Fairmont State

[L-T]

The NCAA is hypocritical, yes, but you can't blame one-and-done players for doing what they do. If I have a chance to be an NBA first round pick after one season, you'd better believe I am skipping the degree and taking the millions. A college education is a wonderful thing, but you don't need a degree to put a ball in a hoop. If anything, blame the rule. 5-10 of these college freshmen making the jump to the NBA annually wouldn't have even spent a year in college if not for the asinine one-year rule.

If we are ever going to win another championship, Mick is going to have to recruit some of those types of players. Just look back at our 1999-2000 team that should have won the championship. Would that team be the best team in the country without the services of one-and-done Dermarr Johnson and two-and-done Kenny Satterfield? How good would last year's team had been if we had two impact freshmen like that?

The 99-2000 team had a great mix of guys -- you had Kenyon Martin having a breakout senior year, Pete Mickeal as an excellent JUCO transfer, young players like Steve Logan, Leonard Stokes, and Donald Little who would go on to have excellent 4-year careers, a hard-working vet in Ryan Fletcher, and a key transfer in Jermaine Tate. Kind of sounds a lot like our team last year when you think about it. But when you add a couple of superbly talented freshmen, you go from good to great.

I have no problem with guys who leave college early, so long as they are kids of high character who represent the university well during their stay here. You take the best players available, whether they are 4-year players, one-and-done players, JUCO transfers, Division I transfers, or whatever. I don't want a team full of one-and-dones, but I do like a mix of veterans, young stars, projects with potential, role players, transfers who come in and contribute right away, etc.

Good points Robert! The problem is that we rarely get freshmen anymore that are capable of making an impact in year one. Most don't make a serious impact till their 3rd or 4th season.

On a side note, Jermaine Lawrence scored 15 points on 5-8 shooting, 3-4 from 3-pt., 2-3 from the FT line, with an assist and 3 steals in just 18 minutes in Manhatten's first game. He was a starter at forward. He was a supposed impact freshman, but floundered somewhat here. If his first game in any indication, Manhatten's gain is our loss.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

This is absolutely not about Huggins, but every accomplishment you listed in your post above has a multitude of corresponding accomplishments during the Huggs era that literally dwarf what you've listed above. A sweet 16, a league tournament final. A 5 seed. A 27 win season. A conference championship. A 1st team all-american. 2 years of 4 star recruits. Seriously???? Again, when fans are bragging and happy about this short list of accomplishments, how far have we sunk as a program and fanbase.

These are certainly nice accomplishments, but they are not good enough, and there are not enough of them. There is certainly no way to understand why the city of Chicago is suddenly excited about the Bearcats clothing, because once again, we're certainly not on national tv as much anymore and we're not exactly in a prestige conference. Also, 5 straight years to the tournament is a long way from 14, but we can't get to 14 without first getting to five.

In summary, you're bragging about the baby steps we're taking. But babys eventually grow up and start taking much bigger steps, and that is certainly what this program needs to do soon.

I guess we just disagree on where our program is at. I think the arrow has been tranding up every year under Mick. I guess you can call that baby steps but based on where our program was after Huggins, we needed someone who could put us on a foundation that offers sustained success. Mick has provided that. The players come with those accomplishments I mentioned. And you can see that if you look at our last 3* recruiting classes. And the AAC may not be prestigious, but it isn't like Conference USA was either.
Also, I don't live in Cincinnati, but I got all but maybe 5 games in HD on my TV. So we are obviously on national TV all the time. And the reason people recognized my UC stuff is bc we were ranked in the Top 15 all year with a 1st team AA. Not that hard to figure that one out.

 

[JackBauer151]

This is absolutely not about Huggins, but every accomplishment you listed in your post above has a multitude of corresponding accomplishments during the Huggs era that literally dwarf what you've listed above. A sweet 16, a league tournament final. A 5 seed. A 27 win season. A conference championship. A 1st team all-american. 2 years of 4 star recruits. Seriously???? Again, when fans are bragging and happy about this short list of accomplishments, how far have we sunk as a program and fanbase.

These are certainly nice accomplishments, but they are not good enough, and there are not enough of them. There is certainly no way to understand why the city of Chicago is suddenly excited about the Bearcats clothing, because once again, we're certainly not on national tv as much anymore and we're not exactly in a prestige conference. Also, 5 straight years to the tournament is a long way from 14, but we can't get to 14 without first getting to five.

In summary, you're bragging about the baby steps we're taking. But babys eventually grow up and start taking much bigger steps, and that is certainly what this program needs to do soon.

You lost me on this post L-T. All of those accomplishments are astounding when you think back about where this program was. I am happy to take pride in all of them as a UC fan. They also are instrumental in getting to the place we both agree we want to and should get to. Belittling winning is something we should never do. Those accomplishments need to be built on but I'm not going to call them small. We rose from the death sentence in the best college basketball conference in the country. I am now and will always be proud of that. Also your claim about TV is flat out wrong. We have been all over ESPN last 5 years and the AAC has the ESPN deal and if you go to the schedule you will see we are all over ESPN again this year.

 

[L-T]

I guess we just disagree on where our program is at. I think the arrow has been tranding up every year under Mick. I guess you can call that baby steps but based on where our program was after Huggins, we needed someone who could put us on a foundation that offers sustained success. Mick has provided that. The players come with those accomplishments I mentioned. And you can see that if you look at our last 3* recruiting classes. And the AAC may not be prestigious, but it isn't like Conference USA was either.
Also, I don't live in Cincinnati, but I got all but maybe 5 games in HD on my TV. So we are obviously on national TV all the time. And the reason people recognized my UC stuff is bc we were ranked in the Top 15 all year with a 1st team AA. Not that hard to figure that one out.

We don't disagree at all with where the program is at. I think we have a strong foundation established, but we have to step the list of accomplishments way up now.

I don't know how you can say the program is trending up. We've certainly trended way down in our conference affiliation. After arriving all the way back with our sweet 16 appearance 3 years ago, we've been bounced in the first round by a Missouri Valley team and an Ivy League team the last two years. And, we're rebuilding this year. That is not an upward trend. I know you can pull all the secondary accomplishments out of the woodwork to make it sound like a lot, but bottom line, it's all about March and your conference and that trend is down.

Many on here correctly argued that whole point about our failures in March under the former regime, but now that it has gotten worse, nobody brings it up anymore. It's all about 4-star recruits and 5-seeds and making the finals of a league tournament, and taking baby steps. The buzz around UC Basketball in 2014 is like a faint whisper compared to what it once was. FACT!

 

[L-T]

You lost me on this post L-T. All of those accomplishments are astounding when you think back about where this program was. I am happy to take pride in all of them as a UC fan. They also are instrumental in getting to the place we both agree we want to and should get to. Belittling winning is something we should never do. Those accomplishments need to be built on but I'm not going to call them small. We rose from the death sentence in the best college basketball conference in the country. I am now and will always be proud of that. Also your claim about TV is flat out wrong. We have been all over ESPN last 5 years and the AAC has the ESPN deal and if you go to the schedule you will see we are all over ESPN again this year.

I stand corrected Jack! Not trying to belittle accomplishments. Just trying to move the needle up where it should be. The death sentence is old news. We don't need to keep bringing that out as an argument. The statute of limitations has expired on that one. Let's move onto to discuss St. Francis. We'll never agree on this subject.

 

[#BearcatNation]

Also a good add on to L-T's statement. We are moving in the right direction but we must keep our foot on the gas.

This one sentence sums up how I feel. We have some very nice accomplishments the last 4 years, and I've had some fantastic times as a fan. We are certainly on the rise. If the next 4 years go just as the last 4 years have gone, I won't be *mad*, but I won't be satisfied either. The goal is to keep improving and continue rising, correct? That's exactly what we're doing, so I have no complaints. You can say a Sweet 16 team a few years ago and a couple 1st round exits is a slip, which is technically accurate, but that was a damn good team this past year that just happened to lose early. Duke lost in the 1st round as well.

Just keep getting better. That's all we've done since Cronin's first year. There might be a little dip this year, but there's a lot to look forward to. If we start to slip or become a 1st round exit team for 4-5 years in a row, then yeah, I'd be frustrated as well because that would mean we've possibly peaked. But until we stop rising, I'm not going to worry. Plus, a new arena in 3 years makes peaking seem unlikely.

 

[L-T]

This one sentence sums up how I feel. We have some very nice accomplishments the last 4 years, and I've had some fantastic times as a fan. We are certainly on the rise. If the next 4 years go just as the last 4 years have gone, I won't be *mad*, but I won't be satisfied either. The goal is to keep improving and continue rising, correct? That's exactly what we're doing, so I have no complaints. You can say a Sweet 16 team a few years ago and a couple 1st round exits is a slip, which is technically accurate, but that was a damn good team this past year that just happened to lose early. Duke lost in the 1st round as well.

Just keep getting better. That's all we've done since Cronin's first year. There might be a little dip this year, but there's a lot to look forward to. If we start to slip or become a 1st round exit team for 4-5 years in a row, then yeah, I'd be frustrated as well because that would mean we've possibly peaked. But until we stop rising, I'm not going to worry. Plus, a new arena in 3 years makes peaking seem unlikely.

I think we basically agree BN. Bottom line, let's take the next step. Let's make a significant statement for a change. This year's roster has some potential to do that. I'd much rather see it happen this year, but next year probably seems more realistic.

 

[bearcat jeff]

UC is one of fifteen teams, I believe, to have made the NCAA the past four seasons. The only loss I've been disappointed in was last season but I felt sweet sixteen was max out for that team.

This team has potential but it will be a process. I think the next two years will be the splash people are looking for. There will be growing pains and adjustments early this season due to new faces and expanding roles. Making the NCAA WILL BE AN ACCOMPLISHMENT THIS YEAR. advancing will be icing on the cake.

 

[ME80]

UC is one of fifteen teams, I believe, to have made the NCAA the past four seasons. The only loss I've been disappointed in was last season but I felt sweet sixteen was max out for that team.

This team has potential but it will be a process. I think the next two years will be the splash people are looking for. There will be growing pains and adjustments early this season due to new faces and expanding roles. Making the NCAA WILL BE AN ACCOMPLISHMENT THIS YEAR. advancing will be icing on the cake.

Agree totally Jeff! Based on the amount of newcomers and the youth of the team I believe the first couple of months will be shaky. Assuming this type of start my biggest fear is that past year's discussions will again reappear.