Sports
'I want it to be my last job.' Mick Cronin says he's committed to UCLA despite adversity
He’s questioned his players’ understanding of the game. He’s lamented his lack of name, image and likeness resources. He’s threatened to overhaul his young roster.
For much of the season, Mick Cronin has sounded like someone on the verge of a basketball crisis, if not an existential one.
The UCLA coach said he doesn’t read what’s written about him, but he’s heard from others about what they perceive as him expressing unhappiness in his job through his comments in the media.
So after his team staged its most improbable comeback of the season Wednesday night, Cronin pushed back himself.
As he stood in a hallway deep inside Desert Financial Arena, his team having polished off Arizona State after trailing by 15 points early in the second half, the coach suggested the only thing blue these days is the Bruins’ uniforms.
“I love UCLA, trust me,” Cronin told The Times. “I want it to be my last job. No matter what anybody says — I’ve heard stuff — I’m the coach at freaking UCLA. Like, come on, man. … To [predecessor] Ben Howland and me, we’ve sat in John Wooden’s chair. Come on, man. So I don’t want that narrative out there.”
After guiding the Bruins to a Final Four and two more Sweet 16s during his past three seasons, Cronin’s current team does not appear bound for glory. UCLA is 8-10 overall and 3-4 in the Pac-12, putting the Bruins on pace for their first losing record since Steve Alford’s team went 15-17 during the 2015-2016 season.
Barring a breakthrough Saturday against No. 12 Arizona (13-4, 4-2) at the McKale Center as part of a sustained turnaround or a championship run in the Pac-12 tournament, Cronin’s streak of taking his teams to 12 consecutive NCAA tournaments going back to his final nine seasons at Cincinnati will end in March.
The coach is clearly frustrated, and not just about this team’s fortunes. He believes recent misfortune might have cost UCLA its first national championship since 1995.
UCLA coach Mick Cronin, center, looks on during a blowout loss to Utah on Jan. 11.
(Rick Bowmer / Associated Press)
Cronin said the Bruins could have won the title in 2022 had Jaime Jaquez Jr. not blown out his ankle near the end of the Saint Mary’s game in the NCAA tournament, leading to his hobbled play in a loss to North Carolina the following week. Last season, Cronin said, UCLA was “clearly the best team in the country” before Jaylen Clark and Adem Bona went down with season-ending injuries.
“So we’ve been on a charmed ride,” Cronin said. “Tough run this year, it is what it [is] … great kids on the team, I’m going to try to coach them hard and try to get them better. They have to improve. So for me, it’s about them. We’ll address the roster at the end of the season, but right now, it’s about them and trying to help them get better.”
Even with seven freshmen among his eight newcomers, Cronin clearly thought this team could win at a high level based on his comments during the Maui Invitational, when he said he took it as a personal insult that the Bruins weren’t nationally ranked based on their recruiting class.
As his team went on to lose eight of nine games, Cronin acknowledged that having a roster ranking No. 319 out of 362 Division I teams in experience, according to basketball analyst Ken Pomeroy, was an issue leading to so many close losses. Asked about roster construction, Cronin compared his team to the chintzy Cincinnati Reds fighting the cash-infused Dodgers for free agents based on UCLA’s shortfall in NIL dollars preventing it from snagging top transfers.
“Nobody has put in more effort than me on the Men of Westwood,” Cronin said, referring to the team’s primary NIL collective. “But I’m not into effort; I’m into getting the job done. So I’ve got to work harder. But the people who have helped, I greatly appreciate them.”
The Bruins were in the running for Rutgers sharpshooter Cam Spencer (now making 46.8% of his three-pointers and averaging 15.5 points for Connecticut) and USC’s Reese Dixon-Waters (now averaging 12.1 points for San Diego State) but lost out for various reasons. They did get Utah guard Lazar Stefanovic, whose 18 points against Arizona State on Wednesday were a season high.
UCLA guard Lazar Stefanovic controls the ball in front of Arizona State forward Alonzo Gaffney during a Bruins victory Wednesday.
(Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press)
The Bruins’ lack of hits in the transfer market, not to mention their inability to secure enough local high school prospects in a relatively weak class, forced Cronin to pivot to Europe. Though highly rated, three of the four players he landed from overseas have not made a quick impact amid injuries and ineffectiveness.
Guard Ilane Fibleuil has struggled to grasp the intricacies of college basketball. Guard Jan Vide missed nearly a month with a sprained ankle. Center Aday Mara, at 7 feet 3 and 240 pounds, appears underweight and overmatched. Only forward Berke Buyuktuncel has found a reliable role as a starter after rounding into form from an ankle injury and sitting out three games while awaiting NCAA clearance.
There have been some success stories. Freshman guard Sebastian Mack has emerged as the team’s leading scorer amid some maddening deficiencies on defense and freshman forward Brandon Williams reminds some of a young Jaquez with his fearlessness off the bench.
But for most of the season’s first 2½ months, too many of these young Bruins’ steps have been stumbles.
Late in the first half against Arizona State, four UCLA players clustered around the basket like traffic cones, just standing there watching as Jamiya Neal’s wild shot from the corner caromed off the backboard.
Into the collective inertia raced Sun Devils guard Frankie Collins to grab the ball and go in for an easy putback.
A livid Cronin immediately called a timeout, yanking two players.
It made no difference.
There was no button Cronin could push, no lever he could pull to shake his team out of its funk as it fell into a 15-point hole before its defense tightened and its shots started falling to spark the comeback.
A look at the teams’ rosters illustrated the challenge UCLA has faced all season against more veteran counterparts.
Like UCLA, Arizona State nearly turned over its entire team, returning just one starter. But the similarities ended there. While the Bruins brought in practically all freshmen, the Sun Devils went heavy on transfers. Along with two freshmen, Arizona State’s roster included two new transfers from Louisiana State and one each from Louisville, Houston Baptist, West Virginia, San Francisco and Tulsa — eight transfers in all.
UCLA coach Mick Cronin shouts directions to guard Jan Vide during a win over Washington on Sunday.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
That glut of experience helped the Sun Devils win their first five games decided by three points or fewer before faltering against the Bruins. By comparison, nine of UCLA’s 10 losses have come by single digits.
It’s a similar story for Arizona, which brought in three transfers who are playing massive roles including guard Caleb Love, forward Keshad Johnson and sixth man Jaden Bradley. The Wildcats are the only nationally ranked Pac-12 team and are likely to get another good seed in the NCAA tournament.
Meanwhile, UCLA continues to seek continuity after starting nine different players. Amid their many issues, the Bruins play with little purpose on offense and could go down as one of the worst-shooting teams in school history.
UCLA’s average of 64.4 points per game is the lowest since the adoption of the shot clock for the 1985-86 season and its 28.8% three-point accuracy is the worst since the three-point shot was adopted for the 1986-87 season.
Along the way, Cronin has told his players to not worry about missed shots and focus on playing with confidence no matter what’s happening.
“He always lets us know that he still believes in us,” Mack said, “and he still thinks that we can still do it.”
Having entered the season with 464 victories — the most of any active coach 53 years old or younger at the NCAA Division I level — Cronin knows what it takes to win. He just needs to make sure his players do as well.
“I’ve accomplished enough,” said Cronin, who will turn 53 in July. “I know some people don’t think I have; I have. I’ve been coach of the year in many conferences, I’ve been to a Final Four, I’m a kid from the west side of Cincinnati whose dad was a high school coach. It’s about them, so I’ve got to help them keep getting better and if you do the right things, you get a chance to win.”
Sports
Law firm fighting for women’s sports in SCOTUS battle comments on ruling possibly impacting SJSU trans lawsuit
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A law firm leading the charge in the ongoing Supreme Court case over trans athletes in women’s sports has responded after a federal judge suggested the case’s ruling could impact a separate case involving a similar issue.
Colorado District Judge Kato Crews deferred ruling in motions to dismiss former San Jose State volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser’s lawsuit against the California State University (CSU) system until after a ruling in the B.P.J. v. West Virginia Supreme Court case, which is expected to come in June.
Slusser filed the lawsuit against representatives of her school and the Mountain West Conference in fall 2024 after she allegedly was made to share bedrooms and changing spaces with trans teammate Blaire Fleming for a whole season without being informed that Fleming is a biological male.
Meanwhile, the B.P.J. case went to the Supreme Court after a trans teen sued West Virginia to block the state’s law that prevents males from competing in girls’ high school sports.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is the primary law firm defending West Virginia in that case at the Supreme Court, and has now responded to news that Slusser’s lawsuit could be affected by the SCOTUS ruling.
“We hope the ruling from the Supreme Court will affirm that Title IX was designed to guarantee equal opportunity for women, not to let male athletes displace women and girl in competition. It is crucial that sports be separated by sex for not only the equal opportunity of women but for safety and privacy. Title IX should protect women’s right to compete in their own sports. Allowing men to compete in the female category reverses 50 years of advancement for women,” ADF Vice President of Litigation Strategies Jonathan Scruggs said.
Slusser’s attorney, Bill Bock of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, expects a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the legal defense representing West Virginia, thus helping his case.
(Left) Brooke Slusser (10) of the San Jose State Spartans serves the ball during the first set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Oct. 19, 2024. (Right) Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans looks on during the third set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. ( Andrew Wevers/Getty Images; Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
“We’re looking forward to the case going forward,” Bock told Fox News Digital.
“I believe that the court is going to find that Title IX operates on the basis of biological sex, without regard to an assumed or professed gender, and so just like the congress and the members of congress that passed Title IX in 1972, allowed this specifically provided for in the regulations that there had to be separate men’s and women’s teams based on biological sex, I think the court is going to see that is the original meaning of the statute and apply it in that way, and I think it’s going to be a big win in women’s sports.”
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared prepared to rule in favor of West Virginia after oral arguments on Jan. 13.
Slusser spoke on the steps of the Supreme Court on Jan. 13 while oral arguments took place inside, sharing her experience with a divided crowd of opposing protesters.
With Fleming on its roster, SJSU reached the 2024 conference final by virtue of a forfeit by Boise State in the semifinal round. SJSU lost in the final to Colorado State.
Slusser went on to develop an eating disorder due to the anxiety and trauma from the scandal and dropped out of her classes the following semester. The eating disorder became so severe, that Slusser said she lost her menstrual cycle for nine months. Her decision to drop her classes resulted in the loss of her scholarship, and her parents said they had to foot the bill out of pocket for an unfinished final semester of college.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Education determined in January that SJSU violated Title IX in its handling of the situation involving Fleming, and has given the university an ultimatum to agree to a series of resolutions or face a referral to the Department of Justice.
Among the department’s findings, it determined that a female athlete discovered that the trans student allegedly conspired to have a member of an opposing team spike her in the face during a match. ED claims that “SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected the female athlete to a Title IX complaint for ‘misgendering’ the male athlete in online videos and interviews.”
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SJSU trans player Blaire Fleming and teammate Brooke Slusser went to a magic show and had Thanksgiving together in Las Vegas despite an ongoing lawsuit over Fleming being transgender. (Thien-An Truong/San Jose State Athletics)
SJSU Athletic Director Jeff Konya told Fox News Digital in a July interview that he was satisfied with how the university handled the situation involving Fleming.
“I think everybody acted in the best possible way they could, given the circumstances,” Konya said.
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Sports
Myles Garrett cited for speeding a ninth time, an elite pass rusher seemingly always in a rush
Myles Garrett is in a hurry to become the greatest pass rusher in NFL history. The Cleveland Browns All-Pro defensive end set the single-season sack record in 2025 and has cracked the top 20 career leaders after only nine seasons.
“I’m going to take that down, and I prefer I take it down in the next five years,” Garrett told Casino Guru News last month.
Off the field, however, his urgency to get from point A to B is a problem. He’s accumulating speeding tickets at an alarming rate.
On Feb. 21, Garrett was handed his ninth speeding ticket since his NFL career began in 2017. He was cited for driving 94 mph in a 70-mph zone on Interstate 71 between Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio.
The citation from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office says Garrett was driving his green 2024 Porsche at 1:35 a.m., returning home after attending a Miami of Ohio basketball game in Oxford.
Body cam footage shows the officer telling Garrett that she kept the charge under 100 mph so that a court appearance wouldn’t be mandatory. Garrett reportedly still holds a Texas driver’s license — he attended Texas A&M — and told the officer that he did not have an Ohio license.
Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett wears a jacket displaying his girlfriend Chloe Kim before the women’s snowboarding halfpipe finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy.
(Lindsey Wasson / AP)
The officer wrote that the famously affable Garrett was “kind and cooperative,” and that drugs and alcohol were not a factor.
Garrett’s need for speed flies in the face of his persona. He has written poetry since high school, peppers social media with inspirational sayings and donates time and money to several charities.
His girlfriend is two-time gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim, for whom he wrote a poem he shared on social media: “You enrapture fools to kings, and exist without a peer, put on this Earth for many things, but our love is why you’re here.”
Verse hasn’t slowed his roll. On Aug. 9 he was cited for ticket No. 8, clocked at 100 mph in a 60-mph zone in a Cleveland suburb a day after the Browns returned home from a preseason game at Carolina.
Garrett’s seventh ticket followed a frightening crash in 2022. He flipped his gray 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S off State Road in Sharon Township and he and a female passenger were injured. He was cited for failing to control his vehicle due to unsafe speeds on what had been a slick roadway.
A witness told a responding police officer that Garrett’s vehicle went airborne, took out a fire hydrant and rolled three times. Garrett sustained shoulder and biceps sprains and was sidelined for the Browns’ game that week against the Atlanta Falcons. His companion was not seriously injured.
Cleveland television station WKYC reported that in September 2021 Garrett was stopped twice in a 24-hour period — for driving 120 and 105 mph. The infractions occurred on Interstate 71 in Medina County, where the speed limit is 70 mph, and he paid fines of $267 and $287.
A year earlier, Garrett was cited for driving 100 mph in a 65-mph zone of Interstate 77 — again while driving a Porsche — and paid a $308 fine. He accumulated his first batch of speeding tickets in 2017 and 2018, and the police reports recite similar circumstances: Garrett driving well over the speed limit, cited without incident, paid a nominal fine.
The piddly fines certainly aren’t a deterrent. Garrett, 30, and the Browns agreed to a four-year contract extension in March 2025 that made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history at the time. The deal pays the seven-time All-Pro more than $40 million a season and includes more than $123 million in guaranteed money.
He set the NFL single-season sack record with 23.0 last season, surpassing the 22.5 accumulated by T.J. Watt and Michael Strahan. Garrett has 125.5 career sacks, averaging 14 a season, a pace that would enable him to break Bruce Smith’s career record of 200 in five years.
“That is definitely on my mind to go out there and get,” Garrett said. “That’s a goal I’ve had for years now since college.”
Garrett has declined to discuss his driving habits.
“I’d honestly prefer to talk about football and this team than anything I’m doing off the field other than the back-to-school event that I did the other day,” he told reporters after ticket No. 8 in August, referring to a charity appearance.
“I try to keep my personal life personal. And I’d rather focus on this team when I can.”
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Former ESPN broadcaster Keith Olbermann once again incited backlash on social media Wednesday after he called late legendary college football coach Lou Holtz a “legendary scumbag” in an X post on the day Holtz was announced dead.
“Legendary scumbag, yes,” Olbermann wrote in response to a clip of Holtz criticizing former President Joe Biden in 2020 for supporting abortion rights.
Olbermann received scathing criticism in response to his post on X.
“You’re a scumbag that needs mental help,” one X user wrote to Olbermann.
One user echoed that sentiment, writing to Olbermann, “You’re the real scumbag here. Lou Holtz had more class, integrity, and genuine decency in his pinky finger than you’ll ever show in your lifetime.”
Another user wrote, “You’re a grumpy, lonely, Godless man. All the things Lou Holtz was not.”
Keith Olbermann speaks onstage during the Olbermann panel at the ESPN portion of the 2013 Summer Television Critics Association tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel July 24, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Olbermann has made it a pattern of sharing politically charged far-left statements that are often combative and ridiculed on social media, typically resulting in immense backlash.
After the U.S. men’s hockey team’s gold medal win, Olbermann heavily criticized the team for accepting an invitation from President Trump to the State of the Union address. Olbermann wrote on X that any members of the men’s team who attended the event were “declaring their indelible stupidity and misogyny,” while praising the women’s team for declining the invitation.
In January, Olbermann attacked former University of Kentucky women’s swimmer Kaitlynn Wheeler for celebrating a women’s rights rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court during oral arguments for two cases focused on the legality of biological male trans athletes in women’s sports.
Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz listens before being presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington, D.C., Dec, 3, 2020. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“It’s still about you trying to find an excuse for a lifetime wasted trying to succeed in sports without talent,” Olbermann wrote in response to Wheeler’s post.
In 2025, Olbermann faced significant backlash after posting (and later deleting) a message on X aimed at CNN contributor Scott Jennings, that said, “You’re next motherf—–,” shortly after the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.
Holtz was a stern supporter of President Donald Trump, even saying in February 2024 that Trump needed to “coach America back to greatness!”
Near the end of Trump’s first term, shortly after former President Joe Biden defeated him in the 2020 election, Trump awarded Holtz with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States.
After Holtz’s death was announced Wednesday, several top GOP figures paid tribute to the coach on social media.
Those GOP lawmakers included senators Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.; Todd Young, R-Ind.; Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; representatives Greg Murphy, R-N.C.; David Rouzer, R-N.C.; Erin Houchin, R-Ind.; and Steve Womack, R-Ark.; and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; Indiana Gov. Mike Braun; U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon; and Rudy Giuliani.
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Lou Holtz, former Notre Dame football coach, addresses the America First Policy Institute’s America First Agenda Summit at the Marriott Marquis July 26, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)
At the time of publication, prominent Democrat leaders have appeared silent on Holtz’s passing, including prominent Democrats with a football background.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who worked as an assistant high school football coach; Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who was a recruiting target for Holtz in 1986 as a college prospect; Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, who played in the NFL; and Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Ill., who played football for the University of Illinois, have not posted acknowledging Holtz’s death.
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