2016-2017 Season

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What seed will UC get this year in the Tournament?

  • 1-4

    Votes: 24 38.7%

  • 5-8

    Votes: 35 56.5%

  • 9-16

    Votes: 3 4.8%
  • Total voters
    62
Kevin Johnson is debatably the team's best defender, but I agree that him getting a ton of minutes makes me nervous. Very turnover prone, can't drive all that well, and a mediocre shooter. Just an offensive liability. I think there are certainly plenty of ways to utilize him, i.e. when our opponent has a top-notch scoring guard, it's great to have a guy like KJ on him. But he's not a 25+ minutes kind of guy.

It won't happen, but if it were me, I'd split KJ and Cumberland's minutes 50/50 out of the gate.
 
#BearcatNation said:
Kevin Johnson is debatably the team's best defender, but I agree that him getting a ton of minutes makes me nervous. Very turnover prone, can't drive all that well, and a mediocre shooter. Just an offensive liability. I think there are certainly plenty of ways to utilize him, i.e. when our opponent has a top-notch scoring guard, it's great to have a guy like KJ on him. But he's not a 25+ minutes kind of guy.

It won't happen, but if it were me, I'd split KJ and Cumberland's minutes 50/50 out of the gate.
Click to expand...

Honestly KJ had 1 TO prone season (his soph) where it was really high then he made huge strides in improving it last year.

He might make misstakes sometimes but the reality is, he protected the ball a lot better last year
 
justinhub2003 said:
Honestly KJ had 1 TO prone season (his soph) where it was really high then he made huge strides in improving it last year.

He might make misstakes sometimes but the reality is, he protected the ball a lot better last year
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Fair point. Didn't realize until I just looked it up that he was better handling the ball last year.

That said, 30.8% from three and 34.7% overall from a SHOOTING guard is very unacceptable. Cronin has always said he's a terrific shooter...I'm starting to wonder if this is only in practice, or what.....
 
You'll miss KJ when he's gone. I'm excited to see what he brings this year. Great defense, experience, and great leadership. We don't need him to be a great player for us. Be a little better than last season, and we'll be a good team. He already averaged 21.2 minutes a game last year. You really don't see him playing more his senior year and after losing Cobb? I say he averages 8 ppg and close to 25 minutes a game.
 
BearcatSpaniard513 said:
You'll miss KJ when he's gone. I'm excited to see what he brings this year. Great defense, experience, and great leadership. We don't need him to be a great player for us. Be a little better than last season, and we'll be a good team. He already averaged 21.2 minutes a game last year. You really don't see him playing more his senior year and after losing Cobb? I say he averages 8 ppg and close to 25 minutes a game.
Click to expand...

7ppg 23min and don't let the door hit ya
 
BearcatSpaniard513 said:
You'll miss KJ when he's gone. I'm excited to see what he brings this year. Great defense, experience, and great leadership. We don't need him to be a great player for us. Be a little better than last season, and we'll be a good team. He already averaged 21.2 minutes a game last year. You really don't see him playing more his senior year and after losing Cobb? I say he averages 8 ppg and close to 25 minutes a game.
Click to expand...

There's only one way that I'll miss him.....if he has a great season this year. I think he has been one of the bigger disappointments in the Cronin era. I had high expectations for him when we signed him. He just hasn't progressed much. I also don't like his trash talking, show-boating, staring at the other bench, etc. when he does finally hit a rare shot. Somebody who has performed like him should just keep his mouth shut and get back on defense. He should have learned something from SK in his first couple years.
 
L-T said:
There's only one way that I'll miss him.....if he has a great season this year. I think he has been one of the bigger disappointments in the Cronin era. I had high expectations for him when we signed him. He just hasn't progressed much. I also don't like his trash talking, show-boating, staring at the other bench, etc. when he does finally hit a rare shot. Somebody who has performed like him should just keep his mouth shut and get back on defense. He should have learned something from SK in his first couple years.
Click to expand...

Scoring is just one aspect of a successful program. Kevin Johnson goes out and plays hard ever single game and never phones it in. If his shots aren't falling, he doesn't let his defensive get affected.

KJ is one of my favorite Bearcats because the dude bleeds Red and Black and plays his heart out. He has had so much pressure on him being a local kid and while sure I hated the TO's his soph year and I hate when he is ice cold from the floor, but you can bet that as soon as he gets in the game, the opposing guard is going to have a rough time scoring.

I think he has been very clutch for us last season. He snagged down that hugely critical rebound against George washington and would have hit the game winner against UCONN.

In the last 14 games of the year, he had 10 games where he committed 0 or only 1 TO and in that span, the most he committed was 2.

Judging by that stat, I think we can at minimum count on KJ to protect the ball
 
justinhub2003 said:
Scoring is just one aspect of a successful program. Kevin Johnson goes out and plays hard ever single game and never phones it in. If his shots aren't falling, he doesn't let his defensive get affected.

KJ is one of my favorite Bearcats because the dude bleeds Red and Black and plays his heart out. He has had so much pressure on him being a local kid and while sure I hated the TO's his soph year and I hate when he is ice cold from the floor, but you can bet that as soon as he gets in the game, the opposing guard is going to have a rough time scoring.

I think he has been very clutch for us last season. He snagged down that hugely critical rebound against George washington and would have hit the game winner against UCONN.

In the last 14 games of the year, he had 10 games where he committed 0 or only 1 TO and in that span, the most he committed was 2.

Judging by that stat, I think we can at minimum count on KJ to protect the ball
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10.7 PER last year. Only ahead of Quadri Moore. Averaged under 1 steal too. I'd expect more if defense is his calling card. Only 2 blocked shots. And I remember hearing the deflections leaders at one point on a radio show, and Johnson wasn't at the top of that either.
 
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#BearcatNation said:
Kevin Johnson is debatably the team's best defender, but I agree that him getting a ton of minutes makes me nervous. Very turnover prone, can't drive all that well, and a mediocre shooter. Just an offensive liability. I think there are certainly plenty of ways to utilize him, i.e. when our opponent has a top-notch scoring guard, it's great to have a guy like KJ on him. But he's not a 25+ minutes kind of guy.

It won't happen, but if it were me, I'd split KJ and Cumberland's minutes 50/50 out of the gate.
Click to expand...

I don't think there is a debate, the best defensive player on the team won the AAC defensive POY in the AAC
 
jacobkdoyle said:
It just makes me nervous bc injury was the only reason Evans got the chance to show the kind of player he can be. I'd like Cumberland to have that chance just by playing well. We'll see if Cronin allows him to blossom, if it comes at the expense of a Senior.
Click to expand...
you are speculating about why Evans got his shot. Fact is he was injured most of the year. Your reasoning that he won't play because he is a freshman and Cronin don't play freshman is faulty. Clark is a example of that. If Cumberland scores and guards he will play. He also needs to back up Evans. He is the only other 3 we have on the roster. i hope Cumberland is up to the challenge.
 
WAITE HOYT 2 said:
you are speculating about why Evans got his shot. Fact is he was injured most of the year. Your reasoning that he won't play because he is a freshman and Cronin don't play freshman is faulty. Clark is a example of that. If Cumberland scores and guards he will play. He also needs to back up Evans. He is the only other 3 we have on the roster. i hope Cumberland is up to the challenge.
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Actually the Clark example is what's faulty. It was him or Moore, who was also a FR. But we've had this conversation before. Maybe lacking depth on the roster (again) will actually help Cumberland though (like it did Clark) bc ready or not, he'll have to play at least some.
 
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jacobkdoyle said:
10.7 PER last year. Only ahead of Quadri Moore. Averaged under 1 steal too. I'd expect more if defense is his calling card. Only 2 blocked shots. And I remember hearing the deflections leaders at one point on a radio show, and Johnson wasn't at the top of that either.
Click to expand...

You don't have to generate Steals or Blocks to be a good defender.

Your job is to stop your man from scoring, or bet yet from even catching the ball. If your D is good, you force your player to make a bad pass that some one intercepts. When I watch KJ play D, he is locked in and rarely gets beat on D.
 
justinhub2003 said:
You don't have to generate Steals or Blocks to be a good defender.

Your job is to stop your man from scoring, or bet yet from even catching the ball. If your D is good, you force your player to make a bad pass that some one intercepts. When I watch KJ play D, he is locked in and rarely gets beat on D.
Click to expand...

I think Johnson would be better in man defense than zone. Hopefully we make that switch this year.
 
We've had defenders thru the years that were so good defensively, that we were fine with them starting because the positives from their defense and hustle far outweighed the negatives in their offensive game. There are very few people clamoring for KJ to be a starter. That should tell you that most fans aren't seeing enough from his defensive game, to offset all the other negatives in the rest of his game. A good example was Titus Rubles. He had zero offensive game, but the guy was a lock-down defender, left everything on the floor, was a fighter, had a great attitude, and was a leader who lead by example. SK was the star of that team, but Rubles was a lot of the heart and soul. I don't get that same feeling with KJ. We didn't even question Rubles starting. For me, KJ is missing something that would get me over the hump and on on his bandwagon. His show-boating and gestures at the opponents definitely rub me the wrong way, especially when he hasn't been good enough in his career (in my opinion) to even think about being cocky.
 

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