2016 General Recruiting

[#BearcatNation]

First off I want to say when I said I wanted Van Exel as an assistant I thought he had AAU coaching experience too. I did a quick search but didn't find anything. Not that he isn't qualified now, like Jacob said he was an instructor for player development for the Hawks, but having those AAU connections as a coach would be an even bigger help for his case as an assistant.



As for the quoted section, I really believe I am in the middle of those two extremes and many might agree. Do I think Cronin is perfect? No, because the results are not there. Not even close. Do I want him fired and hate his guts? No, not at all. I respect him for what he has given this program, a stable coach who wins and runs a good program. He took in a program that was dying, or dead, and has resurrected it. But now, he needs to get out of the first weekend of the tourney. No more first round exits.

I think the number one factor of why we don't get big time recruits is our snail like pace of basketball. If I was not a diehard fan of UC, I would HATE watching our games. They are boring. We can't score on the road and have droughts of 8+ minutes every game. It hurts my eyes watching it. We are not in the Big East anymore as a team who can't compete. We are in a lesser conference and are a top-two program in said conference. We should be taking our athletes and pitting them against the other teams to see who can run and score the most. Do I want to give up 75 points a game? No. But, we can win games 75-67 and still play tremendous defense. Someone mentioned ND, Cuse, Virginia, Wisconsin as teams who play slow. Well, yes. But they are also the most efficient offenses in the country. Strides need to be made towards more efficient offense players who can still play solid defense. Not lock down defenders who struggle to reach 50 while on the road.

I was that someone, and that was pretty much my point. I really don't have a huge problem with the pace. It's more about the possessions on offense that frustrate me. You can play slow, while also playing smart and efficient. People often seem to think slow = boring, low-scoring, and gives you a worse chance at winning. I prefer going at a fast-pace against teams we are superior to and clearly more athletic, but when both teams are very balanced, there's no reason to rush. Shoot when you have an open shot and people are ready to rebound. If that takes 20-25 seconds into the shot clock, so be it. Don't speed up when the opponent's defense is lock-down and quicker than we are.

Pace isn't the problem. Efficiency is. Our offense was 81st in the country in efficiency. Not abysmal, but still sub-par. Need better shot selection, better shooters, and probably just better plays and offensive-minded players overall. Like I said earlier, it's not just the coaching staff.

 

[BearcatSpaniard513]

Darius Hicks was one we lost solely based on playing time I feel. He would have competed for playing time behind Gary Clark, Tre Scott and Quadri Moore. What high school kid would want to compete for time behind 3 other guys?

The past 2 transfers Mick has brought in of Kyle Washington and Cane Broome are huge! Jarron Cumberland is a top 50 player. Jacob Evans probably should have been a top 50 player. I totally understand the argument behind pocketing scholarships and how it doesn't make sense. They most likely tried their hardest to bring 1 or 2 players in during the spring and it just didn't workout (not over yet). We missed on Darius Hicks, but I'd rather have Cane Broome than Darius Hicks and some other random player that wouldn't contribute much. Hopefully we bring in 1 more piece to add to this year's team, if we don't I guarantee you Mick did not want to pocket 2 scholarships going into the season.

 

[Bearcat513]

I agree BearcatNation. Probably did not express that too well but I like seeing us run it against the lesser competition and then matching the pace to others. Efficiency is differently our biggest issue as a team. We can take time off the clock and then take a bad shot or miss an open one. The offense needs to have better spacing, more fluent movement and crisper passing.

 

[#BearcatNation]

I think part of the problem too is having to turn over every rock to find the "right" fit. We eliminate lots of players right off the bat if they don't fit a profile that is based largely on defensive potential. We have such a rare (outdated) and specific style of play, it seems like we have a hard time even compiling a list of viable options from the get-go. I've been hearing for years that the shift in focus is changing, but I'm still not sure I really see it on this upcoming roster. Coach needs to be more adaptable when it comes to the guys he recruits. If the guy is good, it's on you to figure out how to make him successful, instead of trying to jam square pegs into round holes. Putting the style above all else, regardless of personnel is a huge impediment to success on the court imo.

Sounds like you're implying he doesn't recruit legitimate offensive players if they aren't good at defense...I don't believe that's true at all, especially anymore. Just looking at the guard position, Jenifer, Andrew Rowsey, and Broome were all known for having suspect defense, yet all 3 Cronin went after very hard since they were offensive-minded players. There are definitely more, but those are off the top of my head.

 

[BearcatSpaniard513]

I think part of the problem too is having to turn over every rock to find the "right" fit. We eliminate lots of players right off the bat if they don't fit a profile that is based largely on defensive potential. We have such a rare (outdated) and specific style of play, it seems like we have a hard time even compiling a list of viable options from the get-go. I've been hearing for years that the shift in focus is changing, but I'm still not sure I really see it on this upcoming roster. Coach needs to be more adaptable when it comes to the guys he recruits. If the guy is good, it's on you to figure out how to make him successful, instead of trying to jam square pegs into round holes. Putting the style above all else, regardless of personnel is a huge impediment to success on the court imo.

I do think it's getting there. With Jacob Evans, Jarron Cumberland and Cane Broome they've brought in some fire power. We just need to keep getting players like them every year

 

[jacobkdoyle]

I was that someone, and that was pretty much my point. I really don't have a huge problem with the pace. It's more about the possessions on offense that frustrate me. You can play slow, while also playing smart and efficient. People often seem to think slow = boring, low-scoring, and gives you a worse chance at winning. I prefer going at a fast-pace against teams we are superior to and clearly more athletic, but when both teams are very balanced, there's no reason to rush. Shoot when you have an open shot and people are ready to rebound. If that takes 20-25 seconds into the shot clock, so be it. Don't speed up when the opponent's defense is lock-down and quicker than we are.

Pace isn't the problem. Efficiency is. Our offense was 81st in the country in efficiency. Not abysmal, but still sub-par. Need better shot selection, better shooters, and probably just better plays and offensive-minded players overall. Like I said earlier, it's not just the coaching staff.

I enjoy yours and Bearcat513's posts.

I agree on efficiency. But I have lots of doubts as to whether we can ever operate with true efficiency. We would need to shoot more 3s (I have no problem with that), but it doesn't seem like that's something we preach and encourage. We can't shoot so many long 2s. We see it all the time, so it doesn't seem like it bothers the coaches. But it's hard to ask for efficiency when that isn't frowned upon. We allow teams to pack it in by focusing so much on trying to use multiple back to the basket bigs. So hopefully Clark continues to improve his face-up game. That is of the utmost importance. We need Caupain to stop shooting 18 foot jumpers. Bad shot in college basketball, his FG% proves it. Set screens for him higher and give him space for that pull up to be a 3. If I watch Washington and Caupain shoot 17-19 foot jumpers all year I'm going to pull my hair out. Make the inside-out thing be from dribble penetration by Caupain, instead of true post feeds (kids these days suck at post passing anyway). Caupain can be a bull, but he has to have the space. At the end of the day, I'm not sure I'm confident enough in our recent approach to see anything other than "more of the same" though, when push comes to shove.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

Darius Hicks was one we lost solely based on playing time I feel. He would have competed for playing time behind Gary Clark, Tre Scott and Quadri Moore. What high school kid would want to compete for time behind 3 other guys?

The past 2 transfers Mick has brought in of Kyle Washington and Cane Broome are huge! Jarron Cumberland is a top 50 player. Jacob Evans probably should have been a top 50 player. I totally understand the argument behind pocketing scholarships and how it doesn't make sense. They most likely tried their hardest to bring 1 or 2 players in during the spring and it just didn't workout (not over yet). We missed on Darius Hicks, but I'd rather have Cane Broome than Darius Hicks and some other random player that wouldn't contribute much. Hopefully we bring in 1 more piece to add to this year's team, if we don't I guarantee you Mick did not want to pocket 2 scholarships going into the season.

I can understand "pocketing" scholarships, if it was for the purpose of balancing out the recruiting classes. But what pocketing them does for us now is makes next year a year with 5 openings (Broome already took 1 of them). I don't see us bringing in a 5-man class. And I don't believe in general that we ever "pocket" them with the intention of using them. The same 2 just roll over year after year.

 

[Ryno99]

I don't think we make ourselves as desirable as possible with the way we operate and it hurts our reputation. Everyone tries to make it so big about Coach Cal, shoe companies, one and dones, etc. Not saying those things are completely irrelevant, but I think we weigh all the off the court stuff way too heavily and forget to focus on the basketball itself. I've said it several times, but here's what I expect: To win the AAC regular season or tournament damn near every year. You (and I don't mean you specifically) can throw up any "reason" you want for not being Top 15, getting NBA Talent, etc, but I still haven't seen a good reason why we can't compete at the highest level in our conference. So where that puts us nationally, I don't know. But the idea of "make the tournament at all costs" equalling Mission Accomplished is growing old. Last year our coach said he didn't care where we were in the conference standings, and that he doesn't coach for wins and losses. I've never known those things to be so unimportant at UC. But I feel like at the end of the day though, results do the talking. Everything else is just fodder. And the product of UC basketball needs to improve.

Ok my only question is have you ever heard one of the staff's pitches to these kids? How do we know what they are weighing heavy or otherwise. As to your expectations, I can't disagree with any of them, I can't imagine any fan would.

 

[coachpipe]

Malik Newman has announced he will back out of the NBA draft and his "camp" will decide if he transfers or stays at Mississippi State. Alot of kids have handlers who ask for things and ultimately make the decision for where some of these kids go to school. So thats another thing happening in the recruiting world.

 

[L-T]

Totally agree. He has this new state of the art arena coming, very new and very nice practice facilities, killer weight room, one of the best on campus recs in the country, a pretty awesome campus that hard not to be impressed with if you get on it that gets awards all the time, a great city with tons to do ect....all along with 6 straight years of going to the NCAA Tournament. I'm tired of the excuses. Be a better salesman make these kids believe they are idiots if they don't come play for The University of Cincinnati.

We all know why they don't come. It has nothing to do with Nike, Adidas, or any other brand. They watch our offense on TV and cross us off the list. If we played an exciting brand of basketball, and players were showing great improvement, and we were moving players on to the NBA, they would come here and wear Bermuda shorts and flip flops to play.

 

[cincycpaw]

Regardless of all these excuses, it's just that excuses.

The coaching staff is suppose to fill out a roster. They haven't done that very often. They always say....pocket scholly....next years class is the important one....we are in on a soooo many good players for next years class......

Bottom line, we aren't filling out scholarships. It hurts as we aren't getting 1 & dones so we need to get players into the program and develop them. Bringing in a bunch of freshman/transfers next year to start right away is a very scary situation in my mind.

I like we have a new arena coming. I wish we were in a power conference. Because those are the only 2 excuses left for not performing on the recruiting trail. We will not be successful. We may do enough to make the tourney which is a great thing, but we may continue to lose in the first round.....yuck.

 

[[email protected]]

We all know why they don't come. It has nothing to do with Nike, Adidas, or any other brand. They watch our offense on TV and cross us off the list. If we played an exciting brand of basketball, and players were showing great improvement, and we were moving players on to the NBA, they would come here and wear Bermuda shorts and flip flops to play.

If you really believe that is true, you have no clue. Style of play is probably last on their list. Some will say yea that style fits my game, but that's not why the commit.

 

[UCalum08]

Per Jeff Goodman, the Martin twins decided to attend Nevada.

 

[TheLongHaul]

If you really believe that is true, you have no clue. Style of play is probably last on their list. Some will say yea that style fits my game, but that's not why the commit.

That simply isn't true.

 

[AZ BEARCAT]

Per Jeff Goodman, the Martin twins decided to attend Nevada.

WHAT ?

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

WHAT ?

lots of playing time for both.

 

[UCalum08]

WHAT ?

Lol, I did a double take when I read that as well.

 

[indydoug]

I guess they really like being a part of the Wolfpack.

 

[#BearcatNation]

Yeah, we might have oversold the Martin twins a little. Nobody wants to use two schollys to wait a year for them. Plus, with Broome, we'd have 3 guys waiting for next year using schollys.

 

[the_one_32]

Alot of posters are taking certain comments as excuses. Fact is, it's not an excuse, it's the reality of the situation. We are not a premier program anymore and are not capable of taking a highly touted NIKE kid away from that connection. I'm not sure who said it but Cronin had to fend out NIKE schools for Cumberland until he signed, that's a fact. These are not excuses for Mick, they are reasons he's not able to get the guys he's been used to getting in the past at UofL and UC.

For those saying these are excuses I want you to look at the last 3-4 recruiting classes. Find the top rated classes in the country. Then do the research as to what affiliation their AAU teams had with shoes companies and then the shoe company the college they committed to. You'll find there is a whole lot of similarities.