Houston: Round 2: The Battle for Everything

[JoeRunner89]

If you weren't impressed with making a brand new Division 1 program in to the class of the league in 3 years time, I' not sure anything could impress you. There seems to be something else going on.

Not really who is in that league again??? I mean in many regards judging mid major ball is a crapshoot you better be real subjective and use keen discretion before you higher someone. There are so many players and so many schools that when your getting results a the highest level you take it. Me personally i didnt think mick or Bob stalled here watched them every step of the way. Many bad breaks along the way they made some mistakes but they are two great coaches. After watching them for damn near 3 decades and watching other coaches closely im just able to asses that Brannen isnt that unique

 

[Bcatfollower]

Not really who is in that league again??? I mean in many regards judging mid major ball is a crapshoot you better be real subjective and use keen discretion before you higher someone. There are so many players and so many schools that when your getting results a the highest level you take it. Me personally i didnt think mick or Bob stalled here watched them every step of the way. Many bad breaks along the way they made some mistakes but they are two great coaches. After watching them for damn near 3 decades and watching other coaches closely im just able to asses that Brannen isnt that unique

So when mick came from a mid major with limited success did you have the same take?

 

[JoeRunner89]

They must have accidentally left these parts out.

Let's be honest, The league wasn't great the the last couple years. Still isn't great. It was usually a two horse race. SMU and UC, or Houston and UC. Mick loaded up on cupcakes in the non-conference. He'd play 3-4 harder games, rest were trash. When he played a league road game, it was tough. @UCF, @Moody, @ Houston. We didn't win many of these games. To be fair, not many teams do. But before we put Mick in the Hall of fame, let's not sugar coat what we actually were. We were a top 30ish team every year, with a couple good years and one great year. You would think we were a top 10 team every year the way some talk.

Oh, and we were and still are a joke nationally when people talk about the tournament.

All he needs is a couple deep tournament runs. Hes already proven he gets to the tournament with no prob. But soons as he gets a couple deep runs hes in the HOF at his age? He'll be in there

 

[Bcatfollower]

His recruiting fell off here... He won't have that at UCLA imo.

Not sure, I still don’t think he will find high level players that want to play his style.

 

[JoeRunner89]

So when mick came from a mid major with limited success did you have the same take?

Mick was an assistant coach under bob and coach patino... Took a very talented Ncarolina team to ot in the ncaa tournament with murray st... So i def was more familiar and comfortable at the time for that higher we were carrying on our traditon at least. The college basketball world respects the 30 or so yrs those two guys coached here

 

[cincyguy13]

Not sure, I still don’t think he will find high level players that want to play his style.

UCLA recruits itself. Probably more than any other school. Or top 5. It's in LA, heard the campus is beautiful, and it's got one of the best traditions in college basketball. His style is very iso dominate. The right players could excel in the system. Players he couldn't get here.

 

[cincyguy13]

Not really who is in that league again??? I mean in many regards judging mid major ball is a crapshoot you better be real subjective and use keen discretion before you higher someone. There are so many players and so many schools that when your getting results a the highest level you take it. Me personally i didnt think mick or Bob stalled here watched them every step of the way. Many bad breaks along the way they made some mistakes but they are two great coaches. After watching them for damn near 3 decades and watching other coaches closely im just able to asses that Brannen isnt that unique

It doesn't matter who is in the league, they are all operating under an even playing field and he was able to dominate it in limited time.

 

[cincyguy13]

Mick was an assistant coach under bob and coach patino... Took a very talented Ncarolina team to ot in the ncaa tournament with murray st... So i def was more familiar and comfortable at the time for that higher we were carrying on our traditon at least. The college basketball world respects the 30 or so yrs those two guys coached here

Wasn't Brannen an assistant under Billy Donovan, or a player. Donovan was also a good coach. Just odd how you pick and choose what's important, and when

 

[skyblade]

The difference between pre-2014 UConn and UC is simple: HOF Coach Jim Calhoun. UConn ain't been shit since.

And just sheer luck and getting hot at the right time. For every low ranked team in the NCAA tournament that advances, there are 20+ that go nowhere (plus many more that don't even make it).

The way to reliably advance deep in the NCAA tournament is to have a top seed and a top 25 defense and offense. That is hard for teams in the AAC to achieve. The best hope for us is probably to make it every year and have a top 15ish team every 3ish years. Do that and eventually we will make a run.

 

[Bcatfollower]

Mick was an assistant coach under bob and coach patino... Took a very talented Ncarolina team to ot in the ncaa tournament with murray st... So i def was more familiar and comfortable at the time for that higher we were carrying on our traditon at least. The college basketball world respects the 30 or so yrs those two guys coached here

Brannen played for billy Donovan and was assistant to Anthony grant. And is Bobby Brannens cousin... probably

 

[Bearcats92]

I’m happy he’s gone, couldn’t stand his recruiting, his offense, his childish behavior... just an entitled ass. Couldn’t even play high school basketball “cue bullshit knee injury excuse”. He was a joke in the city and We will be better off.

He lost to Presbyterian, Ohio u, Harvard, Nevada, ecu, and many more shit teams.

Heck yeah man preach it

 

[Bcatfollower]

And just sheer luck and getting hot at the right time. For every low ranked team in the NCAA tournament that advances, there are 20+ that go nowhere (plus many more that don't even make it).

The way to reliably advance deep in the NCAA tournament is to have a top seed and a top 25 defense and offense. That is hard for teams in the AAC to achieve. The best hope for us is probably to make it every year and have a top 15ish team every 3ish years. Do that and eventually we will make a run.

But we never did... over many years

 

[cincyguy13]

And just sheer luck and getting hot at the right time. For every low ranked team in the NCAA tournament that advances, there are 20+ that go nowhere (plus many more that don't even make it).

The way to reliably advance deep in the NCAA tournament is to have a top seed and a top 25 defense and offense. That is hard for teams in the AAC to achieve. The best hope for us is probably to make it every year and have a top 15ish team every 3ish years. Do that and eventually we will make a run.

The way you guys defend our tourney success is sad. We've been to 2 sweet 16s in 25ish years, and some of you guys don't see an issue with this. You don't want to try something different and see if it works? Are we that scared?

 

[Bearcats92]

If you weren't impressed with making a brand new Division 1 program in to the class of the league in 3 years time, I' not sure anything could impress you. There seems to be something else going on.

But making one sweet 16 in 14 years make you comparable to coach K

 

[cincyguy13]

But making one sweet 16 in 14 years make you comparable to coach K

Great point. Wasn't impressed with Brannen after completely building NKU in to the class of the league, but after that 1 game in which Murray st. took UNC to overtime, he was all in.

 

[Bearcats92]

I love how all these guys show up on the message board when we lose to Houston right after Brannens dad died but weren’t giving him praise when they were down 15 and came back and beat Houston. Just go to the UCLA board and have your Cronin circle jerk there.

 

[UCats329]

And just sheer luck and getting hot at the right time. For every low ranked team in the NCAA tournament that advances, there are 20+ that go nowhere (plus many more that don't even make it).

The way to reliably advance deep in the NCAA tournament is to have a top seed and a top 25 defense and offense. That is hard for teams in the AAC to achieve. The best hope for us is probably to make it every year and have a top 15ish team every 3ish years. Do that and eventually we will make a run.

BINGO.

 

[UCats329]

The way you guys defend our tourney success is sad. We've been to 2 sweet 16s in 25ish years, and some of you guys don't see an issue with this. You don't want to try something different and see if it works? Are we that scared?

You do remember there was like a 30 year stretch between the '62 NC and Huggins where they barely made the tournament AT ALL, right? If you're in UC's position, you're a couple of bad hires away from THAT.

Real roll of the dice because you're dissatisfied about "not enough Sweet 16s".

 

[skyblade]

The way you guys defend our tourney success is sad. We've been to 2 sweet 16s in 25ish years, and some of you guys don't see an issue with this. You don't want to try something different and see if it works? Are we that scared?

We've been over this before.

I don't judge success by the NCAA tournament. I think it's a crapshoot and a terrible measure of success. I won't judge Brannen by it either.

I judge success by the regular season and by kenpom and end of season rating (and I suppose to a degree by NCAA tournament seed).

Mick just had the highest combined wins over 3 years in UC history. He had a top team 2 years ago and we were set to be a top 15 team this year. We seemed to be the achieving the rotation of 1 great year, followed by 1/2 rebuilding years (but still make the NCAA tournament). I think in our conference, that is the best we can be. Eventually that would have resulted in an NCAA tournament run.

The odds of getting a better coach than Cronin were minimal, the odds of getting a worse coach were quite high, so I would have preferred keeping Cronin. I liked Brannen when we hired him and still am rooting for him, but thus far he looks like a worse coach.

I also think many fans don't care that much about the NCAA tournament. They use it as an excuse to justify their hatred of Cronin. Some hate Cronin because he's not Huggins, some hate him because of his (rather grating) personality.

 

[cincyalum2014]

That's brannens fault dude, he let a top 15 roster deplete

Top 15 roster hahaha