UC vs Umass Lowell

[waterhead]

Just thought I would get it started here. We are definitely flying around the court again. Great effort on D and the press. We have been a little out of control on O so far.

 

[Nomadic1]

47-27 at half. Press looked a little better but they still need to work on recovering. Jackson has it down pat,(not to mention his effort rebounding, 9 at half!) the other forwards need to move back to defend once it gets past half court. Got a lot of steals though.
I like seeing them actually run offense. That Guyn 3 they worked for at the end was a thing of beauty. Shaquille Thomas is coming along pretty good. Pretty uncharacteristic for Kilpatrick to go 2-5 from the freethrow line...
Johnson also got a couple shots to drop.

 

[UCalum08]

47-27 at half. Press looked a little better but they still need to work on recovering. Jackson has it down pat,(not to mention his effort rebounding, 9 at half!) the other forwards need to move back to defend once it gets past half court. Got a lot of steals though.
I like seeing them actually run offense. That Guyn 3 they worked for at the end was a thing of beauty. Shaquille Thomas is coming along pretty good. Pretty uncharacteristic for Kilpatrick to go 2-5 from the freethrow line...
Johnson also got a couple shots to drop.

Thats a good assessment of the positives. I am still concerned with how we will consistently score against a good defensive team. We still miss a ton of easy baskets around the rim. Like you said, our defense recovery is not great. We over played a lot on the press and give up a lot of open lay ups. It just seems like we have had a lot of turnovers on offense. FT's are ugly again tonight.

It hard to guage UC, especially on offense until we play some real competition.

 

[waterhead]

Thats a good assessment of the positives. I am still concerned with how we will consistently score against a good defensive team. We still miss a ton of easy baskets around the rim. Like you said, our defense recovery is not great. We over played a lot on the press and give up a lot of open lay ups. It just seems like we have had a lot of turnovers on offense. FT's are ugly again tonight.

It hard to guage UC, especially on offense until we play some real competition.

I agree 100%...tough to gauge. We seem to struggle between moving at last year's pace of slow and this year's pace of very fast. We have to play in the middle (controlled aggression). We still have some kids who are playing and shooting much too fast. I think we can make some shots if we slow it down and recognize what a good opportunity is. Especially in the lane.

 

[waterhead]

The good thing is we are passing up TONS of open shots I would assume to impliment a strategy of getting it to the hoop. But Cronin mentioned after the game we passed up open shots. I think Cronin may have them playing a bit scared of coming out of the game for the wrong decision. He mentioned Thomas passed up a couple of early shots and that we might be too focused on penetration. He seemed to insinuate those mid-range shots are what we are going to need when we play better teams because the dribble drive won't be as open.

I agree. We have passed up WAY to many open looks in 5 games. Some of those are 3's and some are 8-15 footers. We have been overly focused on getting to the bucket when we don't always have to. We need to take open shots when they are present.

We do have 2 more games to work on driving before those open shots become much more important. Right now I am OK with the players trying to make moves to get to the hole if not for practice only.

 

[waterhead]

As always great D and effort. From our frosh I thought they played with great effort too. Lawrence couldn't get it going offensively but he was all over the court early. TC can finish on fast break under control with the best of them. KJ really knows how to do things without the BB in his hands...and is becoming really good at finishing at the hole.

Because we have solid veterans I am still very optimistic about our frosh. Other than Lawrence forcing things on O...I thought they all did a pretty good job. Effort was great out of our frosh. I think KJ and TC know what they are and aren't capable of...Lawrence just needs to learn what his limitations are on O. HIs D, rebounding, and effort are really good.

 

[Bearcat_NTS]

Shot selection was just okay today but it had a lot to do with the opponent. After another really bad team on Friday, Cincinnati will play 5 straight good RPI games. USC-Upstate (beat Vtech, should be top 150 RPI team), New Mexico, Xavier, Pittsburgh, Middle Tennessee State (another quality team, could win C-USA).

 

[waterhead]

ST had 5 assists today which was more than double the next best on our team and he had 0 turovers. That is very effective. He didn't make his 3's but I thought he was effective on the court. We don't need him shooting 3's...we need him shooting mid range jumpers...and I think he can create those all day long...almost at will. That will just open up more wide open 3's and also more drives to the hole.

 

[waterhead]

As always great D and effort. From our frosh I thought they played with great effort too. Lawrence couldn't get it going offensively but he was all over the court early. TC can finish on fast break under control with the best of them. KJ really knows how to do things without the BB in his hands...and is becoming really good at finishing at the hole.

I think our vets are going to be solid but we are going to need some help from our 3 frosh. Tonight I saw much better D out of TC and he has shown to have great finish on fast breaks all season on layups. It took Cash 4 years to finally slow those layups down to be able to consistently make them.

I think KJ has moved awesome without the ball in his hands and that's where all of his scoring is coming so far. When his outside shots start falling he will be a new man.

Lawrence is pressing on O...but his effort on D is really good. Unfortunately today he had to cover for other players on D a couple of times and picked up fouls he shouldn't have had to.

 

[TheLivingLegend]

Great defensive effort.

Offense was bad tonight. Justin should have had 20+, was off shooting.

Titus never really got going tonight.

Caupain looked really good tonight.

Where has Sanders gone? After two good games at the start hes gone MIA.

Lawerence cant play over 10 minutes a game... hes just not ready at all. Its become increasingly apparent.

 

[#BearcatNation]

Great defensive effort.

Offense was bad tonight. Justin should have had 20+, was off shooting.

Titus never really got going tonight.

Caupain looked really good tonight.

Where has Sanders gone? After two good games at the start hes gone MIA.

Lawerence cant play over 10 minutes a game... hes just not ready at all. Its become increasingly apparent.

On offense, I would agree. On D, he's been great. He just needs to put the ball up when he gets down low. I think he's still adjusting to the HS/College transition. He still pump fakes and makes a lot of moves down low, which worked in HS, but don't work on these bigger, smarter guys. He'll grow and start to learn what he needs to do to be more effective. Give it time. The only way for him to learn is to keep playing.

 

[UCalum08]

JJ's dunk was #4 on Sportscenter top 10. That was filthy! Happy hump day!

 

[handwaver]

offensive efficiency - starters

Starters weren't too bad on offense. My definition of a decent offensive performance is points/shot. (total pts. - free throws) If a player can produce one point for each shot, then I'm happy.

Last night:
Guyn 7 shot, 7 pts.
Thomas 7 shots, 6 pts.
Jackson 13 shots, 10 pts.
Kilpatrick 13 shots, 16 pts.
Rubles 6 shots, 6 pts.

overall for starters - 46 shots, 45 pts.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

As always great D and effort. From our frosh I thought they played with great effort too. Lawrence couldn't get it going offensively but he was all over the court early. TC can finish on fast break under control with the best of them. KJ really knows how to do things without the BB in his hands...and is becoming really good at finishing at the hole.

Because we have solid veterans I am still very optimistic about our frosh. Other than Lawrence forcing things on O...I thought they all did a pretty good job. Effort was great out of our frosh. I think KJ and TC know what they are and aren't capable of...Lawrence just needs to learn what his limitations are on O. HIs D, rebounding, and effort are really good.

I reall don't get the love affair with KJ. He is not ready at all. So far this season he is 6-7 on layups and 0fer everything else. Last night he airballed a 3 and missed a free throw. Last year people moaned every time that Titus shot a 3, KJ misses regularly, and badly, and gets love. Well this year they have made the same amouont of 3's, the only difference is Rubles is yet to shoot one this year. At this time last year Rubles was 1-9 from 3, Johnson is 0-10 this year. Sure he can run a pick and roll against a team that is going through its first year in D-1 and he can make a few layups. I have yet to see a scorer in him, the ball looks funny coming out of his hand. Everyone keeps saying his shot will fall....When?? And when it does I don't see him shooting over 30% from the floor.

As far as Jackson, yes he had a double double. He also missed about 8 lay ups and played volleyball on the rim and got about 5 rebounds that way. He was 5-13 from the floor, not ideal when all of his shots are in the lane.

The team lacked focus last night, Guyn had many open 3's that he missed, SK was poor from FT line, Rubles threw the ball away a ton, Jackson missed multiple layups and got beat at the back of the press multiple times. Sanders missed many wide open 3's. The team did not hit a 3 in the second half and went 0-10. Nobody looked sharp, maybe Caupain but that is about it.

 

[New people]

I reall don't get the love affair with KJ. He is not ready at all. So far this season he is 6-7 on layups and 0fer everything else. Last night he airballed a 3 and missed a free throw. Last year people moaned every time that Titus shot a 3, KJ misses regularly, and badly, and gets love. Well this year they have made the same amouont of 3's, the only difference is Rubles is yet to shoot one this year. At this time last year Rubles was 1-9 from 3, Johnson is 0-10 this year. Sure he can run a pick and roll against a team that is going through its first year in D-1 and he can make a few layups. I have yet to see a scorer in him, the ball looks funny coming out of his hand. Everyone keeps saying his shot will fall....When?? And when it does I don't see him shooting over 30% from the floor.

As far as Jackson, yes he had a double double. He also missed about 8 lay ups and played volleyball on the rim and got about 5 rebounds that way. He was 5-13 from the floor, not ideal when all of his shots are in the lane.

The team lacked focus last night, Guyn had many open 3's that he missed, SK was poor from FT line, Rubles threw the ball away a ton, Jackson missed multiple layups and got beat at the back of the press multiple times. Sanders missed many wide open 3's. The team did not hit a 3 in the second half and went 0-10. Nobody looked sharp, maybe Caupain but that is about it.

Maybe you can't see it because you are blind and he's playing more than your son. And by the way are you a fan of UC or not? Not the best game for the home team but a win! Caupain looked good but not to the point were he just out shined the whole team. What game are you looking at. When it all turn out to be the way that I know it will be, you will be the first person I respond to! Say something positive you joker. Lets go UC! We did a lot of good things yesterday. It's called a system and listen to coach Cornin if you want to play.

 

[Bearcat22]

I reall don't get the love affair with KJ. He is not ready at all. So far this season he is 6-7 on layups and 0fer everything else. Last night he airballed a 3 and missed a free throw. Last year people moaned every time that Titus shot a 3, KJ misses regularly, and badly, and gets love. Well this year they have made the same amouont of 3's, the only difference is Rubles is yet to shoot one this year. At this time last year Rubles was 1-9 from 3, Johnson is 0-10 this year. Sure he can run a pick and roll against a team that is going through its first year in D-1 and he can make a few layups. I have yet to see a scorer in him, the ball looks funny coming out of his hand. Everyone keeps saying his shot will fall....When?? And when it does I don't see him shooting over 30% from the floor.

As far as Jackson, yes he had a double double. He also missed about 8 lay ups and played volleyball on the rim and got about 5 rebounds that way. He was 5-13 from the floor, not ideal when all of his shots are in the lane.

The team lacked focus last night, Guyn had many open 3's that he missed, SK was poor from FT line, Rubles threw the ball away a ton, Jackson missed multiple layups and got beat at the back of the press multiple times. Sanders missed many wide open 3's. The team did not hit a 3 in the second half and went 0-10. Nobody looked sharp, maybe Caupain but that is about it.

KJ moves well off the ball and his defense in the press helped lead to a 10 second violation or two. As he settles down we might see some more scoring from him but getting defensive stops and a few easy buckets here and there would be a nice freshman year contribution. Overall I think he's going to have a really nice career.

Other thoughts, SK's shot selection has been so much better. I like seeing him get to the basket. He's looking more efficient and less like a volume shooter.

GG looked solid. SK seems to bring the ball up as much or more as he does. I like his defense

Caupain, is going to drive opposing teams crazy for years. His knack for drawing fouls, playing composed, and knocking down FT's is going to win some games for us over the coming years.

Shaq needs to step in a few more feet on a lot of his shots. He had a few just inside the 3 point line (maybe a few 3's also, I can't remember). 10-15ft might be more suited for him. A little more arc and less line drive might help also. He had a great steal where he picked the guard's pocket. His athletic ability is off the charts.

JL, needs to get stronger but he's going to have some big moments this year.

We need Strickland eligible to limit Big Dave's minutes in the event JJ gets into foul trouble.

 

[CaptDale]

Maybe you can't see it because you are blind and he's playing more than your son. And by the way are you a fan of UC or not? Not the best game for the home team but a win! Caupain looked good but not to the point were he just out shined the whole team. What game are you looking at. When it all turn out to be the way that I know it will be, you will be the first person I respond to! Say something positive you joker. Lets go UC! We did a lot of good things yesterday. It's called a system and listen to coach Cornin if you want to play.

Everything on this thread does not have to be a positive opinion. It's just the writer's view f what happened. In this case, he just stated what he saw (with a few editorial comments). KJ played a tight D and looked good around the basket. He still has to prove himself from outside 3 feet. At least he has room for improvement. The position of PG is still a concern in my mind. I'm a GG fan because he a.) handles the ball well and doesn't turn it over b.) has tight D with long arms (I look for him to get some steals if he doesn't foul c.)not afraid to mix it up inside. But, he still doesn't have a good conceptual view of the offense once he crosses centercourt. Needs to get rid of the ball quicker. Caupain has his strong points, too, but gets mauled when he tries to take it to the hoop. He IS a good FT shooter so that makes up for it. He, too, does not create as quickly as he should after passing half court. That said, I'm happy with either at PG when they're in with the nod to GG.

 

[New people]

Everything on this thread does not have to be a positive opinion. It's just the writer's view f what happened. In this case, he just stated what he saw (with a few editorial comments). KJ played a tight D and looked good around the basket. He still has to prove himself from outside 3 feet. At least he has room for improvement. The position of PG is still a concern in my mind. I'm a GG fan because he a.) handles the ball well and doesn't turn it over b.) has tight D with long arms (I look for him to get some steals if he doesn't foul c.)not afraid to mix it up inside. But, he still doesn't have a good conceptual view of the offense once he crosses centercourt. Needs to get rid of the ball quicker. Caupain has his strong points, too, but gets mauled when he tries to take it to the hoop. He IS a good FT shooter so that makes up for it. He, too, does not create as quickly as he should after passing half court. That said, I'm happy with either at PG when they're in with the nod to GG.

Well Said and I totally agree with you on everything you have just said.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

Maybe you can't see it because you are blind and he's playing more than your son. And by the way are you a fan of UC or not? Not the best game for the home team but a win! Caupain looked good but not to the point were he just out shined the whole team. What game are you looking at. When it all turn out to be the way that I know it will be, you will be the first person I respond to! Say something positive you joker. Lets go UC! We did a lot of good things yesterday. It's called a system and listen to coach Cornin if you want to play.

NEW PEOPLE, You are the troll that wrote this gem of a post on 11/13/13
http://www.bearcattalk.com/showthread.php?p=73206#post73206

UC needs a real coach, Mick is not a good coach at all, there are more people on the team than SK, no disrespect to SK because he is a nice player but UC will only make it as fare as their Athleticisms takes them, because Mick Cornin can not coach and don't have the ability to coach a team to the promise land, or develop basketball players, that's why some of them look like they do. I feel bad for the 2014 class, if they have signed already, they should go somewhere else, where the knowledge of basketball is thick, and play for a coach who can develop kids and coach! Mick is not that guy.

Sorry But the truth.

 

[ralph1950]

You are the troll that wrote this gem of a post.

UC needs a real coach, Mick is not a good coach at all, there are more people on the team than SK, no disrespect to SK because he is a nice player but UC will only make it as fare as their Athleticisms takes them, because Mick Cornin can not coach and don't have the ability to coach a team to the promise land, or develop basketball players, that's why some of them look like they do. I feel bad for the 2014 class, if they have signed already, they should go somewhere else, where the knowledge of basketball is thick, and play for a coach who can develop kids and coach! Mick is not that guy.

Sorry But the truth.

Lance Stephenson seems to be doing quite well.