucky head coaching job if they called him.
Cowherd brought up the blockbuster move by John Calipari to leave Kentucky for Arkansas which occurred late Sunday night and asked Cronin his thoughts on it, to which the current UCLA head coach lauded the UK gig and the fanbase that comes with it.
“Well, their fanbase is second to none. Period. I grew up 60 miles from there,” said Cronin. Cowherd quickly responded with the ultimate question:
“What if they called you tomorrow?”
Mick Cronin’s answer: “I’d turn left on Sunset.”
He then added: “When we leave here I’m going to the Grand Havana room in Beverly Hills to watch the game tonight.”
A sly answer from the longtime college hoops coach. He went on to explain that the expectations at a place like Kentucky are just so immense.
“No, seriously, we talked about this last time. Some of these jobs, the expectations are so high, the magnitude of the job, you can’t feed the beast forever. When you build the beast early and he had unbelievable success, and when you can’t repeat that, it’s really hard. It’s a hard existence.”
Cowherd chimed in, saying, “you have to give up chunks of your life.” Cronin responded “there you go” and explained how life has to take a backseat to coaching at Kentucky.
“Your normal is to work all the time as a college coach and everything else is secondary. So those are the guys that tend to be successful in our business, that it’s normal that your life is secondary. But that job is really different than any other job. It just is because of the fanbase.”
Cowherd noted that there isn’t much of a pro sports presence in the state, and Cronin confirmed that “there are no pro sports in the state of Kentucky, not unless you want to count the Reds Triple-A team in Louisville.”
The Reds and Cincinnati Bengals are just across the river for folks in Northern Kentucky, but for the most part, the singular rooting interest of sports fans in Kentucky is the college sports team, namely Kentucky, but of course, Louisville as well as a program in one of the largest cities in the United States that does not have a pro team.