Credit to @Knight_Light for posting this in the long game thread. Somebody apparently recording Mick Cronin's interview off the radio (hence the static) and uploaded to Youtube.
The interviewer was former UCF basketball coach Chuck Machock.
Here's some of what Cronin said about the loss.
"You can say Tacko Fall (was a factor), I say that's completely innaccurate. I say it's horrible decision making. I'll say shot selection wise, with the turnovers and horrible shots that should have been passes, a minimum of 20-25 possessions. You're going to have some in a game. We had double our usual. You're not going to win that way on the road against a team with 19 wins. You're just not. You can't give away 20-25 offensive possessions and then try to win the game. You're giving possessions away. Just ridiculous passing, ridiculous shot selection. The first half, our guards had seven turnovers against a team that's standing in a 2-3 zone. We were bad. I'm the coach so blame me. I've got no problem with it. We played terrible."
Did Cronin think there was intimidation coming from Tacko Fall? He answers that question, then makes a strange Cleveland/LeBron analogy.
"I don't. I think they played really hard, playing a really good team on Senior Day, that's healthy. They've struggled at times. B.J. Taylor was clearly the best player on the floor today. His game isn't that complicated, guys. How did the Cleveland Cavaliers do last night? Did you guys watch SportsCenter? They got beat by 20 at home. LeBron James didn't play. Okay, I had a few guys that didn't play today. That's just it. B.J. Taylor was the best player on the floor, period. All the way up until it's a two-point game and we don't take him to the pick-and-roll. Jake's waiting to switch. We have a senior that lets him go away from the pick. He shoots a step-back three.
"It's an egregious, egregious defensive error. I focus on coaching points, teaching points, breakdowns defensively, horrible passing, horrible shot selection. I don't focus on whether the ball goes in or not. When we got some open looks, yeah sure, we missed a lot of open looks. But so did they. When you cry about that after you lose, it all evens out. It started evening out when we started to make shots late. But we lost the game in the meat of the game wasting 25 possessions on turnovers and unbelievably horrible shot selection. What does Tacko Fall have to do with the fact that you won't pass the ball to a guy standing wide open at the three-point line? I don't care who you're shooting it over. Everybody has somebody. Houston has 6-10 guys. You have to pass the ball."
Cronin asked UC fans not to "blame" Tre Scott for missing the alley-oop dunk that would have tied the game.
"We didn't perform. You've got to perform. B.J. Taylor performed. A.J. Davis was breaking us down at the rim for a while, beating his man off the dribble. He performed. I don't know how the game was close. I'm being honest. The fact we had a chance to tie in, as terrible as our decision making was on offense. The first play of the game Kyle Washington forgot the play."
He then makes a military metaphor about "needing soldiers and not heroes," saying that when people try to be heroes, "people die."
"Give them credit. They're a good defensive team. It was Senior Day and they played really hard. The hardest I've seen them play ever. Give Johnny Dawkins credit. He's turned their program around."
