How UCLA thrived in basketball free agency after its 'NIL grew exponentially'

So where does that leave the Bruins seven months later when it comes to the biggest spenders in the college game and their pro equivalent? Cronin anticipated the question before it was asked.

"I know you're going to ask me, are we the Dodgers? Where do we line up?" he said. "It's tough to say because the way things are now, you don't know. You only can guess because say I beat you for a recruit, you're going to tell everybody, 'Oh, he gave him $1 million.' It used to be, 'Oh, they cheated.' Now it's, 'Well, they gave him $1 million. They gave him $1.5 million.' Well, I can tell you, nobody [on the team] got $1 million.

"But you just don't know [how you stack up against other teams] because it's not pro sports, the books aren't open, the contracts aren't public. So nobody knows. In fact, most of the collectives have confidentiality agreements in their contracts, so the contract can be voided if you tell people what you got. So there's just so much ambiguity with it all. If you asked, how much did you spend on your team and where did you stack up? Well, you're not sure. All you know is you were able to get players."

Indeed he did. It's possible UCLA imported four new starters to pair with returning point guard Dylan Andrews given the level of talent set to arrive in Westwood. Skyy Clark was Louisville's leading scorer. Dominick Harris ranked third in the nation by making 44.8% of his 3-pointers. William Kyle III was the Summit League defensive player of the year. Kobe Johnson was USC's best perimeter defender and an underrated passer. Eric Dailey Jr. can play every position on the court. Tyler Bilodeau is a matchup nightmare because of his combination of size, skill around the basket and long-range shooting.

"If we need to play small," Cronin said, alluding to the option to play the 6-foot-9 Bilodeau at center, "we can play small and good luck trying to put your big guy on him."

Somehow, even amid the glut of talent on the way, Cronin also landed Harvard-Westlake guard Trent Perry, a McDonald's All-American and The Times' high school player of the year, to supplement a small freshman class that included Corona Centennial guard Eric Freeny.

Cronin's message to Perry was that he was a winner who could help the Bruins raise their first national title banner in 30 years and enhance his NBA stock even if he didn't start immediately, just like former first-round picks Russell Westbrook, Zach LaVine and Peyton Watson before him.

"It's just a fallacy that you have to come in and play 35 minutes with the ball in your hands to make it in the NBA; it's just not true," Cronin said. "I mean, all you've got to do is look at Reed Sheppard, who didn't start at Kentucky [except five games] this year and he's going to go third or fourth according to every mock draft."

UCLA's newcomers also heard the same thing the returning players did — that they would have to fight for playing time on a roster adding a combined 75.1 points of scoring punch from the college level last season, including five players who averaged double figures.

"People say, 'Well, they're going to have this guy, they're going to have that guy,'" Cronin said. "Well, first of all, if you're a competitor and you really want to be on a great team that has a chance to win the Big Ten [Conference] in its first year and have a chance to go to a Final Four or compete for a national title, you should want other great players on the team. That's No. 1. No. 2, in this day and age, everybody wants to go play in the NBA, don't you think it would behoove you to play every day against another good player that would make you better and wouldn't it help you get more exposure if you're on a great team?"

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