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Who cares where Brannen came from. He’s here with 4 more years left on his deal. For hook or crook, this is a marriage for at least 2 more years.

I worry more about the empty recruiting pipeline and the guys he hired as his staff who are possibly in over their heads than I do about how long he will be here. That issue has a way of being self correcting.

Things are not exactly rosy around the program right now and that sucks. At least we still have positive UC football news in February.

I mean, where was Brannen supposed to go after NKU? Murray State? Miami? Indiana State? It just doesn't work that way. No offense to UCBearcatlawjd2, but the argument that Brannen skipped a step just doesn't make sense to me.

(02-23-2021 04:39 PM)skylinecat Wrote:  His advanced stats are pretty terrible. He's not in the top 50 in the conference for PER, which is an efficiency stat.

http://insider.espn.com/mens-college-bas...s?group=62

He's shooting 35% from field and 23% from 3 and averaging 2.8 TO's per game. He's basically the exact opposite of what Justin Jenifer was his 3 years here. I'd prefer my PG's not take 10 shots per game and only make 3.5 of them but honestly in his defense, there really isn't anyone else that can score and he is probably forcing the issue to an extent.

I agree his PER isn't great as of now but this is also a metric that more heavily weighs offensive stats. His assists (damn-near 30%, which is in Jarron, Troy territory), rebounds, and free throws are propping it up but his three point shooting is drastically weighing it down; like you mentioned, AWFUL rate from 3 and he takes WAY too many of them (4.6 per game, 2nd most on the team). If he just got his rate up 5-10% to approach what he did last year at Michigan, that'd make a world of difference to his PER.

Additionally, PER doesn't do a great job evaluating a player's importance on defense; DDJ has the 3rd best defensive rating and the 3rd best defensive rebounding rate on the team.

Overall, I think he's proven to be an above average floor general and distributor with a knack on the defensive end. He's also a proven closer at the end of games with his clutch free throw shooting. But, I again agree with you point that his shooting (especially from 3) has been incredibly subpar.

FWIW, in 24 hours, Pitt has lost two guards to the transfer portal. Both Juniors from Capel's original recruiting class. Now, does Pitt have a culture issue? Maybe...but this adds to those voices that are saying it's not just Brannen/Cincy.

(02-25-2021 12:51 PM)eroc Wrote:  FWIW, in 24 hours, Pitt has lost two guards to the transfer portal. Both Juniors from Capel's original recruiting class. Now, does Pitt have a culture issue? Maybe...but this adds to those voices that are saying it's not just Brannen/Cincy.

Uh, this doesn't make me feel any better.

Maybe one of those guards is transferring to UC.

winning the transfer portal is going to be the biggest factor in determining what happens to this program, seriously can fix things with the right guys or screw things up if yiulose too many guys and bring in the wrong ones

This applies to every team this spring

I don't think you'll see the normal coaching carousel this year with the Covid so likely less high school decommits, etc. This will be a very interesting offseason.

DD quitting is the last straw. Time for Brannen to be opted out.