PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – American Athletic Conference coaches predicted a first-place finish for the University of Cincinnati men’s basketball team while honoring senior guard Troy Caupain (Midlothian, Va./Cosby High School) and junior forward Gary Clark (Clayton, N.C./Clayton High School) with preseason accolades Monday at the league’s media day at the Airport Marriott.

http://www.gobearcats.com/sports/m-baskb...16aaf.html

Let's do it!

Cronin/Caupain interview.

https://mobile.twitter.com/American_MBB/...80/video/1

Why aren't we talking about this more? Awesome pub for the team! Starting to get pumped for the season.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

Preseason picked to win the conference. Caupain player of the year. Clark first team conference. Evans on the Jerry West watch list. Kyle Washington one of the "Top 15 Impact Transfers".

Looks to me like Mick is out of excuses this year. Time to win and win big. 25+ wins and sweet sixteen should be the min expectations this year.

I haven't been this excited for basketball in a long time (Maybe part of that is how bad football has been). But I think this team could be really special.

We will know relatively early how special this team can be....

11/19 Rhode Island
11/20 Duke (or Penn St)
12/1 @ Iowa State
12/10 @ Butler

But yeah the pre season hype is turned up a notch this year . Looking forward to getting this thing going .

(10-24-2016 01:22 PM)nachoman91 Wrote:  Preseason picked to win the conference. Caupain player of the year. Clark first team conference. Evans on the Jerry West watch list. Kyle Washington one of the "Top 15 Impact Transfers".

Looks to me like Mick is out of excuses this year. Time to win and win big. 25+ wins and sweet sixteen should be the min expectations this year.

Depending on which pool you believe, we are currently ranked #25 or #28. How does that translate to #16 or higher?

Which of the new inside players are expected to contribute? That's where I see a potential weakness is depth at the forward - center position.

They are all pretty young.

I'm guessing Kyle Washington?

Anybody else?

Clark needs to be aggressive all year.

(10-24-2016 01:22 PM)nachoman91 Wrote:  Preseason picked to win the conference. Caupain player of the year. Clark first team conference. Evans on the Jerry West watch list. Kyle Washington one of the "Top 15 Impact Transfers".

Looks to me like Mick is out of excuses this year. Time to win and win big. 25+ wins and sweet sixteen should be the min expectations this year.

I'm on board with all--this is what fans have wanted and it's been ten years in the making. So it's time for a season where the 'Cats hang in the rankings most all year, deliver in the conference regular season and/or tournament, get a six seed or better and advance. It's time to hang some new banners in 5th/3rd.

Starting the schedule with 2 home games and then immediately going to a neutral site to face RI and potentially Duke could cause for overreaction one way or the other.

I do think they have the potential to make the sweet 16 this year if they stay healthy. Depth is going to be yuuuuge.

(10-24-2016 02:23 PM)JPBearcat3 Wrote:  Starting the schedule with 2 home games and then immediately going to a neutral site to face RI and potentially Duke could cause for overreaction one way or the other.

I do think they have the potential to make the sweet 16 this year if they stay healthy. Depth is going to be yuuuuge.

We need 20-25 quality minutes from Cumberland, 10-15 from Jenifer, and about 30 quality minutes from some combination of Brooks, Moore, and Scott. We can maybe get away with going 8 deep if we stay healthy the entire year, but ideally we need to go 9 with 2 of the 3 big guys being able to contribute. I'm not worried about Jenifer and Cumberland -- I am confident they will hold up their end of the bargain.

(10-24-2016 01:32 PM)Bearcat2012 Wrote:  We will know relatively early how special this team can be....

11/19 Rhode Island
11/20 Duke (or Penn St)
12/1 @ Iowa State
12/10 @ Butler

But yeah the pre season hype is turned up a notch this year . Looking forward to getting this thing going .

Rhode Island will be tough.
Duke could be a blood bath or UC could keep it close and surprise everyone. Apparently this is Coach K's best roster in a while.
Iowa State - Not sure how good they will be this year. Lost Niang and Mckay.
Butler might struggle to start the year but will probably end the year in the top 30. They are tough to beat at home.

I see them going 1-3 or 2-2 against those 4 teams. If these were home games I would lean more towards 3-1.

It's time to win a conference championship. Expectations should be fairly high this year.

(10-26-2016 06:23 AM)Spinal070508 Wrote:  

(10-24-2016 01:32 PM)Bearcat2012 Wrote:  We will know relatively early how special this team can be....

11/19 Rhode Island
11/20 Duke (or Penn St)
12/1 @ Iowa State
12/10 @ Butler

But yeah the pre season hype is turned up a notch this year . Looking forward to getting this thing going .

Rhode Island will be tough.
Duke could be a blood bath or UC could keep it close and surprise everyone. Apparently this is Coach K's best roster in a while.
Iowa State - Not sure how good they will be this year. Lost Niang and Mckay.
Butler might struggle to start the year but will probably end the year in the top 30. They are tough to beat at home.

I see them going 1-3 or 2-2 against those 4 teams. If these were home games I would lean more towards 3-1.

Scheduling is what it is but it's unfortunate that Butler and Iowa State were paired up as home games last year rather than one home; one road. Getting swept at home makes the task seem more daunting this season. The fact that both could have/should have been victories and we believe UC is improved suggests a split should be a reasonable expectation, even in these tough road venues.

With Troy at the point they've been very competitive at places like UCONN and SMU so I expect nothing less in these headliner games. Bad starts offensively killed the 'Cats last season; let's hope a guy like Evans gets them going from the opening tip.

It's a loooong season...good thing is we're almost a lock for the tournament so let's just hope we're healthy and clicking come March

(10-26-2016 08:01 AM)OKIcat Wrote:  

(10-26-2016 06:23 AM)Spinal070508 Wrote:  

(10-24-2016 01:32 PM)Bearcat2012 Wrote:  We will know relatively early how special this team can be....

11/19 Rhode Island
11/20 Duke (or Penn St)
12/1 @ Iowa State
12/10 @ Butler

But yeah the pre season hype is turned up a notch this year . Looking forward to getting this thing going .

Rhode Island will be tough.
Duke could be a blood bath or UC could keep it close and surprise everyone. Apparently this is Coach K's best roster in a while.
Iowa State - Not sure how good they will be this year. Lost Niang and Mckay.
Butler might struggle to start the year but will probably end the year in the top 30. They are tough to beat at home.

I see them going 1-3 or 2-2 against those 4 teams. If these were home games I would lean more towards 3-1.

Scheduling is what it is but it's unfortunate that Butler and Iowa State were paired up as home games last year rather than one home; one road. Getting swept at home makes the task seem more daunting this season. The fact that both could have/should have been victories and we believe UC is improved suggests a split should be a reasonable expectation, even in these tough road venues.

With Troy at the point they've been very competitive at places like UCONN and SMU so I expect nothing less in these headliner games. Bad starts offensively killed the 'Cats last season; let's hope a guy like Evans gets them going from the opening tip.

I'm just hoping that we don't see them play an up tempo offensive during the cupcake games and then go back to a slow down slugfest vs decent teams. Everyone got excited last year after they were averaging 90+ against the cupcakes but then dropped to under 70ppg in conference play.

Mick has guys that can get out and run and needs to use that to his advantage. Slowing the game down will result in low scoring close games again.

Great news to earn the respect of our league-mates. Man, this helps take the sting out of the football season wound. Ready for hoops to get cranked up and see Mick and The Boys take it to another level this year.

(10-25-2016 10:47 PM)robertfoshizzle Wrote:  

(10-24-2016 02:23 PM)JPBearcat3 Wrote:  Starting the schedule with 2 home games and then immediately going to a neutral site to face RI and potentially Duke could cause for overreaction one way or the other.

I do think they have the potential to make the sweet 16 this year if they stay healthy. Depth is going to be yuuuuge.

We need 20-25 quality minutes from Cumberland, 10-15 from Jenifer, and about 30 quality minutes from some combination of Brooks, Moore, and Scott. We can maybe get away with going 8 deep if we stay healthy the entire year, but ideally we need to go 9 with 2 of the 3 big guys being able to contribute. I'm not worried about Jenifer and Cumberland -- I am confident they will hold up their end of the bargain.

Is Jenifer in shape this year? Last year he looked a little puffy.

We are going to miss Ellis and DeBerry in the frontcourt particularly on the glass. We are going to miss Octavius' rim protecting and DeBerry's low post offense. Washington needs to be able to hit the glass and play physical defense. Gary has done nothing but improve since he got here but we need him to show up every single game. Quadri needs to be able to be the first guy off the bench for the frontcourt and he needs to start showing why we recruited him. I expect Scott will show some energy off the bench and I'm not expecting anything out of Brooks. I feel like the frontcourt needs to grow up and gel quick if we are going to meet expectations.

I'm not too worried about the backcourt as long as troy and evans stay healthy. I honestly feel like Evans can handle the point if need be. Kj is a solid veteran. Jenifer and Moore are just icing on the cake IMO. If they can contribute at all that should be enough.