UC vs Providence game thread

[bearcat4life]

I agree but I will not give a senior guard who went 3-9 from ft's a pass because he hustled the way he is suppose to when he steps on the court. But I will admit the play of cash and sk is very disappointing. It stings anyway you look at it.

parker made up for those missed free throws by grabbing 10 rebounds, 4 offensive, and also by making big plays at big times. (drew the charge) parker is a great glue guy and you know what you are going to get out of him night in and night out. you cant say that about wright and sk.

 

[Bearcat04]

Time to update this stat from last year...

Since the start of the 2010-11 season:

63-6 when they score at least 60 points.
7-19 when they fail to reach 60 points.

 

[UCalum08]

Time to update this stat from last year...

Since the start of the 2010-11 season:

63-6 when they score at least 60 points.
7-19 when they fail to reach 60 points.

Crazy, thanks for that stat. Makes a lot of sense. Surprising we have played 26 games where we score less than 60 points. Offensively challenged.

 

[bearcat4life]

Time to update this stat from last year...

Since the start of the 2010-11 season:

63-6 when they score at least 60 points.
7-19 when they fail to reach 60 points.

wow that is a staggering stat. I think this shows that maybe we should spend a little more time on offense in practice. lets be honest, defense does not win you championships. you need to have a balanced offense. most balanced and prolific offensive team in NCAA is.......Indiana...........Indiana is ranked.......1.

its not rocket science. you need to have good guard play that is complimented by an inside scoring presence.

bottom line is defense may keep you in every game, but if you struggle to get to 60 night in and night out, you aren't going to go any further than the sweet 16.

 

[TheLongHaul]

Speaking of good guard play and the offense in general, here are interesting stats. The assist to turnover ratio for the three veteran guards:

Wright: 3.5/2.0
Parker: 1.8/1.7
SK: 2.0/2.0

That is not good at all and is very reflective of this offense.

 

[UCalum08]

Speaking of good guard play and the offense in general, here are interesting stats. The assist to turnover ratio for the three veteran guards:

Wright: 3.5/2.0
Parker: 1.8/1.7
SK: 2.0/2.0

That is not good at all and is very reflective of this offense.

Another great stat! Damn that's terrible, SK has zero handles. Cash dribbles to damn much and doesn't go anywhere. Scouting us is too easy.

 

[Hicks' Guns]

I'm not panicking...I think we end up with a similar record and tourney seed as last year. But I will say I'm worried about facing a team with two really quick gaurds that can defend well. SK and Cash were bottled up tonight and we had no answer. Park did what he could but obviously missed the FTs and the hole was too deep.

5 points total out of our 4 spot (Rubles had 0 points)
8 points total out of our 5 spot

The lack of a consistent 4th option continues to be a challenge.

 

[UCalum08]

Anyone have the postgame comments?

 

[Hicks' Guns]

Also...it's not why we lost and considering how bad we played, it is trivial. But these refs sucked tonight. The amount of offensive fouls was obscene. Sure there were probably a couple but 5 in the first half?!? Not sure how many they ended up with.

 

[UCalum08]

Also...it's not why we lost and considering how bad we played, it is trivial. But these refs sucked tonight. The amount of offensive fouls was obscene. Sure there were probably a couple but 5 in the first half?!? Not sure how many they ended up with.

I agree the white guy was flopping on any contact. It def hurt us and even worse it seemed those were the baskets we actually made. Go figure

 

[Bearcat04]

College hoops is a crazy marathon. You'd think losing to an 11-11 Providence team could be the worst loss of the week for a ranked team. Hell, two top 5 teams just topped that in the last 27 hours. Florida got absolutely destroyed by a bad Arkansas team (#112 RPI at tip-off). Even worse than that was Kansas scoring just 13 first half points and losing to arguably the worst power-conference team, TCU (#240 RPI). One loss doesn't define a season. It's time to bounce back now and pick up another quality win over Pitt.

 

[CaptDale]

First, nobody gave any credit to the guys who guarded Cash and SK. They were on them like glue - all game! That being said, where were the three other Cats, one of whom should have been open? Second, when we had our little winning streak, what were we doing that we haven't done since? A.) Posting up high and low and passing the ball inside and B.) Zone defense. Unfortunately, our Bigs just aren't skilled when they play back to the basket. Those 2 little things MIGHT have made a difference. Maybe a sagging zone would have contained Batts?! Maybe not. Our offense is geared to killing the clock. I think an ulterior motive to Cash dribbling is it gives the defense a rest. Plausible thinking on the coaches part? As for poor JaQuan, let Mick stand him at the free throw line ad infinitum in practice until he becomes more consistent. We've got Oscar as an advisor - merely one of the BEST FT shooters of all time (college and pro). I'm sure he could be of use. This game is frustrating for everybody, so hopefully something can be learned from it. One more thought, when JJ was at the line with 10 sec left and we're down 2, maybe Mick should have called a timeout and drawn up an intentional missed free throw with hopes of getting the rebound. All we needed was 2 to tie - same as when SK dumped it over midcourt. That's it, Fort Pitt. Next!

 

[BearcatMick]

College hoops is a crazy marathon. You'd think losing to an 11-11 Providence team could be the worst loss of the week for a ranked team. Hell, two top 5 teams just topped that in the last 27 hours. Florida got absolutely destroyed by a bad Arkansas team (#112 RPI at tip-off). Even worse than that was Kansas scoring just 13 first half points and losing to arguably the worst power-conference team, TCU (#240 RPI). One loss doesn't define a season. It's time to bounce back now and pick up another quality win over Pitt.

Bill self ripped his players. Told the media "it was the worst team kansas has had since Naismith"

 

[Bearcat91]

I knew this was going to be a trap game before the tip. Honestly I'm not upset that we lost. Hear me out before you think I'm crazy. The team needed a loss in a game that we had no business losing. The St. Johns game is different because we are on a losing streak to them at home. Obviously playing well consistently isnt something this team does well at the moment so maybe this will light a fire under their asses to play better and be motivated. No one looked like they wanted to be out there tonight. The only one was Jaquon and he could only do so much. This team can be great but they have to run the same type offense that they ran against Cuse. You cannot play that way and expect to win just because you have more talent than the other team and expect to win. In my opinion the Bearcats deserved to lose that game which is fine to me why they lost.

This also bring back all the Mick haters out of the woodwork. I saw numerous tweets last night about "This is why I wont support UC basketball until there is a coaching change" or "Maybe its time to move on from the Mick Cronin era to a more offensive minded coach." Thats what pissed me off the most was the still unappreciative "fans" that are high on Mick when he wins and wants him fired when he loses one game. The man has taken this program back to the higher tiers of college bball. Give the man some credit and support this team. If you wont then dont be a fan.

 

[BearcatMick]

This also bring back all the Mick haters out of the woodwork. I saw numerous tweets last night about "This is why I wont support UC basketball until there is a coaching change" or "Maybe its time to move on from the Mick Cronin era to a more offensive minded coach." Thats what pissed me off the most was the still unappreciative "fans" that are high on Mick when he wins and wants him fired when he loses one game. The man has taken this program back to the higher tiers of college bball. Give the man some credit and support this team. If you wont then dont be a fan.

Well said. I wrote the exact same thing a few days ago and the mods locked my thread for some reason

 

[TheLongHaul]

I'm not panicking...I think we end up with a similar record and tourney seed as last year. But I will say I'm worried about facing a team with two really quick gaurds that can defend well. SK and Cash were bottled up tonight and we had no answer. Park did what he could but obviously missed the FTs and the hole was too deep.

5 points total out of our 4 spot (Rubles had 0 points)
8 points total out of our 5 spot

The lack of a consistent 4th option continues to be a challenge.

I don't think the issue is as much as having a consistent 4th option as it is how they use that 4th option. I'm still a strong believer that Rubles can be a big factor but he has to be utilized correctly and right now he isn't. The other big men are what they are. Hopefully play some defense and make a put back or two. But if they don't have guards that are willing to penetrate then they aren't going to do much.

Also...it's not why we lost and considering how bad we played, it is trivial. But these refs sucked tonight. The amount of offensive fouls was obscene. Sure there were probably a couple but 5 in the first half?!? Not sure how many they ended up with.

The only one I thought was bad was Parker's call in the second half for pushing off. Why on earth Mick can't coach these guys on how to set a pick and how to roll off a pick is beyond me. It's not that hard of a concept. During the last minute of the game they could have called at least 3 moving screens on JJ but the refs decided to swallow the whistle. They were incredibly obvious. JJ and DNy set moving screens every single time.

 

[TheLongHaul]

^ who cares about the Mick haters. There really aren't that many of them. Now there may be ugly basketball haters and that's a different story. As I mentioned earlier, the casual fan is not going to want to attend or watch games when every single game looks like a bad version of street ball. Cronin has to figure out what he wants to do with the offense and then figure out how the hell he is going to implement it. What is being put out there on offense right now is at a grade school level.

 

[UCalum08]

I knew this was going to be a trap game before the tip. Honestly I'm not upset that we lost. Hear me out before you think I'm crazy. The team needed a loss in a game that we had no business losing. The St. Johns game is different because we are on a losing streak to them at home. Obviously playing well consistently isnt something this team does well at the moment so maybe this will light a fire under their asses to play better and be motivated. No one looked like they wanted to be out there tonight. The only one was Jaquon and he could only do so much. This team can be great but they have to run the same type offense that they ran against Cuse. You cannot play that way and expect to win just because you have more talent than the other team and expect to win. In my opinion the Bearcats deserved to lose that game which is fine to me why they lost.

This also bring back all the Mick haters out of the woodwork. I saw numerous tweets last night about "This is why I wont support UC basketball until there is a coaching change" or "Maybe its time to move on from the Mick Cronin era to a more offensive minded coach." Thats what pissed me off the most was the still unappreciative "fans" that are high on Mick when he wins and wants him fired when he loses one game. The man has taken this program back to the higher tiers of college bball. Give the man some credit and support this team. If you wont then dont be a fan.

I agree with what youre saying on the bold. I am a huge Cronin supporter but as a fan I am constantly disappointed his teams play to the level of their competition more times than not. It is somewhat of a concern. With how many quality teams we still have to play, beating a providence team with 3 conference wins was a must. UC teams the past three years have yet to get out of the middle tier. There is no reason this team isn't a top tier team this year and they have under achieved already. Look at UL and MU, they didn't struggle to win against teams no worse than Providence. You expect in February, with the talent we have, this shouldn't be a factor but yet it is...again.

 

[JackBauer151]

Aaaaa last year UC got a first round bye in the conference tournament and went to the Big East championship and to get there beat Georgetown and a 31-1 Syracuse. I would not call that unable to get out of the middle tier. They were in the top class of that conference last year. Also this year is far from over when determining which tier they will end up in....

 

[ready2go]

^ who cares about the Mick haters. There really aren't that many of them. Now there may be ugly basketball haters and that's a different story. As I mentioned earlier, the casual fan is not going to want to attend or watch games when every single game looks like a bad version of street ball. Cronin has to figure out what he wants to do with the offense and then figure out how the hell he is going to implement it. What is being put out there on offense right now is at a grade school level.

Well said.

I am often put in the Mick Cronin "hater" catagory. I don't give a crap who the coach is, I want to see a good basketball team that is well prepared at both ends of the court. It should tell you something that the Cats are winning and there are still unhappy fans. A coach can't vacate one end of the floor. Whether thats the offensive end or defensive end. I know OSU fans have a problem with Matta's offense as well.

Until we can put together a reasonable half court offense, you will always hear the bickering... and for me it has nothing to do with Mick Cronin, it has to do with the players and coaches as a group

If this were madden..... Defense = 99
Offense = 37 Can we atleast bump that offense up somewhat