2016-2017 Season

[WAITE HOYT 2]

http://m.espn.go.com/ncb/bracketology?iteration=282&region=1&year=2016

Bracketology has us as a 9 seed next year. I think that's what we were predicted to get last year too, and none of us could believe it. Turned out to be right. Preseason stuff seems premature, but those rankings usually turn out to be pretty close. Disappointing to see this...more of the same.

Jake we lost many games decided by one trip down the floor. We turn half of them around and we are probably a 5 seed. Hopefully the team has grown from those experiences and will be a bit more hungry after having victory snatched away so many times last year.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

Jake we lost many games decided by one trip down the floor. We turn half of them around and we are probably a 5 seed. Hopefully the team has grown from those experiences and will be a bit more hungry after having victory snatched away so many times last year.

Yeah. It's always something though. Last year it was being super motivated bc we played Kentucky, this year it's the close games. The only preseason thing I've seen that has us ranked is on ESPN and they have us at #25. I can only buy the "we actually like being unranked bc it gives us motivation" thing so many times.

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

Yeah. It's always something though. Last year it was being super motivated bc we played Kentucky, this year it's the close games. The only preseason thing I've seen that has us ranked is on ESPN and they have us at #25. I can only buy the "we actually like being unranked bc it gives us motivation" thing so many times.

Time will tell my friend. Taking all the BS out of the equation I like our team. We have some very good returning pieces. We also have room to pick up a additional piece or two. Should be a interesting year. My prediction is we build on last year and move forward. As a betting man if I were to bet the odds would be favorable that we will do just that.

 

[justinhub2003]

Yeah. It's always something though. Last year it was being super motivated bc we played Kentucky, this year it's the close games. The only preseason thing I've seen that has us ranked is on ESPN and they have us at #25. I can only buy the "we actually like being unranked bc it gives us motivation" thing so many times.

Jon Rothstein had us a 18.

Sports illustrated has us at #22

SB nation has us at 30

NBC sports has us at #25


its not as bleak as you make it sound. Also, lets check what lunardi had Xavier last year preseason and I bet he was way off.

You told me earlier this year I worried too much in game threads, I think your a bit too pessimistic before a single game of basketball has been even played.

We have a top 25 schedule or at worst top 50 non conference schedule coming into the season, we will have plenty of opportunities to be better than last year

 

[jacobkdoyle]

Jon Rothstein had us a 18.

Sports illustrated has us at #22

SB nation has us at 30

NBC sports has us at #25


its not as bleak as you make it sound. Also, lets check what lunardi had Xavier last year preseason and I bet he was way off.

You told me earlier this year I worried too much in game threads, I think your a bit too pessimistic before a single game of basketball has been even played.

We have a top 25 schedule or at worst top 50 non conference schedule coming into the season, we will have plenty of opportunities to be better than last year

There are definitely teams that overachieve every year. The #18 and #22 are pretty good...didn't know about those. It just gets old playing the "we get no respect" card every year. I'm hoping this group can go wire-to-wire in the Top 25.

 

[ZCat]

Not trying to divert this wonderful discussion but with 4 of 5 starting spots settled developing a bench to rest and contribute in the case of injuries is a must for next season.

JJ needs better court awareness. Has to improve defensively. His jumper needs work.

Qaudri needs to understand his role. Really has trouble with foot speed. Really has a problem guarding the 4 spot. He needs to understand he isn't the No. 1 option to shoot the ball. Must improve defensively and with shot selection. Think he is more of a 5 then a 4.

Scott, he'll hit the offensive glass and work well in the press defensively. He will need time to develop offensively. He will play good defense but other then put backs will be limited offensively. Is certainly a 4 not a 3. High energy guy.

KJ needs to continue to work on his spot up shooting and Ball handling. Improving getting to the rim would be a big help when the defense is running at him. He improved delivering the ball to the Bigs as the season went on and his on the ball defense is the best on the team. Shooting and Ball handling is what he should be working on this off season. a mid range game would be big for him.

Cumberland will need to improve his foot speed. Defensively he will be challenged. Shot selection could be a issue because he is used to being the man. Really see him backing up Evans and getting minutes at the 2 as well. I will be surprised if he starts. Pleasantly surprised actually.

Brooks will also need to adjust to the speed and athletic ability he will see at this level. If he protects the rim and can give Kyle a breather at times he will meet my expectations.

Really don't think we will see a recruit come in and add valuable minutes. Without having immediate playing time to offer. Luring a 4 or 5 star to come in and sit behind the starting 5 and waiting their turn is not going to happen. I look for us to be in the market for a grad transfer who can give us minutes in the post and a athletic wing we can develop after KJ and TC leave.

I'm not sure anyone can improve foot speed a lot. With training I'm sure it can be improved, but isn't this a natural God given ability? Opinions?

Didn't Mick say he is not a big fan of grad transfers? Is he concerned about messing up team chemistry? I can see that, but in the right spot I say go for it. We need to get talent any way we can.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

I'm not sure anyone can improve foot speed a lot. With training I'm sure it can be improved, but isn't this a natural God given ability? Opinions?

Didn't Mick say he is not a big fan of grad transfers? Is he concerned about messing up team chemistry? I can see that, but in the right spot I say go for it. We need to get talent any way we can.

Like you said, can be improved. Guys like Clark and Caupain will never be lightning quick...but they should be improving their strength and cardio while staying at the same weight, or even shedding a few pounds. Jenifer would be a lot quicker if he lost 20 pounds. There's a Bearcat Fan Podcast on BCJ (very good content) and Dan Cronin said he's around 200 pounds. No way that should be. I'm always for lean muscle over bulk in basketball. I think we're stressing that more now in our program as the game has changed. I have no idea how these guys train but you can do little things like jumping rope to help improve your feet. I did Air Alert back in high school and I could dunk by the end of the summer going into my soph year and I wasn't even close before it (I also hit a growth spurt from 5'10" to 6'3" around that time). So there are definitely things you can do.

 

[ZCat]

Like you said, can be improved. Guys like Clark and Caupain will never be lightning quick...but they should be improving their strength and cardio while staying at the same weight, or even shedding a few pounds. Jenifer would be a lot quicker if he lost 20 pounds. There's a Bearcat Fan Podcast on BCJ (very good content) and Dan Cronin said he's around 200 pounds. No way that should be. I'm always for lean muscle over bulk in basketball. I think we're stressing that more now in our program as the game has changed. I have no idea how these guys train but you can do little things like jumping rope to help improve your feet. I did Air Alert back in high school and I could dunk by the end of the summer going into my soph year and I wasn't even close before it (I also hit a growth spurt from 5'10" to 6'3" around that time). So there are definitely things you can do.

Thanks Jacob.
So Air Alert, huh. I'm buying it lol!
Whatever is the maximum foot speed and lateral quickness and they can gain, they need to get to the maximum amount.

Another interesting tidbit on a different angle, that I picked up during the season is that Evans can play 40 minutes. Coach basically sad Clark can't. His limit is around 30. I think some people can naturally play a full game, some can not.Just their cardiac output. Huggins stated Durden. was a guy that could play 40 minutes. Just setting up expectations, based on coaches comments a few times, that is what I gathered,

And I agree w/ u Jacob. My expectations are low. Top 20 to 30 is as optimistic as we should be preseason. The preseason prognosticators do have some idea. Not that I think all of them are right or that all of them have watch us play I've just learned this over the last few years, that as a fan base we are usually biased.

We don't have off-the-chart talent players. We have good talent playing up to their potential and playing hard. Evans and Clarke have a higher ceiling than most on the team though.

 

[coachpipe]

Our strength/training coach has done a great job with our players over the years. But for a guy like Jenifer. And in no way am I saying he is anything close to Eddie Lacy, but after seeing his transformation in what seemed like 2-3 weeks. You have to wonder why more athletes dont do this. For any and all sports.

 

[UCalum08]

Per Jon rothstein UC is hosting Samford this year part of our non conf. schedule.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

Our strength/training coach has done a great job with our players over the years. But for a guy like Jenifer. And in no way am I saying he is anything close to Eddie Lacy, but after seeing his transformation in what seemed like 2-3 weeks. You have to wonder why more athletes dont do this. For any and all sports.

Makes me wonder what Jenifer is eating. He should go gluten-free for the summer or something.

 

[Bearcat22]

Time will tell my friend. Taking all the BS out of the equation I like our team. We have some very good returning pieces. We also have room to pick up a additional piece or two. Should be a interesting year. My prediction is we build on last year and move forward. As a betting man if I were to bet the odds would be favorable that we will do just that.

I'm hopeful about next season. It's seems hard to read too much into the next year based on the previous season. We'll have a new players (new to the program and newly eligible) and current players asked to take on more responsibility. I hope one player emerges as the leader. Not in the sense of a player willing to take the last shot. I think we have that in Caupain and Evans. We need someone that will get in a teammate's face if they aren't hustling, commit dumb fouls, have lapses in concentration, etc. I didn't see that this past season.

 

[waterhead]

National Champs or bust 3 All Americans

 

[waterhead]

I'm hopeful about next season. It's seems hard to read too much into the next year based on the previous season. We'll have a new players (new to the program and newly eligible) and current players asked to take on more responsibility. I hope one player emerges as the leader. Not in the sense of a player willing to take the last shot. I think we have that in Caupain and Evans. We need someone that will get in a teammate's face if they aren't hustling, commit dumb fouls, have lapses in concentration, etc. I didn't see that this past season.

But it doesn't hurt to speculate...lol! Outside of skill sets here is one way I think we will be better.

I know in another thread one concept that came up was that we need to show a little more toughness. I think it's a mental toughness that we need.

I don't want to be too critical of past players but Ellis was not mentally strong. He was easily frustrated and threw tantrums a lot. That is the polar opposite of mental toughness. I think we will have more mental toughness with Washington. Shaq, for much of his career, seemed lost on the court at times. You want players on the court who are always focused.

I think team chemistry (in terms of mental toughness) will change more to the type of team that we want to see. Less temper tantrums and getting lost...just tough guys who stay focused and say "bring it on".

 

[justinhub2003]

I'm hopeful about next season. It's seems hard to read too much into the next year based on the previous season. We'll have a new players (new to the program and newly eligible) and current players asked to take on more responsibility. I hope one player emerges as the leader. Not in the sense of a player willing to take the last shot. I think we have that in Caupain and Evans. We need someone that will get in a teammate's face if they aren't hustling, commit dumb fouls, have lapses in concentration, etc. I didn't see that this past season.

Just based on what Mick has said I would expect that to be Kyle Washington..


But he needs to be play well to start the season and earn that role with his teammates.

I think Caupain having that senior title by his name will also help. He even said, he didn't feel it was his team at one point and maybe thats because they had Ellis and Shaq but next year, its KJ and Caupain and I think we can see to great leaders out of those two.

KJ will lead by his energy on the defensive end and I think Troy can be much more vocal

 

[L-T]

The national signing period is now a week old and we have nobody new signed for the 2016/2017 season. A list of the 35 best recruiting classes does not include Cincinnati. It does include schools like Harvard, UMASS, UNLV, St. Johns, Penn St., Marquette, SMU, UCONN, and Richard Pitino's Minnesota.

How can we expect to ever be a top 25 program when our recruiting classes are never highly ranked and we're getting beat by Harvard, UMASS etc. Obviously, UCONN and SMU aren't letting the AAC be an excuse for poor recruiting. This is the same old story. We are sitting on a roster of 10 players. We can't seem to ever fill up our roster. This small roster size has bitten us in past seasons. He'll probably go out and sign some insignificant player to get us up to 11 and we'll be done with another underwhelming class.

I'm sure glad Cronin turned down UNLV to come back.

 

[Madman81]

the fact that dipshit teams are highly ranked in recruiting like that should tell you a lot of what you need to know about recruit ranking.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

Where would we rank if Washington was included? I'd have to imagine that he and Cumberland are higher impact newcomers than most teams' Top 2 incoming recruits.

 

[prancer]

I'm not sure what rankings you're looking at, but the ones I see most often do not include transfers. So for us, Washington and Broome would not be included in those rankings and therefore our recruiting classes would be ranked worse than we deserve.

Case in point: Iowa State. They've been one of the best teams in the country the last couple seasons. Want to know their recruiting class rankings during that period (according to 247)? 75th in 2015 and 115th in 2014. 115th!! Obviously the rankings are way off. In ISU's case, they bring in quality transfers that aren't accounted for.

I think Mick has done a good job, although I've been frustrated by his inability/unwillingness to improve the offense, his excuse-making, postseason let downs, and underwhelming recruiting. There is plenty to criticize Mick for without using misleading information.

 

[L-T]

I'm not sure what rankings you're looking at, but the ones I see most often do not include transfers. So for us, Washington and Broome would not be included in those rankings and therefore our recruiting classes would be ranked worse than we deserve.

Case in point: Iowa State. They've been one of the best teams in the country the last couple seasons. Want to know their recruiting class rankings during that period (according to 247)? 75th in 2015 and 115th in 2014. 115th!! Obviously the rankings are way off. In ISU's case, they bring in quality transfers that aren't accounted for.

I think Mick has done a good job, although I've been frustrated by his inability/unwillingness to improve the offense, his excuse-making, postseason let downs, and underwhelming recruiting. There is plenty to criticize Mick for without using misleading information.

Iowa State is a veteran team with lots of good juniors/seniors, so their recruiting for 2014/1015 is somewhat irrelevant and also misleading. If their recruiting was that bad, then you'll start to see a fall-off as these juniors and seniors leave. In our case, since our recruiting is never top 30. you constantly see us hanging out in the 25-50 grouping, just enough to squeak into the tournament, garner our 8/9 seeds, but never making a splash.

Also, Broome is not playing next season, so I don't count him towards the 2016/2017 season.