It took four tries for one of the most prestigious college basketball programs in the country to find a coach to take its money.

UCLA announced Tuesday it is hiring Mick Cronin from Cincinnati, ending a search that had become a laughingstock after the Bruins had whiffed on John Calipari, Jamie Dixon and Rick Barnes.

Barnes, the Tennessee coach, had been the latest to turn down the job Monday, after he was reportedly weighing the offer from UCLA until his current bosses stepped up and kept him with a substantial raise.

The same happened for Kentucky coach Calipari, who has since been offered a lifetime contract with the Wildcats to fend off the Bruins. Dixon appeared close to getting the job until the Los Angeles Times reported UCLA couldn’t swallow the $8 million it would have taken to buy him out of his current job at TCU.

The Bruins had been without a head coach since firing Steve Alford on New Year’s Eve, as the once-iconic job has become merely a negotiating tactic for coaches to get raises at their own schools.

The hire of Cronin, who had been the Bearcats coach since 2006, leading them to nine straight NCAA Tournaments, ends any speculation they would next to try to swipe Chris Beard. The Texas Tech coach, who brought the third-seeded team to the national championship Monday night and fell just short in overtime to Virginia, could have been an option — and Texas Tech knew it.

“I think we have a better job,” Kirby Hocutt said after the loss, according to Yahoo Sports. “I think we’re going to continue to invest into our program. We just broke ground on a $30 million practice center. It’s going to be state of the art and one of the finest in the country.”