Rutgers Postgame comments

[waterhead]

In all seriousness, Mick has always struggled to get his guys going. I dont know why.

I think its very evident Mick needs to make some changes in his coaching staff.
- Offensive guru
- Motivator
- Big man specialist

Offensively I agree...but I don't know how you get teams to be one of the best defensive teams in the country the last two years without being able to "get them going".

 

[ready2go]

Offensively I agree...but I don't know how you get teams to be one of the best defensive teams in the country the last two years without being able to "get them going".

Defensively I have no gripes, its just frustrating when the HC continues to neglect the other end of the floor.

I was so high on this team, the games following the brawl and now, that hype is all gone

 

[User Name:]

It's a broken record with Cronin. Never seen a coach throw his players under the bus as he does."It's the players fault, thats life in the Big East, We're a young team, we don't have our highest rated recruit this year, they didn't listen to me,ect,ect."

This was suppose to be the year we break through. Now, just like most years, UC is a bubble team. Unlike those early years, there is talent on the team and UC should not be in this postion.

How our fanbase can just over look home losses to team such a presbyterian and Marshall is beyond me. It's almost as some are happy to be in 7th place.

With the brawl, the losses I stated earlier, his inabilty to land impact players, and his development of the players we got, his act is getting old. Sadly nothing is going to change. Guess we just have to accept the fact we are stuck with Cronin till somebody says enough is enough.

I remember wearing the cpaw with pride. Now I'm almost embarrassed to be a fan of this team simply because of who are coach is.

Nail on the head. This team was a borderline preseason top 25 team with some even putting them in the top 25. Then we proceeded to play like crap for the first quarter of the season. Then the brawl came, we played some pretty horrific teams, and Mick changed to a 4 guard offense out of necessity. They start winning and everyone forgets how horrible the gameplan was at the beginning.



When things go bad, Mick throws the players under the bus. He does it every freaking time. He takes no responsibility for anything

When things go well, he also says stupid stuff and he takes all the credit for winning. The only time he has not directly put his foot in his mouth was right after the brawl.

Mick is embarrassing this program

 

[waterhead]

Defensively I have no gripes, its just frustrating when the HC continues to neglect the other end of the floor.

I was so high on this team, the games following the brawl and now, that hype is all gone

As a fan I agree and would rather win from an offensive standpoint than a defensive one. It's just more fun to watch dunks, 3 pointers, fast breaks, etc. At the moment I will accept wins in any form

 

[adhdfan]

It is the Big East, not C-USA. Anyone can beat anyone else. The team beat Pitt, Georgetown, and UConn on the road. Very impressive.

I agree! The schedule has been a grind.. If they don't come out to play after a week off and some healing time for SK then I will talk. For now every team in the big east can get tired and have a three game losing streak.. Don't forget where the ninth place team in our conference finished last year.. UC WILL turn this around and win most if not all of the next nine games..

 

[User Name:]

I agree! The schedule has been a grind.. If they don't come out to play after a week off and some healing time for SK then I will talk. For now every team in the big east can get tired and have a three game losing streak.. Don't forget where the ninth place team in our conference finished last year.. UC WILL turn this around and win most if not all of the next nine games..

This year is not last year. The Big East is not nearly as strong this year. There will not be 11 teams from the Big East in the NCAA tourney.

Depaul and St Johns are W's

Marquette(2x), UL, At Nova, Seton Hall, and Providence will be dogfights.

I said it before. Hold serve at home, steal a couple on the road and we are in good shape

 

[Bearcat04]

After yesterday's poor performance I felt Cronin's comments summed up how I was feeling. Part of what he said was:

“We’re soft,” Cronin said. “The going has gotten tough in the Big East. We’re not tough enough to win a game right now. Not ready to play, no mental toughness. Give Rutgers credit. They’re not too good to listen to their coach. They’re not too good to play hard right now. We’re too good for both things. We’re too good to listen. We’re too good to play hard. We’re too good to get a loose ball with the game on the line or even dive for it.”


I am not trying to start a Cronin debate or take jabs at him but, how many times have we heard this in the past 2 years?! This is a ridiculous problem that has been brewing. Pretty sure you hardly ever, ever hear this from any other team and for some reason these comments are being addressed after majority of our losses. I am having problems trying to identify the real problem. Is it our coach or the players? Or both? I mean if Cronin can't get his players to listen to him, which apparently has been a problem for years, whats his problem?! Why is he recruiting these lazy a$$ players who don't have the right drive and motivation.
Cronin also said he was so embarrassed to coach these guys and he is miserable. From a fan's point of view we are miserable too. When the coach is making these comments over and over again, what makes the university think the fans want to support a bunch of over privileged losers who don't play for their school and coach? Our own coach has grown tired of the play of our players, and I sure can tell you from a season ticket holder point of view, I surely do not want to give any money to support the product on the floor. Clearly something is broken, I am not sure what is causing this, maybe its a combination of a lot of things but it sure is growing old because even with a tourney appearance last year, the past 3 years have been beyond frustrating for the wrong reasons.

Mick's comments actually look pretty soft compared to what I've heard from Calhoun and Huggins after their recent bad losses.

 

[waterhead]

I agree! The schedule has been a grind.. If they don't come out to play after a week off and some healing time for SK then I will talk. For now every team in the big east can get tired and have a three game losing streak.. Don't forget where the ninth place team in our conference finished last year.. UC WILL turn this around and win most if not all of the next nine games..

Let's not forget two of the 3 games in a row we lost were against possibly the best team in the country and another likely tourney team (which we were within 1 point of beating) on the road.

In essence we have lost one game in a row where we were favored by a whole 2.5 points...basically a pick em game.

It may be time for concern but it's not time to panic yet. There are a lot of fans who need to chill out a bit. If we lose to Depaul...put your finger next to the panic button but don't press it just yet.

 

[waterhead]

Mick's comments actually look pretty soft compared to what I've heard from Calhoun and Huggins after their recent bad losses.

Winning will fix most of the nit picking from fans. I care as much about post game presser sound bytes as I do about graduation rates.

Get us to the dance very often and do well. That's about it for me. If you can do that you can call yourself God in post game pressers and I won't give a shyte.

 

[BearcatBounce]

I had a bad feeling about this game. Rutgers has beat good teams at the RAC this year. So I saw this loss coming if they didnt play well. Time to dig deep and get W's

 

[UCBearcats]

I felt last night those guys played hard, they just couldnt make a bucket and Mick had no answer or set for helping the situatuion.

Its easy to blame player effort, but honestly I felt they were playing hard. The gameplan is what screwed them.

They have completely gone away from what got them to where they were

Mick takes to much into effect the other teams capabilities instead of what his own team posseses

EXACTLY.....Looks like we're back to trying to game plan around a team's weakness instead of playing to our strengths. Someone had a great quote on this board a couple of weeks ago when they said instead of us worrying how to match up to our opponents, our opponents now have to worry about how they match up with us. That was true during our streak, why we've gotten away from that is beyond me.

Still got 9 games left, we've gotta finish strong. I'm not ready to jump down Mick's throat yet, I said after the brawl and the wining streak I'd give him the rest of the season and that's what I'm going to do. There is still time to get back on track and finish strong.

I think it's hysterical that so many people on this board LOVE to bash our players and call them all kinds of names. The second someone says anything bad about Mick people act like you're taking the lord's name in vain. Stop bashing our players, they're kids, they play hard. They are not lazy or worthless. We have a good team, we've proven it by beating other good teams.

If Mick cannot win with this team then it's on him, simple as that. This is a top 25 caliber team, they were before the season and they are now, it's up to Mick to get them where they're capable of going.

 

[rallie25]

Do you think these players play with a good basketball IQ? Gates never fight of position in the post or go strong when he gets the ball! Dixon is athletic but he sometime throws up goofy shots when theres contect! Cash is fast but doesn't cant get away from defenders! Mick did recruit these guys but i dont think the talent is BEAST caliber!

 

[UCBearcats]

Do you think these players play with a good basketball IQ? Gates never fight of position in the post or go strong when he gets the ball! Dixon is athletic but he sometime throws up goofy shots when theres contect! Cash is fast but doesn't cant get away from defenders! Mick did recruit these guys but i dont think the talent is BEAST caliber!

Probably one of the biggest responsibilities of a coach is to teach the guys to play basketball. If they aren't playing with IQ, and you're talking about JR's and SR's here, then at some point you've got to look at the guy who's coaching them.

There is talent on this roster, I believe we are a legit top 25 team. We didn't go on a streak and beat tough teams because we aren't good. We can play with anybody in the Big East, we aren't the best or the deepest team but we're good enough to be dangerous. There is certainly enough talent on this roster that this team should be in the NCAA's in March. Not could be, but should be. Anything less has to be viewed as a failure.

I don't want to bash Mick yet, season isn't over. I'm just tired of listening to people bash our players. People on this board seem to take criticism of Mick as a personal attack but then they're so quick to trash our players. I just think it's comical.

 

[Butterfly]

Do you think these players play with a good basketball IQ? Gates never fight of position in the post or go strong when he gets the ball! Dixon is athletic but he sometime throws up goofy shots when theres contect! Cash is fast but doesn't cant get away from defenders! Mick did recruit these guys but i dont think the talent is BEAST caliber!

Yancy has been fighting for position and his post play this year has been a major step up. Even more so, after the suspensions, since he was believed to have 4 outside shooters, you had to pay attention to.
Of course, we now know they are streaky and offensively challenged. Terrible passing as well, especially from Parker.

Get us skill players, not just athletes. That's all I ask.

 

[TheLongHaul]

Yancy has been fighting for position and his post play this year has been a major step up. Even more so, after the suspensions, since he was believed to have 4 outside shooters, you had to pay attention to.
Of course, we now know they are streaky and offensively challenged. Terrible passing as well, especially from Parker.

Get us skill players, not just athletes. That's all I ask.

Frankly I'd like both. Sanders is a skill player but athletically is limited and hasn't done anything this year. Granted he is a freshman but his quickness leaves a lot to be desired. SK is another skill player whose athleticism hurts him. Good offensive player but has been limited when guarded by a quicker player and his defense has been suspect for most of his young career.

And I don't really see guys on this team that are just athletes. Wilks was the only one that came to mind but of course he isn't on the team anymore. Perhaps Ellis and Gaines. Davis looks to have some skill and decent athleticism. Dixon is athletic but not to the point where it gives him any great advantage. Jackson isn't overly athletic. Gates and Mbodj aren't.

 

[Eternal E]

Frankly I'd like both. Sanders is a skill player but athletically is limited and hasn't done anything this year. Granted he is a freshman but his quickness leaves a lot to be desired. SK is another skill player whose athleticism hurts him. Good offensive player but has been limited when guarded by a quicker player and his defense has been suspect for most of his young career.

And I don't really see guys on this team that are just athletes. Wilks was the only one that came to mind but of course he isn't on the team anymore. Perhaps Ellis and Gaines. Davis looks to have some skill and decent athleticism. Dixon is athletic but not to the point where it gives him any great advantage. Jackson isn't overly athletic. Gates and Mbodj aren't.

ideally you'd like a mix, championship level teams generally have very athletics 3/4 guys that guard the other teams best player and a skilled point and center.

 

[rallie25]

I guess I'm looking for Yancy to fight in the post like Gained does! With the body he can't be stopped! I I don't like Mick yanking guys out after mistakes especially knowing how fragile his players are! IMO when going gets hard the guards gets scared to make a move! Cronin could be a coach that knows the game but doesn't know how to teach it! I don't know I just want to see the Cats win!

 

[Butterfly]

Gaines is an Athlete, Jeremiah Davis may be more than an athlete, but I'll need time to see that, Cashmere Wright is/was fast, but that's it, Jackson is an athlete, though he is also a good passer.
Really, just no functional depth. Parker is better at shooting, but other than that...
Dixon was nothing more than an athlete, though he has a sick mid range jumper, makes better plays over all. The question I have, is what happened to his ability to finish at the rim? Dude could fly last season.


I'm just unimpressed, I guess.
SK as a skill player is not a good thing, he's streaky as well.
He needs to work on his strength. He still can't finish and it's pissing me off.
Every game, there's an obligatory lay up into the trees, that gets blocked and makes me want to yank my hair out.
For the love of God, someone teach them to give the ball to the open man. I don't care if it is Yancy, he can pass it back out.
This passing around the arc, with no penetration, is a terrible idea.

Not everything needs to be a 3. They graze the rim or go too hard, because they're shooting from nba range. There's nothing wrong with a mid range J. We can't hit 3's consistently, we can't compete that way. They're not good enough shooters to get away with it.

 

[waterhead]

Probably one of the biggest responsibilities of a coach is to teach the guys to play basketball. If they aren't playing with IQ, and you're talking about JR's and SR's here, then at some point you've got to look at the guy who's coaching them.

There is talent on this roster, I believe we are a legit top 25 team. We didn't go on a streak and beat tough teams because we aren't good. We can play with anybody in the Big East, we aren't the best or the deepest team but we're good enough to be dangerous. There is certainly enough talent on this roster that this team should be in the NCAA's in March. Not could be, but should be. Anything less has to be viewed as a failure.

I don't want to bash Mick yet, season isn't over. I'm just tired of listening to people bash our players. People on this board seem to take criticism of Mick as a personal attack but then they're so quick to trash our players. I just think it's comical.

who are the player bashing mick lovers?

 

[rallie25]

I agree with your post! Is because they have no BBall IQ! The middle in the zone is open but they either settle for a long shot are over penetrate! Dixon would fit nice in the middle, because he weaves through traffic than anybody on the team!