I think Cronin's main point on chemsitry was that we shared the ball very well with a lot of selfless play and it worked very well. As long as next year all players have a similar mentality we will be golden IMO. Cane is coming from a place where he had to do it all so he will have the biggest adjustment IMO.
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2017-2018 Season
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I think Cronin's main point on chemsitry was that we shared the ball very well with a lot of selfless play and it worked very well. As long as next year all players have a similar mentality we will be golden IMO. Cane is coming from a place where he had to do it all so he will have the biggest adjustment IMO.
cincyguy13
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I am on a similar page here. I think we will be top 30 on D but I think you are right...it's tough to lock down the best players in the country in March. I would rather be competent enough on offense to keep scoring when we get scored on.
I use to be on the "defense wins championships" train but I'm not anymore. Even the great defensive teams in March (South Carolina and gonzaga), had to score to get to the final four. Virginia never gets there.
jacobkdoyle
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If our defense is top 40, which it will be, that's good enough. In the tournament, you gotta be able to score and go toe to toe with the UK and UCLAs of the world. We haven't been able to do that. No matter how good your defense is, you can't lock the really good teams down
Our defense was Top 15 last year. We lost a bad defender and a good defender. Jenifer is a good defender, and Cronin has called Broome a basketball savant and we know he has quickness. Can't imagine him being a bad defender. Williams should also be able to hold his own. Brooks will only get better. Cumberland too. Washington isn't the best, but he won't get worse. And again, we were Top 15 with him. Really not buying defensive concerns. Seems downright silly to me to be honest.
I use to be on the "defense wins championships" train but I'm not anymore. Even the great defensive teams in March (South Carolina and gonzaga), had to score to get to the final four. Virginia never gets there.
Yah...I agree here. You have to be good at both (top 40) but I would put more emphasis on being good on offense if I had a choice.
cincyguy13
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Our defense was Top 15 last year. We lost a bad defender and a good defender. Jenifer is a good defender, and Cronin has called Broome a basketball savant and we know he has quickness. Can't imagine him being a bad defender. Williams should also be able to hold his own. Brooks will only get better. Cumberland too. Washington isn't the best, but he won't get worse. And again, we were Top 15 with him. Really not buying defensive concerns. Seems downright silly to me to be honest.
Don't think anyone is really disagreeing. A couple of us are saying we could be a top 30 defense, instead of a top 15. Don't think anyone is losing sleep over it, just mentioned it could be slightly worse.
Our defense was Top 15 last year. We lost a bad defender and a good defender. Jenifer is a good defender, and Cronin has called Broome a basketball savant and we know he has quickness. Can't imagine him being a bad defender. Williams should also be able to hold his own. Brooks will only get better. Cumberland too. Washington isn't the best, but he won't get worse. And again, we were Top 15 with him. Really not buying defensive concerns. Seems downright silly to me to be honest.
I think we will be very good on D. However, we will have 2 players who aren't the quickest guys starting and both are foul prone for the same reason. Hiding one of them on D is much easier than hiding two. I don't have concerns about Cane with his quickness. I think Cumberland is very instinctive and can help on D in different ways than KJ. If he works on quickness in the off season I think he will be just fine. He knows how to get his hands on the ball and is probably best on the team with his instincts.
The big question is whether or not we can play man D which seemed to work better than matchup zone last year.
jacobkdoyle
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I think we will be very good on D. However, we will have 2 players who aren't the quickest guys starting and both are foul prone for the same reason. Hiding one of them on D is much easier than hiding two. I don't have concerns about Cane with his quickness. I think Cumberland is very instinctive and can help on D in different ways than KJ. If he works on quickness in the off season I think he will be just fine. He knows how to get his hands on the ball and is probably best on the team with his instincts.
The big question is whether or not we can play man D which seemed to work better than matchup zone last year.
Caupain was not a good defender at all. No way Cumberland is worse than him. Broome and Jenifer could easily be a wash with Johnson. That's the only difference. We don't need to "hide" extra players this upcoming year.
And of course we can play man D. The group next year should have no problem with man or zone.
Caupain was not a good defender at all. No way Cumberland is worse than him. Broome and Jenifer could easily be a wash with Johnson. That's the only difference. We don't need to "hide" extra players this upcoming year.
And of course we can play man D. The group next year should have no problem with man or zone.
We lose 2 guys who have been in the system for 4 years and the best defender according to Cronin. Of course we could expect Cane and Jenifer to match what Cronin thought KJ brought but that would be silly IMO since Jenifer was already on the team. I think they will both do just fine...but that's not the point.
In terms of Cumberland...kid has great instincts...and learns quickly so I have hope he can pick up the system and match Caupain's 4 year grasp on the system.
We are picking up a guy who will have his first year playing games in the system and another with his second. Expecting them to match up with our best defender and 4 years of experience is optimistic....but certainly not impossible. I don't think it's silly to question whether our defense will be as good. If you do...I understand...but I am in wait and see mode.
jacobkdoyle
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We lose 2 guys who have been in the system for 4 years and the best defender according to Cronin. Of course we could expect Cane and Jenifer to match what Cronin thought KJ brought but that would be silly IMO since Jenifer was already on the team. I think they will both do just fine...but that's not the point.
In terms of Cumberland...kid has great instincts...and learns quickly so I have hope he can pick up the system and match Caupain's 4 year grasp on the system.
We are picking up a guy who will have his first year playing games in the system and another with his second. Expecting them to match up with our best defender and 4 years of experience is optimistic....but certainly not impossible. I don't think it's silly to question whether our defense will be as good. If you do...I understand...but I am in wait and see mode.
Caupain was not a good defender. I think you're overrating him being in the system for 4 years. It shouldn't take that long to master switching man and zone principles on the college level. Especially considering Cumberland plays down low a lot in the zone. If you think we're losing anything on defense by losing Caupain, you're thinking way too hard about this imo. And I'm not convinced that losing Johnson drops us 15-20 spots in AdjD. That'd make him like the best defender of all time. No reason to believe Jenifer and Broome, with their quickness, will get destroyed off the dribble.
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Caupain was not a good defender. I think you're overrating him being in the system for 4 years. It shouldn't take that long to master switching man and zone principles on the college level. Especially considering Cumberland plays down low a lot in the zone. If you think we're losing anything on defense by losing Caupain, you're thinking way too hard about this imo. And I'm not convinced that losing Johnson drops us 15-20 spots in AdjD. That'd make him like the best defender of all time. No reason to believe Jenifer and Broome, with their quickness, will get destroyed off the dribble.
I am not as much concerned with getting destroyed off the dribble as I am with where the players need to be on the court, when to switch and when not, etc. Cronin's D is not the easiest D in the world to pick up. The biggest problems arise when two players think they should be guarding the same guy and another guy is open. Or when nobody thinks they are the one who needs to be guarding the open guy. That is what 4 years in the system helps with.
Even 4 year players can't always get it right. Expecting 1st and 2nd year guys to get it right the same amount of times is unlikely.
Anyway, I don't think it's a huge concern but a concern nonetheless.
jacobkdoyle
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I am not as much concerned with getting destroyed off the dribble as I am with where the players need to be on the court, when to switch and when not, etc. Cronin's D is not the easiest D in the world to pick up. The biggest problems arise when two players think they should be guarding the same guy and another guy is open. Or when nobody thinks they are the one who needs to be guarding the open guy. That is what 4 years in the system helps with.
Even 4 year players can't always get it right. Expecting 1st and 2nd year guys to get it right the same amount of times is unlikely.
Anyway, I don't think it's a huge concern but a concern nonetheless.
Yeah ok, but the 4 year guy was not a good defender in year 4. And the guys we're counting on have been here so they aren't just walking into something completely new.
In 2014-15 we had pretty much a whole new team and we were #16 in AdjD and actually had a better per 100 number than this year. How do you explain that?
Bearcat2016
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Yeah ok, but the 4 year guy was not a good defender in year 4. And the guys we're counting on have been here so they aren't just walking into something completely new.
In 2014-15 we had pretty much a whole new team and we were #16 in AdjD and actually had a better per 100 number than this year. How do you explain that?
Also, Mick wasn't even able to coach the majority of that season. The defense will be what it's always been. I'm sure Mick is not concerned in the slightest about that.
Yeah ok, but the 4 year guy was not a good defender in year 4. And the guys we're counting on have been here so they aren't just walking into something completely new.
In 2014-15 we had pretty much a whole new team and we were #16 in AdjD and actually had a better per 100 number than this year. How do you explain that?
I'm not going to explain it but I think having Ellis on D in his first year compared to Washington in his first year is a big difference in mobility obviously not from an experience standpoint (other than Ellis having been in the system before). Some thought Ellis could have been a DPOY candidate in conference which is different than Washington not being anywhere close to that.
Replacing bigs every two years is different from replacing 4 year guys anyway IMO. I may be more concerned than you obviously but I am not THAT concerned. I just think the numbers on D could fall off a bit.
Each player learns a bit more every year but it doesn't have to mean a dramatic fall off in D necessarily...especially if you have guys who learn quickly. Each player learns a little more on offense too in general.
Again...I think we will be fine...just think we could fall off a bit on D.
Yeah ok, but the 4 year guy was not a good defender in year 4. And the guys we're counting on have been here so they aren't just walking into something completely new.
In 2014-15 we had pretty much a whole new team and we were #16 in AdjD and actually had a better per 100 number than this year. How do you explain that?
You could be right Jacob...maybe I am thinking too much about it. Maybe we will be right where we usually are in the top 15 or so. If we are I will be happy. In general we have had athletic guys in the past and now we will have a couple of guys who are better on offense than on D. Who knows
UCBearcats
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You could be right Jacob...maybe I am thinking too much about it. Maybe we will be right where we usually are in the top 15 or so. If we are I will be happy. In general we have had athletic guys in the past and now we will have a couple of guys who are better on offense than on D. Who knows
None of it matters if we can't score more points than the other team. Our D is going to be good, our offense needs to continue to build and improve on last season.
justinhub2003
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Cronin can get his team to a top 20 defense with all walk ons.
I mean. I am never concerned about the defensive end because knows how to coach defense.
Next years goals for me:
Top 20 on D
Top25-30 on O
I mean. I am never concerned about the defensive end because knows how to coach defense.
Next years goals for me:
Top 20 on D
Top25-30 on O
jacobkdoyle
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Cronin can get his team to a top 20 defense with all walk ons.
I mean. I am never concerned about the defensive end because knows how to coach defense.
Next years goals for me:
Top 20 on D
Top25-30 on O
I agree with all of this. This year we finished #34 AdjO so hopefully closer to 25 next year than 30 but it's quite a leap to move up 10+ spots once you get closer to the top.
jacobkdoyle
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None of it matters if we can't score more points than the other team. Our D is going to be good, our offense needs to continue to build and improve on last season.
Yep. That's the most important thing to me. We're definitely on the right track. The numbers show that. So I'm optimistic.
jacobkdoyle
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You could be right Jacob...maybe I am thinking too much about it. Maybe we will be right where we usually are in the top 15 or so. If we are I will be happy. In general we have had athletic guys in the past and now we will have a couple of guys who are better on offense than on D. Who knows
I like Justin's comment about being Top 20 with walk-ons. Lol. Probably not far from the truth. The reason I'm not worried though is mostly bc I know Coach won't allow guys to see the floor if they aren't engaged and committed to scouting report defense. And with the talent we have, everyone should be motivated on that end...bc if they aren't, a very capable player is going to be chomping at the bit to earn more minutes.