Cronin scrambles to get Cincinnati back on track

CINCINNATI -- Mick Cronin and his new coaching staff were fixated on their cell phone keypads when the food arrived at their restaurant table. With hardly a word exchanged, they went on texting and recruiting.

"The waitress said, 'I've never seen anything like this. You guys haven't talked to each other the whole time,"' Cronin said Wednesday, recalling his dinner from the previous night. "We said it will be funny in a year or two. We'll look back on this like, 'Can you believe how crazy that was?' I'm sure we will."

There aren't many certainties these days for Cronin, who is three weeks into resurrecting a University of Cincinnati basketball program that has been through a turbulent year.

Since coach Bob Huggins was forced out last August, one of the nation's most prominent programs has faced player defections, uncertainty over the next coach and fan backlash.

Fans disenchanted by Huggins' ouster warmed to interim coach Andy Kennedy, who led the Bearcats to a 21-13 record and the NIT quarterfinals. Instead of keeping Kennedy, the school chose Cronin, whose local ties have at least temporarily quieted the program's critics.

Cronin was a prep star in Cincinnati and one of Huggins' top assistants. Cronin left to become Rick Pitino's assistant at Louisville before the 2001-02 season, then led Murray State to two NCAA tournament appearances in three seasons as the Racers' head coach.

Cronin, 34, who got a six-year contract, has to rebuild a program that couldn't recruit last season because there was no commitment to a head coach. Most high school seniors have already committed to other schools, leaving Cincinnati to look at junior college transfers in the short term.

And there are a lot of slots to fill. Cincinnati is losing five seniors -- four of them starters -- from last season, and freshman point guard Devan Downey decided Tuesday to transfer.

Cronin took a first step in restocking the roster Wednesday by signing his first recruits -- guard Marvin Gentry from McLennan Community College and forward John Williamson from Cincinnati State.

"With recruiting right now, we're trying to do a two-year process in 30 days," he said. "That's tough."