State of the team

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Bearcat22 said:
Nice post!

I think the perception of the Cat's offense often trumps the facts for many people. In almost every ESPN game the commentator always leads with saying the game is going to be "ugly" or a "rock fight" and justs blame bad offense with little to no context (they also credit the Defense to be fair). Bobby Knight is an exception, mostly because he spends 20 minutes telling old free-throw stories.
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Thanks! You are right. I was just thinking about this the other day. Even many of our own fans thought we were a horrible shooting team because they remember all the worst games (many from the start of the season) and just kept that in their mind the whole year even as that stat was improving to the point it was dramatically better. Those are the pessimists. We are only as good as our worst game.

Of course you have the optimists too:) I like numbers and stats and objectivity. Oh and stats DO lie sometimes. Like points per game is a perfect. That stat lies to people and tells them we can't shoot
 
I like hearing everyone's opinions. I def don't agree with everyone. I don't have the energy to go stat digging so I really appreciate the guys that do.

Just my opinion from watching every game this year, I would say we are a better shooting team than past Cronin teams. I think the one stat that has crippled our offense the most this year is turnovers. Obviously there are more factors but honestly turnovers have been our biggest problem. Its that simple right?! :)
 
Troy Caupain is shooting around 46.5% in conference from 3 pt range and his stat on the year is 41.2%. #5 on the single season record book is 41.8% and his conference stat (if it were a full year) would be #2 all time.

This is with a minimum of 1.5 attempts per game so he would qualify. I would LOVE to see him shoot more...he absolutely should!!!


But Mick has never recruited a shooter so...
 
waterhead said:
Troy Caupain is shooting around 46.5% in conference from 3 pt range and his stat on the year is 41.2%. #5 on the single season record book is 41.8% and his conference stat (if it were a full year) would be #2 all time.

This is with a minimum of 1.5 attempts per game so he would qualify. I would LOVE to see him shoot more...he absolutely should!!!


But Mick has never recruited a shooter so...
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I like our 3 point shooting. Its all about if we are shooting the 3's off passes or if we taking them from their own dribble. I bet our percentage is much high when our guys catch and shoot. I have a lot of confidence in KJ, Troy, and Cobb when they catch and shoot.
 
bearcat jeff said:
My post is valid and if you read it i said Mick has a long way to go branding the program.

The tournament is not one piece of the puzzle LT it is the puzzle. It's what every team strives for. It's what gets you on television. It sells your program to make it in consistently. Five straight is significant and you can belittle it all you want but you can't belittle it and not acknowledge the failures of 1996-2005 because it is part of the era you always want to reference the program back to.

You also like to throw other coaches and programs up to make a point but hate to acknowledge 1 final four appearance in 16 years with multiple flame outs in spite of top four seeding. Those are facts not shots being taken.

There are many parts to a program and they all are important. I want all those things. I want UC TALKED ABOUT WITH THE DUKES AND UK's of the world. But none of that happens without making the tournament year after year. Yes you have to make a splash but you have to get into the water first and Mick Cronin has put UC back in the water.

You can't have it both ways. You can't acknowledge only the good in one era and only what you see as bad in the present. I will say this again and I say it based on seeing you post multiple places. You do not like this head coach and that's OK. But let's be honest about the bias. He's done a helluva job making UC relevant again whether you want to acknowledge that or not.
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At the end of the Houston vs. Tulane game, they went to the studio and Dino Gaudio says the following, "We always said the season is divided up into 4 parts....pre-league, the league, the league tournament, and the NCAA Tournament. The league tournament is a big piece of the puzzle." It's always fun to make a statement a few hours earlier about "the Puzzle", and go home and have a former ACC coach agree with exactly what I said on national tv. As I told you earlier Jeff, you're way off base on a lot of your thoughts and absolutely nobody would agree with your view of the NCAA Tournament being the one and only piece of the puzzle. Therefore, we can now give Mick's accomplishments back to him. They were well earned and well deserved. Most Bearcat fans value last year's regular season co-championship.
 
L-T said:
At the end of the Houston vs. Tulane game, they went to the studio and Dino Gaudio says the following, "We always said the season is divided up into 4 parts....pre-league, the league, the league tournament, and the NCAA Tournament. The league tournament is a big piece of the puzzle." It's always fun to make a statement a few hours earlier about "the Puzzle", and go home and have a former ACC coach agree with exactly what I said on national tv. As I told you earlier Jeff, you're way off base on a lot of your thoughts and absolutely nobody would agree with your view of the NCAA Tournament being the one and only piece of the puzzle. Therefore, we can now give Mick's accomplishments back to him. They were well earned and well deserved. Most Bearcat fans value last year's regular season co-championship.
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First of all I said the tournament was the puzzle not a piece of it. Bracketology all season long is for what? To see who will be league champion? NO!! It's too see where team stand in terms of the NCAA Tournament. Sure teams want to be league champions but the ultimate prize is to play for a national title. Every single team in the country wants to be apart of that final field. The league tournaments are exciting because they give teams a second chance to earn that birth. Everything that is done is done with making the NCAA TOURNAMENT in mind from the off season to the league championships.

Let's remember your ACC buddy was fired. The NCAA Tournament in today's world has virtually rendered the regular season accomplishments useless. All the regular season is anymore is a dress rehearsal for the big dance.

John Calipari just told his team that all that matters is March. UConn was a 9th seed Kemba Walkers senior year and won a national title. Last year they were a 4th seed in the AAC and won one. People remember the March Cinderellas not who won the Patriot league. People will remember who made the final four next season they won't remember who finished in the top 25. All this UC team was focused on was doing enough to know they had a NCAA bid locked. It's what you play for and what you get paid for. Rankings and such are for people like you and I and they get you in the highlight reels. They are for selling but the National Tournament is why people buy your brand.

As usual we'll agree to disagree.
 
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bearcat jeff said:
First of all I said the tournament was the puzzle not a piece of it. Bracketology all season long is for what? To see who will be league champion? NO!! It's too see where team stand in terms of the NCAA Tournament. Sure teams want to be league champions but the ultimate prize is to play for a national title. Every single team in the country wants to be apart of that final field. The league tournaments are exciting because they give teams a second chance to earn that birth. Everything that is done is done with making the NCAA TOURNAMENT in mind from the off season to the league championships.

Let's remember your ACC buddy was fired. The NCAA Tournament in today's world has virtually rendered the regular season accomplishments useless. All the regular season is anymore is a dress rehearsal for the big dance.

John Calipari just told his team that all that matters is March. UConn was a 9th seed Kemba Walkers senior year and won a national title. Last year they were a 4th seed in the AAC and won one. People remember the March Cinderellas not who won the Patriot league. People will remember who made the final four next season they won't remember who finished in the top 25. All this UC team was focused on was doing enough to know they had a NCAA bid locked. It's what you play for and what you get paid for. Rankings and such are for people like you and I and they get you in the highlight reels. They are for selling but the National Tournament is why people buy your brand.

As usual we'll agree to disagree.
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That poor tournament performance was why our apparel was one of the best selling and most recognizable in the nation then. I guess it was why MacDonalds All-Americans and Juco all-americans wanted to play for a mid-major team in a mid-major conference. I guess that is why we were all over national tv and network tv at a time when there weren't a hundred different network and cable tv stations televising games like today. Amazing for a team who was so horrible in the only thing that matters. Not very hard to shoot down what your saying because none of it is based on facts.

Time to move on to gameday.
 
cincrulz11 said:
I think people tend to forget how hard it is to actually make the tournament every year. You look at teams that have been better than us in recent history, your Pitts, Syracuse, UConn, Florida, Memphis, Michigan. None of those teams are making the dance this year. Those are big programs. It's freaking hard to put a team out there every single year. People can deny that all they want, but it's the truth.
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All them teams make it in our league
 
L-T said:
That poor tournament performance was why our apparel was one of the best selling and most recognizable in the nation then. I guess it was why MacDonalds All-Americans and Juco all-americans wanted to play for a mid-major team in a mid-major conference. I guess that is why we were all over national tv and network tv at a time when there weren't a hundred different network and cable tv stations televising games like today. Amazing for a team who was so horrible in the only thing that matters. Not very hard to shoot down what your saying because none of it is based on facts.

Time to move on to gameday.
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You're stuck in the past and twisting what I'm saying, as is your way, to make your argument. All those things were awesome and I enjoyed those years as much or more than anyone. None of that would have happened without the Final Four and Elite 8 trips up to '96 and the consequential consecutive trips to the NCAA and it's simply silly to even imply otherwise. None of that was there coming out of the 80's and into the 90's and it wouldn't have happened then if UC wouldn't have had the early tournament success under Huggs. It was the springboard for those 16 years and all UC was during that time frame.

But you're right, let's move to gameday. Before this gets out of hand.
 
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bearcat jeff said:
None of that would have happened without the Final Four and Elite 8 trips up to '96 and the consequential consecutive trips to the NCAA and it's simply silly to even imply otherwise.
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To kind of get this off the fighting back and forth I was watching a replay of a game from Fortson's Jr season a while back and the announcers were talking about how at tournament time Huggins teams always stepped it up and how he was an incredible tournament coach.


Then of course starting that year it all went in reverse for Huggins. But it reminded me how much of a factor luck plays out in the tournament. The luck of the seeding, the luck of match ups, the luck of who gets hot on what day.


Here is to some luck for us this year!
 
cincrulz11 said:
To kind of get this off the fighting back and forth I was watching a replay of a game from Fortson's Jr season a while back and the announcers were talking about how at tournament time Huggins teams always stepped it up and how he was an incredible tournament coach.


Then of course starting that year it all went in reverse for Huggins. But it reminded me how much of a factor luck plays out in the tournament. The luck of the seeding, the luck of match ups, the luck of who gets hot on what day.


Here is to some luck for us this year!
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It changed his legacy and the direction of our program when Kenyon went down... We should definitely have 3 National Championships. Who knows how else it impacted the 2000s and today
 
cincrulz11 said:
To kind of get this off the fighting back and forth I was watching a replay of a game from Fortson's Jr season a while back and the announcers were talking about how at tournament time Huggins teams always stepped it up and how he was an incredible tournament coach.


Then of course starting that year it all went in reverse for Huggins. But it reminded me how much of a factor luck plays out in the tournament. The luck of the seeding, the luck of match ups, the luck of who gets hot on what day.


Here is to some luck for us this year!
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Luck has a lot to do with it. Some of the success Huggins had in recruiting was based off of his Final 4 in 1992. Of course much of that was built on Juco talent which was a much better source for talent back then.

However in '92 the highest seed we played until we got to the Final 4 was a 5 seed and we played them in the second round. We played a 13, 5, 9, and 6 to get there...so we were the highest seed in our first 4 games as a 4 seed.

That was the year that put UC back on the national radar in a big way and you have to give credit to Huggs for getting us in good shape to make that happen and then to capitalize on it with recruiting. I believe that is what Cronin needs right now...some chips to fall his way so he can cash in on it. A perfect storm like 1992. Not sure I think that will happen this year but who knows maybe within the next 2.
 
BearcatSpaniard513 said:
It changed his legacy and the direction of our program when Kenyon went down... We should definitely have 3 National Championships. Who knows how else it impacted the 2000s and today
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I remember the year Kenyon went down vividly. We were listening to the game at work in the conference room because we were all UC fans. Also remember just prior to the final they were interviewing the two coaches and Tom Izzo said (and I'm paraphrasing) "if Kenyon Martin doesn't break his leg we may be having a different conversation." Still my biggest disappointment as a Bearcat fan since I started following them as a 9 year old in 1973.
 
bearcat jeff said:
I remember the year Kenyon went down vividly. We were listening to the game at work in the conference room because we were all UC fans. Also remember just prior to the final they were interviewing the two coaches and Tom Izzo said (and I'm paraphrasing) "if Kenyon Martin doesn't break his leg we may be having a different conversation." Still my biggest disappointment as a Bearcat fan since I started following them as a 9 year old in 1973.
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Jeff I was just in 5th Grade and our teacher at the time was a big UC fan, so we were listening to it. I think we all remember where we were that day. So many what ifs from that year...
 

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