Houston Part II

[Queens_NYC]

Tuesday, March 1st, 2022
9:00 PM
Fertitta Center
ESPNU

The Bearcats start a stretch of what will be a minimum of 3 straight games in the Lone Star State tonight against Houston (24-4, 13-2 AAC, NET #3, KenPom #6) who would secure an outright AAC regular season title with a win.

After beating the Bearcats by 22 at Fifth Third last month, the Cougars suffered their first two AAC losses of the season (@SMU & Memphis) before rattling off 4 straight victories leading up to today's game.

Other than the recent Memphis loss, the only time that Houston has not won at home by a double-digit margin this season was their opening game of the season where they rallied to beat Hofstra by 8 in OT.

The Bearcats need one win in their final two regular season games OR an ECU loss at Wichita St next Saturday to secure the #7 seed in next week's AAC tournament.

The Bearcats are 15-point underdogs tonight.

 

[waterhead]

Tuesday, March 1st, 2022
9:00 PM
Fertitta Center
ESPNU

The Bearcats start a stretch of what will be a minimum of 3 straight games in the Lone Star State tonight against Houston (24-4, 13-2 AAC, NET #3, KenPom #6) who would secure an outright AAC regular season title with a win.

After beating the Bearcats by 22 at Fifth Third last month, the Cougars suffered their first two AAC losses of the season (@SMU & Memphis) before rattling off 4 straight victories leading up to today's game.

Other than the recent Memphis loss, the only time that Houston has not won at home by a double-digit margin this season was their opening game of the season where they rallied to beat Hofstra by 8 in OT.

The Bearcats need one win in their final two regular season games OR an ECU loss at Wichita St next Saturday to secure the #7 seed in next week's AAC tournament.

The Bearcats are 15-point underdogs tonight.

They are significantly better on D than USF who is not bad. We have to match their effort on D at the very least to keep it reasonable (and we have been abysmal lately). I don't expect to get off a lot of easy 3 balls so I would probably opt to see more of Mason considering he doesn't need as much space to get off a shot than some others. I would have liked to have seen more of him against USF.

 

[sedziobs]

First zone of the season?

Second unit has played really well.

 

[skyblade]

We've shown zone a few times, but this is the first time I can recall that we've run it for more than one possession.

Very good first half, despite being down four. Hope we can continue it into the second.

 

[Queens_NYC]

Can't really argue with that effort. If we bring that same energy/intensity for the next few games then we should end the season on a more positive note.

Saunders had one of his best games as a Bearcat and made the prospect of DeJulius moving on after this season seem all the more accepting.

Oguama, Lakhin, and Hensley all showed some signs of life too that we hadn't seen for the better part of the season.

The good news is that both Fabian White and Josh Carlton aren't returning next season for Houston.

The bad news is that we seem lightyears away from having 2 bigs dominate a game the way those two did tonight. Davenport had another hopeless defensive performance.

 

[TheLivingLegend]

Why would Davenport be guarding Fabian White.... Ever.

More Vik post touches.

 

[skyblade]

Lakhin, Ody and Hensley all looked like they are on par (or even surperior to) Houston's length and athleticism. Yeah they need work, but getting athletes and then developing them is how you build a program. Looking a year or two down the line, if those three stay and develop, we will have an excellent front court.

The guys who clearly aren't on Houston's level in terms of athleticism are Davenport, Saunders and DDJ. Saunders can make up for it with his speed, but Davenport and DDJ struggled. Davenport couldn't defend White and DDJ had 6 TO's.

We are closer to competing than it has looked at times. If both teams shoot their normal FT percentage, we don't commit silly TO's and the refs aren't completely biased towards Houston it would have been a close game at the end.

There's a lot of work to be done, but I think this team can develop into a high-level AAC team even without transfers. We need players to get experience and develop in the off-season.

 

[waterhead]

Ado, Koval, Banks out...Skillings, Reed and Tolentino in

JD and MAW I don't see a transfer happening

Newman seems like a done deal as well.

Ody and Vik are in line for bigger minutes. I don't see Ody transferring but Vik seems like a possibility with low minutes this year and the Russia/Ukraine thing being a possible distraction for a while. Of course if he wanted to play overseas right now that may also be very difficult.

McGinnis seems to be looking for a medical hardship I assume so he could be one to watch.

Hensley may not be fun to watch on offense but that could improve but I think he at least can work in the preferred press and trap style in a limited role and maybe allow him to get some points outside of the half court sets.

Which brings us to Saunders, Madsen, DDJ. Mason seems happy and we can use his shooting and at 6'4 at least has some length for press and trap. Is he okay with his role? If Mike were to leave we would be down to one PG but he could be frustrated with MAW out in front of him. If DDJ decided to leave we would need to replace his scoring on the wing...but we probably gain another lengthy press and trapper.

 

[waterhead]

Having said all of that. McGinnis would probably be #1 on my list which would allow us to add a big. Second in line would be DDJ as it allows us to go more towards press and trap by adding an experienced wing as we move to B12 the following season and we get a year to work out some kinks.

Unless DDJ wants to move to PG, which he doesn't. But if he did option 3 would then be Mike for me. We are adding a PG in '23 and if we needed depth we could option MAW for a 5th year.

 

[skyblade]

Having said all of that. McGinnis would probably be #1 on my list which would allow us to add a big. Second in line would be DDJ as it allows us to go more towards press and trap by adding an experienced wing as we move to B12 the following season and we get a year to work out some kinks.

Unless DDJ wants to move to PG, which he doesn't. But if he did option 3 would then be Mike for me. We are adding a PG in '23 and if we needed depth we could option MAW for a 5th year.

I agree with pretty much all of this, except I'm inclined to put DDJ/Saunders as options 1 and 2. Saunders/DDJ (and Davenport, but he's not going anywhere) are the guys potentially coming back who don't fit the size/length Miller wants to have. Saunders can make up for it with speed and on ball defense, but thus far he hasn't.

McGinnis is a complete unknown, is he on the bench purely for play reasons? Is it injury related? There's been some (unconfirmed) speculation elsewhere that he may be going for a medical redshirt. I'll trust Miller on whatever he does with McGinnis. It seems unlikely that he'd transfer again and sit out a year.

I'd also be concerned about Vik, more so because of the Russia/Ukraine situation. If he goes home will he make it back (even if he wants to)? Will he go home? But I definitely want him to be here next year.

 

[Queens_NYC]

I agree with pretty much all of this, except I'm inclined to put DDJ/Saunders as options 1 and 2. Saunders/DDJ (and Davenport, but he's not going anywhere) are the guys potentially coming back who don't fit the size/length Miller wants to have. Saunders can make up for it with speed and on ball defense, but thus far he hasn't.

McGinnis is a complete unknown, is he on the bench purely for play reasons? Is it injury related? There's been some (unconfirmed) speculation elsewhere that he may be going for a medical redshirt. I'll trust Miller on whatever he does with McGinnis. It seems unlikely that he'd transfer again and sit out a year.

I'd also be concerned about Vik, more so because of the Russia/Ukraine situation. If he goes home will he make it back (even if he wants to)? Will he go home? But I definitely want him to be here next year.

I'd be on board with all of this.

McGinnis is an interesting case. He played 15 mpg and scored 6 ppg on 34% 3 pt shooting (4.4 attempts per game) for a 21-win team/13 seed in last year's NCAA tournament - as a true freshman.

I don't think he gets all-out benched because it's been decided that he's just not good enough to warrant playing time on a bottom-half AAC team. The medical redshirt rumor makes sense.

Maybe he decided early in the season that he wasn't happy with his role and there was a mutual agreement to go for the medical redshirt so he'd be able to transfer and gain immediate eligibility next season (if that is even possible).

 

[waterhead]

I agree with pretty much all of this, except I'm inclined to put DDJ/Saunders as options 1 and 2. Saunders/DDJ (and Davenport, but he's not going anywhere) are the guys potentially coming back who don't fit the size/length Miller wants to have. Saunders can make up for it with speed and on ball defense, but thus far he hasn't.

McGinnis is a complete unknown, is he on the bench purely for play reasons? Is it injury related? There's been some (unconfirmed) speculation elsewhere that he may be going for a medical redshirt. I'll trust Miller on whatever he does with McGinnis. It seems unlikely that he'd transfer again and sit out a year.

I'd also be concerned about Vik, more so because of the Russia/Ukraine situation. If he goes home will he make it back (even if he wants to)? Will he go home? But I definitely want him to be here next year.

I don't know about the Saunders AND DDJ thing. MAW can't play 40 minutes at PG and we are recruiting heavily a 5'10" guy with the expectation we will be getting longer at other positions. So a small PG can work when you have about 3-4 wings with size and reach. I guess we could grab a taller PG from the portal if it happened.