University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Cronin, Smith Secure Pac-12 Year-End Basketball Awards
March 09, 2020 | Men's Basketball
SAN FRANCISCO – UCLA's Mick Cronin has earned the John R. Wooden Pac-12 Coach of the Year award in his first season as The Michael Price Family UCLA Men's Head Basketball Coach, as announced by the Pac-12 on Monday afternoon.
In addition, junior Chris Smith has been named the Pac-12's Most Improved Player of the Year. Smith is also among 10 student-athletes who has secured first-team All-Pac-12 acclaim. Smith, who has averaged a team-leading 13.1 points per game, has become UCLA's first student-athlete to ever win the league's most Improved Player of the Year award (since the award began in 2008-09).
Coach Cronin has become UCLA's first head coach to win the conference's Coach of the Year Award since Ben Howland picked up the honor in 2006. Cronin has become the seventh first-year Pac-12 coach to secure the Coach of the Year honor. He is the sixth UCLA coach since the award began in 1975-76 to pick up the league's Coach of the Year award.
Cronin has secured conference "Coach of the Year" honors for the third time in his career. Previously, he was named the Coach of the Year in the American Athletic Conference (AAC) while at Cincinnati in 2014. Cronin also captured Coach of the Year honors in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) at Murray State in 2006.
The Bruins' first-year head coach has helped to engineer a remarkable midseason turnaround. With UCLA tied for last place in the Pac-12 (with Utah and Arizona State) with a 1-3 conference mark and an 8-9 overall record after a loss to Stanford on Jan. 15, the Bruins won 11 of their next 13 games. UCLA finished in second place in the league standings.
Smith, a 6-foot-9 guard from Chicago, has recorded the best shooting percentages in his career during his junior season. He will enter the Pac-12 Tournament having shot 45.8 percent from the field and 34.1 percent from 3-point territory. Smith's team-leading 84.0 free throw percentage ranks fourth in the Pac-12. Smith averaged 5.1 points and 2.8 rebounds per game in all 66 games during his first two seasons (2017-18 and 2018-19).
UCLA's Jaime Jaquez Jr. has been named an honorable mention All-Freshman Team selection, while sophomore forward/center Jalen Hill has secured honorable mention acclaim on the league's All-Defensive Team. The Pac-12 selects five players to the All-Freshman Team and the All-Defensive Team. Any additional student-athlete receiving at least three votes secures honorable mention recognition. Jaquez has averaged 8.9 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. Hill has registered 9.0 points and a team-best 6.9 rebounds per game.
Previous UCLA head coaches to have secured the league's Coach of the Year Award include Ben Howland (2006), Steve Lavin (2001), Jim Harrick (1995), Walt Hazzard (1987) and Gary Cunningham (1978).
Coach Cronin has joined a list of six other Pac-12 head coaches to have earned the Coach of the Year award in his first season in the league. Most recently, Washington's Mike Hopkins secured the league's award in 2018. Joining Cronin and Hopkins on that list are Washington State's Tony Bennett (2007), California's Ben Braun (1997), Oregon State's Jim Anderson (1990), UCLA's Gary Cunningham (1978) and Stanford Dick DiBiaso (1976).
UCLA has compiled a 19-12 overall record, entering the upcoming Pac-12 Tournament as the league's No. 2 seed. The Bruins will face either No. 7-seed Stanford (20-11) or No. 10-seed California (13-18) on Thursday evening in Las Vegas. Game time is 6 p.m. at T-Mobile Arena.
