Just make sense. All I askGonna do the board a favor.
I won’t post again until we win.
It’s self imposed ban much like the one Arizona one.
Did the same for BCJ. Lol with this team, it maybe a permanent ban.
Later dudes
I would say defense is about discipline. Trying hard when you're exhausted is how you get exploited by patient, methodical offenses. Toughness is about being unfazed by an aggressive opponent and maintaining discipline. Toughness is the opposite of energy, intensity, and effort. It's the antidote.
This team is definitely missing an emotional leader. Although they are quiet, I think Eason and Harvey are the most talented, which gives me hope since they are both still very young. If someone like Davenport can become that leader then we have something to build on. Right now the upperclassmen seem to be doing more harm than good.I probably started this with a couple of words like energy and effort but what I really meant was I want players who give a shit. Enthusiasm. Competitiveness. Winning attitude etc.
We started out against Tulsa looking like a team of zombies. Give me a couple of players who get fired up over a good play or can fire up another player who makes a good play. Feed off of that. When the crowd isn't there you need these players to create the spark or the coach. But Brannen is not a fiery guy so he has to find the players who are.
Hell right now I'll take Davenport, Dou, Saunders and the guy who just opted out Gabe. They show more fire than the others. In some of them you see it on the bench...they are more excited than the players on the court. It's tough to do when you are losing or when you can't score...but we need some damn emotion right now...especially right now.
UCLA has the 11th best offense in the country. What ever Mick is doing over there, he should probably keep doing.
They just beat top 25 Colorado without their best NBA prospect who is now done for the season.
Recruiting to the AAC is absolutely brutal. And John Brannen is starting to realize that. His first failure in recruiting was recruiting a good recruiter to come to UC.. He said na, Ill stay in the SEC and at Alabama. And now we have a full on Mid Major staff, like his number one guy is not a young cat, he is a career long mid major coach.
But people on this very board used to hammer Mick's recruiting. They said Mick couldn't recruit and I always said that recruiting to this busted ass misfit league is always going to be a challenge. John Brannen is getting a lot of No's now. and now that we suck and look pitiful, its going to be harder to get those recruits.
But man, what mick is doing in year 2 with players who are just average by UCLA standards, is pretty remarkable. The dude now has a top 11 offense and yet doesn't have a 5 star on the team which is not normal for UCLA.
My question is: Why are bama, ucla & Arkansas better than us and seemingly on a better projected path than us??? All 3 of those schools were in worse shape than UC when they all took over.
Why are those schools picking up faster than UC?
Of their five starters, four were significant contributors last year and the fifth is a grad transfer from a similar program (Alterique Gilbert). Not really that dire. Then add in the fact that Tyson Etienne has turned into a great scorer in his second year and you have a decent team.Ill start this now, since we are going to lose on Sunday. How the hell is Wichita State. Who lost almost every player on their roster and their coach not struggling as much as we are?
Of all the teams in the league, beating Wichita is still the funnest to beat. Since UConn is gone. Wichita legitimately thought they would come in and run the league.Of their five starters, four were significant contributors last year and the fifth is a grad transfer from a similar program (Alterique Gilbert). Not really that dire. Then add in the fact that Tyson Etienne has turned into a great scorer in his second year and you have a decent team.
Optimistic fact: only 3 of the top 11 American conference players (per Torvik) are seniors. The conference could be pretty good in a couple years.
Depressing fact: none of them play for Cincinnati. Our best player is Keith at #14, and then next is Davenport at #29.
I'd prefer a mid-major coach with sustained success over a Van Exel type. Some others I would consider:
Russ Turner (UC Irvine)
Steve Forbes (E Tenn St)
Bob Richey (Furman)
John Becker (Vermont)
Scott Nagy (Wright St, previously S Dakota St)
Mark Schmidt (St Bonaventure)
The more I think about this, the more I like Scott Nagy. He had a great run at South Dakota St, bringing them up from D2 and making 3 NCAA tournaments in his last 5 years there. He has finished 1st or 2nd in his conference 7 of the last 8 years, the only exception being his first at Wright St.
I hope we don't give in to the local or nostalgic hire when there are options with a superior track record available. Of the list I gave, I think only Mark Schmidt is comparable to Brannen. The others look better to my eye.
After missing the sweet sixteen in 7 straight seasons, Rick Barnes was fired at Texas despite going to the tournament 6 times and advancing to the second round 3 times in that span. He's now going to the sweet sixteen at Tennessee. Meanwhile, Texas hired Shaka Smart and hasn't won a tournament game since.
Firing a good coach who hasn't had success in March can backfire, even if you can hire a perceived great coach like Shaka Smart.
It takes a combination of size, athleticism and skill to be a top team. Whichever one of those we don't have will be the one everyone complains about.
We had skilled players in Broome and Jenifer and people complained about not having enough perimeter size. We complain that our big guys don't have enough skill. We had a big, skilled guard in Caupain that we complained wasn't athletic enough. This is going to be the case for every team that can't regularly get 5 star recruits. They're all going to be deficient in some area, except for a few upperclassmen here and there like Gary. This is just a fact of life at Cincinnati, whether or not Cronin is our coach.
I think he would be able to consistently get 5 star players at UCLA, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if he leaves. I just don't think we should force him out.
I am definitely not a Brannen guy. Feel free to peruse the thread discussing coaching candidates from April 2019 to see where everyone stood: bearcattalk.com/showthread.php?t=12324
Here's a a sample of my position:
Brannen was asked about this on the radio last night and he says they have a few high school guys they are involved with, but he expects most of the new players who will be added for next year to be collegiate transfers, and also that with the new no-penalty transfer rule, he would expect those not to be grad transfers but guys earlier in their careers with multiple years of eligibility left who can be part of building what he is trying to build. He did make a comment saying they weren't too interested in JC players.
Brannen was asked about this on the radio last night and he says they have a few high school guys they are involved with, but he expects most of the new players who will be added for next year to be collegiate transfers, and also that with the new no-penalty transfer rule, he would expect those not to be grad transfers but guys earlier in their careers with multiple years of eligibility left who can be part of building what he is trying to build. He did make a comment saying they weren't too interested in JC players.
Interesting. I had not thought about the no-penalty rule. That is definitely encouraging that we don't have to fill with grad transfers.
So right now we have Keith, and Vogt as SR's. Rap is gone. Not sure what Gabe will do but I would expect a return.
If either Keith or Vogt stay...do we still have to stay at 13 scholarships? I don't expect Keith to stay. Not sure what to say about Vogt.
I have no connection to either coach. I’m not a brannen guy or cronin guy. I want the program to reach the heights I think it can reach. Of all our options, I would have preferred mick to stay. When he left, I had to move on. Brannen was my 1st choice but I would have been fine with any up and coming coach. Brannen dominated that league he was in. I didn’t want frank martin. Would have been fine with van exel but a lot of times the former player thing doesn’t go well.So I'm taking it that cincyguy13 and sedziobs were Brannen guys from the start.. at least Cincyguy13 admitted Brannen has sucked thus far. I'm not understanding the circular discussion of Cronin or Brannen, it should be understood at this point that Cronins better. Hes gone, he left, wasn't kept whatever that's ok. I just got done listening to Brannens random presser and for some reason this guys still talking about mental health, using covid as an excuse and a team whiffle ball game that they apparently played, as a group, in spare time.. Brannen still sounds like his laid back self, still talking about how things take time. He did everything but kick his feet up. Im disgusted
I don’t think brannen has sucked the whole time. Last year I think it did well. Yes, he had better players, but he still won the league. You have to have good players to win, which is part of the issue now. I don’t think we have good players. This year brannen has struggled to adjust. While I don’t think this team is great or good, we shouldn’t be 2-6So I'm taking it that cincyguy13 and sedziobs were Brannen guys from the start.. at least Cincyguy13 admitted Brannen has sucked thus far. I'm not understanding the circular discussion of Cronin or Brannen, it should be understood at this point that Cronins better. Hes gone, he left, wasn't kept whatever that's ok. I just got done listening to Brannens random presser and for some reason this guys still talking about mental health, using covid as an excuse and a team whiffle ball game that they apparently played, as a group, in spare time.. Brannen still sounds like his laid back self, still talking about how things take time. He did everything but kick his feet up. Im disgusted
I don’t think brannen has sucked the whole time. Last year I think it did well. Yes, he had better players, but he still won the league. You have to have good players to win, which is part of the issue now. I don’t think we have good players. This year brannen has struggled to adjust. While I don’t think this team is great or good, we shouldn’t be 2-6