Where does UC go from here?

[TheLivingLegend]

Do they fold and collapse like previous years, or do they pull things together and regroup.

Issues I see:
- Our offense is terrible. I hate seeing Yancy set high screen after high screen.
- We rarely get to the line, making us a jump shooting team (clearly this doesnt suit us)
- We have no go to guy.


Will not win many games scoring 50 points. The postgame was very very irritating. All mick wanted to talk about was defense, but there comes a time when a team needs to score the ball. 50 points nightly wont win games.

 

[Who Dey Time]

Do they fold and collapse like previous years, or do they pull things together and regroup.

Issues I see:
- Our offense is terrible. I hate seeing Yancy set high screen after high screen.
- We rarely get to the line, making us a jump shooting team (clearly this doesnt suit us)
- We have no go to guy.


Will not win many games scoring 50 points. The postgame was very very irritating. All mick wanted to talk about was defense, but there comes a time when a team needs to score the ball. 50 points nightly wont win games.

Mick's point was that the offense was affecting the team's defense. Obviously we need to score more points and I think they will. Tonight was a terrible offensive night but let's credit a very good defensive team in addition to the fact that we missed open shots.

Nine games to go. Got to find five wins down the stretch. I think this team has learned from past mistakes and will get to where we all want them to. Tonight sucked but it certainly was not a deal breaker.

 

[TheLivingLegend]

Tonight was a terrible offensive night

Was it tho? Thats my concern, seemed pretty similar to recent games.

 

[anbuc88]

Mick's point was that the offense was affecting the team's defense. Obviously we need to score more points and I think they will. Tonight was a terrible offensive night but let's credit a very good defensive team in addition to the fact that we missed open shots.

Nine games to go. Got to find five wins down the stretch. I think this team has learned from past mistakes and will get to where we all want them to. Tonight sucked but it certainly was not a deal breaker.

Agreed. Tonights game was very disappointing, especially since I sat with a WVU fan and had a long ride home with him afterward. But it is only one game. All of the players have heard ad nauseum about the collapses of the past few years, and hopefully this will make them determined and more resilient to avoid this same scenerio from repeating. I thik the Pitt game is BIG for this reason, and they have to have a good showing. Not a win, but be competitive through out the game. Otherwise the whispers will start to get louder and louder.

 

[Bearcat_NTS]

Not sure where 5 more wins will happen with the history of late season collapses. Mick bitches about attendance and when he get a sell out, his team plays like crap. To answer your question of where does UC go from here, the answer should be on the look for a new head coach.

 

[ready2go]

Was it tho? Thats my concern, seemed pretty similar to recent games.

Yea. Anytime we've been in the 50's this year in scoring its always been because lets credit the other defense. Well yea, but comes a point in time where you have to overcome that and play the style of basketball that got you to 18 wins. Especially when the opponent only had about 8 players. Enough of the other teams defense. Its the Big East.

 

[bearcat jeff]

When Thomas, Wilks, McClain, and Jackson give you 2 points combined you're in trouble. Low post play continues to hurt this team in big games. If they can't score they at least have to rebound. This group did neither. When Yancy is being surrounded somebody has to step up. Nobody did.

 

[ready2go]

When Thomas, Wilks, McClain, and Jackson give you 2 points combined you're in trouble. Low post play continues to hurt this team in big games. If they can't score they at least have to rebound. This group did neither. When Yancy is being surrounded somebody has to step up. Nobody did.

They only took 5 attempts. And 2 of those were even 3's. You can't give your bigs the ball outside the 3 point line and expect them to score points. Even Gates took a 3. All the bigs to in big games is set high ball screens. They shouldnt even be near the 3 point line. Get them the ball down low near the basket where they can be effective. As for rebounding. Its hard for bigs to rebound missed 3's. 21 of them to be exact

 

[bearcat jeff]

Mick's statement about Yancy last night: “They decided to double team him. Guys are standing there wide open at the three point line. There is a rule that you are allowed to go rebound it. He only had one offensive rebound.”

There no way to defend it R2G, low post play has killed this team in all of it's losses. I know you love to shoulder Mick with everything and ultimately it's his responsibility, but players have to respond and play. Our bigs haven't even shown up in our losses.

Mick again" “I’ve got guys that have been playing in the BIG EAST and our program for the last three years. We are 18-4. We have a couple days off to get some rest and focused on academics. In our league, you are only as good as your next game. Syracuse hasn’t won since they beat us; welcome to the BIG EAST. You have to be great at rebounding, and we weren’t great at rebounding. Not enough to make up for our lack of rebounding.”

 

[ralph1950]

Do they fold and collapse like previous years, or do they pull things together and regroup.

Issues I see:
- Our offense is terrible. I hate seeing Yancy set high screen after high screen.
- We rarely get to the line, making us a jump shooting team (clearly this doesnt suit us)
- We have no go to guy.


Will not win many games scoring 50 points. The postgame was very very irritating. All mick wanted to talk about was defense, but there comes a time when a team needs to score the ball. 50 points nightly wont win games.

UC did not fold in previous years, they lost to teams that were better than them.

 

[ready2go]

Mick's statement about Yancy last night: “They decided to double team him. Guys are standing there wide open at the three point line. There is a rule that you are allowed to go rebound it. He only had one offensive rebound.”

There no way to defend it R2G, low post play has killed this team in all of it's losses. I know you love to shoulder Mick with everything and ultimately it's his responsibility, but players have to respond and play. Our bigs haven't even shown up in our losses.

I may be a little hard on Mick, but honestly. The bigs can't pass it to themselves. Your guards are dribbling the air out of the ball around the 3 point line. They dont even look to get the ball down low. Playing a team with about 8 guys, and as a coach how can you not develope a game plan to get the ball to your post players... Or stop walking the ball up the court. You can still get the ball up the floor after made baskets

 

[ralph1950]

It was one game, 9 more to play.

 

[BearcatAlum1]

It's hard for THIS team to win when:

Bishop 1-9.
Killa 3-9.
Thomas 0-4.
Gates 3-7 (Dear God: Please get Yancy more shots!)
Dixon 3-12.
Davis 1-5.
These guys went 11-46. That's Charles Barkley "turrrrible."

Cashmere was tremendous 9-14 for 24 points.

 

[bearcat jeff]

UC did not fold in previous years, they lost to teams that were better than them.

Ralph that's not entirely true. They've lost to teams like Depaul, Seton Hall, Providence and USF.

However, as Villanova and Syracuse are showing this league is brutal on everyone. Again it's not a matter of if you'll hit a bad streak it's when and if you can limit it and maintain conference standing.

Georgetown started 1-4. Syracuse has lost 4 straight. Nova has not played well since beating Syracuse. This league is brutal and people need to understand that. The teams in this league are very good. That's why everyone says it's the best, deepest league in America. If you have an off night physically you better be mentally prepared. If you aren't you're going to get beat.

 

[ralph1950]

Ralph that's not entirely true. They've lost to teams like Depaul, Seton Hall, Providence and USF.

However, as Villanova and Syracuse are showing this league is brutal on everyone. Again it's not a matter of if you'll hit a bad streak it's when and if you can limit it and maintain conference standing.

Georgetown started 1-4. Syracuse has lost 4 straight. Nova has not played well since beating Syracuse. This league is brutal and people need to understand that. The teams in this league are very good. That's why everyone says it's the best, deepest league in America. If you have an off night physically you better be mentally prepared. If you aren't you're going to get beat.

Yep, people have to realize this is the Big East, not C-USA. the C-USA mentality still lingers on in many. No one school has ever dominated The Big East.

 

[bearcat jeff]

The bad thing is UC dropped to 43rd in the rpi (according to live-rpi.com).

 

[MDW79]

Last night was such a disappointment for me. I thought for sure we'd win that game, and set ourselves up pretty favorably going forward.

I don't mean to make 1 loss sound like the end of the world, but that was a HUGE loss. It really changes a lot. And I'm struggling to find 5 wins in the remaining 9.

I have a Depaul chalked up as a gimme but that's it. St. Johns would be the next closest. I'm not sure anyone could make a case for any other game being more than a toss up AT BEST.

On the game itself, 30 3's is completely unacceptable. I'm not sure why our guys refuse to try to attack on the basket. That's why there's a FT disparity almost every game. Our perimeter players settle for jumpers, and our biggs play 10 ft out and/or fadeaway, or go straight up. And apparently this style is here to stay b/c 1.) it's nothing new 2.) guys like Thomas/Gates shoot 3's and don't get yanked.

This is apparently what our kids are coached to do, or they'd be getting yanked, you'd see the offense evolve as the season goes on. But this is the same offense we saw last month, last year. We run the Pitino, shoot a minimum of 20 3's a game. Problem is we can't shoot all that well. And we'll shoot them with no one under the basket, early in the shot clock, with no ball movement, no kick out. (Anytime)

I don't know, maybe a few days gives me more hope, but let's be honest, we haven't looked great for quite some time. 5-4 in the remaining 9 is less likely than 4-5, 3-6, ???. I thought we may be talking about seeding after yesterday, turns out we're (I'm) talking about being squarely back on the bubble

 

[bearcat jeff]

Last night was such a disappointment for me. I thought for sure we'd win that game, and set ourselves up pretty favorably going forward.

I don't mean to make 1 loss sound like the end of the world, but that was a HUGE loss. It really changes a lot. And I'm struggling to find 5 wins in the remaining 9.

I have a Depaul chalked up as a gimme but that's it. St. Johns would be the next closest. I'm not sure anyone could make a case for any other game being more than a toss up AT BEST.

On the game itself, 30 3's is completely unacceptable. I'm not sure why our guys refuse to try to attack on the basket. That's why there's a FT disparity almost every game. Our perimeter players settle for jumpers, and our biggs play 10 ft out and/or fadeaway, or go straight up. And apparently this style is here to stay b/c 1.) it's nothing new 2.) guys like Thomas/Gates shoot 3's and don't get yanked.

This is aparrently what our kids are coached to do, or they'd be getting yanked, you'd see the offense evolve as the season goes on. But this is the same offense we saw last month, last year. We run the Pitino, shoot a minimum of 20 3's a game. Probably is we can't shoot all that well.

I don't know, maybe a few days gives me more hope, but let's be honest, we haven't looked great for quite some time. 5-4 in the remaining 9 is less likely than 4-5, 3-6, ???. I thought we may be talking about seeding after yesterday, turns out we're (I'm) talking about being squarely back on the bubble

My concern is that against the top teams they don't show up mentally. I really thought this team would come out fired up and roll in this game. I cautioned a friend of mine that if UC let WVU beat them on the boards it would be a close game and they could lose.

I completely agree about not attacking. It killed them again Notre Dame. It killed them again Syracuse and it killed them last night. I chalk this up to a lack of mental toughness. When things aren't going your way you have to attack. You can't stand back and loft jump shots. We have to get some mid-range and close points from our sf, pf and C. Kilpatrick, Cash, and Dixon can't be expected to carry this team every night.

 

[JeromyM]

I think if they dont finish 10-8 in conference, we are NIT bound.

 

[bearcat jeff]

I think if they dont finish 10-8 in conference, we are NIT bound.

I would agree in general, but think there are some opportunities to get in 9-9. Beat Pitt and no "bad losses". Beat UConn and no bad losses. Realistically I think if they can beat Georgetown and Louisville they'll have enough to get in with no bad losses. Have to win at home from here out.