NCAA basketball: Top 25 highest-paid college basketball coaches for 2020

3. Mick Cronin, UCLA

Salary: $5.5 million | Buyout: $15.4 million

It’s a bit odd that the No. 3 highest-paid coach in college basketball has only been at the job paying him that much for one season, signing that contract with the UCLA Bruins in the 2019 offseason. Then again, it does make sense as it took a hefty payday to lure Cronin away from his previous stop with the Cincinnati Bearcats.

Starting his head coaching career with three years with the Murray State Racers, Cronin enjoyed immediate success as he led his team to a 28-6 overall record and an Ohio Valley Conference Tournament title. And though they went 17-11 the following year, the Racers went 24-7 overall and won the OVC regular-season and tourney titles. That led to him heading to Cincinnati.

When Cronin first took over the Bearcats, they were in a tough spot in the Big East. They went just 11-19 overall and 2-14 in the conference in his first season. Within four years, however, Cronin had the program winning 26 games and double-digit conference games.

Over his final nine seasons with Cincinnati, Cronin’s teams never won fewer than 22 games and made the NCAA Tournament in every season. All that success led to his departure for UCLA.

Though he has a strong track record, it remains to be seen what Mick Cronin can do for the long haul with the Bruins. While they finished second in the Pac-12 last season and Cronin was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year, the team was just 19-12 overall. We’ll have to see if he can get UCLA competing more on a national level consistently moving forward.