UCLA basketball coach Mick Cronin isn’t happy about having to play in an empty stadium.
The Bruins aren’t allowing fans at home games through January 21 because of COVID-19, and that doesn’t sit right with Cronin, especially when other sporting events in the area can have packed stadiums. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
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“I think what will help us is to run out of a tunnel and play in front of fans. I think it’s hugely demoralizing to our guys to play games in empty arenas when there’s 80,000 people at the Rams game yesterday,” Cronin said when discussing the situation and getting to play in front of fans on the road at Utah, according to Ben Bolch.
Mick Cronin on going to play at Utah on Thursday: “I think what will help us is to run out of a tunnel and play in front of fans. I think it’s hugely demoralizing to our guys to play games in empty arenas when there’s 80,000 people at the Rams game yesterday.”
— Ben Bolch (@latbbolch) January 18, 2022
It’s hard to disagree with Cronin’s assessment of the situation. The time for banning fans should have ended a long time ago.
At this point, there’s simply no excuse for not having fans in the stands. That part of the pandemic ended a long time ago.
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At this point, I can’t imagine a single reason that would make sense justifying fans being kept home. If you’re the head coach of a team playing in front of nobody, you 100% should be out there raising all kinds of hell.
Trust me when I say that there are a lot of people who would feel the exact same way Cronin is if they were in his shoes.
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Let the young men play in front of passionate fans! The fact we’re even still having this conversation is downright insane, and it has to end!