Season Updates

[TheLivingLegend]

Have we even been able to practice in the last month? I really don’t know. If not, are people still expecting people to improve?

No. They have had 1 practice... And some individual workouts. But that's about it

 

[justinhub2003]

Have we even been able to practice in the last month? I really don’t know. If not, are people still expecting people to improve?

Ya know we did play 10 games uninterrupted prior to this break. And the sophomores just don’t look all that great.



But the reality is: the future doesn’t look bright right now. We still lack star power, we still lack momentum on the recruiting trail and literally we have lost our culture of defense & toughness in just 2 years


I just have no idea what the bright side is. I don’t think John brannen is the coaching guru some of you do. And I certainly don’t think he understands how to coach elite defense.

The guy says “all we practice is defense”. And yet it looks like they never practice it. We send teams to free throw line more than 309 other teams. We are top 20 in defense 3fA/FGA, because teams realize that shooting 3’s against us is silly when scoring at the rim is an all you can eat buffet.



He’s gonna need to build an exciting roster without losing guys like Harvey to transfer. Because if we add nothing but low major recruits in the spring, then basketball is going to see a lot of empty seats in a brand new arena.

Néed a PR win more then actual win

 

[cincyguy13]

Ya know we did play 10 games uninterrupted prior to this break. And the sophomores just don’t look all that great.



But the reality is: the future doesn’t look bright right now. We still lack star power, we still lack momentum on the recruiting trail and literally we have lost our culture of defense & toughness in just 2 years


I just have no idea what the bright side is. I don’t think John brannen is the coaching guru some of you do. And I certainly don’t think he understands how to coach elite defense.

The guy says “all we practice is defense”. And yet it looks like they never practice it. We send teams to free throw line more than 309 other teams. We are top 20 in defense 3fA/FGA, because teams realize that shooting 3’s against us is silly when scoring at the rim is an all you can eat buffet.



He’s gonna need to build an exciting roster without losing guys like Harvey to transfer. Because if we add nothing but low major recruits in the spring, then basketball is going to see a lot of empty seats in a brand new arena.

Néed a PR win more then actual win

Davenport and Harvey look more than capable of starting and being good in this league. You know that. Eason is good. Raw yes, but good. Most people agreed on this board, that bringing in 1 good player a year is good and what cronin managed to do. In a year and a half I think brannen has done that. Yes, we need a jarron level star. But we didn’t get those guys every year with mick. Don’t make things up. He’s brought in good players. It takes time. If you watch any basketball at all you know that. Don’t play dumb

 

[cincyguy13]

Dejulius is also a solid starter, especially in this league. These guys aren’t all American type players but for this league they are pretty good. No brannen hasn’t brought in a whole roster of stars but let’s not act like he’s missed on every player. There’s 4 starters right there in a year and a half.

 

[TheRealMick]

We’re terrible plain and simple. John gets paid big bucks to fix it! I didn’t like hire from beginning, I don’t care what he’s doing now, not keeping kid from Xenia was alarming. We needed coach that had a outstanding relationship with all top local talent. He wasn’t even recruiting him to nku, carlik Jones also wanted come home and he let Mack beat him.

 

[TheRealMick]

Dejulius is also a solid starter, especially in this league. These guys aren’t all American type players but for this league they are pretty good. No brannen hasn’t brought in a whole roster of stars but let’s not act like he’s missed on every player. There’s 4 starters right there in a year and a half.

I’m only giving him Davenport and Harvey. Only two guys I can win with “RIGHT NOW”. Jury still out on Eason and as you can see you’re not winning with Deju!

 

[JoeRunner89]

Dejulius is also a solid starter, especially in this league. These guys aren’t all American type players but for this league they are pretty good. No brannen hasn’t brought in a whole roster of stars but let’s not act like he’s missed on every player. There’s 4 starters right there in a year and a half.

His recruiting and player evaluation has been quite below average. Hence to the current record. Can he coach these guys up? Its certainly not looking like it right now.. but more time will tell all we can do is sit through this all. Lahkin and Ivanaouskas... I mean come on. I don't want to hear any covid 3xcuses either. It's funny how all the garbage teams cant get on the court by the way... and as far as recruiting I dont see the football team having any issues as well as completing a season with a an even bigger roster

 

[waterhead]

Nothing to do now but see if Brannen can get it all figured out. Complaining now won’t do a whole lot. But in a year or two he will need some results. I’m not jumping off the cliff yet. Need to find some athletic bigs even if they can’t shoot.

Eason needs to be at the 4. We get a rim protector who can play decent switching on guards Eason will be great backside help. Hopefully the guards progress. We can’t keep going transfer heavy. 2021 class could hurt but we will see what the answers will be.

 

[justinhub2003]

It’s also hilarious how people attributed Tre Scott’s play last season to John Brannen.

But they refuse to blame anyone but the player when it comes to jarron, Keith and even Chris Vogt to a lesser extent.

Stuff like that is how I know people aren’t calling this like they see it. They took a stand on John brannen being the guy and they will go down with that ship & defend him til the lights are out.

I was a skeptic from the beginning. But with me, winning cures everything. If we win, I’ll gladly take an L and say I was wrong. Because I expect excellence from this program especially in this busted ass league. If this was mick Cronin coaching this busted ass team in this busted ass league, I’d be saying the exact same things. It goes beyond coaches. I just want to win,

And I’m not sold on Davenport or Harvey yet. JD benefits from being an unknown on the scouting report. He has potential but i don’t think he’s the star player on a winning team that’s top 25.

 

[justinhub2003]

Elaborating more on JD

Now that he’s been more of a focus for opposing defenses, he’s no longer getting the wide open 3 point looks.

He is 6-22 in AAC play from 3

Good for 27%

Luckily he’s been shooting good from 2, but I think his 3 point shooting is no where near as good as it was to start the year. He’s an energy guy at best. Not a starter on a legit top 25 team

He attributes to a winning team. But will never be why you win consistently

And Harvey has a lot of proving to do before we say he is the next star at UC.

DDJ has been a huge disappointmenf if we’re being honest. His offensive rating is 12 points worse than last year at Michigan. 3pt% is 17%
Like him and Chris McNeal are neck & neck. It’s 15% in AAC play so it’s not getting better. At Michigan he got fouled a lot more, at UC, that’s down from 28% to 16% and 11% in AAC play.
His TO rate is much worse.


Literally his assist rate and defensive rebounding are the only redeemable things about DDJ stat line.

I’m curious as to why you think he’s who’s he is AAC quality?? I mean he’s regressed like most players on this team.

 

[waterhead]

It’s also hilarious how people attributed Tre Scott’s play last season to John Brannen.

But they refuse to blame anyone but the player when it comes to jarron, Keith and even Chris Vogt to a lesser extent.

Stuff like that is how I know people aren’t calling this like they see it. They took a stand on John brannen being the guy and they will go down with that ship & defend him til the lights are out.

I was a skeptic from the beginning. But with me, winning cures everything. If we win, I’ll gladly take an L and say I was wrong. Because I expect excellence from this program especially in this busted ass league. If this was mick Cronin coaching this busted ass team in this busted ass league, I’d be saying the exact same things. It goes beyond coaches. I just want to win,

And I’m not sold on Davenport or Harvey yet. JD benefits from being an unknown on the scouting report. He has potential but i don’t think he’s the star player on a winning team that’s top 25.

I literally don’t know anyone defending the coach to death. I know a lot more who are sounding like the opposite of that. Your opinion seems a lot more absolute than others defending.

The defense for the coach for the most part is give it time. If it doesn’t happen it doesn’t happen. Expecting every new coach to have results of other new coaches doing well is short sighted. For some coaches it takes time and others not so much.

Constantly ragging on a coach that deserves a fair shot is detrimental to the program. You are the most impatient type of fan also a lot of over the top hyperbole. I don’t know any fan claiming CJB is the second coming. Just people pointing out circumstances and asking for patience is about as far as it goes in his defense.

 

[justinhub2003]

I literally don’t know anyone defending the coach to death. I know a lot more who are sounding like the opposite of that. Your opinion seems a lot more absolute than others defending.

The defense for the coach for the most part is give it time. If it doesn’t happen it doesn’t happen. Expecting every new coach to have results of other new coaches doing well is short sighted. For some coaches it takes time and others not so much.

Constantly ragging on a coach that deserves a fair shot is detrimental to the program. You are the most impatient type of fan also a lot of over the top hyperbole. I don’t know any fan claiming CJB is the second coming. Just people pointing out circumstances and asking for patience is about as far as it goes in his defense.

I’m not against letting it play out. But the excuses are total BS. Every coach dealt with Covid.

Every coach deals with transfers. Every 2nd year coach in the same class of team as UC is doing better then UC.

I just hate the excuses.

If people said UC sucks but I’m not giving up yet, then fine, I’ll accept that. But it’s the excuses that drive me nuts.

And this “detrimental to the program” is total BS. Chad Brendel tried to say the same thing. But the reality is.... losing is detrimental to the program and his business. You want a vibrant interactive message board: Win, you want fans in seats donating money?: Win

It’s simple.

I’m not a revolutionary. I’m a guy talking about his displeasure with the choices the Old AD made and now a 3-7 record with no recruits for 2021.

 

[waterhead]

I’m not against letting it play out. But the excuses are total BS. Every coach dealt with Covid.

Every coach deals with transfers. Every 2nd year coach in the same class of team as UC is doing better then UC.

I just hate the excuses.

If people said UC sucks but I’m not giving up yet, then fine, I’ll accept that. But it’s the excuses that drive me nuts.

And this “detrimental to the program” is total BS. Chad Brendel tried to say the same thing. But the reality is.... losing is detrimental to the program and his business. You want a vibrant interactive message board: Win, you want fans in seats donating money?: Win

It’s simple.

I’m not a revolutionary. I’m a guy talking about his displeasure with the choices the Old AD made and now a 3-7 record with no recruits for 2021.

I don’t really care what reasoning or excuses are being made as long as there is continuous improvement through the year. And next season to get off to a faster start and faster for following year. Nobody will be happy with long term or even medium term failure to win or make tourney.

Relax! There is displeasure all over. It happened when Cronin was hear most years. I told people to relax then and I do it now. Cronin eventually would do just enough to keep the mob at bay. I don’t know why there always has bro be an impatient mob...but damn there always is unless you are a HOFer.

You have said multiple times you are changing the way it affects you but it’s definitely not apparent. It’s okay to be affected by it but every other post repeating the same mantra gets old on any board.

 

[skyblade]

I appreciate Justin's takes, yes I get that there are many who are still in wait and see mode. But Brannen has done plenty that deserves criticism and it seems many want to see only rainbows.

Think of some our stars in past years in year 2, Keith, Jarron or Jacob Evans. It's hard to look at this team and see a guy who is a the same level. Davenport is promising, but doesn't look like a star. Harvey has potential, but he's not as good as the above three were as sophomores. Eason has moments, but with how mistake prone he is he wouldn't play for most teams. There are pieces, but I can't honestly look at this team and say I expect a top three AAC team next year.

Then there's transfers. Besides Jaevin who basically fell in Brannen's lap (and who still wasn't good enough to start). Our next best transfer is shooting only 17% from three. Just tells you how bad the rest of them have been. I swear I could do better at evaluating transfers than Brannen (or whoever does it for him) - and that's not because I think I'd be good at it. If Brannen is going to the transfer market to save us next year, we might as well just throw in the towel.

Then of course the lack of recruiting.

Sure, Covid is an excuse for the season. If only one thing had gone wrong, I'd be on board with blaming Covid. I was the one with low expectations for the year because we are a young team. But everything has gone wrong. Players didn't develop, the transfers were/are bad, nobody has been recruited for next year, we are a bad team and don't even get me started on Brannen's insane commitment to playing Vogt (and Rap early in the season). Covid can only excuse so much.

I hope those who believe Brannen will turn it around next year are right. If I was making the decision Brannen probably wouldn't get a year 3. But I expect he will, so I hope he can turn it around.

 

[cincyguy13]

It’s also hilarious how people attributed Tre Scott’s play last season to John Brannen.

But they refuse to blame anyone but the player when it comes to jarron, Keith and even Chris Vogt to a lesser extent.

Stuff like that is how I know people aren’t calling this like they see it. They took a stand on John brannen being the guy and they will go down with that ship & defend him til the lights are out.

I was a skeptic from the beginning. But with me, winning cures everything. If we win, I’ll gladly take an L and say I was wrong. Because I expect excellence from this program especially in this busted ass league. If this was mick Cronin coaching this busted ass team in this busted ass league, I’d be saying the exact same things. It goes beyond coaches. I just want to win,

And I’m not sold on Davenport or Harvey yet. JD benefits from being an unknown on the scouting report. He has potential but i don’t think he’s the star player on a winning team that’s top 25.

I don’t attribute all of Tre Scott’s success to brannen. I’m a guy that doesn’t blame the coach for everything, even cronin. I say a lot of it is on the players. You are the guy that blames the coach for everything, unless it’s a coach you like. I’m just pointing out your inconsistencies. You can’t blame him for Keith not being good but not give him credit for Tre. I’ve always say be consistent. I accept criticism of brannen just don’t make it seem like everything is his fault. Sometimes the players don’t improve every year. We’ve had plenty of them that didn’t improve every year.

 

[cincyguy13]

I appreciate Justin's takes, yes I get that there are many who are still in wait and see mode. But Brannen has done plenty that deserves criticism and it seems many want to see only rainbows.

Think of some our stars in past years in year 2, Keith, Jarron or Jacob Evans. It's hard to look at this team and see a guy who is a the same level. Davenport is promising, but doesn't look like a star. Harvey has potential, but he's not as good as the above three were as sophomores. Eason has moments, but with how mistake prone he is he wouldn't play for most teams. There are pieces, but I can't honestly look at this team and say I expect a top three AAC team next year.

Then there's transfers. Besides Jaevin who basically fell in Brannen's lap (and who still wasn't good enough to start). Our next best transfer is shooting only 17% from three. Just tells you how bad the rest of them have been. I swear I could do better at evaluating transfers than Brannen (or whoever does it for him) - and that's not because I think I'd be good at it. If Brannen is going to the transfer market to save us next year, we might as well just throw in the towel.

Then of course the lack of recruiting.

Sure, Covid is an excuse for the season. If only one thing had gone wrong, I'd be on board with blaming Covid. I was the one with low expectations for the year because we are a young team. But everything has gone wrong. Players didn't develop, the transfers were/are bad, nobody has been recruited for next year, we are a bad team and don't even get me started on Brannen's insane commitment to playing Vogt (and Rap early in the season). Covid can only excuse so much.

I hope those who believe Brannen will turn it around next year are right. If I was making the decision Brannen probably wouldn't get a year 3. But I expect he will, so I hope he can turn it around.

I’d relax with your evaluation skills. You are the same guy that has been screaming about dou being a star. Also dejulius is good. He isn’t shooting well but he’s doing everything else well. If we judge players simply by their shooting ability, most of cronin players would be considered terrible.

 

[cincyguy13]

It’s also hilarious how people attributed Tre Scott’s play last season to John Brannen.

But they refuse to blame anyone but the player when it comes to jarron, Keith and even Chris Vogt to a lesser extent.

Stuff like that is how I know people aren’t calling this like they see it. They took a stand on John brannen being the guy and they will go down with that ship & defend him til the lights are out.

I was a skeptic from the beginning. But with me, winning cures everything. If we win, I’ll gladly take an L and say I was wrong. Because I expect excellence from this program especially in this busted ass league. If this was mick Cronin coaching this busted ass team in this busted ass league, I’d be saying the exact same things. It goes beyond coaches. I just want to win,

And I’m not sold on Davenport or Harvey yet. JD benefits from being an unknown on the scouting report. He has potential but i don’t think he’s the star player on a winning team that’s top 25.

As for you last paragraph, this is my mine issue with you. You can’t give the guy credit for anything. Jd and Harvey are good players. Jd wasn’t recruited by many high majors and in his second year, the first having injuries, he has improved and looks like he can be a solid starter in this league. No one ever said he was going to be a star. You’re arguing with yourself on that. Can he be a good player in this league, great teammate, provide great effort, absolutely. But instead of giving credit for finding him, you would rather say you aren’t sold on him being a star. Davenport is better than most of the players that transferred out right now but because cronin didn’t recruit him, “you aren’t sold”. Ok. Same with Harvey. I don’t know if these guys will be “ stars”. Probably not, but they can be good starters in this league. You guys act like cronin was bringing in a team full of stars every year.

 

[waterhead]

As for you last paragraph, this is my mine issue with you. You can’t give the guy credit for anything. Jd and Harvey are good players. Jd wasn’t recruited by many high majors and in his second year, the first having injuries, he has improved and looks like he can be a solid starter in this league. No one ever said he was going to be a star. You’re arguing with yourself on that. Can he be a good player in this league, great teammate, provide great effort, absolutely. But instead of giving credit for finding him, you would rather say you aren’t sold on him being a star. Davenport is better than most of the players that transferred out right now but because cronin didn’t recruit him, “you aren’t sold”. Ok. Same with Harvey. I don’t know if these guys will be “ stars”. Probably not, but they can be good starters in this league. You guys act like cronin was bringing in a team full of stars every year.

Harvey is coming off a 4 game stretch where he went 8-12 from 3 and scored 13.5 pts in about 22 minutes per game of action.

It's been a mixed bag with him and much too early to make a call on his long term production. He's been injured for a good portion of his college career thus far. He's probably practiced about half as much as the others in a season also cut short by covid.

But I don't want to hear any excuses.

 

[cincyguy13]

Harvey is coming off a 4 game stretch where he went 8-12 from 3 and scored 13.5 pts in about 22 minutes per game of action.

It's been a mixed bag with him and much too early to make a call on his long term production. He's been injured for a good portion of his college career thus far. He's probably practiced about half as much as the others in a season also cut short by covid.

But I don't want to hear any excuses.

The majority of players we are discussing are freshmen and sophomores with very limited experience and practice for that matter. Call it an excuse or whatever you want, but if you don’t get experience or get to practice, it’s going to take longer to improve or get better. Don’t see how anyone could disagree with that.

We all want these guys to come in and be great but the majority of the time that doesn’t happen here. It’s odd that we all the sudden expect it to happen now.

 

[waterhead]

I appreciate Justin's takes, yes I get that there are many who are still in wait and see mode. But Brannen has done plenty that deserves criticism and it seems many want to see only rainbows.

Think of some our stars in past years in year 2, Keith, Jarron or Jacob Evans. It's hard to look at this team and see a guy who is a the same level. Davenport is promising, but doesn't look like a star. Harvey has potential, but he's not as good as the above three were as sophomores. Eason has moments, but with how mistake prone he is he wouldn't play for most teams. There are pieces, but I can't honestly look at this team and say I expect a top three AAC team next year.

Then there's transfers. Besides Jaevin who basically fell in Brannen's lap (and who still wasn't good enough to start). Our next best transfer is shooting only 17% from three. Just tells you how bad the rest of them have been. I swear I could do better at evaluating transfers than Brannen (or whoever does it for him) - and that's not because I think I'd be good at it. If Brannen is going to the transfer market to save us next year, we might as well just throw in the towel.

Then of course the lack of recruiting.

Sure, Covid is an excuse for the season. If only one thing had gone wrong, I'd be on board with blaming Covid. I was the one with low expectations for the year because we are a young team. But everything has gone wrong. Players didn't develop, the transfers were/are bad, nobody has been recruited for next year, we are a bad team and don't even get me started on Brannen's insane commitment to playing Vogt (and Rap early in the season). Covid can only excuse so much.

I hope those who believe Brannen will turn it around next year are right. If I was making the decision Brannen probably wouldn't get a year 3. But I expect he will, so I hope he can turn it around.

The term insane is a bit of a stretch. You have to consider the circumstances of the overall impact of making big changes like that. I remember just about every single season when Cronin was here thinking it was stubborn to play some of the below average vets over obviously more talented under classmen. Like it or not there was a purpose to it and we can debate those until the cows come home.

With Rap the main issue was probably bringing him in in the first place but once here you can't just put him on the bench and say my bad I thought you were better than that. In terms of Vogt you have a guy who tested the pro market (forget about whether he should have) and was a significant part of the rotation last year. Probably even won some games for us. Once again you can't just put him on the bench and expect no other ramifications.

You want to get the best 5 on the court...but you also need the bench to have positive attitudes and not get discouraged and brooding on the sidelines. It's a thin line to keep that many guys happy with how they are being used...and cancer in the locker room can break a season. When CJB has his guys in place for 3 and 4 years they will all know their roles a little bit better.

In the end brannen moved Cumberland to point and ran iso which goes against his entire system. Within the first 8 or so games he was able to get Eason and Davenport in for Rap and Vogt who were virtual locks for their positions coming in. Demoting players like that is a delicate situation.