Here’s everything UCLA coach Mick Cronin said about IU basketball and their job opening

is. So I don’t think, even though, what’s it been since coach, since Steve [Alford] won it? 87, yeah, so it’s still the Hoosiers, man.”

Does Indiana’s history still matter in regard to the national appeal of the program?

CRONIN: “Here’s what I would tell you about programs, okay. I think programs, they’ve changed because of the new rules. I used to always say you gotta have support commensurate with expectations, okay. Now, I can’t answer those questions, only for UCLA. You gotta have support commensurate with expectations. To be a great program, you gotta have great tradition, and you gotta have great fans and the backbone support of all the guys and your tradition that played. For me, I got guys like Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] and Mike Warren and Jamaal Wilkes, guys that are just tremendous, supportive guys at every game. That’s important as well.

“Now you gotta tack on the NIL and whatever the new rule is with revenue share. So you gotta throw those two in. But I just think back to the big-time tradition, support, and your fanbase, your former players. So you would know the answer to what’s in tact here. I know my mentality. I walk out here and I see coach Knight just like I walk out of my job and see coach Wooden. That’s just what I see. I said to your guys, people at the scorer’s table before the tipoff, I said, man, I don’t know, coach Knight might be rolling over in his grave looking at those uniforms. Adidas must have talked them into that. When I was at Cincinnati, we were with Adidas. They had us wearing some crazy neon stuff one time too, so that’s what I was thinking about when I saw those uniforms.”

What would you say to UCLA fans who might worried about you leaving UCLA?

CRONIN: “I would say some people might be happy, because some people probably are on boards wanting me fired. I mean, this is just the way, you gotta understand, that stuff in this business – and I’m being dead serious – your popularity rating when you’re a coach, you have to check your ego. They booed John Calipari at Kentucky, okay. Do you know what he did there? They say, well, he’s the opposing coach. They wouldn’t have booed Bob Knight if he walked in here, I can promise you that. I can promise you that. So that’s just the way it is, man. So I’m well aware that I might be on a board for a job, but my board, somebody might want me to lose my job. And I know I’m laughing, but I’m being serious, man. We get our ass beat Tuesday, I think we play, go ahead, check our boards.”