By BETH HARRIS
AP Sports Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Mick Cronin has been hired as UCLA's basketball coach, ending a months-long search to find a replacement for the fired Steve Alford.

The university says Cronin agreed to a $24 million, six-year deal Tuesday.

He leaves his alma mater Cincinnati after 16 seasons, having led the Bearcats to the NCAA Tournament in each of the last nine years.

The 47-year-old coach will be introduced at a campus news conference Wednesday.

Cronin's only other head coaching stint was at Murray State from 2003-06. He was associate head coach at Louisville from 2001-03 and worked as an assistant and video coordinator from 1996 to 2001 at Cincinnati.

Alford was fired on Dec. 31.

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