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

What a hard game to watch. UC kept it just close enough to keep me from switching to cable TV reruns and infomercials. But not close enough to keep me from talking back to the TV screen all evening.

Houston may be the best team in America. I guess we'll know a lot more in that regard in the next 40 days. And I've come to the conclusion others have shared here--UC simply doesn't have enough top tier talent yet to win more in the Big 12. It was encouraging to see Vik return to form a bit in the second half and if that continues it bodes well for the final stretch. Jizzle continues to show flashes of brilliance and for all those worried about him leaving, I think it's more likely Day Day sees the writing on the wall and checks out of here after next month.

I'm still perplexed by the careless, unforced turnovers. And the offense where the ball never gets passed inside the three point line until about 9 seconds remain on the shot clock, at which point we often see a helter skelter attempt to create a low percentage shot attempt.

Here's hoping we can hang our hats on a couple more wins and home court for the N.I.T.

Preseason, we probably would have believed that a best case and we were right in that thinking.

(02-28-2024 09:06 AM)DownOnRohs Wrote:  

(02-28-2024 08:42 AM)Bear Catlett Wrote:  

(02-27-2024 10:10 PM)DownOnRohs Wrote:  BYU wins at Kansas.

I think it’s safe to say Wes Miller’s team has underperformed this season and questions about his coaching acumen are well warranted.

Yet if the players would have made 4-5 more shots during the course of the game we would have defeated the #1 team on their own court.

Lol. I wish everything was this simple.

Agree. Woulda, shoulda, coulda. Last night's loss was expected. Expected when the conference schedule came out, let alone the funk this team is playing in right now. I'm on board with the notion that the roster isn't there YET. The issue that is worth questioning and discussing are all the close losses:

Texas 1 point
@Baylor 3 points
Oklahoma 4 points
@Kansas 5 points
@WVU 4 points
Houston 5 points
OKST 4 points

Are all of these losses due to roster limitations? Road losses are at least partially defendable on the whole. Better to defend your home court when you have a sold out arena of fans supporting you. Sometimes, it comes down to a coach's ability to rally the players, to play above their level, to get them to believe when the game is tight. It also appears this team has regressed as the season's worn on. That's a sign of concern. On the flip, OKST and Kansas St are playing some of their better basketball in the last few weeks. It's why the saying...you want your team playing its best basketball in March...holds true. Again, Wes has had some challenges but it's fair to question that some of these losses aren't just on the players. There's three games remaining, two AT HOME. How the team finishes will say a lot about the man leading it.

I thought John Newman was going to turn into Tre Scott. But he has been very meh on offense lately. We needed some of our guys to develop into goto basket getters- and unfortunately Newman and Lakhin went the other way down the stretch.

The stupid turnovers and dumb play have been the most irritating thing tho. Can’t decide whether we just got worse at protecting the ball or the other teams schemed to exploit it. Must of the turnovers just seemed like really bad unforced errors.

We definitely didn’t get better over the course of the season.

(02-28-2024 08:03 PM)Bearcatbdub Wrote:  I thought John Newman was going to turn into Tre Scott. But he has been very meh on offense lately. We needed some of our guys to develop into goto basket getters- and unfortunately Newman and Lakhin went the other way down the stretch.

The stupid turnovers and dumb play have been the most irritating thing tho. Can’t decide whether we just got worse at protecting the ball or the other teams schemed to exploit it. Must of the turnovers just seemed like really bad unforced errors.

We definitely didn’t get better over the course of the season.

Well said. College basketball is strange in this way; teams ready to hang a banner in December collapse. Or teams emerge such as Chicago Loyola a few years ago and race to the Final Four. I still believe we'll see some better days before this campaign is over. Two winnable home games remain and that would certainly lift our spirits. A win or two in KC would as well. Add some NIT wins and we'd look back and call the inaugural Big 12 season a positive step forward for Wes and the team.

(02-29-2024 08:40 AM)OKIcat Wrote:  

(02-28-2024 08:03 PM)Bearcatbdub Wrote:  I thought John Newman was going to turn into Tre Scott. But he has been very meh on offense lately. We needed some of our guys to develop into goto basket getters- and unfortunately Newman and Lakhin went the other way down the stretch.

The stupid turnovers and dumb play have been the most irritating thing tho. Can’t decide whether we just got worse at protecting the ball or the other teams schemed to exploit it. Must of the turnovers just seemed like really bad unforced errors.

We definitely didn’t get better over the course of the season.

Well said. College basketball is strange in this way; teams ready to hang a banner in December collapse. Or teams emerge such as Chicago Loyola a few years ago and race to the Final Four. I still believe we'll see some better days before this campaign is over. Two winnable home games remain and that would certainly lift our spirits. A win or two in KC would as well. Add some NIT wins and we'd look back and call the inaugural Big 12 season a positive step forward for Wes and the team.

I'm going to borrow an expression from Mick and Wes...and I firmly agree with them here...
"NIT appearances" are really "for the fans." Seriously. They mean practically very little. They are "feel good" things. Once upon a time, the NIT was "the" premiere tournament. Then, when the NCAA Tournament ascended, it was still prestigious. Then, it was still a good "consolation" prize. Now? Now it's one step above the "Pay-to-Play" tournaments like the CBI but of little worth otherwise.

Honestly, for the third season in a row, I'm ready for the season to end. See what you can do in the Big XII Tournament, but don't make plans beyond that. And, honestly, the team is banged up and limping towards the end...might be in the best interest of the players to just get some rest rather than trying to pull a post-season tournament.