Agree with everything said by WingU-Conn in this thread. Cronin should have been given a technical, and that probably would have been all there was to it. If you're Valentine, you T him up, give him a minute or two to cool off, and if he doesn't give him another technical. The only time I can ever see it as acceptable to get confrontational to that extent as a ref would be if you felt threatened, or if a coach made things personal. Clearly, Valentine escalated the situation, and that's completely inappropriate from an official who is supposed to have control over the game.
As far as Cronin's personality is concerned, I'm not a huge fan, but I do respect him. I though he handled the brawl two years ago with as much class as you could expect, and he's built Cincinnati into a perennially relevant team after inheriting the program in shambles. For as much as conference re-alignment sucks, Cincinnati's the one remaining school that really does resemble an old-school Big East program.
