Here is my pre-Big East season review

Positives

1. More, and better, outside shooters than the last few years.

2. A much better inside scoring threat with several big men that know what to do IF they get the ball near the basket

3. Defense has shown the ability to be good when they play hard

Negatives

1. But - they don't play hard all of the time

2. I'm not sure I have seen an offensive scheme yet. At least 50% of the game 2 or 3 players pass the ball around the perimeter until one of them decides to just heave up a 3 point attempt.

1. Not having a true point guard really hurts this team.

2. Nobody drives the lane.

3. Have not been able to get a fast break offense going.

4. Full court press is weak.

5. Passing can be lazy at times throughout the game and leads to turnovers and easy baskets for the other team

This team is 100% better than last year. They need to work on some things, but those things are mostly correctable with work.

One thing that isn't correctable is the lack of a PG. But I do hope the team can still cut down on turnovers and get some more transition buckets just through some hard work.

It's amazing what a talent infusion will do for a team.

With 13 scholarship players and 5 playing at a time a basketball program can turn around quickly with 2 good recruiting classes. Mick has the program back on track.

Good analysis Bearcatfan.

I agree with Bearcat fans analysis.


A win at Memphis pretty much locks up a Tourney bid. A win at Memphis and Marquette...and you can start buying your tickets.


I think they can do both...

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Seeing what the rest of this league has done...I just don't see how Cincy will finish worse than 9-9 in conference. 12-6 is possible based on what i've seen from the rest of the league so far.


Big East
Team Conf. W-L Tot. W-L
Pittsburgh 0-0 12-0
Connecticut 0-0 10-0
Syracuse 0-0 12-1
Villanova 0-0 11-1
Georgetown 0-0 8-1
Cincinnati 0-0 10-2
Marquette 0-0 10-2
Notre Dame 0-0 9-2
St. Johns 0-0 9-2
W Virginia 0-0 8-2
Louisville 0-0 7-2
Rutgers 0-0 8-3
Seton Hall 0-0 8-3
Providence 0-0 8-4
DePaul 0-0 7-4
South Florida 0-0 4-7

(12-23-2008 09:55 AM)griffen Wrote:  A win at Memphis pretty much locks up a Tourney bid. A win at Memphis and Marquette...and you can start buying your tickets.

I'm excited about the team so far but you don't wrap up anything until you're deep into conference play. I don't care how good your no-conference if you go 6-10 in BE play you're not even a bubble team. A good team will have a losing conference record with as strong as the conference is this year, hopefully it's not us.

And Yancy Gates is even better than I expected.

Here is some info, though on the macro side I know:

This season through 12 games...

UC average score 74.6
Opponent average score 60.2
Difference +14.4
Opponents: 1. S. Dakota 2. Tx Southern 3. W. Illinois 4. Coastal Carolina 5. Florida State 6. UNLV 7. UAB 8. XU 9. Chas Southern 10. Ms State 11. EKU 12. UAPB

Last season throught 12 games...

UC average score 65.6
Opponent average score 67.7
Difference -2.1
Opponents: 1. Belmont 2. W. Carolina 3. BGSU 4. Coastal Carolina 5. Fairfield 6. South Carolina Upstate 7. UAB 8. Ill St 9. XU 10. Memphis 11. NC St 12 Miami Ohio

That McClain will see more playing time come conference part of the schedule has been a repeated message sent by both the coaching staff and the TV announcing crew, may Buford/Ragai never be teamed up again (it's like having two color commentators).

Do you guys think it is likely that Biggie will appear frequently in conference play, or infrequently for that matter?

It's evident we will need him if for no other reason than to spell Gates/Toyloy, and he does have some nice moments, but I wonder how he will do against the likes of Thabeet, Blair, Monroe, Onuaku where we will likely need him the most. It seems to me that those guys will have a field day when he comes in place of gates/Toyloy.

I like em'.....better than we've had lately and all we need is 8 conf. wins to have a shot at the ncaa....granted, winning 8 games in the BE is going to take a Herculean effort...

(12-23-2008 02:21 PM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  I like em'.....better than we've had lately and all we need is 8 conf. wins to have a shot at the ncaa....granted, winning 8 games in the BE is going to take a Herculean effort...

8 wins probably won't be enough. Remember it's an 18 game conference schedule. .500 in the league is probably required but not necessarily sufficient for an NCAA bid.

I think 10-8 in the Big East gets us in, though may need to win one game in the Big East tourney. 9-9 would req

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I think 10-8 in the Big East gets us in, though may need to win one game in the Big East tourney. 9-9 would require at least 1 Big East win. So I'm thinking 20 wins is almost the magic number. But lets take this one game at a time.

yea...you're are right I was thinking old 16 game schedule.....

we would at least need to be .500 in conference is my point so.....let's assume we lose to Memphis we go into conference 10-3 and 9-9 in BE would put us at 19-12......

depends who we beat in those 9 wins......
if it's a "strong 9 wins" then we could lose in ncaa first round and still be in.
if it's a "weak 9 wins" (if there is such a thing in the BE) then we would have to win a BE conf game or two I would guess

This program is getting better but it's hard not to considering where we were. You can't make giant leaps playing in the big east. you have to displace one program at a time. Getting your recruits eligible and healthy won't hurt either

Vaughn- I wonder if he should be more agressive on offense and not wait till we are in trouble to step up. I know he wants to get others going early but, I wonder if it's in our best interest to get him going early and let the other teams play catchup. Maybe if the other team is concentrating on him, it will free the other guys.. Not sure I like this passive vaughn.

Dixon- Definitely making strides. Mick gotta start thinking about life AV.

Wilkes- I like him. Don't know what to do with him yet , but I think he can be a force once he settles into a position.

Gates -Getting better. Might takes some lumps the rest of the year, but he may own the conference next season.

Mcclain- Better then I thought. While his hands are not fortsonlike, the are not donald little either. I'd like to see mick get more out of him on defense. Be more aggressive in blocking shots. make him a presence.

.500 in the BE definately gets us in this year, and I think it is very possible...looking at our schedule I see 7 games that we should win without too much trouble: Providence, Rutgers, @Depaul, @St. Johns, St. Johns, @USF, and Seton Hall. If we can win 6 of those I'll be happy (always think you will lose atleast one game that you shouldn't in a league like this). Then I see 7 that will be tough games but I think we can win if were on our game: @Marq, @Providence, Georgetown, @Villanova, Notre Dame, Louisville, West Virginia. If we can win 4 of those I will be extremely impressed, that might be a tall order but I don't think it is out of the question, that's 10 wins right there. The more likely scenario however is that we'll take 3 of those though, so that gives us 9 wins and a .500 record. Then I see 4 games that I really see no chance of winning just because of match-ups: UConn, @Georgetown, @Syracuse, and @Pittsburgh. But were capable of pulling off atleast one big upset if Vaughn goes off so that gives us a chance for one more victory. That gives us 10 wins and a NCAA tourney bid. If we don't get a big upset than I would still be comfortable getting into the tournament with a .500 record given the strength of the conference. Add in a OOC win over Memphis and one win in the BET and it's a lock. Villanova got into the tourney with a 19-11 (9-9) regular season record and virtually no big OOC wins and last years BE wasn't close to this years in terms of toughness and depth. If we finish .500 were in the tourney IMHO, I could even potentially see us finish 11-7 if we really start clicking come BE play. Our schedule is very favorable and when you really look at it it doesn't look quite as daunting. The nice thing about the BE is that there are a lot of pretty weak teams between Depaul, Seton Hall, USF, St. Johns, and Rutgers.

This team has a bunch of talent and if they play hard all of the time the sky is the limit. Not too much more to add the others have not, maybe it is interesting to see Wilks freakish hops lately. Losing Cash sucks but compared to the last few years the roster is stocked and this year will be interesting.