Are you sure we’re going the right way?

Haven’t we seen that tree before?

I told you we should have brought the map!

Perhaps the biggest mistake you can make after getting lost is refusing to admit it.

Before you know it, you’re wandering in circles and moving the wrong way, not getting any closer to where you would like to be.

I fear UCLA men’s basketball may be doing just that.

And the ship’s captain – coach Mick Cronin – needs to prove his program is not stuck at sea.

Just a couple of seasons ago, the consensus was that Cronin was the one – the coach to make it so recruits no longer had to settle for photoshoots with the NCAA titles won before their parents were born.

Now, the Bruins seem caught in purgatory. They are good enough to complete an upset, maybe even blip into the AP’s top 25, but not capable of making a consistent dent in the postseason and certainly not good enough to defend UCLA’s aging title as blue bloods.

Welcome to the Cronin cycle.

It is easy to think the head honcho was made for Hollywood, despite his Cincinnati roots.

His colorful personality is always on display on the hardwood stage.

But Cronin does his best work in front of the press.

He is happy to play stand-up comedian – making quips that are paired with his signature smirk.

But even that is not what he is best known for.

It’s Cronin’s outbursts that take the cake.

His latest viral tantrum came Feb. 17 against then-No. 15 Michigan State in East Lansing.

Cronin sent Steven Jamerson II to the locker room after the redshirt senior forward/center earned his first technical foul. The coach led his player toward the locker room, tugging on his jersey as if it were a leash.

Even after the game, the coach’s outburst at a reporter felt all too familiar.

But then comes every Bruin fan’s favorite part of the cycle – the upswing, the response.

UCLA is 4-1 since its loss to Michigan State, having taken down then-No. 10 Illinois and then-No. 9 Nebraska, while also sweeping the season series against crosstown rival USC.

It is the best basketball the Bruins have played all year, and it comes at what seems like the perfect time, likely pushing the team from potentially missing the Big Dance to being almost impossible to ignore for an at-large bid.

But we have been here before.

Just last year, Cronin’s postgame outburst after a 94-75 loss to then-No. 24 Michigan in January 2025 was followed by a seven-game win streak and UCLA winning 11 of its last 14 games to earn the No. 4 seed in its first-ever Big Ten tournament.

The narrative shifted. Cronin’s a bit of a loose cannon, but he always ends up hitting his mark.

He’s tough. He’s old school. He’s a no-excuses type of guy.

He’s what UCLA men’s basketball needs. He’s what college basketball needs more of.

But then comes Bruin fans’ least favorite part: when the Cronin clipper capsizes.

You can blame a number of things – injuries, bad luck, poor coaching, bad matchups – but it remains that Cronin’s best season at UCLA was his first full one at the helm.

In the four seasons since the Bruins’ miracle First Four to Final Four run, Cronin has made the Sweet 16 in back-to-back years before missing the tournament entirely.

Most recently, the Bruins were eliminated in the second round in 2025.

By Cronin’s own admission, regular-season wins and conference titles are not what matter at UCLA – it’s about winning in March.

But I would not say that means this week’s Big Ten tournament is meaningless – it is a test run and a stimulus.

UCLA has shown it can win a game no one expects it to, but how does the team perform when it simply cannot afford to lose?

What happens when the Bruins can no longer hide under the guise of an underperforming team?

It is about how Cronin and his team respond – to a win or loss.

The Bruins were eliminated by the Badgers in last year’s conference tournament, losing the first game they played despite a late-season push that awarded them two byes and a spot in the quarterfinals.

And UCLA’s season was over just two games later.

The 2021 team faced a similar fate in the Pac-12 tournament, losing in the first game it played.

But that loss was met with a rebound that quickly turned into momentum.

It is up to Cronin – and the team he assembled and coached – to prove 2021 is not an outlier.

For the past couple seasons, Cronin hasn’t been able to get consistency out of his squad.

He will say his players don’t play hard enough, aren’t committed enough, aren’t good enough at defense, aren’t mentally strong enough and aren’t selfless enough.

The coach has again and again struggled with evaluating talent and potential.

He simply has yet to demonstrate how his style of coaching can translate to how college basketball operates now.

If you frequent X or almost any college-basketball-centric corner of the internet, it would seem Cronin is on the hot seat.

If he is, it’s only because he set it on fire.

For better or worse, UCLA’s administration is all in on the Cronin cruise – extending the coach through the 2029-2030 season over the summer.

UCLA kept Cronin’s extension under wraps, given the university’s financial narrative – facing federal funding cuts while the athletic department finished another year in the red, according to the Los Angeles Times.

It is no secret that universities spend millions on their athletic programs, even at the expense of their academic priorities.

Those financial image concerns certainly did not stop UCLA from signing seven-figure talent in senior point guard Donovan Dent.

It did not stop word from getting out about baseball coach John Savage’s three-year extension – his program coming off a Men’s College World Series appearance – or prevent former football coach DeShaun Foster from replacing Spaulding Field’s turf with grass.

You do not hide the extension of a beloved coach.

You do not hide the extension of a proven winner.

You do not hide a decision you think people will like.

You hide the extension of a guy you believe in enough to hand over multimillion-dollar checks to, but not enough to tell the world about.

Cronin’s antics demand success.

It is the only way they can be excused. It is the difference between a master motivator with all the passion in the world and a hurricane that UCLA just signed to a multi-year extension.

Many may argue that Dent proves Cronin can get his player to perform. After all, the point guard has been as hot as can be, racking up 76 points off a 48.3% shooting percentage and 53 assists to just two turnovers over his past five games.

It is all a massive improvement for a player who had 20 turnovers across a five-game stretch spanning Nov. 25 to Dec. 17.

The hope is that Dent can keep this level of production up in Chicago and during March Madness. But barring a deep run come March, it may very well be all for naught.

If the Bruins go down early – just like one season ago – there is no “better luck next year.”

Dent is graduating, as are starting seniors forward Tyler Bilodeau and guard Skyy Clark.

Sure, you can argue this is just the modern reality of college basketball. Players come and go before fans can learn their name. But can UCLA really survive by betting on mid-majors, role players and reclamation projects?

If it takes nearly the entire regular season for a team to gel and players get comfortable with playing Big Ten basketball, how can the Bruins get back to the mountaintop for the first time since 1995?

Is it really viable for UCLA to bet year after year that Cronin can recruit, grow and develop a championship-caliber team in a single season?

He is going to have to prove it. Now.

Because if not now, when?

Cronin can coach the way he wants to, recruit the players he chooses and engage with the media the way he prefers to, but it has to work.

He has to win.

You can only sing the same song and perform the same dance so many times, right?

Otherwise, you’re just doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

I think there’s a word for that.