Russell Westbrook, UCLA assistant GM? 'I'm not going to say no,' Mick Cronin says.

Ben Bolch, Los Angeles Times on Mar 11, 2025

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LOS ANGELES — Mick Cronin would seem to have his pick of quality candidates for an assistant general manager role with his team.

The UCLA coach could go with someone from the John Wooden era, a Bruins legend such as Marques Johnson, Jamaal Wilkes or Sidney Wicks.

Or maybe he would prefer a more recent alumnus who played in the NBA. How about Kevin Love, Lonzo Ball or Jaime Jaquez Jr.?

Then there's the executive option. Who knows more about running a team than Bob Myers, the former Golden State Warriors general manager who recently was appointed to the University of California Board of Regents?

Cronin sounded like he might have someone in mind Tuesday when asked if he'd like one of the school's famous alumni to fill the role that Stephen Curry announced this week he would assume at Davidson, his alma mater.

Come on down, Russell Westbrook?

"If Russ wants to give a million dollars and call recruits for me, absolutely," Cronin said of the former Bruins point guard whose name already adorns the team's practice court after the NBA star made a generous donation in 2015. "I'm not going to say no to that. Are you kidding me?"

Westbrook, 36, still has a day job even as he presumably nears the end of an NBA career that's spanned 17 seasons. He's averaging 12.8 points and 6.1 assists as a part-time starter for the Denver Nuggets and has been known to work out with the Bruins whenever he's on campus.

But the role of assistant general manager isn't designed to be a heavy lift. Curry, who remains a star with the Warriors, became the first active professional player to accept an administrative job with a college team when he committed to helping Davidson build an eight-figure fund for its men's and women's basketball teams.

That doesn't mean Curry will be checking emails about donations during every timeout.

"I mean, what the hell's he got time to do besides give them money and every now and then call a recruit?" said Cronin, who praised Curry as one of his favorite players because of his family values and lack of entitlement. "[The role] allows you to call a recruit."

Cronin has referred to himself as his team's general manager. It remains to be seen if a help-wanted sign will go up for an assistant.

No respect?

Cronin noted that his team was the No. 4 seed in the Big Ten tournament that starts Wednesday but not among the conference's seven nationally ranked teams.

"I don't know if it's the West Coast bias," Cronin said. "I don't know what it is."

Is it a sign of disrespect?

"No," Cronin said, "you know what I'd say, people say stuff about you and write stuff about you, even in recruiting, and I think it says more about them than it does about you. That stuff doesn't matter — to me, it doesn't matter. But we have won 11 out of 14 [games] and we did have some big nonconference wins. So, look, we just focus on getting better."

Cronin said he spent the last two days dissecting game footage to see what the team could improve on, making a list of notes for each player.

"Everything else," Cronin said, "is a distraction, and people worry about so many other things instead of just trying to get better."

A real know-it-all

If it seemed like UCLA knew what plays USC was running last weekend during its 27-point rout of the Trojans at Pauley Pavilion, it's because the Bruins often did.

Given the primary scouting duties for the game, UCLA assistant coach Rod Palmer was able to decode messages written on a whiteboard that the Trojans held up from their bench. Palmer then yelled that information to the Bruins when they were on defense.

"It helped us a lot," Tyler Bilodeau said. "I think coach Palmer did an amazing job with the scout and I think we were really well prepared, so that just makes things a lot easier for us."

Tax season

With his team set to travel to Indiana for the third time in five weeks, Cronin joked about needing to pay income tax in the Hoosier state.

Then he disclosed that he actually does because he's an investor in a Chevrolet dealership in Lawrenceburg, Ind., owned by Louisville coach Pat Kelsey's brothers and father.

"Our families are very close," Cronin said. "We grew up together."

Etc.

Junior guard Skyy Clark, who spent his freshman season at Illinois and his sophomore season at Louisville, told The Los Angeles Times that he intended to finish his college career as a Bruin: "I'm staying here for sure. You heard it here first. I'm coming back for another year. I'm very happy here." … Bilodeau earned third-team All-Big Ten honors and Kobe Johson was part of the conference's all-defensive team in voting by Big Ten coaches. Lazar Stefanovic was one of 18 players recognized on the conference's sportsmanship team. Bilodeau was an honorable mention in voting by media who cover the conference. The Times does not participate in media voting.

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