@Houston

BearcatTalk

Help Support BearcatTalk:

TheLivingLegend said:
Not sure I buy this... MAW and Davenport are fine. Great role players imo. Same with Mason. All three have great value on a high level team.

Problem is we don't have a star. Keith isn't it. He's been putrid all season of we are being brutally honest.

In regards to Tari. He has high level ability, but let's not act like he's been unreal. And frankly his attitude seems to be a problem. He's not good enough to have an attitude problem.

Not sure who john was talking about in his post game... But if players have attitude issues they need to go. There is not one player on this team that would be a devestating loss at this point.
Click to expand...

Im guessing Keith
 
cincrulz11 said:
MAW and Davenport aren't 30 minute a game guys. They are guys that come off the bench and can get hot from time to time. It's great to have them, but they aren't starters on a team that is going to go where we want them to go.


Tari was our only player that didn't get shut down from an athletic standpoint yesterday, and that includes Keith.
Click to expand...

Agree. Ideally some of these guys getting starter minutes are role player quality. I still want them on my team but getting in the range of 15 minutes or so not 25-30. We all know we need the 5 spot to be addressed next year. We also need someone to go with DD as a guy who can make plays. If we can score big on just those two needs with transfers...we can field a pretty decent team IMO.

This assumes we don't lose any more players to transfer which is probably about 50-50 scenario or worse at this point. But I don't want to fill spots just to compete next year. If he has to I would leave some spots open at this point. John has to make long term decisions or he will be in this scenario year after year and that will end his tenure. Basically start from scratch again and hope it works this time. Learn from your mistakes and take your lumps.
 
itsamemario said:
Im guessing Keith
Click to expand...

Keith was my guess as well. But he posted on twitter "I Love This Team" and seems to be saying all the right things about being bought in. So it's hard to say for sure.

If it's not Keith, the dark horse candidates include: Vogt (one because we can't press with him in and two because of his lack of enthusiasm from the bench), Eason (just look at his mom's twitter) or MAW (maybe there's a reason he's not starting).
 
Stars aren't made in a vacuum (or at least very rarely are). They need players around them who are at least good enough to compete with the other team.

Keith has the athleticism to compete with Houston, his problem is that he's a Dejon Jarreau type player. A slasher who disrupts the opposing defense, but doesn't shoot well. He needs ball movement and a spread floor to get shots or chaos from TO's or offensive rebounds, which doesn't happen when you don't have good 3-point shooters and you have Vogt inside helping to clog the lane but not rebounding.

DD, MAW and Davenport are good enough athletes. But none of them have great athleticism. MAW and Davenport don't have good enough handles to create their own shot. DD can sometimes bully his way into the lane and create his own shot.

Mason is a below average athlete. For all that he can shoot threes, Houston abused his defense when it mattered. Getting some garbage time buckets made Mason's stat line look good, but his defense was not good. Saunders gets beat a lot on defense as well, and he has the Justin Jenifer problem of even if he plays perfect defense, guys can still just shoot over him because he is so short.

DD, MAW, Davenport and Eason is a good enough group that if you give them some experience and a star player (preferably a center), we'd be in good shape. But that's a lot to ask for by next year. I could see year 4 (if DD took advantage of the free year), us being really good if those 4 stay together. But again, we'd need to add a high quality center (or two). I promise you that Lakhin is not that center.

Mason and Saunders are probably career backups. If this was a NCAA tournament team neither of them would be getting minutes. Lakhin is probably an average center at best, and more likely also a career backup.
 
The last thing this program needs is a coach in desperation mode scrambling to field a good team to save a job. We need a coach that is willing to risk his job by making the right recruiting decisions for long term success. Even if that means a fresh restart. He can win with 3 star guys if they are the right guys with the right attitude. We were almost always light on talent with Cronin but it can work even if in different ways.

The angry mob of fans be damned...just make the best judgement calls either way. If CJB starts catering to players or fans...he's as good as done. I know he knows all of this stuff which is why in person recruiting is so important to him. It's paramount to success to have buy in guys with good positive heads on their shoulders. If it works great. If it doesn't then it wasn't meant to be. But the mid/long term health of the program is in the balance. If I were the AD right now I would sit down with him and tell Brannen to get back to focusing on his philosophy and stick to the tenets of his recruiting. That's why we hired you...and we still have confidence. Let the chips fall where they may.
 
cincrulz11 said:
If yesterdays game reinforced anything for me, it was that the MAW and Davenport types just aren't the level of player we need. From a physical/athletic standpoint they just didn't have a chance.

Tari clearly can play with the guys from Houston. Saunders actually surprised me and had his best game of the year. Houston struggled with his speed and that was nice to see.

Mason doesn't have the athleticism either, but you actually noticed him out there and he's good at being in the right spot and finding a way to be open for a shot. Compare that to MAW who somehow played 27 minutes and I don't even remember him being on the court.
Click to expand...
Saunders needs look for his shot more and it’ll open up offense. It’s small ball but I think going forward I’m giving MAW minutes to Saunders. He fastest PG we’ve ever had, let him get out and run more.
 
TheLivingLegend said:
Not sure I buy this... MAW and Davenport are fine. Great role players imo. Same with Mason. All three have great value on a high level team.

Problem is we don't have a star. Keith isn't it. He's been putrid all season of we are being brutally honest.

In regards to Tari. He has high level ability, but let's not act like he's been unreal. And frankly his attitude seems to be a problem. He's not good enough to have an attitude problem.

Not sure who john was talking about in his post game... But if players have attitude issues they need to go. There is not one player on this team that would be a devestating loss at this point.
Click to expand...
They all role players even Vogt, he’ll look tremendous if he was backing up Brooks. Sad to say only two players on entire roster should be starting ROLE players and that’s DDJ and KW. We have zero guys you need to make them role players instead of guys we look to win games.
 
waterhead said:
The last thing this program needs is a coach in desperation mode scrambling to field a good team to save a job. We need a coach that is willing to risk his job by making the right recruiting decisions for long term success. Even if that means a fresh restart. He can win with 3 star guys if they are the right guys with the right attitude. We were almost always light on talent with Cronin but it can work even if in different ways.
Click to expand...


Thats another 3 years before we'd look competitive. The mix of freshman and transfers that he's used has been a good one. But you have to hit on the guys you get. And you have to keep them once you get them.


The team needs talent anyway you can get it. We don't have it. Keith is our best player, but he's not a star or really even close to it. He's likely a 3rd guy on a good team. Look at Houston and tell me who Keith would play ahead of out of their wings.


This year was always going to suck. The 2017-2019 classes aren't doing anything here or the places they transferred to. We haven't brought in talent since Cumberlands class. Thats how you get the team we have now.


Brannen needed to hit on a lot of guys early. He got role players in MAW, Davenport, Saunders, and Mason. He got a solid PG in DD. Tari has loads of potential and might be a star in year 3 and 4 if he stays. But he didn't get any guys that were stars right away.
 
TheRealMick said:
They all role players even Vogt, he’ll look tremendous if he was backing up Brooks. Sad to say only two players on entire roster should be starting ROLE players and that’s DDJ and KW. We have zero guys you need to make them role players instead of guys we look to win games.
Click to expand...

Brooks would be gone by now, but he's currently not doing much for a Miami team that sucks like we do. He's giving them 6 points 6 boards and less than a block per game.
 
On a good team Eason would’ve been RS candidate for me so his mom needs shut hell up.I don’t know what Roy was selling her but professional basketball right now isn’t it. I mentioned his first couple games he needed bulk up and be more physical. Yes, he has all the athleticism in world, he still needs to develop a game for this level. I don’t care about the minutes he’s playing on this weak team, he’s not better than JJ, gates, or Clark as freshman.
 
cincrulz11 said:
Brooks would be gone by now, but he's currently not doing much for a Miami team that sucks like we do. He's giving them 6 points 6 boards and less than a block per game.
Click to expand...

Yeah, brooks isn’t any good either. I’d rather have Ellie to be honest
 
cincrulz11 said:
Brooks would be gone by now, but he's currently not doing much for a Miami team that sucks like we do. He's giving them 6 points 6 boards and less than a block per game.
Click to expand...

I’m saying brooks type C(defensive/rim protector), he looked just as good Garza before foul trouble.
 
TheRealMick said:
On a good team Eason would’ve been RS candidate for me so his mom needs shut hell up.I don’t know what Roy was selling her but professional basketball right now isn’t it. I mentioned his first couple games he needed bulk up and be more physical. Yes, he has all the athleticism in world, he still needs to develop a game for this level. I don’t care about the minutes he’s playing on this weak team, he’s not better than JJ, gates, or Clark as freshman.
Click to expand...
I think Eason upside is higher than all those guys, he’s skills are raw by they further along than those guys as a freshmen in my opinion. He isn’t there yet, but he might think he is
 
cincrulz11 said:
Thats another 3 years before we'd look competitive. The mix of freshman and transfers that he's used has been a good one. But you have to hit on the guys you get. And you have to keep them once you get them.


The team needs talent anyway you can get it. We don't have it. Keith is our best player, but he's not a star or really even close to it. He's likely a 3rd guy on a good team. Look at Houston and tell me who Keith would play ahead of out of their wings.


This year was always going to suck. The 2017-2019 classes aren't doing anything here or the places they transferred to. We haven't brought in talent since Cumberlands class. Thats how you get the team we have now.


Brannen needed to hit on a lot of guys early. He got role players in MAW, Davenport, Saunders, and Mason. He got a solid PG in DD. Tari has loads of potential and might be a star in year 3 and 4 if he stays. But he didn't get any guys that were stars right away.
Click to expand...

I'm not gonna argue with any of that. If we can get a couple home runs in the transfer market I would like to do that of course. But I would rather go with 11 or 12 roster spots filled at this point and focus on a big HS class the following year to get the foundation going again. We can't keep getting off to slow starts with many players learning new system each year. Let's face it we don't have a coach Penny to sell highly ranked recruits so we have to use a good foundation of 3 star guys who can develop over time. With some 4 stars mixed in.

We should be trying to get 1-2 transfers to fill holes. The rest should come from HS. We aren't in a power conference so the recipe (without a great salesman coach) is going to include 3 and 4 year players for the most part.
 
cincyguy13 said:
I think Eason upside is higher than all those guys, he’s skills are raw by they further along than those guys as a freshmen in my opinion. He isn’t there yet, but he might think he is
Click to expand...

Eason will be great. He's got some things to work on but I think everyone knew that coming in. If we can keep him and keep his head on straight and coach him...he's gonna be an all conference player by junior year.

There is so much to like about his game on both ends. But he's still mistake prone which is/was to be expected. Tough love is what he needs and that's about it.
 
waterhead said:
Eason will be great. He's got some things to work on but I think everyone knew that coming in. If we can keep him and keep his head on straight and coach him...he's gonna be an all conference player by junior year.

There is so much to like about his game on both ends. But he's still mistake prone which is/was to be expected. Tough love is what he needs and that's about it.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure he sticks around... but agreed if he does.
 

Similar threads

Q
TCU
Replies
10
Views
41K
sedziobs
S
Q
UCF
Replies
6
Views
27K
Queens_NYC
Q
Q
Dayton
2
Replies
21
Views
66K
sedziobs
S
Q
Northern Kentucky
Replies
10
Views
33K
TheLongHaul
T
Q
Baylor
Replies
7
Views
27K
Queens_NYC
Q
Back
Top