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(02-20-2022 07:32 PM)ladeda Wrote:  We all knew before the season started that this would be a transition year. Wes was taking over a terrible situation from a disaster of a HC in Brannen. When CLF came in, he was in the same situation taking over for a disaster of a head coach, and honestly, CLF's first year was really bad. 4-8, but a 1 point win over UConn, 1 point win over Tulane, 4 point win over Miami (OH) and a 12 point win over the powerhouse that was Austin Peay. We all remember that UConn missed an extra point to tie the game @ the end-- it was a close game and not a great season. It was a terrible season and could have been worse, but it was year 1 and CLF had to clean up the mess leftover by TT.

We all knew that this season would be tough as Wes tried to get anyone he could from the transfer portal to get to 12 guys on the team. When you are an average team, you are going to get up and down results.

I'm excited to see the 3 recruits that he signed for 2022. Isn't this incoming class the highest rated in like 7 or 8 years? I love the players that Wes is targeting for 2023 as well.

This season-- I'm not bothered, but next season-- Coach Wes, the Players and the Fans will all expect better play and results. This is why I'm not getting my panties in a bunch about this season. It's year 1 and Wes has to clean up JB's mess.

Exactly x 1000......Miller didn't get this job til April 14 last year. At the time the only two guys that we knew for sure were staying were Davenport and MAW. This roster is a mess, I think a couple of the fellas may be asked to seek opportunities elsewhere going into next season. If our roster is filled with borderline D1 players next season, I say Miller will be fair game. This year he gets the ultimate mulligan.

I think most get all of that. I also think what is starting to happen is fans are watching and are asking some fair questions about what goes on or fails to go on between the lines during recent games.

Nobody is jumping ship. But if anyone tells you Wes is guaranteed to succeed they might just be pissin’ on your leg and telling you it’s raining.

I dig Wes and love the hire but I admit I have some concerns right now…both in terms of system, in game management and if we don’t hit the portal for sorely needed upgrades I’ll be critical of how he used all 13 scholarships last spring when he perhaps didn’t need to on guys who are perhaps in over their head.

Drove 3 hours for the game yesterday. My observations:

1) Temple made a **** ton of tough shots and shot the lights out for the most part. Seems to be a common theme.
2) The team looked fatigued from the opening tip.
3) Wes Miller also looked fatigued. Which was a little concerning.

Looking for yet another reason to love the move to the Big 12? Never playing Temple again after next season.

I remember lots of great victories in Bearcat basketball but I've never forgetten the loss to Temple @ the Shoe on national TV during Kenyon's senior year. Had Temple gone on to the Final Four that year I suppose that would have been more easily explained. But Temple, with a considerable historic tradition, has done next to nothing since joining the American (2 wins in the NCAA in the past 13 years).

Add the Owls to Tulsa, the school that knocked UC out of the NCAA Tourney the first weekend, that same year, and it's good riddance to most AAC foes. Onward and upward in the best round ball conference in America in '23.

(02-20-2022 03:11 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  They are limiting Lahkin’s minutes due to a knee injury.

Same knee as last year?

(02-20-2022 04:26 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  MAW with a 2-15 night. Good Lord.

Temple is so rotten at handling the ball I have no idea why we waited so long to press. A lot of this is the roster but Wes still has some learning to do on the job.

I never get why the best shooters don’t take the most shots and the most critical shots!
In the last few minutes of the game Newman and MAW took more shots than anyone else and DDJ took zero!

(02-20-2022 04:26 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  MAW with a 2-15 night. Good Lord.

Temple is so rotten at handling the ball I have no idea why we waited so long to press. A lot of this is the roster but Wes still has some learning to do on the job.

I was very happy that they started to press earlier (6:30 mark) not at 1:30 let.

(02-22-2022 11:09 AM)OKIcat Wrote:  Looking for yet another reason to love the move to the Big 12? Never playing Temple again after next season.

I remember lots of great victories in Bearcat basketball but I've never forgetten the loss to Temple @ the Shoe on national TV during Kenyon's senior year. Had Temple gone on to the Final Four that year I suppose that would have been more easily explained. But Temple, with a considerable historic tradition, has done next to nothing since joining the American (2 wins in the NCAA in the past 13 years).

Add the Owls to Tulsa, the school that knocked UC out of the NCAA Tourney the first weekend, that same year, and it's good riddance to most AAC foes. Onward and upward in the best round ball conference in America in '23.

Hate to be the one who says this, but the Bearcats, despite their tradition have only 6 NCAA wins in the last 17 years, we probably shouldn't throw stones at temples glass house

(02-23-2022 07:57 AM)the_dude Wrote:  

(02-22-2022 11:09 AM)OKIcat Wrote:  Looking for yet another reason to love the move to the Big 12? Never playing Temple again after next season.

I remember lots of great victories in Bearcat basketball but I've never forgetten the loss to Temple @ the Shoe on national TV during Kenyon's senior year. Had Temple gone on to the Final Four that year I suppose that would have been more easily explained. But Temple, with a considerable historic tradition, has done next to nothing since joining the American (2 wins in the NCAA in the past 13 years).

Add the Owls to Tulsa, the school that knocked UC out of the NCAA Tourney the first weekend, that same year, and it's good riddance to most AAC foes. Onward and upward in the best round ball conference in America in '23.

Hate to be the one who says this, but the Bearcats, despite their tradition have only 6 NCAA wins in the last 17 years, we probably shouldn't throw stones at temples glass house

True, but UC has had four AAC regular season and/or tourney championships in league history; Temple has one. And UC did earn NCAA bids nine consecutive years, so annual trips to March Madness for the American came to be expected.

In some ways, I think Temple has been the biggest disappointment in terms of basketball competitiveness in this conference. Under Chaney, they were NCAA regulars and won against some of the nation's best in their non-conference schedule each year. My hope from the beginning of the AAC was that Temple would be ranked most years and in the hunt for the conference championship and another NCAA bid for the American's strength of schedule and high major profile.

ACC football was great for program building at UC; basketball, not so much. Better days are ahead for both programs.

(02-20-2022 09:34 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  

(02-20-2022 09:12 PM)JUSTGOPLAY Wrote:  

(02-20-2022 07:32 PM)ladeda Wrote:  We all knew before the season started that this would be a transition year. Wes was taking over a terrible situation from a disaster of a HC in Brannen. When CLF came in, he was in the same situation taking over for a disaster of a head coach, and honestly, CLF's first year was really bad. 4-8, but a 1 point win over UConn, 1 point win over Tulane, 4 point win over Miami (OH) and a 12 point win over the powerhouse that was Austin Peay. We all remember that UConn missed an extra point to tie the game @ the end-- it was a close game and not a great season. It was a terrible season and could have been worse, but it was year 1 and CLF had to clean up the mess leftover by TT.

We all knew that this season would be tough as Wes tried to get anyone he could from the transfer portal to get to 12 guys on the team. When you are an average team, you are going to get up and down results.

I'm excited to see the 3 recruits that he signed for 2022. Isn't this incoming class the highest rated in like 7 or 8 years? I love the players that Wes is targeting for 2023 as well.

This season-- I'm not bothered, but next season-- Coach Wes, the Players and the Fans will all expect better play and results. This is why I'm not getting my panties in a bunch about this season. It's year 1 and Wes has to clean up JB's mess.

Exactly x 1000......Miller didn't get this job til April 14 last year. At the time the only two guys that we knew for sure were staying were Davenport and MAW. This roster is a mess, I think a couple of the fellas may be asked to seek opportunities elsewhere going into next season. If our roster is filled with borderline D1 players next season, I say Miller will be fair game. This year he gets the ultimate mulligan.

I think most get all of that. I also think what is starting to happen is fans are watching and are asking some fair questions about what goes on or fails to go on between the lines during recent games.

Nobody is jumping ship. But if anyone tells you Wes is guaranteed to succeed they might just be pissin’ on your leg and telling you it’s raining.

I dig Wes and love the hire but I admit I have some concerns right now…both in terms of system, in game management and if we don’t hit the portal for sorely needed upgrades I’ll be critical of how he used all 13 scholarships last spring when he perhaps didn’t need to on guys who are perhaps in over their head.

I'm more concerned about the deterioration during the year this year.

We started off 11-3, with the only losses all coming to likely tournament teams (although Xavier and Monmouth have faded down the stretch). We ran a top-20 Illinois off the floor despite shooting 28% from beyond the arc. We came within an inch of beating top-20 Arkansas.

Since then, we're 7-7. And it's an ugly 7-7. And 10 of the 14 games were against teams nowhere near the NCAA bubble.

(02-23-2022 11:09 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(02-20-2022 09:34 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  

(02-20-2022 09:12 PM)JUSTGOPLAY Wrote:  

(02-20-2022 07:32 PM)ladeda Wrote:  We all knew before the season started that this would be a transition year. Wes was taking over a terrible situation from a disaster of a HC in Brannen. When CLF came in, he was in the same situation taking over for a disaster of a head coach, and honestly, CLF's first year was really bad. 4-8, but a 1 point win over UConn, 1 point win over Tulane, 4 point win over Miami (OH) and a 12 point win over the powerhouse that was Austin Peay. We all remember that UConn missed an extra point to tie the game @ the end-- it was a close game and not a great season. It was a terrible season and could have been worse, but it was year 1 and CLF had to clean up the mess leftover by TT.

We all knew that this season would be tough as Wes tried to get anyone he could from the transfer portal to get to 12 guys on the team. When you are an average team, you are going to get up and down results.

I'm excited to see the 3 recruits that he signed for 2022. Isn't this incoming class the highest rated in like 7 or 8 years? I love the players that Wes is targeting for 2023 as well.

This season-- I'm not bothered, but next season-- Coach Wes, the Players and the Fans will all expect better play and results. This is why I'm not getting my panties in a bunch about this season. It's year 1 and Wes has to clean up JB's mess.

Exactly x 1000......Miller didn't get this job til April 14 last year. At the time the only two guys that we knew for sure were staying were Davenport and MAW. This roster is a mess, I think a couple of the fellas may be asked to seek opportunities elsewhere going into next season. If our roster is filled with borderline D1 players next season, I say Miller will be fair game. This year he gets the ultimate mulligan.

I think most get all of that. I also think what is starting to happen is fans are watching and are asking some fair questions about what goes on or fails to go on between the lines during recent games.

Nobody is jumping ship. But if anyone tells you Wes is guaranteed to succeed they might just be pissin’ on your leg and telling you it’s raining.

I dig Wes and love the hire but I admit I have some concerns right now…both in terms of system, in game management and if we don’t hit the portal for sorely needed upgrades I’ll be critical of how he used all 13 scholarships last spring when he perhaps didn’t need to on guys who are perhaps in over their head.

I'm more concerned about the deterioration during the year this year.

We started off 11-3, with the only losses all coming to likely tournament teams (although Xavier and Monmouth have faded down the stretch). We ran a top-20 Illinois off the floor despite shooting 28% from beyond the arc. We came within an inch of beating top-20 Arkansas.

Since then, we're 7-7. And it's an ugly 7-7. And 10 of the 14 games were against teams nowhere near the NCAA bubble.

I think the Illinois game was a weird one where they were getting Kofi on the floor for the 1st time, there wasn’t a bunch of tape out on our squad yet, and we had one of those games we have every couple of weeks where even the terrible open gym shots go down. When it got bad, IL just rolled over and quit.

11 Q4 wins and a D2 exhibition type win make it a bit of fools gold to look at the record.

I still contend that the drop off on D is due to the fact that we run such a plain Jane system on D with no wrinkles that teams see clearly on film how to attack us. Watch all of the switches and mismatches that UCF gets tonight.

I don’t think we are too hard to game plan for. We have enough to overcome that against bad teams. Decent squads, not so much. Better players are a must but I’m hoping to see more from the Xs and Os next season.

(02-23-2022 11:53 AM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  I still contend that the drop off on D is due to the fact that we run such a plain Jane system on D with no wrinkles that teams see clearly on film how to attack us. Watch all of the switches and mismatches that UCF gets tonight.

I don’t think we are too hard to game plan for. We have enough to overcome that against bad teams. Decent squads, not so much. Better players are a must but I’m hoping to see more from the Xs and Os next season.

That still has a lot to do with talent. When you've got extremely talented/versatile defenders that can guard multiple positions like JE3 and Gary you can do a lot of things on defense. There aren't a lot of defenses you can throw at people when you're severely limited in length. Any type of zone without length would probably be disastrous as our guards would be easy to shoot over and lack of length makes passing lanes much easier.

You can play a lot of different looks on defense effectively without being super athletic. It helps to have great talent but that isn’t a predictor of success on that end. We run a basic D that any 6th grade team can run.

However, some of the things are player related…like often switching on screens instead of fighting over the top like UC had been known for over 3 decades. We switch a lot because our guards can’t or won’t fight through. Teams run game where the switch ends up with Davenport on more athletic wings. Even if they take a jump shot they often get separation pretty easily and he can’t close out or is then out of position and can’t rotate on the next pass.

I’m not saying we should be gimmicky, but for the love of god mix in different looks once in a while when what we primarily run isn’t working. Our wrinkle is sending in another 5 guys that are also not super talented.

It’s too late for this season but it’s still frustrating to watch.