The father of UCLA head basketball coach Mick Cronin was involved in an altercation with an Arizona fan after Saturday night’s Pac-12 Tournament championship game between the teams.
Hep Cronin, Mick’s 81-year-old father, got into it with an Arizona fan after the Wildcats’ 61-59 win over the Bruins at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
UCLA radio announcer Josh Lewin was on air when the incident took place and shared his call of what took place. He blamed the Arizona fans for coming over and getting in the face of Hep Cronin. Here is Lewin’s call:
Here is the radio broadcast when @joshlewinstuff and Tracy Murray witnessed Hep Cronin being confronted by Arizona fans following the game pic.twitter.com/Xu52xitjZn
— Kosh (@KosherBruin) March 12, 2023
The UCLA head coach rushed out of his press conference after being told his father was involved in an altercation.
One Arizona fan threw a watter bottle at Amari Bailey in the second half. Another got up in Hep Cronin’s (Mick Cronin’s year-old father) face and reportedly said some very nasty stuff.
When a reporter told Cronin what happened, he stormed out of his postgame press conference.
— Sam Connon (@SamConnon) March 12, 2023
However, someone else who was in attendance shared the other side of the story.
That fan says that Hep got physical with a 17-year-old kid whom Hep wasn’t allowing to pass by. That person says the father of the 17-year-old was trying to reach his son and got thrown out.
Here is what that person says happened:
https://twitter.com/imwinterandrews/status/1634837200465711108
“Immediately following the UCLA game, Hep Cronin … physically assaulted our friend’s son, a 17 year old, hitting the minor in the face and neck. Unprovoked.
“The minor was crossing the front row with his mother, where they had tickets, to join the father at the other end of the row to leave the game. Hep was sitting in this row. Hep told the boy and his mother that ‘they weren’t allowed by.’ The kid and his mother crossed anyway to reach the kid’s dad, at which point Hep started the shoving the kid, and then struck him in the face and neck.
“In the following scuffle, the kid’s dad tried to reach his child, and was thrown out of the arena by security and police. Police REFUSED to take a report or press charges, stating that ‘Hep told him not to walk in front of him.’ On a public row, where they were sitting, where they had tickets. Multiple people witnessed this,” the person wrote.
Hep Cronin regularly attends UCLA’s games to watch his son’s team play. Both the Bruins and Wildcats ended up as No. 2 seeds in the NCAA Tournament.
