UC vs. Georgetown

[CaptDale]

jeff you couldn't be more wrong in your thoughts. lets go at it this way. If you were the opposing coach game planing for UC how would you defend them? Three things would be at the top of my list. Cash and SK would be the focus of my attention. Make SK put the ball on the floor to score. Stop dribble drive by Cash to cut down on the kick out to the wings. Don't get outrebounded. Everything I mentioned GT did. they are not a potential 1 seed for nothing. They are not a good rebounding yet they outrebounded us by one. Cash couldn't get to the hole because they defended it well and SK had very few wide open jumpers. Everytime we went inside to a big they either lost the ball or blew the lay up. Modj had 4 TO's in his limited time in game. Do you really believe that GT didn't plan to shut off Cash. He is the only true ball handler we have. Couple that with the fact we were in foul trouble early and we struggled for long stretches offensively. When your a team that struggles offensively but is good defensively taking on a team that is good defensively,does not rebound well, but is better offensively you don't speed up the game to give them more touches or opportunities. Fact is they are a better team then us. We got beat by a better team. We have no bigs and our PG is hurt.
Cashmere Wright stats before/after knee sprain on January 15.
Before Injury: 18 G 15.1 PPG 47% FG 44% 3PFG.
After Injury: 10 G 8.2 PPG 23% FG 18% 3PFG.
Last 10 Days: 4 G 12.5 PPG 47% FG 50% 3PFG

Getting 22 wins in the regular season from this bunch is a good job. Here is another thought. Narsuk was a last minute pick up, Gaines has been a project from day 1 and will never be a D 1 contributing center if he can graduate to make room for Lawrence that s the most help he'll be to team in his career,Mdj was not our first choice Gods gift was and he lost a year of developmental time doe to injury. jackson is a off the bench good defensive player but I wouldn't want him touching the ball regularily. Rubles is 1 year removed from JC. getting 22 wins with that front court in BE is amazing and a tribute to the entire team.

Your points were good until you threw the highlighted statement. Get off the 22 wins - 8 of those were against early season patsies! It's a 14 win season for all practical purposes.

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

Your points were good until you threw the highlighted statement. Get off the 22 wins - 8 of those were against early season patsies! It's a 14 win season for all practical purposes.

capt. everyone plays patsies. SOS is not bad compared to other teams. All the upsets i've seen this year tell me all wins are good wins.

 

[L-T]

Your points were good until you threw the highlighted statement. Get off the 22 wins - 8 of those were against early season patsies! It's a 14 win season for all practical purposes.

Everyone plays patsies. I applaud Mick for scheduling some non-patsies such as Oregon, Iowa St., Alabama, Xavier, New Mexico, and even Wright St. and Marshall. The schedule wasn't that bad. It was a far cry better than past years. Thank God we had those teams, because how we played during the non-conference season is probably saving our bacon right now....as is our strength of schedule which is very good this year.

It's convienent to imply that winning 22 games with this team is a coaching masterpiece. But, there was a noticible drop off in performance almost across the board from the first half of the season to the 2nd half. We can make all the excuses we want....i.e. Cash's injury, weak non-conf., refs, whatever. But, almost every player got worse as the season went on and you have to question the coaching. There was a shocking absense of basic fundamentals on this team. Maybe it's basketball IQ. We can point our finger at many things, but Mick doesn't get a pass this year. Hopefully, our name gets called on Sunday, but that shouldn't be a cause for celebration. We were a top-25 team preseason and a top-4 Big East team....and we reached the top-10 during the season. To be sitting here in March a little nervous about Sunday is disappointing to say the least.

 

[CaptDale]

capt. everyone plays patsies. SOS is not bad compared to other teams. All the upsets i've seen this year tell me all wins are good wins.

Let me rephrase that - our patsies need to be higher quality such that we have a chance of being upset by them on their best day. We can scrimmage against ourselves, and that's all these teams are. Once in a while they get lucky - (see Presbyterian).
BTW, on a side note, I grew up listening to Waite Hoyt. I doubt many of the people on this thread were around then. "That ball's in Burgerville!"

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

Let me rephrase that - our patsies need to be higher quality such that we have a chance of being upset by them on their best day. We can scrimmage against ourselves, and that's all these teams are. Once in a while they get lucky - (see Presbyterian).
BTW, on a side note, I grew up listening to Waite Hoyt. I doubt many of the people on this thread were around then. "That ball's in Burgerville!"

lol I did as well. Our OOC schedule was much better this year compared to years past.

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

Everyone plays patsies. I applaud Mick for scheduling some non-patsies such as Oregon, Iowa St., Alabama, Xavier, New Mexico, and even Wright St. and Marshall. The schedule wasn't that bad. It was a far cry better than past years. Thank God we had those teams, because how we played during the non-conference season is probably saving our bacon right now....as is our strength of schedule which is very good this year.

It's convienent to imply that winning 22 games with this team is a coaching masterpiece. But, there was a noticible drop off in performance almost across the board from the first half of the season to the 2nd half. We can make all the excuses we want....i.e. Cash's injury, weak non-conf., refs, whatever. But, almost every player got worse as the season went on and you have to question the coaching. There'rer was a shocking absense of basic fundamentals on this team. Maybe it's basketball IQ. We can point our finger at many things, but Mick doesn't get a pass this year. Hopefully, our name gets called on Sunday, but that shouldn't be a cause for celebration. We were a top-25 team preseason and a top-4 Big East team....and we reached the top-10 during the season. To be sitting here in March a little nervous about Sunday is disappointing to say the least.

L-T as the seasons goes on and your teams strengths and weaknesses are exposed it is much easier to game plan. Fact is Mick hid our inside shortcomings for quite awhile and the team overcame them to some extent. This is not a deep well rounded team. The injury to cash hurt as well. He is our only ball handler. I'm disappointed but still see progress in the direction of program. I guess I have more a big picture view and you see things a little more here and now.

 

[mdchick]

L-T as the seasons goes on and your teams strengths and weaknesses are exposed it is much easier to game plan. Fact is Mick hid our inside shortcomings for quite awhile and the team overcame them to some extent. This is not a deep well rounded team. The injury to cash hurt as well. He is our only ball handler. I'm disappointed but still see progress in the direction of program. I guess I have more a big picture view and you see things a little more here and now.

Maybe mick was just hustling everyone and he really has an amazing offensive set, but he didn't want to show it out until the tourney so no one would stratagize against it

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

Maybe mick was just hustling everyone and he really has an amazing offensive set, but he didn't want to show it out until the tourney so no one would stratagize against it

we can only hope. Lol

 

[CaptDale]

Maybe mick was just hustling everyone and he really has an amazing offensive set, but he didn't want to show it out until the tourney so no one would stratagize against it

Exactly, and they just decided that junk food is good for your heart - but only if you eat it 3 times a day in mass quantities

 

[L-T]

L-T as the seasons goes on and your teams strengths and weaknesses are exposed it is much easier to game plan. Fact is Mick hid our inside shortcomings for quite awhile and the team overcame them to some extent. This is not a deep well rounded team. The injury to cash hurt as well. He is our only ball handler. I'm disappointed but still see progress in the direction of program. I guess I have more a big picture view and you see things a little more here and now.

Lol...that's funny. I see myself as a big picture kind of guy and you as a here and now. I saw progress...until this year. We vastly underachieved. I don't care if we catch a little fire and win 2 games in the NCAA. That would be magnificant. But, it still wouldn't cancel out what we saw all year on the court, which was disturbing.

 

[westsidecat]

Lol...that's funny. I see myself as a big picture kind of guy and you as a here and now. I saw progress...until this year. We vastly underachieved. I don't care if we catch a little fire and win 2 games in the NCAA. That would be magnificant. But, it still wouldn't cancel out what we saw all year on the court, which was disturbing.

how dare you call uc play disturbing! do you not know uc is making it's third trip in a row to the big dance!? it might be some kind of record!!

heard whispers of a cronin statue next to the big o after this miracle run.

 

[BearcatMick]

how dare you call uc play disturbing! do you not know uc is making it's third trip in a row to the big dance!? it might be some kind of record!!

heard whispers of a cronin statue next to the big o after this miracle run.

When it is all said and done, mick Cronin will be the best coach in bearcat history and a hall of famer

I am thankful everyday I see his name as our head coach

 

[westsidecat]

When it is all said and done, mick Cronin will be the best coach in bearcat history and a hall of famer

I am thankful everyday I see his name as our head coach

me too!

i love having an offense that's ranks 150 plus every year. scores in the 40's and 50's every game. players standing around why one player dribbles the air out of the ball. naia players on the squad, 33 threes attemps per game, bigs who can't catch a simple pass. recruiting classes that just break the top 25.

but we did make 3 ncaa trips in a row! legends are born after runs like that.

 

[CaptDale]

When it is all said and done, mick Cronin will be the best coach in bearcat history and a hall of famer

I am thankful everyday I see his name as our head coach

OK, so now we all know you really ARE Mick Cronin. Even his mother wouldn't extoll such praise upon him.

 

[TheLongHaul]

Lol...that's funny. I see myself as a big picture kind of guy and you as a here and now. I saw progress...until this year. We vastly underachieved. I don't care if we catch a little fire and win 2 games in the NCAA. That would be magnificant. But, it still wouldn't cancel out what we saw all year on the court, which was disturbing.

I think this team has underachieved so far. But some of you are going off the deep end. Their offense sucked and was terrible to watch but yes they still did make the tournament. That isn't some great accomplishment all by itself but considering this ended up being a down year it isn't all that bad. Truth is I think most of us overestimated the returning talent.

 

[Bearcat04]

I think this team has underachieved so far. But some of you are going off the deep end. Their offense sucked and was terrible to watch but yes they still did make the tournament. That isn't some great accomplishment all by itself but considering this ended up being a down year it isn't all that bad. Truth is I think most of us overestimated the returning talent.

As well as underestimated the loss of Gates and Dixon. Last year we had a guy that could get you double-figures down low, as well as 4 threats to score on the perimeter. Gates and Dixon gave us 25 PPG and they could create their own offense with the ball. We've replaced those two with two guys that aren't a threat to score and the trio/bench haven't been able to make up for the loss of scoring.

At least we've gotten back to the point where we can be disappointed with just a tournament appearance. I saw on BCL that we are only 1 of only 24 teams that are likely to make the tournament 3 straight years. Also, we'll be 1 of 10 teams that could win a game in the tournament for the 3rd straight year.

 

[WAITE HOYT 2]

As well as underestimated the loss of Gates and Dixon. Last year we had a guy that could get you double-figures down low, as well as 4 threats to score on the perimeter. Gates and Dixon gave us 25 PPG and they could create their own offense with the ball. We've replaced those two with two guys that aren't a threat to score and the trio/bench haven't been able to make up for the loss of scoring.

At least we've gotten back to the point where we can be disappointed with just a tournament appearance. I saw on BCL that we are only 1 of only 24 teams that are likely to make the tournament 3 straight years. Also, we'll have the opportunity to be 1 of 10 teams that could win a game in the tournament for the 3rd straight year.

nice post. Great insight.

 

[UCalum08]

Off topic, anyone watching the Cuse GT game...gotta love how the BE refs just decided to make that game go in to overtime. They called a blocking foul 20+feet away from the basket with 7 seconds left to let GT shoot two ft's to tie. Unreal how bad (inconsistent) they are.

 

[bearcat1962]

I think this team has underachieved so far. But some of you are going off the deep end. Their offense sucked and was terrible to watch but yes they still did make the tournament. That isn't some great accomplishment all by itself but considering this ended up being a down year it isn't all that bad. Truth is I think most of us overestimated the returning talent.

Very true. When I started reading this board back in July, I read much about how Gaines, Jackson, Rubles, and Thomas were going to have stellar years. There is nothing wrong with being optimistic but it has to be tempered with realism. Thomas is going to do well. But the other 3 are only filler for a young, dynamic team next season. Very excited about 2013/14.

 

[L-T]

I think this team has underachieved so far. But some of you are going off the deep end. Their offense sucked and was terrible to watch but yes they still did make the tournament. That isn't some great accomplishment all by itself but considering this ended up being a down year it isn't all that bad. Truth is I think most of us overestimated the returning talent.

Yeah, lets say we overestimated the talent. Or, did we overestimate Mick's ability to develop the talent? Mick himself told us that Rubles was one of the most talented players we've ever recruited here. That was early in the season. 5 months later, he is ridiculed and despised by most of our fans. He was considered one of the best jucos in the nation. What happened to him? Mick got a hold of him. That's what happened to him. Yeah, it's our fault. We just can't recognize talent. The problem is...all the people who do recognize talent ranked us in the top 20 preseason. All the Big East coaches who coached against this talent said we were the 4th best team in the Big East. I guess they just overestimated the talent too. It's everyone elses fault....not Micks. Sounds reasonable to me.