Hoard On WVU Loss

[bearcat jeff]

"It's almost like our guys expected that we were just going to come out and win and thought that we were better than West Virginia," head coach Mick Cronin said. "Three Top 10 teams in our league lost today. In every Big East game, whoever plays better that night is going to win. Did we expect to just come in here and win or did we expect to come in here and grind it out? When we struggled, it was almost like it was a shock for us."


I attended practice on Thursday and watched Coach Cronin tell his team exactly what to expect from the Mountaineers. He warned them it would be an all-out war. But when the 'Cats started to fall behind in the second half on Saturday night, they self-destructed by taking some bad shots and failing to dig down and get stops on defense.

http://www.gobearcats.com/blog/2011/01/not-enough-clawing-from-cats.html

 

[UCBearcats]

"Three Top 10 teams in our league lost today. In every Big East game, whoever plays better that night is going to win.http://www.gobearcats.com/blog/2011/01/not-enough-clawing-from-cats.html

Does anyone else get tired of hearing these types of things from Mick? It always seems like there is some sort of an excuse or comment made to try to rationalize a loss. Who cares if three other teams in the league lost? What does that have to do with us losing to WVU??

 

[ralph1950]

Does anyone else get tired of hearing these types of things from Mick? It always seems like there is some sort of an excuse or comment made to try to rationalize a loss. Who cares if three other teams in the league lost? What does that have to do with us losing to WVU??

Telling what happened is not an excuse it is telling what happened.

 

[UCPT99]

Does anyone else get tired of hearing these types of things from Mick? It always seems like there is some sort of an excuse or comment made to try to rationalize a loss. Who cares if three other teams in the league lost? What does that have to do with us losing to WVU??

I looked at my wife while driving home from the game and said, "I don't care what anyone else in the conference did today. If so, I would have watched or went to that game." Losing to WVU is one thing, losing while the players could care less and show no heart is another.

 

[bearcat jeff]

Does anyone else get tired of hearing these types of things from Mick? It always seems like there is some sort of an excuse or comment made to try to rationalize a loss. Who cares if three other teams in the league lost? What does that have to do with us losing to WVU??

I understand what he is trying to do. He's telling everyone not to get discouraged that it is a tough league. However, it does come across as an excuse at times. I want to hear him say we did not play well. Our bigs have to come ready to play. There's bo defense for our defense. Hold people accountable!!

 

[Not Guilty]

I understand what he is trying to do. He's telling everyone not to get discouraged that it is a tough league. However, it does come across as an excuse at times. I want to hear him say we did not play well. Our bigs have to come ready to play. There's bo defense for our defense. Hold people accountable!!

When he does this, he is accused of throwing his players under the bus.

 

[Juliepitzer]

I agree with Cronin on one thing. It is a tough league. We just get so tired of hearing him bring it up everytime we lose. It never stops. If he feels it is tough to the point of keeping us out of the tournament every season, then get us out of it. Otherwise, shut up about it and adjust. He can be a good coach with time but this is one thing that I do get tired of hearing. It is a tough league. We know. We get it. Now move on and make us great again.

 

[ralph1950]

I agree with Cronin on one thing. It is a tough league. We just get so tired of hearing him bring it up everytime we lose. It never stops. If he feels it is tough to the point of keeping us out of the tournament every season, then get us out of it. Otherwise, shut up about it and adjust. He can be a good coach with time but this is one thing that I do get tired of hearing. It is a tough league. We know. We get it. Now move on and make us great again.

Being great in Conference USA may have meant you were no better than middle of the pack in the Big East.

 

[bearcat jeff]

Mick isn't the only coach that says, "that's life in our league". I've heard Huggins, Dixon, and Wright say it. Difference is they don't have a split fan base.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

Has anyone ever liked anything any coach says after a loss? A coach has to be positive to the fan base. You throw your players under the bus to the media and players won't want to play for you. I for one wouldn't want to have to answer questions after my team just stunk up the court, but coaches have to come out and do press conferences. I would have a problem if he goes into practices and tells the team these things, but what he says in a post-game show after a loss I could care less about. I honestly don't need to hear it anyway, I watched the game, I know what happened.

 

[Juliepitzer]

I meant the continuous reminders after each and every loss. Honestly, I like how Cronin has handled the media as of late. He has shown a lot of improvement in that area IMO. Think he would be better served to let the above go as "said and done" though.

 

[Juliepitzer]

Being great in Conference USA may have meant you were no better than middle of the pack in the Big East.

Very true. What I meant by being great was puting us back with the elite teams in the nation. He can do it. I have every bit of confidence he can. All he needs to do is acknowledge his mistakes and learn from them.

 

[TheLongHaul]

Mick isn't the only coach that says, "that's life in our league". I've heard Huggins, Dixon, and Wright say it. Difference is they don't have a split fan base.

Difference is those coaches are winning.

 

[psax889906]

Difference is those coaches are winning.

18-4?

 

[bearcat jeff]

Let's put this in perspective. UC is 18-4, still with what is considered no bad losses. 90% of you never thought they'd win 18 games this season. For the 5th straight season, Mick Cronins win total will improve and likely their standing in the league will as well.

Couple seasons ago some of you wanted Andy Kennedy. His program has dropped off drastically, largely due to a failure to recruit. Last season you said you wished UC would have hired Frank Martin. They too have dropped off drastically and failed to meet expectations. In addition they have players leaving the program due to the situation. Some said, "let's see what Crean does at Indiana!" Well we see and it's not pretty. Mick Cronin has done a much better job, especially under the circumstances, then he is given credit for. He is building toward something.

The thing Mick lacks is marquee wins. That seems to be what "the experts" and fans want. Nevermind who a team may get beat by, they want what they call a big win. It's the eye test guys. That's the only test this team hasn't passed. With games against St. Johns, Louisville, Pitt, and 2 against Georgetown, they'll have their chances. If they can hold serve at home against SJU, split with G'town and beat 'Ville they are golden. This season is by no means lost.

18-4 is pretty nice. I understand why we are concerned but this is a new season and another step in this program coming back to prominence. Let's continue to support them and not jump ship because we lose to a WVU team that had just lost on a last second shot at Louisville in spite of making 1 field goal in the last 12-13 minutes. Takes a pretty good team to be in that position even if they are razor thin.

 

[ME80]

I agree with Cronin on one thing. It is a tough league. We just get so tired of hearing him bring it up everytime we lose. It never stops. If he feels it is tough to the point of keeping us out of the tournament every season, then get us out of it. Otherwise, shut up about it and adjust. He can be a good coach with time but this is one thing that I do get tired of hearing. It is a tough league. We know. We get it. Now move on and make us great again.

He has to bring it up because based on the I hear out there and read on these forums they won't be happy until we go undefeated and win the league ever year. I also have my concerns about Mick, but I think many of you built this team up way to much when we were undefeated. I personnally did not think they would only have 4 losses right now.

Sometimes I really think Mick can't win. We as fans demand that he tells us what is going on. If he doesn' say anything we complain. If he tells the truth we say he makes excuses. We say he never takes the blame for what is going but I hear him constantly say he needs to do a better job of getting the guys ready, but no one hears those thoughts. People, we basically brought the same group of players to the dinner table this year that we had last year. I should go back and read some of the record predictions that were made before the season started. Many said double digit loses.

Hey at the the end of the year if this team has improved from last year I will be relatively happy. Yes I want to get to the tournament, but many of you didn't think they had a chance in the world at the beginning of the season because of losing Vaugn and Lance.

Just so you know, if this team completely falls apart, I won't be on here supporting the coach, but at least I think I had some reasonable expectations going into the season.

 

[TheLongHaul]

18-4?

Seriously? Please take off your homer glasses and look who they have played. At this point they have two wins against possible tournament teams (XU and SJU). But I guess that does put him in the same category as Wright, Huggins, and Dixon.

 

[bearcat jeff]

Xavier is a top 20 rpi team and SJU a top 25 one. Those ARE good wins. UC is not an elite team, we know that. But they are sitting at 41 in the rpi this morning and are good enough to make the Dance. They have 4 losses and all are to top 20 rpi teams. Syracuse (19), Villanova (15), WVU (13), ND (8). There is no shame in those losses and 3 came on the road. Do I think they should have beat WVU and ND? Yes!! But they are losses that won't keep them out of the tournament if they can win the games they should the rest of the way. They are 7-4 against current top 100 rpi teams (live-rpi).

 

[TheLongHaul]

Xavier is a top 20 rpi team and SJU a top 25 one. Those ARE good wins. UC is not an elite team, we know that. But they are sitting at 41 in the rpi this morning and are good enough to make the Dance. They have 4 losses and all are to top 20 rpi teams. Syracuse (19), Villanova (15), WVU (13), ND (8). There is no shame in those losses and 3 came on the road. Do I think they should have beat WVU and ND? Yes!! But they are losses that won't keep them out of the tournament if they can win the games they should the rest of the way. They are 7-4 against current top 100 rpi teams (live-rpi).

Those are okay wins. I couldn't care less what the rpi says about them right now. SJU will most likely will be on the bubble come March and XU will be in because the A10 is so pathetic. Xavier is nothing special. So as of right now UC has 18 wins with possibly two being NCAA tournament teams. So you can all talk about how they have a great record and have more wins than last year but you know as well as I do that it is just smoke and mirrors.

UC still has a great chance to prove themselves with their upcoming games. I just hope they don't fall flat on their face. Is anyone really 100% optimistic that they will make the tournament? I'm not.

 

[Ryno99]

Being great in Conference USA may have meant you were no better than middle of the pack in the Big East.

quit living in the past, we aren't in conference USA anymore, so let's focus on the BEast.