The unofficial online home for fans of the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(01-23-2019 03:13 PM)Marcus Wrote:  

(01-23-2019 12:22 PM)Former Lurker Wrote:  

(01-22-2019 03:07 PM)BearcatsUC Wrote:  

(01-16-2019 02:00 PM)Lush Wrote:  

(01-15-2019 04:18 PM)Bearcat2012 Wrote:  Jerry Palm hates us every year.

is he wrong? last four in seems about right for this squad

I concur. This is a bubble team right now. According to Sagarin, still one of the weakest schedules in the top 25 (surprised? NOT.) and no current record of elite victories.

Let’s hope UC beats UCF and Houston because the rest of the schedule isn’t going to get them there.

+1 for bubble team. On the right side of the bubble for now, but could easily fall onto the wrong side.

This is where I'm at. I expect in the end they are a team squarely on the bubble, probably/hopefully on the right side of the bubble. If we get in I'm expecting 9-11 range. I cant see us getting above a 9.

I can. Win out at home win two more on the road, get to the finals of the conference tournament, 26-8. That could be as high as six and no lower than an 8. Honestly that isn’t far fetched as I could see the Cats doing better than this too. UC is still the top 2 in Kenpom and Sagarin in the league.

Someone needs to go back and find the annual threads questioning whether we're gonna make the tournament. With the exception of last season, you could probably find 5 or 6 of them identical to this one.

(01-23-2019 03:57 PM)bearcatlawjd2 Wrote:  

(01-23-2019 03:13 PM)Marcus Wrote:  

(01-23-2019 12:22 PM)Former Lurker Wrote:  

(01-22-2019 03:07 PM)BearcatsUC Wrote:  

(01-16-2019 02:00 PM)Lush Wrote:  is he wrong? last four in seems about right for this squad

I concur. This is a bubble team right now. According to Sagarin, still one of the weakest schedules in the top 25 (surprised? NOT.) and no current record of elite victories.

Let’s hope UC beats UCF and Houston because the rest of the schedule isn’t going to get them there.

+1 for bubble team. On the right side of the bubble for now, but could easily fall onto the wrong side.

This is where I'm at. I expect in the end they are a team squarely on the bubble, probably/hopefully on the right side of the bubble. If we get in I'm expecting 9-11 range. I cant see us getting above a 9.

I can. Win out at home win two more on the road, get to the finals of the conference tournament, 26-8. That could be as high as six and no lower than an 8. Honestly that isn’t far fetched as I could see the Cats doing better than this too. UC is still the top 2 in Kenpom and Sagarin in the league.

Agree, hopefully we do not get swept by either Ucf, Houston or Temple as that might change the complexion slightly. We'll need to win the Uconn and Smu games on the road, but if we do get swept by one, we'll need to sweep one of the other top 3. This year i believe that is possible as none of them are completely dominant. Lot of ball left to be played, but barring a collapse they're in pretty good shape. Better than i would have expected going into the year for sure.

(01-22-2019 11:24 PM)doss2 Wrote:  

(01-22-2019 07:13 PM)WalterSobchak Wrote:  

(01-22-2019 07:05 PM)doss2 Wrote:  I suspect we will get a home game in the NIT. Will you attend?

Will you?

I cancelled my center seats after years of Mickey, when he leaves I will return.

I still have my center court seats. 10th row on the club side. You aren't welcome.

(01-23-2019 05:44 PM)dsquare Wrote:  

(01-23-2019 03:57 PM)bearcatlawjd2 Wrote:  

(01-23-2019 03:13 PM)Marcus Wrote:  

(01-23-2019 12:22 PM)Former Lurker Wrote:  

(01-22-2019 03:07 PM)BearcatsUC Wrote:  I concur. This is a bubble team right now. According to Sagarin, still one of the weakest schedules in the top 25 (surprised? NOT.) and no current record of elite victories.

Let’s hope UC beats UCF and Houston because the rest of the schedule isn’t going to get them there.

+1 for bubble team. On the right side of the bubble for now, but could easily fall onto the wrong side.

This is where I'm at. I expect in the end they are a team squarely on the bubble, probably/hopefully on the right side of the bubble. If we get in I'm expecting 9-11 range. I cant see us getting above a 9.

I can. Win out at home win two more on the road, get to the finals of the conference tournament, 26-8. That could be as high as six and no lower than an 8. Honestly that isn’t far fetched as I could see the Cats doing better than this too. UC is still the top 2 in Kenpom and Sagarin in the league.

Agree, hopefully we do not get swept by either Ucf, Houston or Temple as that might change the complexion slightly. We'll need to win the Uconn and Smu games on the road, but if we do get swept by one, we'll need to sweep one of the other top 3. This year i believe that is possible as none of them are completely dominant. Lot of ball left to be played, but barring a collapse they're in pretty good shape. Better than i would have expected going into the year for sure.

No Temple at home this year unfortunately.

Lots of basketball left, we will most likely make the ncaa tournament, the potential is there, we could also win the aac tournament again and get the automatic bid, stop whining about things that haven't happened yet, relax, enjoy the ride and root your team on. The glass is more than half full! Have fun!!

Ok, maybe I was seeding you guys a tad low early on. You're not as good as my Boilermakers though...

He looks like Kevin Bacon if Kevin Bacon grew up to be a basketball bracketology nerd.

At the beginning of the year I was very critical of “team clank”.

I was plain and simply wrong.

IMO this may be the best coaching job Mick has done.

We lost 3 stud players and are now challenging for the league championship.

Houston lost at Temple.

We won at Temple. Mick critics need to deal with that.

(01-27-2019 04:10 PM)Bcatbog Wrote:  At the beginning of the year I was very critical of “team clank”.

I was plain and simply wrong.

IMO this may be the best coaching job Mick has done.

We lost 3 stud players and are now challenging for the league championship.

Houston lost at Temple.

We won at Temple. Mick critics need to deal with that.

UC's current and last head coaches are two of the best regular season coaches in college basketball.

(01-27-2019 04:10 PM)Bcatbog Wrote:  At the beginning of the year I was very critical of “team clank”.

I was plain and simply wrong.

IMO this may be the best coaching job Mick has done.

We lost 3 stud players and are now challenging for the league championship.

Houston lost at Temple.

We won at Temple. Mick critics need to deal with that.

While I agree that this is typically a game we would lose,especially down 14, let’s not get out over the tips of our skis. We still lost to ECU.

Don't pay any attention to Harry Palm. Everyone knows I'm the man at seeding teams for the dance. I had you guys as a rising 7 seed before the Temple game and your stock continues to improve.

(01-27-2019 06:43 PM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  

(01-27-2019 04:10 PM)Bcatbog Wrote:  At the beginning of the year I was very critical of “team clank”.

I was plain and simply wrong.

IMO this may be the best coaching job Mick has done.

We lost 3 stud players and are now challenging for the league championship.

Houston lost at Temple.

We won at Temple. Mick critics need to deal with that.

UC's current and last head coaches are two of the best regular season coaches in college basketball.

Is this a thinly veiled insult? If yes, I would add Jamie Dixon to that group.

UC is now playing for the seed lines better than the 8/9 the rest of the way. Win out at home and get two more on the road and that is probably good enough for a 7. Houston is tracking for the 2/3 line so beating them is huge. I still think Temple does enough to slide in as one of the last teams. UCF is NIT, so is Memphis.

(01-28-2019 08:29 AM)bearcatlawjd2 Wrote:  UC is now playing for the seed lines better than the 8/9 the rest of the way. Win out at home and get two more on the road and that is probably good enough for a 7. Houston is tracking for the 2/3 line so beating them is huge. I still think Temple does enough to slide in as one of the last teams. UCF is NIT, so is Memphis.

Good assessment. Disappointing that the AAC can't get four to the tournament for both the revenue and the prestige. It could still happen but seems somewhat unlikely.

(01-28-2019 06:06 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(01-27-2019 06:43 PM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  UC's current and last head coaches are two of the best regular season coaches in college basketball.

Is this a thinly veiled insult? If yes, I would add Jamie Dixon to that group.

Oh, it does sound that way, but its not what I mean.

My theory has always been that Cronin (and Huggins before him) get far more out of their teams that other coach do in the regular season. That is great for us as fans during the season. However, come tournament time you see the really talented teams (i.e. Kentucky, Duke, etc.) "step it up a notch" for big tournament games. UC never has another notch to go to because our coaches have already taken them as high as they can go before the tournament starts.

I truly believe Cronin gets as much as he possibly an out of the talent quicker than most other NCAA coaches.

(01-28-2019 09:36 AM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  

(01-28-2019 06:06 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(01-27-2019 06:43 PM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  UC's current and last head coaches are two of the best regular season coaches in college basketball.

Is this a thinly veiled insult? If yes, I would add Jamie Dixon to that group.

Oh, it does sound that way, but its not what I mean.

My theory has always been that Cronin (and Huggins before him) get far more out of their teams that other coach do in the regular season. That is great for us as fans during the season. However, come tournament time you see the really talented teams (i.e. Kentucky, Duke, etc.) "step it up a notch" for big tournament games. UC never has another notch to go to because our coaches have already taken them as high as they can go before the tournament starts.

I truly believe Cronin gets as much as he possibly an out of the talent quicker than most other NCAA coaches.

Aha. I'd agree with that.

And I'd still add Jamie Dixon to that group

(01-28-2019 09:50 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(01-28-2019 09:36 AM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  My theory has always been that Cronin (and Huggins before him) get far more out of their teams that other coach do in the regular season. That is great for us as fans during the season. However, come tournament time you see the really talented teams (i.e. Kentucky, Duke, etc.) "step it up a notch" for big tournament games. UC never has another notch to go to because our coaches have already taken them as high as they can go before the tournament starts.

I truly believe Cronin gets as much as he possibly an out of the talent quicker than most other NCAA coaches.

Aha. I'd agree with that.

And I'd still add Jamie Dixon to that group

I always made that argument during the Huggins years. It wasn't necessarily that they underachieved in the post season as much as they overachieved in the regular season due to maximizing the ability of their players. I'm not ready to put Cronin in that class since last year was really the first high seed we've blown but I do feel like his from the same mold of really getting more out of his talent level than most do.

Interesting to bring up Dixon as well because I always thought we were pretty similar in that we don't recruit the upper tier players but we get guys who stay 4-5 years and work hard at developing their skill. I always thought Pitt was usually built around those kind of guys.

We're 18-3 and some still feel we're a bubble team.

If we only drop a couple more and win the AAC tournament, that would make us 28-5.

We'll probably lose there, but there's no way we're losing to Houston at home on senior day. No way.

That's 3-4 seed material. but since we're in the lowly AAC, adjust that to 5-6.

7/8 seed line does not make us a bubble team. If the season ended today we would be solidly in the field, no sweat.

Regarding actual bubble teams, is UCF really done for? They only have 4 losses. The worst of which being Wichita St. Not many quality wins, but with only four losses to date they can't be eliminated yet.