UConn

[cincrulz11]

I'm sorry but what are we basing this off of? Who's to say Cane wouldn't have been able to score given the chance to actually play? All he has done in close games against good competition is prove he's our biggest prime time player who doesn't hide when the lights are on.

he just said the other day cane can't play against good teams because he can't finish around the rim vs them.


just ignore it.

 

[Quadri's #1 fan]

I agree if we lose we should definitely be worrying but if we win I don't see how it could possibly give us confidence we'll win in March.

I never said it should give us confidence. If you lose it means this team isn't mentally strong. All of these big games going down to the last second should really make us worry I guess. I'm hoping that in March we have players that will step up and play like it's their last game, and maybe we will have all of our best players play well. There has only been a single game all year where we were absolutely out played and were never in it, and it was our first road game against our biggest rival. The only way this game will give me confidence is if Broone starts and does well. I think we win by 14, but I'm hoping it's more. Their defense needs to get back on track, and if it doesn't then we're bound to have a disappointing March. Also we can only hope Cronin get's his head out of his a** with all these substitution, and not letting the players play.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

he just said the other day cane can't play against good teams because he can't finish around the rim vs them.


just ignore it.

No, I said he can dribble past guards but can't finish against the bigs waiting for him to block his shot. That's defense 101 against a guard like that. And yesterday he beat the defense once and got blocked pretty badly going one on four the other time he tried to take it himself. My point on Cane has always been he's good but has to play within what he can and can't get away with at this level. He can't and won't consistently score putting his head down and driving against defenses even at the AAC level of competition

 

[david aka the TYZ]

I'm sorry but what are we basing this off of? Who's to say Cane wouldn't have been able to score given the chance to actually play? All he has done in close games against good competition is prove he's our biggest prime time player who doesn't hide when the lights are on.

I'm basing it on the length of Houston on defense and the fact they literally held and pushed every play. He nor anyone can get past a guy holding him. Cane is a lot of things but strong isn't one of them. He's not powering through anybody and a smaller guard wouldn't have been effective shooting in traffic. That's why Moore played and why Jacob ran point

Also, he's what a 55 percent free throw shooter? Why play him when all your points have to come from the line?

 

[cincrulz11]

No, I said he can dribble past guards but can't finish against the bigs waiting for him to block his shot. That's defense 101 against a guard like that. And yesterday he beat the defense once and got blocked pretty badly going one on four the other time he tried to take it himself. My point on Cane has always been he's good but has to play within what he can and can't get away with at this level. He can't and won't consistently score putting his head down and driving against defenses even at the AAC level of competition

what happened the other times he took it to the rim yesterday?

 

[david aka the TYZ]

what happened the other times he took it to the rim yesterday?

In transition he scored....no one would ever argue he can finish in transition. In the half court I remember him driving twice. Once he snuck a shot in under an arm and the other one of four guys blocked him.

We don't play fast pace nor was anything vs. Houston going to be transition. You can disagree all you want, but play in, play out, half court offense, Cane won't be a high level scorer if he tries to just dribble to the hoop and finish against defenses waiting to collapse in on him. Maybe he can find an open guy, but it's simply not an offense Mick will ever run or allow a guy to run unless we're trailing and nothing else is working.

 

[Jon Rycek]

I admire your ability to stay positive. I really want to remain that way. But I'm just so depressed about the team. Unless we change it up, we will continue to drop these big games. It's that simple. And our coach hasn't shown in the past that he's willing to change. So it's just hard to expect the results to be different. We have Washington and Broome for a reason. Use them both. Period.

I thought we talked a lot about how he has changed over the course of the past few seasons, especially with the recruits he is targeting. People do tend to stick to their roots, obviously you want/have to evolve to a certain point, but there is nothing wrong with focusing on what made you good in the first place. I think Mick is trying to figure out this offensive thing, it might not be working all that well sometimes, but when in the past would we have used our 3 as the PG. I agree with everyone stance on cane, he clearly gives us our best chance to win. And if there is one thing I find frustrating right now about Cronin is his unwillingness to admit that, or whatever you want to call it. Cane has also been going through a rough patch up until this game. But I just can't on board with the whole, we aren't what we thought we were train. I still think this is a very good team, capable of winning big games. Jut because a couple didn't go our way, doesn't change my thinking about that. We were a couple shots away from beating Fl, and Wichita state; and even Houston.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

I thought we talked a lot about how he has changed over the course of the past few seasons, especially with the recruits he is targeting. People do tend to stick to their roots, obviously you want/have to evolve to a certain point, but there is nothing wrong with focusing on what made you good in the first place. I think Mick is trying to figure out this offensive thing, it might not be working all that well sometimes, but when in the past would we have used our 3 as the PG. I agree with everyone stance on cane, he clearly gives us our best chance to win. And if there is one thing I find frustrating right now about Cronin is his unwillingness to admit that, or whatever you want to call it. Cane has also been going through a rough patch up until this game. But I just can't on board with the whole, we aren't what we thought we were train. I still think this is a very good team, capable of winning big games. Jut because a couple didn't go our way, doesn't change my thinking about that. We were a couple shots away from beating Fl, and Wichita state; and even Houston.

Team is still good, just need to adjust the weaknesses good teams have managed to show and exploit

 

[cincrulz11]

In transition he scored....no one would ever argue he can finish in transition. In the half court I remember him driving twice. Once he snuck a shot in under an arm and the other one of four guys blocked him.

12:56 of first half

15:01 of 2nd half

7:15 of 2nd half


were in the half court. so he drove it 4 times in the half court resulting in 3 scores and a block out of bounds.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

In transition he scored....no one would ever argue he can finish in transition. In the half court I remember him driving twice. Once he snuck a shot in under an arm and the other one of four guys blocked him.

We don't play fast pace nor was anything vs. Houston going to be transition. You can disagree all you want, but play in, play out, half court offense, Cane won't be a high level scorer if he tries to just dribble to the hoop and finish against defenses waiting to collapse in on him. Maybe he can find an open guy, but it's simply not an offense Mick will ever run or allow a guy to run unless we're trailing and nothing else is working.

So put in the guys who score 0 points. That's always the solution. And that's why we lose these kinds of games. Why did we bring Washington and Broome in? Bc we realized in order to beat good teams we needed guys who can score? That's what I thought...yet every time we play one of those teams, we MUST sub one of them out for over half the game in favor of guys who score 0. There is no point in trying to change what we do, if when the moment is there, we are too afraid to try to outscore a team. It ends up being the same thing as it was when we didn't have guys like that. It's depressing. We will get knocked out in the tournament as soon as we play a team with good offense. Bc instead of running good offense ourselves, it is our reflex to put 2 guys on the floor who contribute nothing in order to stop them from scoring. But you never totally stop teams like that, and now you're just playing 3 vs 5 on offense.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

At the end of the day, we scored 72 points yesterday...with no help from the refs. Offense wasn't the problem. His recruiting has gotten better and focused on offense more.

As far as playing Evans at pg, I have no problem with him trying that here and there especially if the thought is to force Jacob to get into the offense more aggressively. I do have a problem running him at point the whole game, but it is what it is. Houston was being allowed to grab, hold and push every play. Cronin made a decision to try and counter that. Vs. Louisville years ago, he used Titus Rubles at point and effectively because their guards were beating our guards in the press. But Titus handled the ball better than his PF counterpart could defend him. And let's be honest, in our simple half court offense it's kind of pointless who is where around the perimeter. It only matters when you can dribble drive, which Wichita State allowed but teams like Temple and Houston made it an emphasis to not.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

I thought we talked a lot about how he has changed over the course of the past few seasons, especially with the recruits he is targeting. People do tend to stick to their roots, obviously you want/have to evolve to a certain point, but there is nothing wrong with focusing on what made you good in the first place. I think Mick is trying to figure out this offensive thing, it might not be working all that well sometimes, but when in the past would we have used our 3 as the PG. I agree with everyone stance on cane, he clearly gives us our best chance to win. And if there is one thing I find frustrating right now about Cronin is his unwillingness to admit that, or whatever you want to call it. Cane has also been going through a rough patch up until this game. But I just can't on board with the whole, we aren't what we thought we were train. I still think this is a very good team, capable of winning big games. Jut because a couple didn't go our way, doesn't change my thinking about that. We were a couple shots away from beating Fl, and Wichita state; and even Houston.

There is no point in recruiting guys like that if you're going to bench them against the good teams. Other teams have 5 guys on the floor who can score sometimes...and our response is to remove a couple of our guys who can score for ones who can't at all. How are you beating Xavier, Wichita State, UCLA, any good offense like that? It's already hard enough to match them basket for basket. And you aren't holding them to 55.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

12:56 of first half

15:01 of 2nd half

7:15 of 2nd half


were in the half court. so he drove it 4 times in the half court resulting in 3 scores and a block out of bounds.

I'm not going to rewatch the game. If you say that I can't refute it. Seems you got that info pretty quick, but whatever. I've stated my position more than enough and I stand by my point that Cane can be defended rather easily if he's going to take it upon himself to score and furthermore stand by my opinion in knowing that Mick would never allow this offense. He wants Gary and Kyle and Evans and Cumberland involved in the offense and for good reason. He runs the offense through the bigs and kick out to shooters. Cane has shown to be a better set shooter than he has finishing in traffic. Would anyone on here other than you argue that?

 

[jacobkdoyle]

At the end of the day, we scored 72 points yesterday...with no help from the refs. Offense wasn't the problem. His recruiting has gotten better and focused on offense more.

As far as playing Evans at pg, I have no problem with him trying that here and there especially if the thought is to force Jacob to get into the offense more aggressively. I do have a problem running him at point the whole game, but it is what it is. Houston was being allowed to grab, hold and push every play. Cronin made a decision to try and counter that. Vs. Louisville years ago, he used Titus Rubles at point and effectively because their guards were beating our guards in the press. But Titus handled the ball better than his PF counterpart could defend him. And let's be honest, in our simple half court offense it's kind of pointless who is where around the perimeter. It only matters when you can dribble drive, which Wichita State allowed but teams like Temple and Houston made it an emphasis to not.

72 in your own gym against a good offensive team isn't good enough. We needed 70 vs Houston, and we needed 80 yesterday. We will have a game in the tournament where we need to score with someone. Playing worse players doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in me.

 

[jacobkdoyle]

I'm not going to rewatch the game. If you say that I can't refute it. Seems you got that info pretty quick, but whatever. I've stated my position more than enough and I stand by my point that Cane can be defended rather easily if he's going to take it upon himself to score and furthermore stand by my opinion in knowing that Mick would never allow this offense. He wants Gary and Kyle and Evans and Cumberland involved in the offense and for good reason. He runs the offense through the bugs and kick out to shooters. Cane has shown to be a better set shooter than he has finishing in traffic. Would anyone on here other than you argue that?

So why not have him taking set shots in the physical games? Why would it be a crime if Broome shot 10 3s in the Houston game? No matter how you slice it, he's a better offensive option that Jenifer or Moore. Watching Broome yesterday makes me realize that it's 100% unforgivable to have him only play 6 minutes vs Houston. 100% unforgivable.

 

[david aka the TYZ]

72 in your own gym against a good offensive team isn't good enough. We needed 70 vs Houston, and we needed 80 yesterday. We will have a game in the tournament where we need to score with someone. Playing worse players doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in me.

I don't disagree with that but Wichita was scoring at will on Washington and Nsoseme actually seemed to curb that. We had 40 at halftime and down 2 while they shot 60 percent. Offense wasn't really the issue. Wichita State defends shots well but didn't play aggressive on defense which opened up the dribble drive and passing lanes. We were going to win with guard play yesterday. Givin a team like Wichita State open look after open look is a recipe for disaster. Kyle, Evans at times and Jenifer were allowing that. Kyle and Jenifer got the bench.

 

[cincyguy13]

I thought we talked a lot about how he has changed over the course of the past few seasons, especially with the recruits he is targeting. People do tend to stick to their roots, obviously you want/have to evolve to a certain point, but there is nothing wrong with focusing on what made you good in the first place. I think Mick is trying to figure out this offensive thing, it might not be working all that well sometimes, but when in the past would we have used our 3 as the PG. I agree with everyone stance on cane, he clearly gives us our best chance to win. And if there is one thing I find frustrating right now about Cronin is his unwillingness to admit that, or whatever you want to call it. Cane has also been going through a rough patch up until this game. But I just can't on board with the whole, we aren't what we thought we were train. I still think this is a very good team, capable of winning big games. Jut because a couple didn't go our way, doesn't change my thinking about that. We were a couple shots away from beating Fl, and Wichita state; and even Houston.

actually some good insight when you aren't trying to be the fan police. I agree about cronin, I think he is trying but like you said, in big games he tends to go back to his grind it out style. I still want cronin to succeed but I think you have to win something besides regular season games.

 

[cincrulz11]

There is no point in recruiting guys like that if you're going to bench them against the good teams. Other teams have 5 guys on the floor who can score sometimes...and our response is to remove a couple of our guys who can score for ones who can't at all. How are you beating Xavier, Wichita State, UCLA, any good offense like that? It's already hard enough to match them basket for basket. And you aren't holding them to 55.

let me give you 2 player stats from some teams listed in this thread.



ORtg - 106.6, 109.2

eFG% - 47.1, 53.7

TS% - 52.6, 55.7

ARate - 28.1, 29.6

TORate - 22.3, 22.1



One of these is Cane and the other is Quentin Goodin. I guess I'll just say Quentin Goodin is lucky he doesn't play for us cause his turnovers and defense would get him benched. (im not trying to compare them as players, only noting what the 'back of their baseball card' looks like)

 

[cincyguy13]

72 in your own gym against a good offensive team isn't good enough. We needed 70 vs Houston, and we needed 80 yesterday. We will have a game in the tournament where we need to score with someone. Playing worse players doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in me.

I agree. You aren't beating many elite teams with 72 points. maybe Virginia. Might win 1 or 2 but not winning consistently like that. As we have seen

 

[david aka the TYZ]

So why not have him taking set shots in the physical games? Why would it be a crime if Broome shot 10 3s in the Houston game? No matter how you slice it, he's a better offensive option that Jenifer or Moore. Watching Broome yesterday makes me realize that it's 100% unforgivable to have him only play 6 minutes vs Houston. 100% unforgivable.

I don't disagree with that, in fact my posts have said he needs to be utilized to be an open shooter. Unfortunately we stalled the ball vs. Houston and gave into what the gave us. We had 7 assists and weren't passing the ball. There was no inside out game. Zero. Cane came in and made a really dumb mistake and rightly or wrongly didn't get back in. I said after the game he deserved more minutes and the chance to do something. You guys think cause I'm critical of him I seem to think he's garbage. Far from it. I just like to play devils advocate for two reasons. One to stimulate conversation and two I don't see the same thing out of Cane most do. He's not strong enough and hasn't figured out what he can't do enough to not make mistakes enough at this level to carry a team. And his game most people drool over simply isn't practical on this team. He needs to be a set shooter more, defend aggressively, drive and dish when defenses play off him and he needs to clean up his lazy passes and read defenses better to know where the passing lanes will be and wont. He gets in trouble when the defense collapses on him and he doesn't have an easy bail out. And most times this year he hasn't. (Outside of his transition game.)