John Tonje was incredible for the Wisconsin Badgers against the UCLA Bruins. He almost shot a perfect game and ended the day with 26 points, nine rebounds, and four assists. He caught fire, and Mick Cronin could not find an answer for stopping him. Cronin was wowed but not surprised. After the game, he said, "I voted for Tonje for Big Ten Player of the Year!"
In his post-game remarks, Mick Cronin was clearly peeved at the game but impressed by Wisconsin. He answered his first question with, "You have to give Wisconsin credit; they shot the lights out."
Cronin said he was frustrated with his team because he told them it was a bad matchup because the Badgers can shoot from all five positions but that they didn't execute the plan to help prevent that. He said that if Wisconsin is making shots from all over, we can't just go and fire up our own, "But that's what we did...We took the bait miserably today."
Mick Cronin called Wisconsin a bad matchup for the Bruins
As a reporter tried to get him to come up with a reason why they lost, he said point blank. "We got our ass kicked, that's the headline."
What he was most impressed with was Tonje, he said, "To be honest with you, right now I just got my ass kicked so I'm going to answer this quick. I voted for him for Player of the Year. We had to rank them, I voted Tonje No. 1, Smith from Purdue No. 2. Very close but I gave Tonje the nod so that's how good I think he is."
Cronin was clearly frustrated throughout the post-game interview, but he gave credit where credit was due to both the Wisconsin Badgers and the player he voted Big Ten Player of the Year, John Tonje.