2018-19 Cincinnati Bearcats

Man this team is coming along way better than I expected. They've got some great momentum going into conference play.
 
Is UCLA that bad?

They're a bunch of individuals playing 1v1 offensively, when they get stopped they'd just throw it back out. On top of that they play zero defense. They made UC look like an offensive juggernaut. That 2-3 zone they ran to start the 2nd half was an absolute joke. Pass to elbow, back door layup. Pass to elbow, give-n-go layup. Pass to elbow, open 3 on the wing.
 
Quality loss to the 248th ranked team in the country. 15 turnovers and 8/18 FT's. Christ.

Yet in the postgame Cronin whines about the defensive effort. I'm starting to actually hate the guy. Perhaps stop trying to hold the opponent to 40 ppg and consider giving a f about offense
 
Same, he pisses me off. Are there any reporters up there that actually have the balls to push him and ask him tough questions?
 
Cronin's a goof. He has definitely peaked as a coach. This team will probably make the tournament one last time next season then fade into oblivion for good.
 
They'll continue to win twenty games consistently and make the tournament and get bounced by the second round because their style of play doesn't work against teams who can score. Mick is consistent as hell but his refusal to change his coaching style will always hold them back and waste talented players like Cumberland and Clark
 
The team is going to hit a snag within the next few years because the absolute lack of offensive talent on the roster. Let's take a look.

Williams - Will be the best player once Cumberland leaves but doesn't appear anywhere close to developing a jump shot making him a one-trick slashing pony.

Moore - The only pure shooter on the roster who now appears shot of confidence and can't consistently get on the court.

Diarra - Best offensive skill set of any big man but is still very raw and considered a long term project for the program. Will need to improve considerably to become a decent full-time contributor.

Nsoseme - Great motor but has worse hands than Jason Pierre Paul. Like Diarra needs to make big strides to be trusted with big minutes against real competition.

Johnson - Will need to become our next Caupain if this program wants to keep its head above water. Has a ways to go on his jump shot as well.

Hardnett & Gillum - both long term projects who can hopefully give us the production of Tre Scott by Year 4 if we're lucky.

So there we go. Lots of athletes who will probably still have no problem running low major teams off the court during OOC play but will struggle to score 50 points any time they leave 5/3rd.
 
Cronin's a goof. He has definitely peaked as a coach. This team will probably make the tournament one last time next season then fade into oblivion for good.

That’s the path X is on. Although they have no chance of making the tournament this year
Hate to see UC follow
 
Williams has improved a lot this season. He's no Cumberland when it comes to shooting but he could hardly stay on the court last year.

Have no idea what happened to Moore, seems Mick gets on him a lot for his defensive lapses. I've seen him shoot in pre-game and when he's on, he can't miss. Maybe he finds it the latter half of this year.

Diarra is only a Freshmen, very raw right now but he could be very good by the time he gets meaningful minutes next year and into his junior year.

I agree Mick has peaked at UC, but I'd hate for the University to let him go and then the program take big step back like Xavier has this year. Until UC is able to squeeze themselves into a bigger conference, which seems very unlikely currently, they need to stay the course. Keep winning 20 games a year, take some chances in the non-conference to bulk up their resume' and with a couple decent teams and a good draw they'll make it out of the first weekend once or twice every 5-10 years.
 
Yeah that was terrible. Don't understand not giving your best player the opportunity to score. But hey, they pulled it out somehow.
 
turned on last 3 minutes of the game last night.

UC did hit some shots but man did Tulsa just pee down their leg in the last 90 seconds. good grief, i don't know how many more ways you can lose a game but Tulsa managed to do about 5 different things horrendously wrong to lose that game.
 
i understand that maybe your team didn't play as well as you'd like them to, but man, can Mick ever just be happy with a win?

good grief it's got to be tough to go through life as angry as he seems to be.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sp...far-pleased-ucs-ot-win-over-uconn/2514778002/
Did you watch the game? Sure you can be happy for the W but they were horrendous down the stretch. Defensive lapses, missed FTs. It was not a game they should have won. Cumberland bailed them out in OT, though UConn missing their best player Adams who fouled out was likely the biggest deciding factor.
 
Cats collect a Q1 scalp on the road at Memphis, 69-64. Jarron was so good down the stretch. UC was down 6 at half but clawed their way back with no turnovers in 2nd half. Big showdown with Houston on Sunday.
 
That was a really weird game last night. UC couldn't do anything defensively in the first half and had what? A handful, if that, of 2 point baskets in the first half? Whatever, they pulled off an impressive win.

Really, really impressed with Keith Williams this year. Between his ability to get to the basket and his vastly improved 3pt shot. From ~14% from 3 last year to around 34%. Even if he just marginally improves the next 2 years, I could see him being a possible late 1st round, more likely 2nd round pick.
 
Obviously UC is one of the top programs in its conference but the past two years they seem to get away with games like these where they basically no-show in the 1st half and come roaring back in the 2nd half. There's been at least 3-4 games like that in conference already this year. They did have their dud against ECU and when you play like that you're always playing with fire, but they just seem to know they're better and if they clean up their game it'll be fine in the 2nd half.

Last night may have been their worst 1st half of the season between the defensive lapses, silly fouls and turnovers. The 3-point shooting really kept them in the game (who would have thought that to be the case). I expect them to lose a close one at Houston over the weekend, but am less sure about it now than I was just a couple weeks ago.
 
I expect them to lose a close one at Houston over the weekend, but am less sure about it now than I was just a couple weeks ago.

If UC wins Sunday then they're in the driver's seat for the conference. If they lose, they can still win the regular season as long as they win out afterwards (with UC being 1-0 vs Temple and Houston being 1-1).

With that being said, I expect them to lose as well. Probably by 6-10 points.
 
Cumberland was fantastic today but like we've seen so many times in the past few years they UC went 6+ minutes without scoring a point. You just can't do that sh-t against good teams
 
Seems UC is good for a nice long scoring drought every other game. They'll still probably be favored in every game from here on out, so the Bearcats aren't out of it yet.
 
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