Cincinatti Thoughts

[mauconnfan]

Truth is they got swept by 2 teams they should be better than in Cincy and Temple. As stated above just a plain weird team, painful at times and wildly inconsistent players. And the intelligence from a basketball standpoint is inadequate so often at key points of every game. Not a smart basketball team. Unlike many others here I can't blame a lot of that ion the coaching, mostly on the players themselves. Not good students and most of the time you are born with it. As I said you would need a magician to teach Brimah and Facey to better understand the game and be consistent, not a "bigs" coach. Well overrated!

 

[don356]

Cincy's entire body of losses are by like an average of 3 points which is probably some sort of record. A couple of those go the other way, and they're likely a top 10 team at this point. That said, they are more athletic inside than we are, and they're guards rebound the ball better. They won that game on the glass and the resulting added shots and stops. Brimah is a big guy, but i actually think against a team like cincy we're more effective without him in there. That frosh from Cincy #1 nailed some big shots. I for one hope Cincy/Uconn get into the b12. Makings of a good rivalry. Pitt and Syracuse, off with their heads!

 

[Glastonhusky]

This has by far been the easiest loss to swallow all season. On the road, against a good team, dealing with horrible officiating and they fought. Jalen had a tremendous game hopefully he can ride this performance the rest of the way. This game really came down to a couple mentalbfarts on the defensive end. Thursdays game was so HUGE it made This game which we all knew would be tough expendable. Cincy played like a team fighting for their lives so much respect to them. On to the next one

Completly disagree. No loss is easy to swallow, this was a winnable game. We failed to match their intensity from the opening tip. Outworked on the boards, lazy on D. Really fustrated with DHam, way too indecisive with the ball, lost his man on D several times and to make things worse he just jogs out to to the 3 pt line with his arms down when his man is attempting a shot.

 

[Slasher]

Which makes us an average team at best.

How are any of the three teams average? These are all top 20-40 teams out of 350+. OP (not the quoted one) needs some perspective.

 

[David 76]

It was a typical UConn-Cincy game with us coming out on the short end. If you notice, it always looks ugly against them.

 

[CAHUSKY]

Brimah is a big guy, but i actually think against a team like cincy we're more effective without him in there. That frosh from Cincy #1 nailed some big shots.

Uconn was an entirely different team w Brimah on the floor today and particularly on defense. If he plays 35 minutes we win today.

 

[HuskiesAllDay]

Cinci is a solid team and they had a lot to play for. But, I've never understood posts like this. Do you think we played well? Did you see improvement in really any areas? This was still a winnable game and our offensive ineptitude and absolute brainlessness down the stretch completely negated that. But because this may go down as a "good loss" in whatever rankings system you subscribe to, we are supposed to ignore the same issues that rear their ugly head every game; seemingly win or lose?

Duh. This is the yard. Can't be critical or mad that we lose winnable games over and over and over.

It's not a bad loss against cinci on the road. But that's not exactly an impossible game to win either. We're older and more experienced than last year and massively upgraded our talent. Anddd we have 9 losses and have played basically one legit good team all year. Plenty of pretty good teams but really only one good team.

This has been a bad year. People need to stop making excuses and blaming the refs etc. the team massively underachieved this year. No way around it.

 

[HuskiesAllDay]

Uconn was an entirely different team w Brimah on the floor today and particularly on defense. If he plays 35 minutes we win today.

Except brimah never plays 35 min. He's always in foul trouble. You can't say use that excuse. We were down the entire game and never had any reasonable business winning the game.. Every loss people make a different excuse.

This team is what it is. Wildly inconsistent, underachieving, and just average. Disappointing and frustrating for sure. But it's been that way for how many years now?

 

[huskiesnyc]

Uconn was an entirely different team w Brimah on the floor today and particularly on defense. If he plays 35 minutes we win today.

When has Brimah ever played 35 minutes? He's way too physically weak for a team like Cincinnati and gave up a ton of second chance rebounds. I'm most disappointed because I think he's got a ton of talent but has barely improved in 3 years since he stepped on campus.

 

[Towney007]

I dunno I guess a couple of things...

First - it's crystal clear people's expectations here and what this team actually is/was/were are not anywhere near reality. Part of me thinks the national media and a lot of other folks in the game viewed this as a patch work year for the program - with Ollie picking up random transfers to accelerate the rebuilding process. I felt like people here thought those same offseason pickups would just slot in and give us what we needed to be a deep-run kind of team. Wasn't. Isn't. Probably never was. So I wonder if our expectations are and were off base. Exhibit A and B - people sincerely thinking Hamilton and Brimah were off to the NBA. Almost kind of ludicrous.

Second - half of this roster is just complete garbage. We don't have any real, meaningful depth. Nolan, Facey, Cassell Jr... Callhoun has been a fun bit player at times, but mostly inconsistent.

this is a team of transfers. Honestly. Very few 'grew up with the program' type guys. This is Ollie's first unfettered, bonafide top-notch recruiting class. At the end of the day - you're only as good as the talent you put on the floor. Half this roster is just garbage, guys. It just is. Then there's the three guys in Noyes, Amilo and Foxen who don't even play. Enoch is so raw at this point that the coaching staff won't play him. So that's literally NINE FREAKING PLAYERS who *at best* you can use 1-3 sparingly and expect next to nothing out of at least two of them. C'mon guys, let's be real, here.

They've got six guys worth using. One of those was out for an extended period of time - and his performances are literally all over the place. We don't have depth. We don't have 3 or 4 guys you can depend on coming off the bench. We're a mess down low. We lack a true point guard. All these things are real issues that this team just can't get around. Sure- the starting 5/6 guys can run off points and have the talent on good nights to beat anyone. On bad nights, they have the capacity to lose to anyone. But at the end of the day - it just is what it is.

Next year we have a top 5-10 recruiting class coming in. An actual, dedicated point guard in Gilbert. Probably could use a size boost - but we'll have Adams, Hamilton, Brimah and Purvis all back. Enoch SHOULD take a step forward. Larrer will be active, finally. Then there's Vance Jackson, Diarra and Durham coming in. Someone there probably helps us a ton. That's like 7-8 guys who were all top 100 dudes at some point. That's where I expect to see the real step forward.

So hopefully this team does something at SMU. Where honestly, they can probably erase tonight and cement a tourney birth - but this isn't a group that's making a run. Not now, at least.

 

[David 76]

Towney,
I agree with your first paragraph, but the second and third are pretty offensive. Calling any young person garbage is pretty gross. Doing it for your team is worse. And why pick on poor Omar? He has been great lately. And throwing the walk- ons under the bus?

 

[CAHUSKY]

When has Brimah ever played 35 minutes? He's way too physically weak for a team like Cincinnati and gave up a ton of second chance rebounds. I'm most disappointed because I think he's got a ton of talent but has barely improved in 3 years since he stepped on campus.

He played 33 against SMU, averaged 26 min a game last year and played 10 min yesterday. If he plays his average we probably win. That's all Jim saying.

 

[djct1999]

Towney,
I agree with your first paragraph, but the second and third are pretty offensive. Calling any young person garbage is pretty gross. Doing it for your team is worse. And why pick on poor Omar? He has been great lately. And throwing the walk- ons under the bus?

Because Omar was atrocious yesterday. Good kid, happy he stuck with the program, and certainly has his moments. Truth is, his performance yesterday was the norm and his play vs SMU was the outlier.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

Towney,
I agree with your first paragraph, but the second and third are pretty offensive. Calling any young person garbage is pretty gross. Doing it for your team is worse. And why pick on poor Omar? He has been great lately. And throwing the walk- ons under the bus?

Very offensive.

 

[BlueDogs]

Duh. This is the yard. Can't be critical or mad that we lose winnable games over and over and over.

It's not a bad loss against cinci on the road. But that's not exactly an impossible game to win either. We're older and more experienced than last year and massively upgraded our talent. Anddd we have 9 losses and have played basically one legit good team all year. Plenty of pretty good teams but really only one good team.

This has been a bad year. People need to stop making excuses and blaming the refs etc. the team massively underachieved this year. No way around it.

No loss is a good loss. Eking out A Tourney invite is not the be all end all goal. I fear this team punches out day 1. They are not yet showing any consistency of play or abilty to carry any momentum forward. I hope they fnd some mojo.

 

[Jaker]

I am still very bullish on this team, we have been in every game, with the exception of about 25 minutes against the TERPS.

 

[Towney007]

K, poor choice of words - but from any practical standpoint - this team has a significant talent deficit and glaring flaws - one of which is an almost complete lack of depth. And stop with the Calhoun sob story. He's had some moments here and there, but using a solid performance on select nights as a case for him being a dependable piece is complete homeric nonsense.

It's a patch work team with some intriguing pieces that don't quite fit together - but can for stretches to the point where they're a dangerous team to anyone - especially in a season like this. Things break the right way - they could make a nice little run. If they don't, they could miss the tournament. They're IN every game they play, but are prone to monster mental lapses that leave them vulnerable almost all the time. In other words - a 7-10 seed NCAA tournament team which, well - it kind of seems they are.

The flip side is - with the 'meh' season this year - I fully expect Hamilton and Brimah to come back. Which makes them awfully good next year considering what they have coming in and coming back.

 

[3rdbass]

One in the tourney? Really? OK

He isn't lying especially if we have to play temple, Tulsa or cincy in the first round. We can't afford to lose a game like that or to the bottom of the conference including Memphis.