Expectations for 2015-16

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Team Goals
- Go undefeated at home
- Win regular season AAC title
- Win AAC Tournament
- 4 seed or better
- Elite 8

Individual Goals
- Ellis AAC Defensive POY and 1st team All-AAC
- Caupain average over 4.5 assists per game and 1st team All-AAC
- Clark more than double the double-doubles (he had 3 but was very close to a lot more...points actually were the thing holding him back in 4 games) and 2nd team All-AAC
- DeBerry most improved player in the AAC
- KJ get out of the gate quicker next season...he actually ended up as a 35% 3 pt shooter, he should approach 40%
- Cobb average double figures
 
My biggest expectation is that we will cut back on turnovers. Many (including myself) complain about the lack of shooting options, but we shot the highest percentage in the Mick Cronin era so far. If we can eliminate turnovers and take care of the ball, then this could be a very special team next year.
 
JumpinJack5 said:
My biggest expectation is that we will cut back on turnovers. Many (including myself) complain about the lack of shooting options, but we shot the highest percentage in the Mick Cronin era so far. If we can eliminate turnovers and take care of the ball, then this could be a very special team next year.
Click to expand...

KJ should become the 3 point shooter and slasher we need him to be. He tries to do way too much.

Ellis needs to learn that he's 6'10", not 6'4" and quit trying to do up and unders and go up strong. Learning a jump hook from Da Bear wouldn't hurt either.

They are the main culprits.
 
It is hard to not be excited by the prospect of next season. Hopefully with Mick back we get the perfect blend of Mick's coaching strengths and LD's coaching strengths in one. I believe with LD you can not argue that the guys did look more comfortable on offense. I also firmly believe Mick would no have not lost to Tulane and East Carolina. So if Mick can take a page from LD's offense strategy and maintain his usual (great substitutions and defensive prowess) I believe we will have a very well coached team next year.

Personnel wise, I believe we need one of the freshman to significantly impact our offense to make a Final 4 type run. Whether that be Evans lighting it up or Jenifer creating a ton of offense for guys....To be that type of team we need one of these freshman to transcend us to that level. But for our returning guys, I do not feel like we crazy development. As stated 100's of times on this board, we have to stop it with the turnovers. That is not a hard task for 9 returning players to accomplish. If every player works hard in the weight room, works on one new move offensively, and builds on the chemistry/momentum of the Purdue and Kentucky games....I see no reason why this team can not be a favorite heading into a sweet 16 game.

And also,
BEAT XAVIER
 
Bearcat2016 said:
It is hard to not be excited by the prospect of next season. Hopefully with Mick back we get the perfect blend of Mick's coaching strengths and LD's coaching strengths in one. I believe with LD you can not argue that the guys did look more comfortable on offense. I also firmly believe Mick would no have not lost to Tulane and East Carolina. So if Mick can take a page from LD's offense strategy and maintain his usual (great substitutions and defensive prowess) I believe we will have a very well coached team next year.

Personnel wise, I believe we need one of the freshman to significantly impact our offense to make a Final 4 type run. Whether that be Evans lighting it up or Jenifer creating a ton of offense for guys....To be that type of team we need one of these freshman to transcend us to that level. But for our returning guys, I do not feel like we crazy development. As stated 100's of times on this board, we have to stop it with the turnovers. That is not a hard task for 9 returning players to accomplish. If every player works hard in the weight room, works on one new move offensively, and builds on the chemistry/momentum of the Purdue and Kentucky games....I see no reason why this team can not be a favorite heading into a sweet 16 game.

And also,
BEAT XAVIER
Click to expand...

I agree, good post. I'm very curious about Tre Scott as well. Is he a HUGE fish in a tiny pond type player? Or another under the radar guys that Mick found?
 
We did do a little better on turnovers towards the end of the year. Last 8 games we were at 11 TO per game, compared to 13 per game on the season. I'm hopeful that it won't be such a big issue next year.
 
I don't like having expectations about the tournament because so much of it is based on luck. My hope for this team is to win the league and beat Xavier, who I hope will be without Reynolds next year after this current investigation going on.
 
Bulldog01 said:
Is 11-13to per game a major issue?
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I would've guessed we averaged more on the season. 11 is fine with me...we did go 6-2 in those games with losses at the buzzer and to Kentucky. So I can definitely live with that. We just can't have the spikes...like against Nebraska we had 18, we had 35 in the 2 game skid against UConn and Memphis, and 33 in the 2 games against Temple and Tulane.

I think those season numbers don't look too bad as the total # bc of lower possession games, but cincrulz has talked about our TO% before, and it was not good.
 
cincrulz11 said:
it is when you average less than 60 possessions a game. 21% turnover rate was 298th in the country.



edit: to show how big the gap is, Wisconsin has the best turnover rate and that was 12.3%.
Click to expand...

^ That! raw numbers are often meaningless. Five turnovers is awesome....unless they come on ten possessions. :D

Cutting down on to's is the number one task this team needs to accomplish. You cannot be an elite program if you turn the ball over one out of every five possessions.
 
handwaver said:
Cutting down on to's is the number one task this team needs to accomplish. You cannot be an elite program if you turn the ball over one out of every five possessions.
Click to expand...


I'm hoping this year was just because everybody was so new. Caupain was nearly the same his 2 years (22.2 as a freshman to 22.7 this year) but Shaq had a huge increase in TORate (16.7 to 22.2). KJ went from 16.0 to 24.9, which is an absolutely absurd number.


We know Ellis is terrible with the ball (23.8 TORate) but Cobb and Clark were both decent in their TORate (14.9 for Cobb and 15.1 for Clark).


Hopefully better spacing and a better understanding of where their teammates are will help them. There's also no way Ellis can be that bad again right?
 
I believe UC will win 25-26 regular season games and be a Sweet 16 team as well as conference champion.
 
Can Cobb get Honorable Mention All-Conference? I think he needs to take 10+ shots in every conference game. We don't have a ton of players who look to be volume shooters but it is nice to have a guy like Cobb to ride his hot hand at times. Vaughn, Stephenson, Cash and SK I think have been the least reluctant to shoot players we've had under Mick. Cobb needs to join that group of guys not afraid to fire. You could tell he wanted to shoot a few times vs Kentucky but just didn't find enough space to pull the trigger. He needs to continue to expand on his shot making ability at every level. I'd love it if he averaged close to 12 ppg.
 
KJ's#1Supporter said:
Can Cobb get Honorable Mention All-Conference? I think he needs to take 10+ shots in every conference game. We don't have a ton of players who look to be volume shooters but it is nice to have a guy like Cobb to ride his hot hand at times. Vaughn, Stephenson, Cash and SK I think have been the least reluctant to shoot players we've had under Mick. Cobb needs to join that group of guys not afraid to fire. You could tell he wanted to shoot a few times vs Kentucky but just didn't find enough space to pull the trigger. He needs to continue to expand on his shot making ability at every level. I'd love it if he averaged close to 12 ppg.
Click to expand...
Cobb needs to work on his handles and get a little stronger
 
cincrulz11 said:
I'm hoping this year was just because everybody was so new. Caupain was nearly the same his 2 years (22.2 as a freshman to 22.7 this year) but Shaq had a huge increase in TORate (16.7 to 22.2). KJ went from 16.0 to 24.9, which is an absolutely absurd number.


We know Ellis is terrible with the ball (23.8 TORate) but Cobb and Clark were both decent in their TORate (14.9 for Cobb and 15.1 for Clark).


Hopefully better spacing and a better understanding of where their teammates are will help them. There's also no way Ellis can be that bad again right?
Click to expand...

I honestly think TC should be playing the 2 guard. I think his TO rate would go way down. He does not have the handles to play PG at the level we need a PG to play. He dribbles way to high and is a little too slow to break his man or the D down off the dribble. He's long and is a good passer so he gets away with having average handles for a PG. When he does get past his man going to the bucket he's pretty good at using his body in the lane.

I really hope Jenifer is the real deal at PG (I think he is or will be). That would solve 2 problems at the same time. If Evans can shoot and is a capable slasher it solves 2 more problems.

I know that is a lot riding on the frosh...but a fan can dream right? I'm not even sure if the coaches would consider moving Troy to the 2 guard but I think if Jenifer is ready the team might perform better in that type of lineup
 

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