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Doogle said:
The good news is, they haven't hit their ceiling yet. Plenty of places to improve. Blocking out in the zone. Making quicker decisions in the post and on ball reversals. Obviously free throw shooting. Sharper cuts to the hoop (thinking of the one where Clark tried to pass to a cutting Shaq, who was beaten to the ball).

They are doing a lot of nice things. At first I was pretty irate that LD wasn't transitioning out of that zone given the deluge of offensive rebounds, but at the same time their guards were struggling to get into the lane or really finding any kind of rhythm, and I'm thinking "we'll take that tradeoff". They had 12 offensive rebounds in the 1st half and scored 20 pts.

Sanders...ugh. He's a severe liability on offense right now. Twice UC ran nice stuff and found him for wide open 3s and he missed both. Now, defenses can afford to gamble off him or just ignore him completely. It's like playing 5 on 4.

Love the midrange game from Cobb and KJ. Little pump fake, couple dribbles inside the arc, wide open shot. And have you noticed how successful they've been recently hitting 3s off of offensive rebounds? Good job by Ellis and Clark of recognizing the open shooter after grabbing a board.

Congrats to the guys for working hard and staying positive and resilient. Proud of how hard they're playing.
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I agree on the zone. I couldn't believe we didn't just switch it up for a couple minutes...but LD stuck to the plan. It's hard to argue the end result. Plus, it's not like the 3s they hit put us in a hole like in other games earlier in the year. LD has done a good job getting the team back after a tough skid. We easily could've bailed on the season after a 3 game slide with a fill-in head coach. Who will get coach of the year in the conference?
 
jacobkdoyle said:
I agree on the zone. I couldn't believe we didn't just switch it up for a couple minutes...but LD stuck to the plan. It's hard to argue the end result. Plus, it's not like the 3s they hit put us in a hole like in other games earlier in the year. LD has done a good job getting the team back after a tough skid. We easily could've bailed on the season after a 3 game slide with a fill-in head coach. Who will get coach of the year in the conference?
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I dont see how you cant give it to Larry. If he doesnt get coach of the year something is wrong.
 
Very good win. Team is playing much better and with a much more focused purpose on the offensive end. Even KJ has been playing much better. Shaq, although struggled offensively last night still looked 100x better than he did early in the season. Sanders still not providing much. Love the threat that Cobb provides.
 
Shaq needs somebody to follow him around and tell him it's all going to be ok when the game isn't going well for him. He freaks out and then starts to press and then makes really bad decisions.
 
HUGE win. The team seem to be playing together and playing thru adversity. Hopefully they are getting hot at the right time. Now let's CRUSH Memphis!!!!
 
I think the great job Larry Davis has done can't be emphasized enough. To have a fairly young team and get the shocking news about the head coach, to be thrust into a huge game against VCU, which became a total train-wreck, and then pull this team together multiple times, in spite of a few horrendous losses which could have sent the season spiraling downward, and during this recent stretch where we basically had to win out under extreme pressure....well, he has done an exemplary job in my opinion, as have the rest of the coaches. During bad times, many have bashed the hell out of him and remarked that Mick couldn't get back soon enoungh, but then the team fights back again, and again, and again, just like they have these last 2-3 weeks. I honestly gave us very little chance to win last night and LD waltzes in there and wins impressively. No matter how we feel about his substitutions, the benching of Caupain, and countless other issues we've accused him of having, I'd be hard-pressed to think of any other assistant coach who could have handled this situation any better than he has. It really doesn't matter if Haith or Brown win coach of the year. The fact is that LD is undefeated against those two coaches, and with only 33% of the games being played on our home court. He probably won't win coach of the year, but he should. He was damn good under way more pressure and adversity than those other guys.
 
L-T said:
He probably won't win coach of the year, but he should. He was damn good under way more pressure and adversity than those other guys.
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I agree with your entire post but especially this part. I think the job he's done has been by far the most impressive of all the coaches in the league. We shouldn't be sitting in line to get into the tournament again.


That said I don't know if anybody outside of Cincinnati cares.
 
L-T said:
I think the great job Larry Davis has done can't be emphasized enough. To have a fairly young team and get the shocking news about the head coach, to be thrust into a huge game against VCU, which became a total train-wreck, and then pull this team together multiple times, in spite of a few horrendous losses which could have sent the season spiraling downward, and during this recent stretch where we basically had to win out under extreme pressure....well, he has done an exemplary job in my opinion, as have the rest of the coaches. During bad times, many have bashed the hell out of him and remarked that Mick couldn't get back soon enoungh, but then the team fights back again, and again, and again, just like they have these last 2-3 weeks. I honestly gave us very little chance to win last night and LD waltzes in there and wins impressively. No matter how we feel about his substitutions, the benching of Caupain, and countless other issues we've accused him of having, I'd be hard-pressed to think of any other assistant coach who could have handled this situation any better than he has. It really doesn't matter if Haith or Brown win coach of the year. The fact is that LD is undefeated against those two coaches, and with only 33% of the games being played on our home court. He probably won't win coach of the year, but he should. He was damn good under way more pressure and adversity than those other guys.
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I agree L-T. I have been among the hardest on Davis for his in-game decision making, but he has been great for this team on the mental side of things. He's a tough guy and when we had our backs against the wall after Xavier, the guys fought for him. I have also come to enjoy hearing about the history lessons he gives the guys before the games. He may have made mistakes this year, but it is hard to be too critical bc of the well-documented inconsistencies of each and every one of the individual players throughout the season. He's a good man and a strong presence. Sometimes in college sports you can have success with guys like that, even if they aren't perfect X and O coaches.

Part of the X and O thing can be easy to pick apart after the result though too. Like last night we didn't get out of the zone and they still hit some 3s, but it didn't kill us. But against Xavier, it did kill us. But against SDSU, it didn't. But against VCU, it did...
 
In a pregame Hoard once talked about other coaches that had to leave in the middle of the season. Lavin was one, and Coach K was the other, I don't recall the years. Both of those teams in their respective years had records below .500 and neither made the tourney.
 
L-T said:
I think the great job Larry Davis has done can't be emphasized enough. To have a fairly young team and get the shocking news about the head coach, to be thrust into a huge game against VCU, which became a total train-wreck, and then pull this team together multiple times, in spite of a few horrendous losses which could have sent the season spiraling downward, and during this recent stretch where we basically had to win out under extreme pressure....well, he has done an exemplary job in my opinion, as have the rest of the coaches. During bad times, many have bashed the hell out of him and remarked that Mick couldn't get back soon enoungh, but then the team fights back again, and again, and again, just like they have these last 2-3 weeks. I honestly gave us very little chance to win last night and LD waltzes in there and wins impressively. No matter how we feel about his substitutions, the benching of Caupain, and countless other issues we've accused him of having, I'd be hard-pressed to think of any other assistant coach who could have handled this situation any better than he has. It really doesn't matter if Haith or Brown win coach of the year. The fact is that LD is undefeated against those two coaches, and with only 33% of the games being played on our home court. He probably won't win coach of the year, but he should. He was damn good under way more pressure and adversity than those other guys.
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Totally agree. Mick has put together a very nice staff. LD,the staff,players and Mick have all provided the fans a very nice season to this point under some very difficult circumstances. Like you I had my doubts about lastnight but The team came through.
 
Great win last night. This team has fight in them and that's what we expect out of our Bearcats. Cobb was huge last night. Hopefully Shaq can bounce back. He was forcing things and being in the half court and the officials eating their whistles that really doesn't suit his game. He played tough though. Hope we put a thrashing on Memphis and can get sanders to get some points to get the monkey off his back. He's at a point where you almost can't play him. Unfortunately we are way too thin. This needs to be the last year where we only have eight and nine players available.
 
I too have been tough on LD at times. While saying I appreciate the job he's done, I also questioned him at times. The fact is when things looked darkest after back to back home losses he has pulled the team together and they are playing their best ball. I agree he should be coach of the year in the AAC. And to his credit, Mick Cronin said his goal was to help make LD just that when he left the sidelines.

Very impressed with LD's humbleness, loyalty and desire to support the program and his friend in very trying and difficult circumstances. Hope it leads to good things for him.
 
jacobkdoyle said:
I don't care what his stats are (and those #s aren't even that good BTW). He needs to pick up the pace or we're going to lose. This walk it up crap is why we've lost 3 games while allowing 50 or less. We were up 12 and had a chance to step on their throat but Troy pulled our foot off the gas.
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Jacob I seen for first time last night what troy problem is. Basically playing too many minutes has him fatigued.
 

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