2016-2017 Season

[GarradJ21]

I've been a member and a reader here for a long time. I never really post but nothing tickles me more than the grammar Nazis and forum correction officers on here . Y'all are so funny getting butthurt over the mildest tangent someone might drift off on and acting all corporate when u correct people or refer them to the terms of service. Please remember that this is an online message board for an unpopular team and banning people will only result in the number of daily posts to drop to 9.

I know I am personally glad that you posted. I hope you post more because it really was beneficial.

 

[ME80]

We averaged 73 bc of how we played in the first handful of games. We only cracked 60 in regulation 1 time in AAC road games. We should average 70+ ppg in our 18 game AAC schedule, no problem. I'll be pretty ticked if we don't.

I'm actually curious about this. Do the majority of teams scoring averages go down once conference play start?

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

While pace of play is certainly affected by tempo there are other factors that can contribute. Bad perimeter defense, poor rebounding, strengths of team and close games come to mind. With the addition of Washington, Cumberland and hopefully improved play from other returnees, teams may actually try to slow pace against us to compensate for a difference in talent. You can debate all day what effects wins and losses more lack of defense or lack of offense. My guess is if you want to win on the level we all seem to want, you better be doing it on both ends of the floor. I'm sure every coach who is worth their salt will tell you that.

 

[UCalum08]

I'm actually curious about this. Do the majority of teams scoring averages go down once conference play start?

Jacob is on point about our road conference point totals. It's really that bad. But, I remain optimistic this year because we do have a lot more scoring options this year. We will have five guys on the floor that can score and do different things. When our 5th-6th scoring options are going to be KJ and Cumberland that is a hell of a lot better than last year. KJ was a lot of times, was our 3rd option. It will make scouting us tougher than previous years. Specially, last year we were so easy to scout on offense because we didn't really have much threats after 1 and 2.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

I'm actually curious about this. Do the majority of teams scoring averages go down once conference play start?

I would assume so. But I don't know if that's the case across the board.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

While pace of play is certainly affected by tempo there are other factors that can contribute. Bad perimeter defense, poor rebounding, strengths of team and close games come to mind. With the addition of Washington, Cumberland and hopefully improved play from other returnees, teams may actually try to slow pace against us to compensate for a difference in talent. You can debate all day what effects wins and losses more lack of defense or lack of offense. My guess is if you want to win on the level we all seem to want, you better be doing it on both ends of the floor. I'm sure every coach who is worth their salt will tell you that.

Waite, this is one of my main gripes about Cronin's gameplanning. If South Florida wants to play a 50 point grinder, he's all too happy to oblidge. We should be pressing and running against these teams. If I'm not mistaken, I believe someone said we were 351 out of 351 once conference play started. So there is no slower than that. You can't blame that on the other team when we're taking 9.99 seconds to cross half court every possession.

#BearcatNation, I already feel like I know what you're going to say. But if you want to be the slowest team in the history of basketball (relax I'm exaggerating), can you at least agree that we need to go about it more efficiently? Taking 1/3 of the clock walking instead of working the offense, taking long 2 after long 2, and being clueless about making the clock work for us late in games are a few things that come to mind.

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

Waite, this is one of my main gripes about Cronin's gameplanning. If South Florida wants to play a 50 point grinder, he's all too happy to oblidge. We should be pressing and running against these teams. If I'm not mistaken, I believe someone said we were 351 out of 351 once conference play started. So there is no slower than that. You can't blame that on the other team when we're taking 9.99 seconds to cross half court every possession.

#BearcatNation, I already feel like I know what you're going to say. But if you want to be the slowest team in the history of basketball (relax I'm exaggerating), can you at least agree that we need to go about it more efficiently? Taking 1/3 of the clock walking instead of working the offense, taking long 2 after long 2, and being clueless about making the clock work for us late in games are a few things that come to mind.

Jake I'm confident Coach is playing the style that he thinks gives him the best chance to win the game. He recruited these kids and sees them everyday in practice. He studies film and knows the injury situation. I'm sure he also considers the personnel he has to work with as well. I think you are mistaken but your certainly entitled to your opinion.

I love you Jake but I don't think your a better game planner then our current coach

 

[UCBearcats]

While pace of play is certainly affected by tempo there are other factors that can contribute. Bad perimeter defense, poor rebounding, strengths of team and close games come to mind. With the addition of Washington, Cumberland and hopefully improved play from other returnees, teams may actually try to slow pace against us to compensate for a difference in talent. You can debate all day what effects wins and losses more lack of defense or lack of offense. My guess is if you want to win on the level we all seem to want, you better be doing it on both ends of the floor. I'm sure every coach who is worth their salt will tell you that.

Waite, your constant defense of everything Mick Cronin related is remarkable to say the least. It's wild how pessimistic you were on the football related topics but how willing you are to throw yourself in front of every bullet big or small intended for Mick.

With secret service agents out there like you protecting his back there's no doubt Mick will be around for a long long long long long time. An excruciatingly long and never ending time....

Keep up the good work my friend.........

 

[#BearcatNation]

Waite, this is one of my main gripes about Cronin's gameplanning. If South Florida wants to play a 50 point grinder, he's all too happy to oblidge. We should be pressing and running against these teams. If I'm not mistaken, I believe someone said we were 351 out of 351 once conference play started. So there is no slower than that. You can't blame that on the other team when we're taking 9.99 seconds to cross half court every possession.

#BearcatNation, I already feel like I know what you're going to say. But if you want to be the slowest team in the history of basketball (relax I'm exaggerating), can you at least agree that we need to go about it more efficiently? Taking 1/3 of the clock walking instead of working the offense, taking long 2 after long 2, and being clueless about making the clock work for us late in games are a few things that come to mind.

Of course. Mick's offenses need to get a lot more efficient. That's never been my debate. Take an open shot when you get it. Whether it's 8 seconds in, or 29 seconds in, it doesn't matter. That's why I keep saying pace of play isn't a big deal. If I ever sound like I'm advocating a slower tempo...I'm not. I'm defending the fact that simply going faster solves nothing.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

Jake I'm confident Coach is playing the style that he thinks gives him the best chance to win the game. He recruited these kids and sees them everyday in practice. He studies film and knows the injury situation. I'm sure he also considers the personnel he has to work with as well. I think you are mistaken but your certainly entitled to your opinion.

I love you Jake but I don't think your a better game planner then our current coach

He must not think much of our players' talent then, if he thinks a rock fight is our best bet anytime we leave home, regardless of the opponent.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

Of course. Mick's offenses need to get a lot more efficient. That's never been my debate. Take an open shot when you get it. Whether it's 8 seconds in, or 29 seconds in, it doesn't matter. That's why I keep saying pace of play isn't a big deal. If I ever sound like I'm advocating a slower tempo...I'm not. I'm defending the fact that simply going faster solves nothing.

I think we agree on more than it appears.

Hopefully instead of praying to the basketball gods for better luck, we take things into our own hands this year. It's now or never. Either we see an improved product, or we see once and for all that Cronin teams are pretty much all the same, despite the personnel.

 

[Union Bearcat]

I think we agree on more than it appears.

Hopefully instead of praying to the basketball gods for better luck, we take things into our own hands this year. It's now or never. Either we see an improved product, or we see once and for all that Cronin teams are pretty much all the same, despite the personnel.

We were hit pretty hard by injuries late last year. Shaq obviously, but Troy, Jacob, and Gary were all hobbled. Health was the problem last year not Cronin.

 

[Bearcat_NTS]

People keep talking about how the offense is going to be much better. I have a hard time seeing how we'll see more than a marginal improvement.

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

He must not think much of our players' talent then, if he thinks a rock fight is our best bet anytime we leave home, regardless of the opponent.

Jake I really don't know how to respond to this.
Have a nice day.

 

[CliftonCat]

The offense is fine. I expect to see improvement this year as I believe we have more players that can score. I don't see why we should change or why we expect anything to change. Coaches run their systems. They recruit players for their systems. Recruits commit to play in their systems. It's fairly simple to understand. Maybe Mick will read these posts and realize we have basketball geniuses in the stands but for now we can give this tempo discussion a rest.

 

[L-T]

Jake I really don't know how to respond to this.
Have a nice day.

Waite, it's not that hard. Just say...."Jake, you're right."....because he is.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

Jake I really don't know how to respond to this.
Have a nice day.

Waite, you said teams may try to play slow to make up for a lack of talent. You also said Cronin plays at a pace that he thinks gives us the best chance to win. You do the math.

It's a matchup dependent thing for me. Always has been. Against Duke, if we feel like we need to shorten the game and grind it, go for it. I get that. But against AAC teams, not so much.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

The offense is fine. I expect to see improvement this year as I believe we have more players that can score. I don't see why we should change or why we expect anything to change. Coaches run their systems. They recruit players for their systems. Recruits commit to play in their systems. It's fairly simple to understand. Maybe Mick will read these posts and realize we have basketball geniuses in the stands but for now we can give this tempo discussion a rest.

Playing one system regardless of talent in a given year, depth, opponent, etc seems silly to me. Jmo. And we've seen for a while that Coach is leaning more towards offensive punch these days on the recruiting trail. That suggests an alteration in his "system". Something the "geniuses" fully support.

 

[CliftonCat]

Every highschool player that is ranked at all has "offensive punch." Doesn't mean they're going to come to college and immediately put up double digit numbers. I think Gary Clark had a couple of games in the upper 30's or maybe even 40's in highschool. I'm willing to bet my house that he won't be named AAC Offensive Player of the year anytime soon. He fits what Cronin does and he has clearly bought in.

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

Waite, you said teams may try to play slow to make up for a lack of talent. You also said Cronin plays at a pace that he thinks gives us the best chance to win. You do the math.

It's a matchup dependent thing for me. Always has been. Against Duke, if we feel like we need to shorten the game and grind it, go for it. I get that. But against AAC teams, not so much.

Jake it is never that simple. Changing styles is very difficult. Generally coaches work entire off seasons implementing a system. I appreciate your comment but we will have to agree to disagree.