Postgame Thoughts

[UCalum08]

I don't get the SK reference. What exactly has he been saying that's falling so short with 20 pts a game, 2 steals, 4 rebounds, 3 assists?

He went back in old habit in taking bad shots and missing a lot. He went 5/20 Sorry I look at his fg % which was horrid last year and it showed again yesterday. Just because he had 19 points doesn't mean it was a good performance.

 

[Scheids21]

He went back in old habit in taking bad shots and missing a lot. He went 5/20 Sorry I look at his fg % which was horrid last year and it showed again yesterday. Just because he had 19 points doesn't mean it was a good performance.

It wasn't his best game, but you can't just look at field goal percentage to determine how well a guy played.

 

[TheLivingLegend]

He went back in old habit in taking bad shots and missing a lot. He went 5/20 Sorry I look at his fg % which was horrid last year and it showed again yesterday. Just because he had 19 points doesn't mean it was a good performance.

Umm.. Sk played a poor game.... and still filled up the stat sheets.

Did he force some shots? Probably.. Do I want him forcing shots? Absolutely... Because frankly a bad shot for him is better then a good shot for 90% of our team.

Ripping Sk is just clownlike. Hes the only one that can offensively play. That has some basketball IQ.

 

[Cataclysmo]

There was an article last week that said JD3 isnt playing because his mind isnt even remotely close to basketball. Mick said he practices at most twice a week and even then hes just doing shooting drills. Thats why hes not playing.

 

[UCalum08]

Umm.. Sk played a poor game.... and still filled up the stat sheets.

Did he force some shots? Probably.. Do I want him forcing shots? Absolutely... Because frankly a bad shot for him is better then a good shot for 90% of our team.

Ripping Sk is just clownlike. Hes the only one that can offensively play. That has some basketball IQ.

I don't think him taking bad shots which led to easy buckets for NM classifies as smart playing. He's a fifth year senior and I expect more.

 

[Bearcat_NTS]

First possession of the game: Jackson hits a nice Tim Duncan style bank shot
Next possession: Rubles drives and finds Jackson for a lay up

Then Jackson tried to get to tricky in the paint, got frustrated, and UC went away from this offense.

The main issue offensively is to trust the system...

 

[Scheids21]

His teammates were dribbling a couple seconds then handing him the ball. His forcing a couple was due to no one else creating or wanting to shoot. The team calmed down in the second half and started attacking for themselves allowing Sean to take what the defense gave him.

 

[TheLivingLegend]

I don't think him taking bad shots which led to easy buckets for NM classifies as smart playing. He's a fifth year senior and I expect more.

Enlighten me on what you are supposed to do when you have 4 other guys on the court with the inability to put the ball in the hoop....

Are we seriously ripping SK? Hands down the best UC player we have seen in a while.

 

[JumpinJack5]

I don't think him taking bad shots which led to easy buckets for NM classifies as smart playing. He's a fifth year senior and I expect more.

I think just played the way he usually plays. Nothing would fall for him, I didn't think he forced it as bad as he did for most of last year. He looked solid in the second half, as he scored all but 2 of his 19 points in the second half. Everyone has bad games, he was due for one. He will be ready for the Crosstown Shootout.

 

[waterhead]

He went back in old habit in taking bad shots and missing a lot. He went 5/20 Sorry I look at his fg % which was horrid last year and it showed again yesterday. Just because he had 19 points doesn't mean it was a good performance.

I didn't say he had a good performance...but it's kind of hard being the ONLY guy on the team who can make shit happen...and then STILL get it done when the other team knows that.

Give the kid a break....he's put his heart and soul into this program.

Ripping on SK is one of the most ridiculous things I can imagine a fan harping about. Trust me...there are about 10 things you can rip on before you get to SK.

 

[waterhead]

Hey...when nobody else is willing to shoot WTF do you want SK to do...stop shooting? You must be crazy. If SK didn't do what he did in the second half we would have lost by more than 20 because nobody else was willing OR ABLE. If you take SK off the court..who in Gods name do you think is going to produce?


You're nuts on this particular notion.

 

[CaptDale]

Hey...when nobody else is willing to shoot WTF do you want SK to do...stop shooting? You must be crazy. If SK didn't do what he did in the second half we would have lost by more than 20 because nobody else was willing OR ABLE. If you take SK off the court..who in Gods name do you think is going to produce?


You're nuts on this particular notion.

That's an interesting question to ponder. SK rarely gets into foul trouble, but if he did, or if he got hurt, what would this team do? Somebody would have to step up and become the "Man". Not gonna be JJ or Rubles. Needs to be a SG of sorts. Hopefully we won't have to find that out, but it could happen

 

[Robert]

That's an interesting question to ponder. SK rarely gets into foul trouble, but if he did, or if he got hurt, what would this team do? Somebody would have to step up and become the "Man". Not gonna be JJ or Rubles. Needs to be a SG of sorts. Hopefully we won't have to find that out, but it could happen

Shaq could be the man, but he's going to be on a short leash until he figures out how to play team defense. That short leash hurts his aggressiveness on offense, in my opinion. I would love to see him take his man off the dribble more often and create space for his mid-range jumpers.

 

[UCalum08]

Hey...when nobody else is willing to shoot WTF do you want SK to do...stop shooting? You must be crazy. If SK didn't do what he did in the second half we would have lost by more than 20 because nobody else was willing OR ABLE. If you take SK off the court..who in Gods name do you think is going to produce?


You're nuts on this particular notion.

Thats a major problem this team needs to be address. To have Sk just jack up 3's bc no one else would is not succifent imo. Thats resorting to last year and the year before. He could have done more to get a better shot than just shooting just bc we need to get a shot.

 

[Bearcat22]

Despite the loss, playing in that environment will serve the team well and help the young players grow up faster. Outside of SK and Rubles, this team is counting on young players or players featured in expanded and or different roles. They are going to put up some difficult to watch performances. The February / March version of the Cats should be much more cohesive. The X game should be a good indicator of how this team bounces back....not to mention it's nice to have X as the next opponent for the Cats to release some frustration against.

 

[TheLongHaul]

I tend to be known as a debbie downer, but I think I will wait and see how Rubles and Jackson play against a team that doesn't have TWO really good post players that are 30-40 pounds bigger and several inches taller. I think both can be effective against smaller teams. Jackson actually looked okay early in the game. The biggest issue with the team will be trusting this new offensive scheme even when things aren't going well. Today we saw Kilpatrick having to revert back to his old ways (to be fair Williams is a very good defender).

When you have a team who has never been known for having a good half court offense (in the history of the coach's career), has only one player who is a threat from the outside, and is playing against a team that is much bigger (and SLOWER), don't you think that pushing the tempo should be part of the strategy?

That is all we hear year in year out to start the season yet whenever UC plays a decent opponent they completely scrap it from their game plan. If there was ever a time to push the tempo and run up and down the court, it would have been against NM. They had a big height/weight advantage and UC could have used JJ and Rubles' athleticism as an advantage but they didn't. This is an issue IMO.

 

[waterhead]

When you have a team who has never been known for having a good half court offense (in the history of the coach's career), has only one player who is a threat from the outside, and is playing against a team that is much bigger (and SLOWER), don't you think that pushing the tempo should be part of the strategy?

That is all we hear year in year out to start the season yet whenever UC plays a decent opponent they completely scrap it from their game plan. If there was ever a time to push the tempo and run up and down the court, it would have been against NM. They had a big height/weight advantage and UC could have used JJ and Rubles' athleticism as an advantage but they didn't. This is an issue IMO.

I agree. Unless things change I think our best offensive strategy would be to avoid getting into half court offense as much as possible. Push the ball up the court and try to create a foul situation by going to the bucket. If the lane is full kick it out and take an open J if we have it. We can't go 2 on 4 but even a 2 on 3 I would still recommend pushing it. Don't let their D get set.

When teams aren't packing it in like NM or if they are not playing zone I am fine with running a half court O because we do have players who can beat their man off the dribble. The problem with NM was...once you got around your man you ran into the rest of the D packed in tight. We should have been shooting more pull up J's in this case. Not the big men but the guards and wings.

 

[waterhead]

Thats a major problem this team needs to be address. To have Sk just jack up 3's bc no one else would is not succifent imo. Thats resorting to last year and the year before. He could have done more to get a better shot than just shooting just bc we need to get a shot.

I agree it is a major problem (but it's not on SK's shoulders). If nobody else is willing or capable of getting a decent shot off then SK is who we need doing it. It was the main concern coming into the season along with our bigs. Who, other than SK, was going to score? We will be fine against man to man but when we play zone we are going to have to get that figured out. Our coach has to get this figured out. Last year we had shooters but no inside presence. This year I think we have a better inside presence but only one reliable outside shooter. In either case it lets the D either guard the perimeter or sag low. Not good. We need balance or a better offensive scheme against zone or packed in D's.

We need players to step up and beat their man to knock down mid range or be capable of making long range shots with a better %...or to break the zone down off the dribble. Who is this going to be? As of right now I would like to give TC a shot at doing that. I don't care if he gets 20 minutes at PG and stealing 10 more minutes from the wing position. Thomas and Sanders have had long enough to make something happen. Lawrence and KJ probably aren't going to be consistent enough. Who knows what will happen with Davis.

TC has been pretty efficient. His FG% is 40% but this doesn't tell the whole story. He has been to the line for 30 FT attempts which is 3rd on the team right now (7 more than JJ and 13 more than GG). He's knocking those down at 87%. So missed shots resulting in fouls need to be considered in a player's effectiveness.

 

[UCBearcats]

Well I really liked what I'd being seeing from the Cats on offense this season...until Saturday. This team gets their first real challenge and it's right back to the same weak style of basketball I've come to loathe.

I get UNM is tough, I get that we played them on the road, I get that one loss isn't the end of the world. What I don't get is why Mick's team's ALWAYS seem to let the other team dictate their style of play. UC had been playing a fresh new (for them) style of offensive basketball since the start of the season. We've been moving well, passing well, playing inside and inside out, cutting to the basket...all of it. Then we play our first game against a quality opponent and poof...we're right back to the same old crap. It's frustrating and it makes you wonder if this team will be able to actually compete this season. Now that we're out of the Big East and in the AAC anything more than 7 or 8 losses and you can kiss the NCAA's goodbye. We'll win our fair share of games and probably a few no one expected, the question is can we avoid losing more than 8??

 

[Robert]

Well I really liked what I'd being seeing from the Cats on offense this season...until Saturday. This team gets their first real challenge and it's right back to the same weak style of basketball I've come to loathe.

I get UNM is tough, I get that we played them on the road, I get that one loss isn't the end of the world. What I don't get is why Mick's team's ALWAYS seem to let the other team dictate their style of play. UC had been playing a fresh new (for them) style of offensive basketball since the start of the season. We've been moving well, passing well, playing inside and inside out, cutting to the basket...all of it. Then we play our first game against a quality opponent and poof...we're right back to the same old crap. It's frustrating and it makes you wonder if this team will be able to actually compete this season. Now that we're out of the Big East and in the AAC anything more than 7 or 8 losses and you can kiss the NCAA's goodbye. We'll win our fair share of games and probably a few no one expected, the question is can we avoid losing more than 8??

A lot of it is who you beat as well. I am a little concerned about this team's chances to make the tournament after the New Mexico game. The reason is we don't really have a lot of games against teams that will receive at-large bids in the NCAA tournament. New Mexico and Pittsburgh certainly look like tournament teams -- Xavier remains to be seen.

When you look at our conference, Louisville, UConn, and Memphis look like NCAA tournament teams. SMU has a shot as well, but we'll have to see what they do against better competition. Point is, without a strong out-of-conference schedule, and now that we are in the AAC, we don't have a whole lot of chances to put wins against NCAA teams on our resume. Louisville, UConn, and Memphis are all really, really good teams. I think we can pull off an upset or two, but if we split our Xavier/Pitt games and sneak 1 or 2 upsets against the big boys in our conference, is that going to be enough to receive an at-large bid?