Next season is going to be rough.

[UnivCincy]

I think we can all agree that the biggest loss will be Parker. His energy, his heart, and his toughness is unmatched on this team. With that said, we are getting two young men who play the same position with the same amount of vigor in Deshaun Morman and Troy Caupain. They will lack experience, but they will compete from day one, and that's all I can ask for as a fan.

I think next year will be very exciting, from this fan's standpoint. In my opinion, this is Cronin's best class since taking the job. It will be fun to watch our freshman develop, and personally, I think next year's team (by next season's end) will be more competitive and balanced than this year's. We have enough talent returning and enough energy coming in to really surprise a lot of people. And, Strickland - he may be the diamond in the rough for which we have all been waiting.

I won't write a eulogy for the 2013-2014 season, just as my heart won't allow me to write a eulogy for this year's team. Hope.

 

[Scheids21]

I think we can all agree that the biggest loss will be Parker. His energy, his heart, and his toughness is unmatched on this team. With that said, we are getting two young men who play the same position with the same amount of vigor in Deshaun Morman and Troy Caupain. They will lack experience, but they will compete from day one, and that's all I can ask for as a fan.

I think next year will be very exciting, from this fan's standpoint. In my opinion, this is Cronin's best class since taking the job. It will be fun to watch our freshman develop, and personally, I think next year's team (by next season's end) will be more competitive and balanced than this year's. We have enough talent returning and enough energy coming in to really surprise a lot of people. And, Strickland - he may be the diamond in the rough for which we have all been waiting.

I won't write a eulogy for the 2013-2014 season, just as my heart won't allow me to write a eulogy for this year's team. Hope.

+1

 

[TheLongHaul]

I didn't say you couldn't talk about it. I said it was typical to write the season off. I have serious doubts they'll make a serious turnaround but there are still games to play. Any team can hit a streak of games where shots are collectively falling. It happens all the time. That could happen for the Bearcats. As bad as Sean and Cash are shooting it could turn. For the record I doubt their mental ability to get back on track. I get the pessimism trust me. I'm pissed about how this team has fallen. I just think it's silly to write the rest of the season off and start talking about how bad we'll be next year, when nobody knows yet how this one ends.

Who wrote the season off in this thread? I couldn't find it. Just because some want to discuss next season doesn't mean they are writing this season off. There are always threads discussing the next year, even when the current year is going well. I think it's perfectly legitimate to discuss the future when this season is winding down. Especially how things are currently going.

I think we can all agree that the biggest loss will be Parker. His energy, his heart, and his toughness is unmatched on this team. With that said, we are getting two young men who play the same position with the same amount of vigor in Deshaun Morman and Troy Caupain. They will lack experience, but they will compete from day one, and that's all I can ask for as a fan.

I think next year will be very exciting, from this fan's standpoint. In my opinion, this is Cronin's best class since taking the job. It will be fun to watch our freshman develop, and personally, I think next year's team (by next season's end) will be more competitive and balanced than this year's. We have enough talent returning and enough energy coming in to really surprise a lot of people. And, Strickland - he may be the diamond in the rough for which we have all been waiting.

I won't write a eulogy for the 2013-2014 season, just as my heart won't allow me to write a eulogy for this year's team. Hope.

I hope we are all right when we talk about who is coming in for the following year but the truth is none of us has seen them play for extended amounts of time. Highlights don't really tell you much. We all heard before how good and tough Sanders was. I mean he was the best player in NY. Rubles was the next Jay Crowder. DNy was a 7' guy who could run up and down the court. I like the way next years class looks on paper but I'm not going to expect much from them, especially early on.

 

[JackBauer151]

I just want to win meaningful games or at least have something to point to for the future that shows me we are going to win something meaningful.

They beat more ranked teams than anyone in the country last year and went to the sweet 16. I'd say they won their fair share of meaningful games. I get the frustration and even the pessimism but lets not have that short of a memory. This team was ranked 8th in the country at one point this year. No doubt Mick should take heat for how bad his team has regressed. He either cant get his players to do what they are supposed to do or they simply arent capable of doing what they are supposed to do. Thats either coaching or recruiting. Either one falls on him. However lets remember he has had some very good success and just brought in a 5 star recruit. Criticize him, hell yeah he deserves that. Calling for him to be fired would be a major overreaction in my opinion.

 

[UCBearcats]

They beat more ranked teams than anyone in the country last year and went to the sweet 16. I'd say they won their fair share of meaningful games. I get the frustration and even the pessimism but lets not have that short of a memory. This team was ranked 8th in the country at one point this year. No doubt Mick should take heat for how bad his team has regressed. He either cant get his players to do what they are supposed to do or they simply arent capable of doing what they are supposed to do. Thats either coaching or recruiting. Either one falls on him. However lets remember he has had some very good success and just brought in a 5 star recruit. Criticize him, hell yeah he deserves that. Calling for him to be fired would be a major overreaction in my opinion.

I didn't call for him to be fired and I remember last season, it was a good year and I was happy about it. My point is that too many people defend Mick like he's an untouchable subject. The time for blindly supporting Mick is over.

Mick's a big boy with a big boy's job and a big boy's salary, it's time he got some big boy expectations and everyone stops dealing with kid gloves when they talk about the guy.

This thread is about next season and I worry about next season and beyond. I worry that in 8 seasons Mick hasn't shown the ability to install an offensive scheme and worse yet, hasn't even admitted that the need for offense in college basketball is important. I worry that guys like Jermaine Lawrence and Shaq Thomas will never see their full potential as offensive weapons because they aren't being put in positions to succeed of the offensive side of the ball.

I'm not saying Mick is a terrible coach but I'm also not going to kneel down before him because he made one sweet 16 in 8 seasons. Last season was a good season, this season we were supposed to build on that and we haven't. By all indications next year should be a drop off from this year and that creates a worrisome trend.

I would love nothing more than for this team to be 24-7 or 26-5 and ranked in the top 20 in the country. I'd much rather be debating right now as to whether we are going to get a 2 seed or a 4 seed but unfortunately that's not the case.

 

[Scheids21]

I am rooting for Mick, not just as a UC fan, but for what he has done. He came in and rebuilt his alma mater from absolutely nothing. Because of that, I very much want him to succeed and take us the distance. That being said, I do worry what his potential will be. If his teams do not learn offense, then yeah, he might top out and that scares me.

I don't like argument that he has only made 1 sweet 16 in the last 7 years. Even the most cutthroat fan really can't count the first 4 years or so against him. The last three or so? Sure.

The fact is that he definitely has flaws right now, and hopefully he can correct them. If his teams are still collapsing and completely offensively inept 3 years from now with the incoming class and Shaq as juniors and seniors, then its hard not to see a change coming. Here's to hoping he and his players can fix their issues starting Saturday and heading into next year.

 

[bearcat4life]

We have no point guard and pretty much nothing else to depend on. SK is declaring for the draft, cuz he's not going to want to play with what he has to work with. Probably a 16-14 or worse type season.

what draft is he declaring for? military? euroleague? your nuts if you think he would get drafted in the upcoming nba draft.

 

[bearcat4life]

Kinda depends on how you look at it really. Expectation were high this year and we are going to end up probably barely making the tournament.

Next year, expectations will be lower, and it will be fun to see what the Frosh can bring right away. Plus I believe they are Cronin's best class, so the future could still be bright.

of course the future is still bright. while these last two months have been a disaster, it is two months. we are losing a digressing point guard in wright and a great glue guy in parker. we replace wright with guyn/davis and we replace parker with hopefully better minutes from rubles/sanders(if he is around). Cronin will have his most complete roster next year and will be able to come up with many different rotations that all bring something to the table to help the greater cause. the future is definitely bright. it is a great sign that we are talking about a 7 or worse seed to be a disappointing year. of course I don't want to have these conversations, but the program has come a long way and we will continue to get better.

 

[bearcat4life]

I think we can all agree that the biggest loss will be Parker. His energy, his heart, and his toughness is unmatched on this team. With that said, we are getting two young men who play the same position with the same amount of vigor in Deshaun Morman and Troy Caupain. They will lack experience, but they will compete from day one, and that's all I can ask for as a fan.

I think next year will be very exciting, from this fan's standpoint. In my opinion, this is Cronin's best class since taking the job. It will be fun to watch our freshman develop, and personally, I think next year's team (by next season's end) will be more competitive and balanced than this year's. We have enough talent returning and enough energy coming in to really surprise a lot of people. And, Strickland - he may be the diamond in the rough for which we have all been waiting.

I won't write a eulogy for the 2013-2014 season, just as my heart won't allow me to write a eulogy for this year's team. Hope.

couldn't agree more, especially with the way cash has been playing since the injury

 

[bearcat4life]

I am rooting for Mick, not just as a UC fan, but for what he has done. He came in and rebuilt his alma mater from absolutely nothing. Because of that, I very much want him to succeed and take us the distance. That being said, I do worry what his potential will be. If his teams do not learn offense, then yeah, he might top out and that scares me.

I don't like argument that he has only made 1 sweet 16 in the last 7 years. Even the most cutthroat fan really can't count the first 4 years or so against him. The last three or so? Sure.

The fact is that he definitely has flaws right now, and hopefully he can correct them. If his teams are still collapsing and completely offensively inept 3 years from now with the incoming class and Shaq as juniors and seniors, then its hard not to see a change coming. Here's to hoping he and his players can fix their issues starting Saturday and heading into next year.

I will give Cronin a pass this year due to the fact that we have nobody taller than 6'6'' who can score in a half court offense. it makes it very easy to guard a team like us. if he cant get us scoring 60 every game in BE PLAY, not non conference play, then I will have a problem. he will have Lawrence, an improved gaines and nyarsuk, and maybe even Jackson and rubles will learn how to finish. his teams will always play good defense and rebound well. now all we need is for them to soot 45 percent from the field and 75 percent from the free throw line

 

[CaptDale]

I had high hopes for this team going into the season, with all the returning experience, namely Wright, S K, Parker and JJ. Even Mbodj played enough significant backup minutes last season.

The defense was everything I thought it would be, if not better.

The offense has been atrocious. But I never dreamed that S K, Cash and Parker could shoot so poorly. I really expected them to put the ball in the bucket far better than they did and have. I'm stunned at how bad they have been.

If you look at all the close losses, a few more made buckets here and there would have reversed 2 to 4 losses into the win column. And earlier in the season, I thought eventually things might turn around where the close games started going our way.

But the season has been a broken record of the same mistakes over and over and over and over again. With no fixing of the same problems. I'm disappointed in everyone associated with the basketball program, from the players to the coaches. It's been a pathetic season full of disappointment and frustration. The failure to fix the shortcomings is inexcusable.

I'm already in the mindset of professional baseball and the Reds. And then looking forward to seeing Caupain, KJ, Strickland, Morman, and Lawrence next season, even though Mick probably won't play them anyway since he'll want veteran leadership and focus squarely on playing defense while letting the offense sputter.

I didn't even watch the last 2 games because my doctor said it was bad for my health.

Sounds like you need a different doctor

 

[CaptDale]

I am rooting for Mick, not just as a UC fan, but for what he has done. He came in and rebuilt his alma mater from absolutely nothing. Because of that, I very much want him to succeed and take us the distance. That being said, I do worry what his potential will be. If his teams do not learn offense, then yeah, he might top out and that scares me.

I don't like argument that he has only made 1 sweet 16 in the last 7 years. Even the most cutthroat fan really can't count the first 4 years or so against him. The last three or so? Sure.

The fact is that he definitely has flaws right now, and hopefully he can correct them. If his teams are still collapsing and completely offensively inept 3 years from now with the incoming class and Shaq as juniors and seniors, then its hard not to see a change coming. Here's to hoping he and his players can fix their issues starting Saturday and heading into next year.

I think the test for next year is how is Mick going to perform a radical mindset change to this year's team for the remainder of the season. If, and that's a big if, he can't motivate, teach or instill self-confidence to his players for the next few games (which is not insurmountable), he won't be able to do it next year with a bunch of green incoming newbies either. These next 4 (or possibly more if they win the first BE tournament game) games are his proving grounds. I wish him well. This is what leadership in life is all about. To quote a Viet Nam POW who wrote a book about his escape and evasion (Nick Rowe), "the world is not interested in the storms you encountered, but did you bring the ship in."

 

[CaptDale]

So.....Marquette just beat Syracuse. And who was the "hero"? Davante Gardner - JaQuon's old HS teammate. A 6'8' F who knows how to play offense! What a shame we don't have one of those

 

[UCBearcats]

of course the future is still bright. while these last two months have been a disaster, it is two months. we are losing a digressing point guard in wright and a great glue guy in parker. we replace wright with guyn/davis and we replace parker with hopefully better minutes from rubles/sanders(if he is around). Cronin will have his most complete roster next year and will be able to come up with many different rotations that all bring something to the table to help the greater cause. the future is definitely bright. it is a great sign that we are talking about a 7 or worse seed to be a disappointing year. of course I don't want to have these conversations, but the program has come a long way and we will continue to get better.

How many times are we going to hear this type of statement? First the problem was Deonta Vaughn, then it was Lance Stephenson, then it was Yancy Gates and now it's Cashmere. So your assessment is that the future looks bright because we lose Cashmere Wright?? Without Cashmere we wouldn't have won a number of games we did earlier in the season, the guy is hurt now and I don't fault him for that.

While I disagree with anyone who has said we'd be better without Lance or Yancy or Deonta or Cashmere I guess I can at least understand how someone might make that argument. What I can't understand is that after making the same argument year after year how do you not put a little bit of the responsibility on Mick? After all, these are his recruits. If every year we are saying we'd be better off losing arguably our best player for the greater good of Mick's system doesn't that concern you a little bit?? I just don't understand how so many people can go so far out of their way not to criticize anything that Mick has done. What has he done to deserve all of this blind loyalty? Am I taking crazy pills here?!?!?!

 

[bearcat4life]

How many times are we going to hear this type of statement? First the problem was Deonta Vaughn, then it was Lance Stephenson, then it was Yancy Gates and now it's Cashmere. So your assessment is that the future looks bright because we lose Cashmere Wright?? Without Cashmere we wouldn't have won a number of games we did earlier in the season, the guy is hurt now and I don't fault him for that.

While I disagree with anyone who has said we'd be better without Lance or Yancy or Deonta or Cashmere I guess I can at least understand how someone might make that argument. What I can't understand is that after making the same argument year after year how do you not put a little bit of the responsibility on Mick? After all, these are his recruits. If every year we are saying we'd be better off losing arguably our best player for the greater good of Mick's system doesn't that concern you a little bit?? I just don't understand how so many people can go so far out of their way not to criticize anything that Mick has done. What has he done to deserve all of this blind loyalty? Am I taking crazy pills here?!?!?!

im not saying we are going to be better without wright, but im not saying its not possible. I am not faulting wright for being injured, but he has played 1 good game since getting injured at DePaul. he is not going to be that hard to replace. we have guyn/davis/Johnson to all pitch in. wright plays like a shooting guard. he chucks up 10-15 shots a game which was fine when he was actually making more than 2-4 per game. he is a defensive liability that reaches and gets 2-4 steals per game but he couldn't defend napier the other night. his knees are just not good and because of that, he is not playing well and with that being said, he is not going to be that hard to replace. replacing parker will be the hardest thing to do. btw, never once did I say wright was the reason we aren't playing well in my post. neither did I say it was ever Vaughn, stephensons or gates problem either. all I said was that the future was bright and that we are losing a point guard who for whatever reason has been getting worse as this season has gone on.

 

[bearcat4life]

Amen!!!! People act like we are some sort of horrible sports city because we expect to win and we never do. I've got a buddy who's a die hard Steelers fan and he wants to fire Mike Tomlin because they didn't make the playoffs last year. You think UK fans would put up with this? The freaking Arizona Cardinals fired their head coach 4 years after he took them to the Super Bowl. Yet here in Cincy we've got Marvin Lewis who hasn't won a playoff game in 11 years and Mick Cronin who is treated like he's a freaking God for having accomplished very little.

Having a demanding fan base is a good thing, it's what keeps the owners/administrators from getting complacent. If anything the fans in this city are way too tame and way too accepting of failure and mediocrity.

There is nothing to look at for this team next year that suggests we are going to be a good team. There is nothing to look at with Mick's offense that suggests he's actually going to be able to develop players like Lawrence, Capuan, ect on that side of the ball. There is nothing to suggest at this point that Mick is going to take this program to the next level. He's doing a pretty good job which as far as I am concerned is not good enough. Time he feels some heat, let's all stop sitting around and talking about how great the guy is when the results don't match.QUOTE]

maybe next year when we have a guy taller than 6'6'' that can actually score in the half court, we wont be chucking up contested threes all the time. I get that it is cronins fault for not recruiting talented 4 or 5 men but some of them just haven't developed yet. gaines is a sophomore. mbodj is in his 2nd year from juco and nyarsuk is in his 1st from juco, as is rubles. the talent just isn't there for Cronin to do anything with. I get that it his fault for recruiting so many unable big men, but that is the way it is. there is only so much Cronin can do. for example, shaq drove the other day and dished it to a wide open mbodj who then missed a layup. that is not cronins fault that mbodj cannot make a layup. I have been very critical of Cronin's offense, but it is hard to run a good offense when you have a digressing point guard in wright, a pure scorer who cant really dribble in SK, and one guy who can drive and finish and get fouled, but then only makes 55 percent from the foul line. if this continues next year, I might want to see a change but Cronin brought this program up from the laughing stock of college basketball to prominence. it has been a disappointing year, but you cant can a guy after one bad year. I think the fact that we will have our most talented recruiting class under Cronin coming in will help us to be a good team. I think the fact that sk will return and be that much better will help us be a good team. I think the fact that guyn,jackson,rubles, davis and shaq being one year older will also help us be a good team. why are you assuming that next year is going to be a rebuilding year. I think we are reloading. we will have great depth next year and I think we will actually have scoring off our bench. the fact that people are predicting .500 and worse is ridiculous. next year will be better than this year.

 

[bearcat4life]

I didn't call for him to be fired and I remember last season, it was a good year and I was happy about it. My point is that too many people defend Mick like he's an untouchable subject. The time for blindly supporting Mick is over.

Mick's a big boy with a big boy's job and a big boy's salary, it's time he got some big boy expectations and everyone stops dealing with kid gloves when they talk about the guy.

This thread is about next season and I worry about next season and beyond. I worry that in 8 seasons Mick hasn't shown the ability to install an offensive scheme and worse yet, hasn't even admitted that the need for offense in college basketball is important. I worry that guys like Jermaine Lawrence and Shaq Thomas will never see their full potential as offensive weapons because they aren't being put in positions to succeed of the offensive side of the ball.

I'm not saying Mick is a terrible coach but I'm also not going to kneel down before him because he made one sweet 16 in 8 seasons. Last season was a good season, this season we were supposed to build on that and we haven't. By all indications next year should be a drop off from this year and that creates a worrisome trend.

I would love nothing more than for this team to be 24-7 or 26-5 and ranked in the top 20 in the country. I'd much rather be debating right now as to whether we are going to get a 2 seed or a 4 seed but unfortunately that's not the case.

coach k couldn't have got us to the sweet 16 in the first 4 years if he had the same roster as Cronin. do you realize how bad it was? also, if Cronin get sk from being not recruited at all to drafted in the nba, I think he can get a 5 star to do the same. have you watched shaq? he seems to be one of the few bright spots lately and seems to be developing very well. what did you expect Cronin to do in his 1st 5 years here? the program was worse than any other BCS conference program when he took it over. the fact that he was able to get our program back on its feet should be an encouraging sign and look for him to continue to build on that success.. the season is not over btw. we have been in this situation the past 2 years, specifically 2 years ago. Cronin will rally the troops in this time off and expect them to go 2-1 down the stretch and then to make some noise in the BE and NCAA tourneys

 

[Bearcat04]

How many times are we going to hear this type of statement? First the problem was Deonta Vaughn, then it was Lance Stephenson, then it was Yancy Gates and now it's Cashmere. So your assessment is that the future looks bright because we lose Cashmere Wright?? Without Cashmere we wouldn't have won a number of games we did earlier in the season, the guy is hurt now and I don't fault him for that.

While I disagree with anyone who has said we'd be better without Lance or Yancy or Deonta or Cashmere I guess I can at least understand how someone might make that argument. What I can't understand is that after making the same argument year after year how do you not put a little bit of the responsibility on Mick? After all, these are his recruits. If every year we are saying we'd be better off losing arguably our best player for the greater good of Mick's system doesn't that concern you a little bit?? I just don't understand how so many people can go so far out of their way not to criticize anything that Mick has done. What has he done to deserve all of this blind loyalty? Am I taking crazy pills here?!?!?!

I don't see a lot of this blind loyalty that you speak of coming from UC fans. I see fans that are generally happy with what Mick has done to rebuild the program, but are very frustrated with the lack of offense, execution, and results from this year's team to this point. In terms of what has he done I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss last year's run to the Sweet 16, beating a higher seed, and having the most wins over ranked teams in the country. Prior to Mick being hired this program had reached the second week of the tournament just once in its last 9 tournament appearances! You act is if he's getting blind praise without merit.

 

[DLo3Lo]

You guys arent going anywhere. Will probably lose two of last three + early exit from BET tournament. Your season went downhill since the L you took to St Johns and that is karma for the crap you talked about them over the summer when you had some sour grapes that we got Obekpa. Have a nice time in the NIT!!!

 

[Bearcat04]

You guys arent going anywhere. Will probably lose two of last three + early exit from BET tournament. Your season went downhill since the L you took to St Johns and that is karma for the crap you talked about them over the summer when you had some sour grapes that we got Obekpa. Have a nice time in the NIT!!!

This coming from the fan of a program that hasn't won a tournament game in 12 years and counting. That's rich.