A lot has changed since Cincy upset a top-ten UCONN team to start the Big East season. the Huskies have fallen to Georgetown and Pitt, dropping them to the middle of the conference. For itself, the Bearcat basketball program has also fallen on hard times, losing consecutive away games at Seton Hall and St. John's. This is still a tough opponent, but a much more winnable game than it seemed two weeks ago.
Cincinnati-
Pomeroy Ranking- 56th
Record- 11-6 (2-3)
Best Win- Vanderbilt (ranked 23rd)
Worst Loss- St. John's (ranked 82nd)
Pomeroy Prediction- Cincinnati 76-70
Key Players-
#33 Lance Stephenson- 12.4 PPG, 4.8 RPG- A small wing at just 6'5", he struggles shooting the three. Certainly a talented freshman, but can be neutralized by a zone defense or a soft man that forces him to stay on the perimter.
#5 Deonta Vaughn- 11.3 PPG, 3.6 APG, 34.7% 3PA- Not nearly the scoring threat he was as a sophomore, but the senior leader continues to contribute. Scored 20 against Seton Hall and had three straight 17 point games to begin the conference slate.
#34 Yancy Gates- 10.7 PPG, 6.6 RPG- The rebounding leader on the team, but just gets 24 minutes a game.
Scouting Report-
Never gets to the foul line.
Play pretty solid defense, top 25 in effective FG% allowed.
Rebound well on both ends of the floor.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
A missed opportunity. For all the same reasons.
Not a "bad loss", but still infuriating.
On to Syracuse.
Grasping defeat out of the hands of Victory......
I am sorry but Luke Harangody needs to learn when he is not having to a good day to pass the ball at some point in time. Anybody notice when Luke got in foul trouble and went out, we scored 5 quick points. I know what Luke has done for us but Brey should have yanked him in the second half when he kept throwing ridiculous shots up.
That loss is frustrating because I think we showed we were a better team. It was just one person trying to do WAY to much when he was having a bad night. Again, I like Luke and he works hard, but there are 4 other players on floor and they need to be involved.
Can someone also explain to me why we went to man to man in the second half. They don't shoot the ball well and we seemed to be defending pretty well in zone. I don't understand why you don't stay in zone the entire game and make them shoot. I just feel we let this one get away and these are the games we will look back on and wonder what if.
Infuriating or not, this is a mediocre group at best. We're looking at a sub-.500 record in the BE and maybe an NIT bid if you stay at 17-13 or 16-14.
Is it true Gody came back to morph into some shooting guard? God help him at the next level if he doesn't fall to the second round and has difficulty making the cut. He will never become a perimeter player, and in all truth he is height-challenged enough with the big boys. Hmmmm...5 of 20sounds like a sure-fire recipe for defeat to me.
Biggreen, 16-14 means they only win 5 big east games. They already have 3. You dont see more than 2 more wins? They play some pretty bad teams. And in case you forget, we were underdogs yesterday. It was a game we were not supposed to win. Calm down and stop taking every loss like it is the end of the world. This team will still get to 20 wins. They have talent. Gody had an off day. Get over it. I bet he comes back with 30 on Monday night.
If Gody continues to get away from what he does best, he will never score 30 again. He's not simply just experiencing an off-night; he's trying to become a perimeter shooter which is not his game. How many more treys has he already launched this year? He sits at
.333 3-pt pct. while the rest of the team is a vey credible .421 from behind the arc. While he fiddles about on the perimeter, the rest of the team sits and watches, and no one is working for second chance Offensive boards. Since Kurz graduated, they have usually been outrebounded significantly and need Gody's interior presence offensively for certain.
What was your observation last year when the season was spiraling down with the seven game losing streak? I'm sorry we'e left with the now familiar Brey filibustering about this being a senior-driven group that has seen the BE wars and knows how to work together. Irish Nation I think is looking through some rose-colored glasses about the state of this season and the continuing lackluster recruiting results shown by Coach.
It's hard to understate the effect of Harangody attempting to move to the perimeter. With Nash out of yesterday's game with foul trouble, the only post player in the rotation is playing 10-15 feet from the basket with no hope of offensive rebounds.
As for the switch to man, its much easier to box out and prevent second chance points in a man-to-man than a zone. Of course, Cincy had no trouble hitting the boards when we were in either defense.
We will be pretty much get beat on the boards every night in the Big East - zone or man. Other BE teams are quicker to the ball and jump higher. Many high school teams have bigger lineups than us when we go to the 3 guard. To quote Al McGuire - you need the aircraft carrier to win.
On another subject - I watched, or tried to watch, the Mad Ants Saturday night. I feel sorry for Rob, Kyle and Ryan. The D League is simply horrible basketball. Guys jacking shots from all over, no team concept whatsoever. Go get your Master's guys and get on with your lives.
Post a Comment