(01-05-2013 10:42 PM)Coopdaddy67 Wrote:  

(01-05-2013 10:23 PM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  Maybe because only the local students were in the area. The out of towners do not return until tomorrow.

Plus the Bengals were on and I'm guessing that took a ton of attention away from an early conference game.

True but a very sad statement. The day I put the efing bengals over UC is the day I hope someone takes my uc tickets away, shoots my ass and puts me six feet under. DVR the ******* bengals. A) they werent gonna win a playoff game, it is beyond them and B) they were in Texas and UC was in Clifton. Watching UC live versus the bengals on tv shouldnt be a decision that takes more than a nanosecond.

Watching UC live versus the bengals on tv shouldnt be a decision that takes more than a nanosecond.

I don't know if it was watching UC live v Bengals on TV, I think for many it was watching UC live v watching both UC and the Bengals on TV. I know a few season ticket holders that went to sports bars, so they could watch both.

(01-06-2013 08:57 AM)Former Lurker Wrote:  

(01-05-2013 08:02 PM)Bearcat04 Wrote:  Mick on the extremely soft offense in the paint:

“When you throw it to the one-foot marker and can’t get it in the basket, that’s a concern. I don’t know what else to do. When you get the ball to the one-foot mark, you have to get fouled or get to the basket. Or play somebody else that can get fouled or get a basket. It’s a problem. We were 32 percent from the two-point range. Not a lot of those were pull-up jump shots.”

http://www.gobearcats.com/sports/m-baskb...13aad.html

Mick has consistently failed to recruit high-major caliber bigs, Yancey excepted, so he has opted to recruit for "defense." This means tall guys with extra-long arms, no basketball skills, and no shooting touch. They can't make free throws, and they can't make layups.

And you know what? This formula has worked pretty well for Mick, but it can be frustrating to watch when it doesn't work. On any given night, we can upset at Top 5 team, or lose to someone we were favored to beat by 15, like St. John's. All you can do is sit back and enjoy the ride.

Mick has recruited players with size (even if their skill set is undeveloped). My complaint would be in the amount of development that has gone on while those big men have been at UC. I'm not sure I think any of UC's big men have gotten even moderately better while at UC. Maybe UC needs a new big man coach.

How good would our back court be if they had a center or PF that gave them an inside presence that had to be defended too?

(01-06-2013 09:31 AM)ucbrownsfan Wrote:  Watching UC live versus the bengals on tv shouldnt be a decision that takes more than a nanosecond.

I don't know if it was watching UC live v Bengals on TV, I think for many it was watching UC live v watching both UC and the Bengals on TV. I know a few season ticket holders that went to sports bars, so they could watch both.

I listened to the Bearcats on radio and watched the Bengals on tv.
By the end of the evening I was ready for an anti-depressant.

I get the Bengal thing. My gripe is with UC's decision to give the students so many seats that often go unused. Some of you suggested that students were not back on campus (I surely would have been, if I was an undergrad and UC had a top 15 team) so that's understandable. And I know that some late December games, New Mexico in particular, had the students away from school. Then why in hell can't UC figure that out and sell off the hundreds of lower level seats that went unoccupied.

Maybe a little home court advantage might have helped yesterday. Could a packed lower level got us one more call, forced one more turnover, made St. John's miss one more free throw, or got UC two more points? I'm sure Cronin and the players would think so.

A couple of years ago UC sold some of the student tickets during break to the general public. I know I took advantage of the offer to make a trip down to campus.

(01-05-2013 08:22 PM)BearChatter v2.0 Wrote:  If we're not going to press and play 40 minutes of hell, then I miss Yancy.

The people who think we are better off without Yancy are now waking up.

The big men we currently have seem better fit for the back end of a press, but you have to use the damn thing once in awhile to reap the benefit.

I guess it all comes back to making a damn shot once in awhile, so that we can set it up.

(01-06-2013 01:23 PM)BJUnklFkr Wrote:  

(01-05-2013 08:22 PM)BearChatter v2.0 Wrote:  If we're not going to press and play 40 minutes of hell, then I miss Yancy.

The people who think we are better off without Yancy are now waking up.

The big men we currently have seem better fit for the back end of a press, but you have to use the damn thing once in awhile to reap the benefit.

I guess it all comes back to making a damn shot once in awhile, so that we can set it up.

I guess some of this blame goes on Mick. During the offseason all the talk was going 10 deep, pressing all game, and playing uptempo offense with the result being wearing down the opponent while rotating your 10 guys to keep guys fairly fresh.

To properly facilitate a quality halfcourt offense, you need a reasonable threat down low. UC has none.

They need to get back to pushing the offense. Bring the ball down and attack the basket ASAP, and have the rest of the team know it's going to happen and crash the boards with one guy having responsiblity to backup a fastbreak by the other team. Or something like what I just suggested. They are terrible in the halfcourt offense and need to change things up to rectify it.

Mick got away from what he said he was going to do. And he is letting the other teams dictate everything.

One of the problems is a lack of screening. If UC would just bring their big men up to set more on ball screen it would open up the paint so much more. Right now, having Justin Jackson stand on the wing 25 feet from the basket does nothing because his defender can just pack in the paint which clogs up driving lanes.

(01-06-2013 01:54 PM)Bearcat_Bounce Wrote:  One of the problems is a lack of screening. If UC would just bring their big men up to set more on ball screen it would open up the paint so much more. Right now, having Justin Jackson stand on the wing 25 feet from the basket does nothing because his defender can just pack in the paint which clogs up driving lanes.

The problem with screening is still that the screener is a complete non threat. The defense focuses only on the guard.

I honestly think the key to UC winning is the same as it has been. We need to make shots. The bigs haven't given us anything and they aren't going to.

SK scored 7, Parker scored 3. We can't win like that.

(01-06-2013 01:54 PM)Bearcat_Bounce Wrote:  One of the problems is a lack of screening. If UC would just bring their big men up to set more on ball screen it would open up the paint so much more. Right now, having Justin Jackson stand on the wing 25 feet from the basket does nothing because his defender can just pack in the paint which clogs up driving lanes.

Bob Knight was practically begging UC to do this during the New Mexico game.

(01-06-2013 02:50 PM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  

(01-06-2013 01:54 PM)Bearcat_Bounce Wrote:  One of the problems is a lack of screening. If UC would just bring their big men up to set more on ball screen it would open up the paint so much more. Right now, having Justin Jackson stand on the wing 25 feet from the basket does nothing because his defender can just pack in the paint which clogs up driving lanes.

Bob Knight was practically begging UC to do this during the New Mexico game.

We used to screen up top with our bigs a lot (not as much this year) and every game thread was full of posts about how idiotic it was to have our bigs that far away from the basket setting screens. The fact is every offense looks bad when you can't make shots. Yesterday I saw plenty of opportunities from three feet in that mostly resulted in weak attempts that were either blocked or had no chance of going in. How do you not even draw a foul or two down low?

It's beyond frustrating that this team has lost back-to-back home games by a single point in which they have made only 20 of their 72 2-point attempts! That's 27% shooting inside the arc at home!!!

(01-06-2013 02:50 PM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  Bob Knight was practically begging UC to do this during the New Mexico game.

When they do set a screen it's not used or set well.

All good points, I think screening will be more effective this year because the other teams big men will likely jump out to hedge the ball handler, if you can quickly rotate the ball to the weak side...all of a sudden there is a much easier driving lane. I do agree that it looks a lot worse than it is because no one can make a 2ft shot.

This might have been the ugliest game ive ever been to. I honestly think it was harder to watch than a high school girls basketball game. and thats me being nice. The 5 spot is just non-existent. Do the bigs not body up and try to take it hard to the basket and work on post moves in practice? Before the game when they were doing post moves the coach just let them go by. Every single thing they did before the game was in lackadaisical fashion. St. Johns was running plays and actually looked like they wanted to be there.
I think the experiment with JJ at the guard position has been a complete fail. But i figure hes at the guard position for a reason, assuming he cant play the post either. He really needs to figure it out quick. It seems everytime he tries to drive (which looks ugly and out of control) he just throws the ball at the basket. Saw the same thing from Shaq. They drive get to the lane and throw up some ugly looking shots.
I know Mick said this is the best team he has ever coached and I know its still early, but I am not seeing it. We are shooting a terrible FG% and its not like they are contested shots. We are missing layups and uncontested jumpers. (which has to do with the type of offense they run) The offense is basically dribble around the key and shoot. They set on ball screens, but never any other movement. No one moves without the ball. This team might be harder to watch than our team full of JUCOs. What do they do in practice? They need to work on driving the ball and taking it up strong. I mean ****, hire some students to just stand under the basket and have the players continue to drive and take it strong and MAKE LAYUPS. Cash so far has looked like the only Big East caliber player on this team so far.

I guess when we comment on ugly wins it means losses will look that much uglier with this style of play. Have to agree--painful to watch and yet they're still only two one point losses from a perfect season. Perhaps Kilpatrick's shooting earlier this season masked all those interior offensive problems.

(01-07-2013 07:41 AM)R03jsniper Wrote:  This might have been the ugliest game ive ever been to.

I have to agree, and sadly this happened to be the game I took my two nephews to for their first real basketball game (their other was a high school game they could barely remember). It at least had some flashes of a fun game.

UC @ usf last year defined ugly