Crosstown Shootout Dec 6, 2020 Fifth Third Arena

[waterhead]

I would imagine if things don’t improve we are going to start getting the frosh and future ready. Eason and Saunders looked legit. If Harvey ain’t playing we might as well get the Madsens in. Too early now but it may not be long.

 

[cincyguy13]

Easons going to have to learn real quick. Mistakes aside he is clearly better than perhaps all the bigs overall. Xavier adjusted at half and we didn’t do that as well. We took way too many ill advised 3 balls. Rap and Williams mainly. Defense is still pretty bad. Saunders if he wasn’t as small as DD could help and maybe we will have to try it. I have more questions now than after first game. Harvey is not a good development. Ughh!!!

Saunders be small doesn’t matter at all. UConn always had guards that were 5’9-5’11 and they would kill us. Saunders looked good today. He stayed in front of his guy and managed the game well when he was in there.

 

[cincyguy13]

I would imagine if things don’t improve we are going to start getting the frosh and future ready. Eason and Saunders looked legit. If Harvey ain’t playing we might as well get the Madsens in. Too early now but it may not be long.

Brannen didn’t sound happy in the post game about Vogt. He might like Vogt but he also doesn’t want to lose.

 

[waterhead]

Diarra is not an answer. Eason may be. He still had some shaky moments but he rebounded the shit out of the ball and had a nice steal. Skills are clearly better.

 

[waterhead]

Saunders be small doesn’t matter at all. UConn always had guards that were 5’9-5’11 and they would kill us. Saunders looked good today. He stayed in front of his guy and managed the game well when he was in there.

Shake it up if we have to. Still waiting to see how we play the next few. But if it’s bad we need to get frosh ready

 

[skyblade]

Diarra will never be a great player. He has zero basketball iq... if he did he wouldn’t be riding the bench here. I would take rap all day everyday over diarra.

Diarra performed well for the last month+ of the season last year. He doesn't play well at the 4 and never has, but put him at center and he has shown he can do it for extended stretches.

I have wanted to like Rap as a center. I've never thought he had any business playing the 4 (still don't). Honestly, I am amazed Brannen brought Rap here to play the 4, it is seems like Brannen doesn't realize the level of athleticism required from bigs at a high-major level. Between Vogt, Sorolla and Rap it is becoming a disturbing trend. Bigs are the most important pieces on defense.

Rap thus far hasn't shown me much to convince me to like him as a center . You want to talk about mistake prone, Raps run at the 5 this game was horrible on defense, so bad that I was calling for Vogt to come back in. On offense, Rap has ability, but takes a lot of bad shots, isn't a skilled interior scorer and isn't great at rebounding.

Brannen claims to want to play good defense, but then builds it off a foundation of horrible defensive big men. Brannen also claims he wants to run, but starts two big slow footed white guys. He claims to want to go deep into the bench, but had 4 guys each play 29+ minutes. I'm not over Brannen yet, but he has made some questionable decisions.

 

[waterhead]

Brannen didn’t sound happy in the post game about Vogt. He might like Vogt but he also doesn’t want to lose.

I haven’t heard it yet. Can you paraphrase?

 

[skyblade]

You talk about diarra’s potential, he’s like 23 years old and been in the program for 4 years. What do you think is going to happen with him? If he was able to become a great player it would be something that has rarely been seen from any player. Players usually don’t become great after 4 years of doing nothing.

Diarra played well at the 5 for an extended stretch last year. He's not going to become great on offense, but if he can play defense, rebound and hit the occasional 3 that makes him better than Vogt or Rap in my book.

Diarra doesn't exactly have to be great, just average is good enough. Vogt is below average in my book and Rap is right there beside him. Neither is going to be here next year and neither is good enough to lead this team to a very good season this year.

Eason has the potential, but has made a number of mistakes as well. He also is going to be pretty undersized if he plays the 5 and probably hasn't been practicing at the 5 either. I'd gladly try him at the 5, but my guess is Brannen isn't going to.

 

[skyblade]

I haven’t heard it yet. Can you paraphrase?

As far as I recall - was only half paying attention - he said that "that's not good enough" when asked about Vogt only having one rebound. Then when asked about the impact of Vogt fouling out he basically said it didn't really make a difference.

But Brannen seems to love Vogt, so expect another 30+ minutes from him next game.

 

[cincyguy13]

As far as I recall - was only half paying attention - he said that "that's not good enough" when asked about Vogt only having one rebound. Then when asked about the impact of Vogt fouling out he basically said it didn't really make a difference.

But Brannen seems to love Vogt, so expect another 30+ minutes from him next game.

To use your phase, it’s not as much of loving Vogt as it is really disliking diarras basketball iq

 

[cincyguy13]

Diarra played well at the 5 for an extended stretch last year. He's not going to become great on offense, but if he can play defense, rebound and hit the occasional 3 that makes him better than Vogt or Rap in my book.

Diarra doesn't exactly have to be great, just average is good enough. Vogt is below average in my book and Rap is right there beside him. Neither is going to be here next year and neither is good enough to lead this team to a very good season this year.

Eason has the potential, but has made a number of mistakes as well. He also is going to be pretty undersized if he plays the 5 and probably hasn't been practicing at the 5 either. I'd gladly try him at the 5, but my guess is Brannen isn't going to.

He played good for 4, maybe 5 games. Other than that stretch of games, he’s been awful. Maybe those are the outliers. I like dou, I was and still am hoping he turns it around but after 4 years in the program and his second year with brannen, maybe he just isn’t good. Hope I’m wrong. At least Eason has an excuse. It’s his second game. What’s dou’s excuse. Go earn playing time. He needs to Do something where coach has no choice but to play him.

 

[huggsforlife]

Brannen

I know people are down on Brannen but i think you need to give him a chance. Ball movement was very good and yes defense sucked. X just has more options that can hit the 3-and they did. Vogt should have been way more of a factor today given his size but frankly, he was recruited by NKU and is not an elite big.That said, this game was lost on D. X shot over 50% because they made a lot of layups. This team will get better as will X. I just hope that we can win at least two more non-conference games. Houston is going to be tough and Memphis should be pretty good. Probably good that UConn is Xavier's problem. They are going to be really good this year. Keep the faith.

 

[cincyalum2014]

Well.. it was MAW...

But I would venture to guess Harvey has an attitude issue. Him transferring wouldn't shock me

Hence why I said the word “arguably “

 

[waterhead]

He played good for 4, maybe 5 games. Other than that stretch of games, he’s been awful. Maybe those are the outliers. I like dou, I was and still am hoping he turns it around but after 4 years in the program and his second year with brannen, maybe he just isn’t good. Hope I’m wrong. At least Eason has an excuse. It’s his second game. What’s dou’s excuse. Go earn playing time. He needs to Do something where coach has no choice but to play him.

Coach needs to get tough on Eason. Kid can affect both sides of the court in more ways than one. He can play 30 minutes right now if he just gets careful enough. It’s not like he’s getting pulled for singular mistakes. Eason is better than I was hoping he would be! He was on pace for 15 boards over 35 minutes. He also blocks shots and gets steals. He can score too!

Saunders played well today on D. He can’t change the game in the same way as Eason but I guess if we keep letting guys in the lane I could be wrong.

 

[huggsforlife]

Harvey came with a lot of baggage. He's from out west and was planning on going to the Zags but they renegade their offer. Kansas was looking at him very closely but after hearing more of the incident, they backed off. He visited X and thought was going to attend but X decided not to pursue. He has a couple of "misdemeanors" that look a lot worse than that. He may be getting sued civilly by the victim but not sure. So it wasn't like we were getting a model citizen here. We were his at least 4th choice.

 

[huggsforlife]

X is the better program now and probably for the last 25 years. But it can change in an instant. A really good recruiting class can change a lot. Darnell Burton, Fitzpatrick, Cumberland, and just wait Eason are guys they can build a program. X lost two years when Mack left and are working to get it back. We were still very good two years then Mick left. Give it time. We will be back.

 

[cincyalum2014]

Last 2 years we had Jarron, before that we had Evans and Gary, guys who you know when we really need a bucket get them the ball. We had a guy who could carry a team for us if we struggled regardless of how well his supporting cast was playing. We just don’t have that this year and that’s tough... there’s not really that leader that says give me the ball, I think Keith really wants to be that guy but after tonight I just don’t see it. You can’t be the leader and miss two free throws that would cut it to a one possession game and then the very next play dribble all the way up the court to the free throw line and throw the ball away

 

[huggsforlife]

great post. i think its hard when you change coaches. We were lucky Jarron was here. Williams not that type of player. A GREAT #2 but not the 1. Brannen is building a team of shooters-it will just take a year or two. Davenport should play when he has the hot hand.

 

[Jon Rycek]

I think you have to go with Diarra and/or Eason and take your lumps. I'd even be willing to give Eason at the 5 and Davenport at the 4 a go. Rap/Vogt just haven't been good enough on offense to justify having two liabilities on defense (with the exception of Vogt for the last 8 minutes against Lipscomb).

I thought it could be Rap at the 5 and 4 smaller guys. But against Xavier Rap looked worse defensively than Vogt when playing the 5. At least Rap, Eason (especially Eason) and Diarra grabbed some rebounds, Vogt finished with one while being guarded by a guy he has 4/5 inches and 30lbs on.

Our defense is horrible. The majority of stops are from the other team shooting themselves in the foot or missing open shots.

Diarra is the WORST player on the court.

 

[Bearcats1232002]

X is the better program. The distance between them and us will only get wider and wider. It is what it is.

I wholeheartedly have to agree with you. The fallout from the conference realignment of a few years ago will permanently screw us. Imagine if the old Big East would have stayed together? Our conference would have been big time and X would have been stuck in the A10. We at least should have been in the ACC but all of this has been hashed over by now. It is what it is.