Doc: All UC needs now is running start
Paul Daugherty, pdaugherty@enquirer.com 8:44 p.m. EST January 26, 2016


The college basketball regular season is a sprint now, not a marathon. Time for the UC Bearcats to put on their high-heeled sneakers and turn a 10-second 100 meters. Mick Cronin has the players to drive in the fast lane. Will he allow them to?

He says yes. Which is interesting.

Cronin is a defensive guy, to the extent that his favorite statistic is deflections. Deflections indicate an active, aggressive defense. The Bearcats are always stout defensively. They lose big games because they can’t score. Some of that is because they haven’t run. Their half-court offense can be easily defended, especially when the Bearcats have no alpha scorer, a la Sean Kilpatrick. Anyone who has watched UC the past decade has seen a lot of walk-it-up, work-it-around and beat-the-shot-clock. Last Thursday could have been a revelation. The Bearcats beat Memphis at the Tigers’ own warp-speed game. Then they pounded Tulane Sunday, doing the same thing. Will it last? Cronin says that’s not the right question. The coach says he has been trying since the summer to get his team’s “cardio-vascular toughness” to where it can play zoom-tempo and still manage brass-knuckles defense.

“Everybody is a better offensive team when they play fast,” he said. But more possessions means more defensive stops. “How do you maintain defensive efficiency?” Cronin wondered. “Are you athletic enough, are you in good shape enough, are you deep enough to be just as effective playing defense 20 more times a game?” Beats me, coach. “We’re trying to get there,” said Cronin. “Trying to develop our toughness, trying to develop our conditioning. That’s been the challenge for this year.”

The teams that win in March play defense and score. UC has had half that equation. It would make sense to add the other half. That’s rarely been the philosophy. Deflections and toughness have ruled the thinking.

Running has obvious advantages for UC. It makes far better use of Shaq Thomas’ talents. The senior is lost in the halfcourt. It makes life easier for Octavius Ellis and Gary Clark, who aren’t always banging against opponents who’ve already established position near the basket.

It helps “hide” wing bomber Farad Cobb, Cronin said. Defenses can’t find him in transition.

And really, running is fun. Running is what most players want to do. “It gets our transition guys going,” said point guard Troy Caupain. “It tires out the defense. We’re making transition buckets, lob-dunks, threes. All momentum boosters.”

A question remains whether Cronin will allow his players, specifically his point guard, the freedom to fly. Cronin said of course he will. “That’s what I want (Caupain) to do,” he said. The Bearcats play at UConn Thursday. It’s a big game for each, a chance to flex for the selection committee. The Huskies play the way they were taught in the Big East: Big defense, big rebounding, broad shoulders. The two teams played three times last year. UC’s only win was when the Bearcats stopped playing street fight long enough to score 70. In fact, when the Bearcats score 60-plus, they’ve won 56 of their last 60 games.

Time to rev it up, Mick. Make the defense react to the speed of your offense. Attack on both ends of the court. In the past, maybe UC didn’t have the talent to play this way. Defense and rebounding are want-to traits. The Bearcats never lacked those. Heart helped them stay in lots of games. Now, UC has the players to complement the toughness. UC starts three seniors (Cobb, Ellis and Thomas). All can play the running game. Caupain has shown, when he can let his ability flow, he’s pretty good. When he’s mired in half-court sets, not so much. Anyone who watched him versus Memphis – 25 points, four assists – knows he’s OK playing fast. He might even have the necessary cardio-vascular toughness.

It’s a talented group. I suggested in November this was Cronin’s best team in his decade in Clifton. It hasn’t been, so far. But the potential is there. The Bearcats haven’t played well at the end of big games, partly because of that deficit in the alpha-scorer department. When you need a basket, who takes the shot? Upping the speed might give them better odds of getting an open look at the hoop, when the game is on the line. “Get it out and go,” Caupain said. “I still think we’re going to work up-tempo. But that’s not my call.” It’s the head coach’s decision. We’ll see how he plays it.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/c.../79377536/

Hmmmm

In this article it say Mick wants Caupain to run the ball up court...ok well, YOU'RE the COACH- have him run the ball up court.

(01-27-2016 07:51 AM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  Hmmmm

In this article it say Mick wants Caupain to run the ball up court...ok well, YOU'RE the COACH- have him run the ball up court.

I thought the same... especially with Troy's quote at the end. Clearly the two are not always on the same page.

(01-27-2016 07:51 AM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  Hmmmm

In this article it say Mick wants Caupain to run the ball up court...ok well, YOU'RE the COACH- have him run the ball up court.

I sat behind the bench at the Tulane game. It is not Mick slowing them down. It is Caupain. I cannot tell you how many times Mick yelled GO!, GO! during that game. Caupain looked at him and sped the pace. If Mick hadn't yelled, my guess is he would have walked the ball up the court.

(01-27-2016 09:17 AM)Bearcat Otto Wrote:  

(01-27-2016 07:51 AM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  Hmmmm

In this article it say Mick wants Caupain to run the ball up court...ok well, YOU'RE the COACH- have him run the ball up court.

I sat behind the bench at the Tulane game. It is not Mick slowing them down. It is Caupain. I cannot tell you how many times Mick yelled GO!, GO! during that game. Caupain looked at him and sped the pace. If Mick hadn't yelled, my guess is he would have walked the ball up the court.

Exactly. I see Mick and the other coaches screaming and motioning to the players to get their butts up the court all the time.

Memphis wants to run and Tulane is just God awful, will be interesting to see if they can impose their will against a team that is their equal and doesn't want to run, UConn. Stay tuned.

(01-27-2016 09:17 AM)Bearcat Otto Wrote:  

(01-27-2016 07:51 AM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  Hmmmm

In this article it say Mick wants Caupain to run the ball up court...ok well, YOU'RE the COACH- have him run the ball up court.

I sat behind the bench at the Tulane game. It is not Mick slowing them down. It is Caupain. I cannot tell you how many times Mick yelled GO!, GO! during that game. Caupain looked at him and sped the pace. If Mick hadn't yelled, my guess is he would have walked the ball up the court.

Good observation. I was up in the rafters but I could see Cronin a few times waving his arms and yelling at Caupain to get down the court.

The thing that helped against Tulane is that Tulane turned the ball over a ton. Much easier to run when you force a ton of turnovers. A team like Temple is really hard to run on as they slow the ball on offense, don't crash the boards with their guards and almost never turn the ball over.

Quote:“Everybody is a better offensive team when they play fast,” he said. But more possessions means more defensive stops. “How do you maintain defensive efficiency?” Cronin wondered. “Are you athletic enough, are you in good shape enough, are you deep enough to be just as effective playing defense 20 more times a game?” Beats me, coach. “We’re trying to get there,” said Cronin. “Trying to develop our toughness, trying to develop our conditioning. That’s been the challenge for this year.”

That's the key paragraph right here. This team will be special if they can figure this out.

It doesn't take a genius to see that this was our main problem in those games against Butler, Iowa St, and Temple #1. We've seen the KenPom efficiency ratings see-saw around all season. The elite teams finish in the Top 25 in both because they are able to balance these factors out. The team wasn't used to having to balance both sides despite being talented enough (IMO) to do so. Despite giving up 72, I thought that they did this much, much better against Memphis. They had control of that game throughout. I'm cautiously excited to see if they keep the progress up. I'm not expecting 70 against UConn by any means, but if we get in the 60s, I like our chances.

(01-27-2016 09:36 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  The thing that helped against Tulane is that Tulane turned the ball over a ton. Much easier to run when you force a ton of turnovers. A team like Temple is really hard to run on as they slow the ball on offense, don't crash the boards with their guards and almost never turn the ball over.

Right, I'll be looking to see if we can play up-tempo against UConn. Want to see a lot of 3 on 2, 4 on 3 and 5 on 4 which enables someone to have a clean open shot, which is what up-tempo is about.

(01-27-2016 09:48 AM)CincyBro Wrote:  

(01-27-2016 09:36 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  The thing that helped against Tulane is that Tulane turned the ball over a ton. Much easier to run when you force a ton of turnovers. A team like Temple is really hard to run on as they slow the ball on offense, don't crash the boards with their guards and almost never turn the ball over.

Right, I'll be looking to see if we can play up-tempo against UConn. Want to see a lot of 3 on 2, 4 on 3 and 5 on 4 which enables someone to have a clean open shot, which is what up-tempo is about.

I thought what was overlooked was UC ran really good halfcourt offense against both Tulane and Memphis. When they didn't force turnovers they moved the ball and got clean looks with their bigs inside or open jumpers. Part of that is getting in their offense early and getting the ball moving. They got a lot of quality looks late in the shotclock. For me UC's key isn't just getting stuff in transition, but getting the offense going immediately and trusting that they'll get a good shot if they keep working. Some teams just don't let you get out in transition effectively.

Of course to me, it;s even more simply. The last two games Shaq was an offensive weapon. When Shaq (or Evans) is an offensive weapon along with Cobb/KJ and Ellis/Clark stay on the floor the UC offense is really good. When they get nothing from the 3 or Ellis/Clark are in foul trouble, the offense has a ton of issues.

Great article -- other than the fact that it was almost a word-for-word transcription of an interview that Dan Hoard did with Mick. I can't believe how far reporting has fallen in newspapers.

(01-27-2016 09:17 AM)Bearcat Otto Wrote:  

(01-27-2016 07:51 AM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  Hmmmm

In this article it say Mick wants Caupain to run the ball up court...ok well, YOU'RE the COACH- have him run the ball up court.

I sat behind the bench at the Tulane game. It is not Mick slowing them down. It is Caupain. I cannot tell you how many times Mick yelled GO!, GO! during that game. Caupain looked at him and sped the pace. If Mick hadn't yelled, my guess is he would have walked the ball up the court.

Great point Otto. I don't have ESPNU, so I listened, and come to think of it, I did actually hear the "Go! Go! Go!" prominently in the background of Dan/Chuck's mikes.

(01-27-2016 10:02 AM)QSECOFR Wrote:  Great article -- other than the fact that it was almost a word-for-word transcription of an interview that Dan Hoard did with Mick. I can't believe how far reporting has fallen in newspapers.

I can, but only because it has been happening for a long time now...

Would be shocked if they try (or can) run on UConn for any extended period. According to hoop-math, UConn allows the 68th fewest transition attempts in the country and are 2nd in the country (41.3% eFG) at defending transition attempts.

Transition baskets and speeding up the offense can be two different things.

Getting up the floor and getting into your offense before the 15 seconds mark on the clock can be helpful. Having an extra 5-6 seconds to run offense can play big time. It can be the difference of settling for a three at the buzzer or making another pass to a cutter for a lay up.

(01-27-2016 02:54 PM)Bearcat Otto Wrote:  Transition baskets and speeding up the offense can be two different things.

Getting up the floor and getting into your offense before the 15 seconds mark on the clock can be helpful. Having an extra 5-6 seconds to run offense can play big time. It can be the difference of settling for a three at the buzzer or making another pass to a cutter for a lay up.

^^^ This!!! Get the ball up the court, under control, but as quickly as possible and have the other players start the motion. Make the defense chase you the whole possession instead of letting them stand and rest for 15 seconds. Maybe having to chase UC players for 5 or 6 more per possession may take some of the legs out of the other team's 3 pt shooters as well