Notre Dame

[cincycpaw]

You do realize that Mick is going to be the coach for the next 25 years?

Maybe. If so, I hope he actually lands a big man and a shooter in that 25 years.

 

[ready2go]

And how many has Mick Cronin coached and recruited?

I will take Mick's decisions on who to play, what offense and defense to run, etc., etc., over those of any message board poster.

Mick saved UC basketball, he deserves a statue at 5/3rd arena.

And sadly Bearcattalk has to continue to tell him how to run an offense

DC = Mick
OC = Bearcattalk

Give us half your salary towards the cite Mick.

 

[UCalum08]

And how many has Mick Cronin coached and recruited?

I will take Mick's decisions on who to play, what offense and defense to run, etc., etc., over those of any message board poster.

Mick saved UC basketball, he deserves a statue at 5/3rd arena.

You're so stupid ralphy, I never have anything bad to say about Cronin. I enjoy watching him coach but not last night. Just because I question some really bad defense followed up with no adjustments I am entitled for that. Its not all lollipops and fairies. It might be in your world, I.e. your mom's basement, but in the real world Mick's team is hurting and I see lost players with lost confidence .

 

[UCBearcats]

There is nothing wrong with being a 3 point shooting team so long as you can get your shooters open looks at the 3. We can't even do that on offense. The only looks we get are the one's our players create for themselves off the dribble or by standing back beyond NBA range. There was one time last night Killa came around an off ball screen and curled to the corner for an open look and he drained it. Notre Dame beat us with the 3 last night but they actually ran an offense and got open looks by moving the ball and moving players off the ball. We want to be an up tempo team yet every time we get into the half court we burn the entire shot clock before chucking up a contested shot.

This offense is terrible. It's been the same since Mick has been here. First it was Deonta Vaughn's fault, then it was the lack of talent, then it was Yancy's fault because he was lazy and slow, and now it's what? What other bull crap excuse are people going to come up with now?

This is UC basketball under Mick Cronin ladies and gentlemen. We're a pretty good team with a pretty good coach. When you can't play offense you're going to go through slumps and run into games where the other team just outplays you. Defense and rebounding alone can not make an elite team, at some point you have to find a way to put the ball in the basket with regularity. Mick can't coach his guys how to do that so we have to rely on our shooters getting hot. They have to be hotter than hot because the looks they do get are mostly contested or off the dribble, so really our guys have to be on fire. In the mean time we'll grind out a few ugly wins and then our guys will catch fire and we'll rattle off 5 or 6 in a row. It's what we do.

This team will finish the season just outside the top 25 and we'll wind up with a 6-8 seed in the NCAA tourney. This is UC bball under Cronin, deal with it.

 

[Bcatfollower]

You're so stupid ralphy, I never have anything bad to say about Cronin. I enjoy watching him coach but not last night. Just because I question some really bad defense followed up with no adjustments I am entitled for that. Its not all lollipops and fairies. It might be in your world, I.e. your mom's basement, but in the real world Mick's team is hurting and I see lost players with lost confidence .

Why argue with him... He is a fool who refuses to look at different perspectives.

 

[User Name:]

I think there are many reasons why we are struggling:

1) Our offense(obviously). If the 3's aren't going in, its a constant struggle. Our bigs have given us well below what they are capable of.

2) our OOC schedule did us no favors in preparing for the Big East. Padding our win total may look good on paper at the end of the year, but for God sakes limit the amount of Tennessee Martin's/Mississippi Valley State's/North Carolina A&T's/Campbell's/Arkansas Little Rock's/Maryland Eastern Shore's from our schedule. Our team developed bad habits/work habits and the fan base becomes initially unattached. Also schedule more than 1 true road game. I want our guys tested in the OOC

3) We won't sneak up or surprise anyone this year. No team will take us lightly after our season last year and we should expect to get everyone's best shot

4) The effort is inconsistent when the offense struggles. When our shots aren't going in, we make some bonehead defensive lapses on the other end(Like leaving 3 point shooters wide open on the pick and roll)

5) Turnovers. We aren't taking care of the ball

 

[UCalum08]

I think there are many reasons why we are struggling:

1) Our offense(obviously). If the 3's aren't going in, its a constant struggle. Our bigs have given us well below what they are capable of.

2) our OOC schedule did us no favors in preparing for the Big East. Padding our win total may look good on paper at the end of the year, but for God sakes limit the amount of Tennessee Martin's/Mississippi Valley State's/North Carolina A&T's/Campbell's/Arkansas Little Rock's/Maryland Eastern Shore's from our schedule. Our team developed bad habits/work habits and the fan base becomes initially unattached. Also schedule more than 1 true road game. I want our guys tested in the OOC

3) We won't sneak up or surprise anyone this year. No team will take us lightly after our season last year and we should expect to get everyone's best shot

4) The effort is inconsistent when the offense struggles. When our shots aren't going in, we make some bonehead defensive lapses on the other end(Like leaving 3 point shooters wide open on the pick and roll)

5) Turnovers. We aren't taking care of the ball

Good assessment, # 3,4,5 are spot on. Our OOC is what it is, we can only do so much and its not the coaches fault. It was better than any other year and honestly with this team, with the seniors we have and counting SK there is no reason why this team wasn't ready come BE play.

 

[ralph1950]

Good assessment, # 3,4,5 are spot on. Our OOC is what it is, we can only do so much and its not the coaches fault. It was better than any other year and honestly with this team, with the seniors we have and counting SK there is no reason why this team wasn't ready come BE play.

No one cares about how you play in January, all anyone cares about is how well you did or did not do in the NCAA tourney.

Louisville played in the Final 4 last year, did anyone care that Providence beat them by 31 points in January?

 

[TheLongHaul]

Or just ask Arizona, Seton Hall, Stanford, Tennessee, etc if January matters.

Ask UC from 3 years ago if January matters.

 

[nparker1]

on a positive note, it was a very strong crowd of 10,293 last night...not as high as i hope to see, but on a monday night 6:30 game, with the national championship game being played, it was a strong showing...the student section was/has been great this season, basketball and football...

 

[UCalum08]

on a positive note, it was a very strong crowd of 10,293 last night...not as high as i hope to see, but on a monday night 6:30 game, with the national championship game being played, it was a strong showing...the student section was/has been great this season, basketball and football...

Agreed, the student section looked awesome on TV! Love the big head of Brian Kelly picking his nose. Classic! Good support, I hate that our team hasn't been able to let the fans enjoy a W.

 

[mplebanon]

I was looking forward to the uptempo/40 minutes of hell/10 players deep style that Mick talked about all Summer.

Now that it's clear Mick has slid back into the boring halfcourt offense, I'm kind of missing Yancy.

 

[cincycpaw]

I was looking forward to the uptempo/40 minutes of hell/10 players deep style that Mick talked about all Summer.

Now that it's clear Mick has slid back into the boring halfcourt offense, I'm kind of missing Yancy.

No kidding. He's been talking about it for years and always saying 'next year once so-and-so is gone' (meaning vaughn, stephenson, gates.... who's he going to blame after this season?)

Still lots of time to go, but it's disheartening to lose 3 games at home including 2 conference games, including one to an unranked opponent. Now this team must hold serve at home and win 3 more on the road to feel better about the end of season.

 

[Hicks' Guns]

R2G Cincinnati had 18 assists last night on 23 baskets. That's good passing. To end the first half they shot 6 3 pointers and missed two lay ups. Cash not going to the basket at the end of the game against Cooley again comes down to iq and understanding a situation. 18 assists, 47% shooting is not an inefficient offense. 7 second half turnovers, 5-11 from the ft line, and inability to guard the pick and roll lost the game. Go back and look at the game and you will find every time UC got close or tied in the second half they committed turnovers and wasted trips. Parker had 2 travelling calls in successive trips with the score tied.

Again, I agree with your principle, but a stagnant offense did not cost them last night. They were efficient, but against a team like ND you cannot waste trips. You can't allow them to hit 6 straight 3 pointers. You can't shoot 45% from the ft line. You have to guard the pick and roll and you can't have 7 second half turnovers. They assisted on 78% of their made baskets. You have to play smarter and hit ft's.

Went to the game last night and avoided BearcatTalk and watched the BCS beatdown afterward. I am in agreement with Jeff in that we could have won the game last night and our offense was better than in the previous few outings. Unfortunately, there were lots of stupid mistakes that we couldn't overcome (Sanders' latest failed inbounds pass, Parker's blatant travels, Nyarsuk inexplicably throwing the ball out of bounds when he was under the hoop and could've scored, Rubles' egregious charge, Cash's failed half court alley hoop)...lots of dumb plays last night. Combine that with Rubles going 1-9, Park not scoring, poor FT shooting and our D getting schooled by ND's O...that's why we lost.

On the other hand, our offensive scheme is troubling. I agree with what Mo has to say with respect to the offense...mostly with the third paragraph (and on Shaq Thomas)

"UC lost. At home. Again. The level of concern should be somewhere between total panic and being completely unconcerned. Yes, as Paul Daugherty points out, the Bearcats have plenty of time to figure some things out, they have a good record, a nice resume, plenty of good, beatable opponents in front of them, and despite Notre Dame's shredding of it, they do play high-level defense.

But last night it was evident how deep Cincinnati's offensive troubles really are.The Irish's offense is pleasurable to watch. There's crisp passing, movement without the ball, and near-perfect floor spacing. They rarely got off a contested shot, the primary reason why they hit seven straight threes at one point.

UC's offense is almost the exact opposite. There's a bunch of dribbling, some purpose-less passing, and often a contested shot. Throw in the fact that few Bearcats can create their own individual offense, and you've got a team that's going to either have to tweak its offense to get their best shooters better looks, or win games by relying on their defense, which isn't a completely foreign concept for this program. At some point, they're going to need big buckets to win big games. And I'm not sure how they'll get them.

Shaq Thomas. I want to see him play more. The shooting wasn't great (2-6), but I'll take every bit of the minutes he gave the Bearcats last night. He's got the most unique skill-set on the team, and he's one of the only guys capable and willing to drive to the hoop."

 

[TheLongHaul]

Well said.

 

[Bearcat04]

Good thing some of you guys aren't Georgetown fans. It's an offensive explosion when they reach 50 points.

 

[BearcatMick]

Some of you guys may be on suicide watch during the usf game. You think our offense is bad?

 

[TheLongHaul]

Some of you guys may be on suicide watch during the usf game. You think our offense is bad?

why would the USF offense being bad put us on suicide watch?

 

[BearcatMick]

why would the USF offense being bad put us on suicide watch?

Because that game could be in the 40s. Syracuse only put up 55 against them

 

[TheLongHaul]

Because that game could be in the 40s. Syracuse only put up 55 against them

USF's offense shouldn't have anything to do with UC's offense. Syracuse didn't put up only 55 on them because USF's offense is bad. There is this thing called defense ya know? What kind of logic is that?