RE: Re: Please Get Used To It....Please Read

From: bearheel
Date: 20 Nov 2005 - 08:47 PM EST

Great post!

I was a fan in the stands, not a student (but wish I was still that young), but I, too, enjoyed the game. I suspect Murray State is at least as good as Northern Iowa was at the beginning of the season last year, and they're probably as good as UC-Irvine or Hawaii; so I don't think this was a bad win at all.

Did the game expose some weaknesses? Absolutely, but I liked the way AK handled that issue in the post-game intervew. And now we'll get a chance to see whether he can turn this into a teaching/learning opportunity.

Tilford was a surprise; so was Kirkland, but not a positive one. But I will remain optimistic, at least for a while, that this can be a breakout year for him.

I suspect both he and White will be more and more effective if they focus on taking the ball toward the basket, then pulling up for a 5-10 foot jumper (or passing), instead of taking the three or trying to get all the way to the basket. And one of them is going to have to rebound better to help McGowan take some pressure off of Hicks under the boards.

The other surprise to me was that we didn't press more. I realize that it's much harder to do off missed baskets, but we had many more opportunities to press than we took advantage of. I'd be interested in the thoughts of others about why we didn't.

The size of the crowd was disappointing, and the spirit was a bit more like a tournament consolation game than a season opener, but those who didn't attend missed an opportunity to cheer on a coach and a team who look like they will represent us well this year.

Go Bearcats!

-------------- Original message --------------

As a student in the stands, I can say that I very much enjoyed watching this
game. Would I have liked to win by a little bit more, heck yes. Was White's
steal and dunk to send the game into overtime the most exciting thing I've seen
at a game since Field drained the two pointer at the buzzer to send the
Louisville game into overtime, you better believe it. I'd like to first look at
the game as it was, very fun to watch.

Now....critiques. I want to say from the start that we should maybe consider
re-naming this website www.pessimisticbearcatnews.com. I honestly can't stand
the amount of negative posts on this website. A part of why I don't read this as
much is because I don't feel like reading all the doom and gloom on here.
Lighten up folks, Huggins was a great coach, but there are plenty of winning
coaches out there not named Bob Huggins.

After watching us struggle to win games we should have won easily the last two
years, it's hard for me to believe we would have won this game by any more
points than 5 with Huggins at the helm. If he was here, you all would probably
be posting about how great a job of coaching he did to make sure we won at the
end of the game or how his hard nose was what made the players fight so hard at
the end of the game. I thought for a first regular season game of the season,
the team and AK did well. Is there room for improvement? Of course, but that's
why you schedule patsies at the beginning of the season. Besides, like someone
else posted, we won, unlike some of our counterparts around the country.

Personally, watching White, Jihad, etc walk onto the court with smiles at the
end of the game was refreshing. I haven't seen that the last two years. James
looked like he was having fun out there tonight (and he dropped 20+ to prove
it), and I think that's important. Tilford looked great and Downey is exactly
what we've needed at point the last two years. There was a point in the game
where Tilford was taking it upon himself to make the shot, he wanted the ball.
For a freshman to realize that he's hot and demand the ball, I think is awesome.
Downey emotion as he sunk the free throws in OT to put the game out of reach is
exactly what the team has been missing in the past. I think it's great that the
team had the heart to stick it out, make a comeback and win the game, even if we
all agree they shouldn't have been there to begin with.

Constructive Criticisms - we need to rebound and play better transition D. Our
transition D hasn't been spectacular the last two years (think Illinois two
years ago), so that's old news. We are going to struggle on the boards against
larger teams this year and are going to have to find some other way to play.
Personally, with our size and speed I think we should press much more. I was
very dissapointed to see White, Hicks, etc. hanging their heads near the end of
the game when it looked like we weren't gonna come back. Also, when we needed a
basket at the end of the game, Hicks was standing straight up in the post with a
very blank expression on his face and hardly any movement in his body. Maybe the
play was drawn up to not go to him, but as a leader, he needs to step up and
demand the ball at crunch time. Also, we need Chadd a lot. I am still of the
belief that we would have won at least one or two more games last year if he was
healthy and playing consistently. I'm glad tha!
t he's back to play his senior year, I think that's gonna help a lot. Oh, I also
hate TV timeouts. I think that we're going to have a decent year this year and I
think this is the type of team that has a lot of room for improvement, but also
has the tools in place to make those imrpovements. That alone will show us AK's
abilities as a coach and I think will play a major factor in the number of
programs looking at him at the end of the season. I am really excited about the
season, regardless of how we do. Put me on record as predicted 19-20 wins going
into the NCAA tournement.

Finally, I want to talk about President Zimpher for a second. She's not going
anywhere anytime soon, so get used to her. The only people who can fire her are
the BOT and they seem to be in her corner. To those rooting against the Bearcats
to spite Nancy, that is rediculous. That's like rooting against the Bengals or
Reds because you don't like the Owner of the team. Besides, she's brought here
to run the entire school, not the athletic program. The basketball team's
success/failure will only sway public opinion and will not get her fired. Also,
I have heard a lot of people saying she plans to torpedo the program. Until we
have a head coach in place, I don't think this is a fair opinion. She has
repeatedly stated a committment to a strong athletic program and I don't think
that she's so naive to think that the athletic programs at a school are not
important. While I do not neccessarily support the decisions she makes, I do
support UC and I will always support the Bearcats in al!
l sports, not just football and basketball. Huggins is not coming back and I
think it would be in everyone's best interest to realize this and continue to
the support the teams because they are Bearcat fans.

---- Original message ----

Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2005 12:56:57 -0500
From: "Craig Bickel"
Subject: RE: [UC Basketball] Re: Please Get Used To It....Please Read
To:

I saw exactly what you saw. Downey is a player. He
was, IMO, one of the few bright spots from the game.
Sure, he made some mistakes and had some freshman
first-game jitters, but he will be a good one. The
team needs to get him more minutes so he can help in
the lean years ahead. (That is, of course, assuming
he stays)

Tilford looks to be a player too... same thing,
increase his minutes so he can help during the lean
years.

Allen doesn't look to me to be the answer to many of
our questions. Hopefully he will improve but IMO he
will be nothing more than a bit role player: quick
blows to the front court rotation and an emergency
player if we're in foul trouble.

To me overall, we looked to be a very lazy
basketball team (on both ends of the floor). The
lack of effort on the defensive end did not look
like a UC team. Someone in a previous post said "You
might have off nights shooting the ball, but there
is no reason to have an off night rebounding or
defending." That was Hugg's philosophy... Defense is
effort and desire, and that is something the players
can control.

This was not a good win. Murray State looked like a
poorly coached AAU team and the Bearcats were only
moderately better. I will say though, if we get past
the laziness, become more disciplined at both ends
of the floor, and pay more attention to defensive
position, etc. then we may win that game by 15-18
points.

----------------------------------------------------

From: old school [mailto:address@hidden
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2005 10:15 AM
To: address@hidden
Subject: Re: [UC Basketball] Re: Please Get Used To
It....Please Read

Number 3...Devan played horrible after
getting so much hype in the preseason. We won't
play that bad or get into foul trouble every
game. He is a huge key. James and Kirk won't
shoot that bad every night. And Chadd was gone,
after making huge impacts in the preseason
games...it showed we missed him a little. All
this, and we still won! That's good news to me.

I'm not so sure it was that Devan played horrible
last night. This team is supposed to be more of a
running team, but last night everbody else was
content to play the half-court game, except Devan.
Too many times he broke the defense down and
penetrated the lane and absolutely nobody moved from
their spots. He'd get into the lane and look for a
man to kick the ball out to but yet they'd all be
standing around with their thumbs up their
proverbial, well you know.

I almost felt sorry for him at times, he was doing
what the team had practiced and worked on, but yet
the others decided to fall into the half-court lull.

BTW, just a complaint for the folks at UC. On the
roster page on the UCBearcats homepage, why not just
list Andy Kennedy as the Head Coach. Just a minor
thing, but I hate looking at it and seeing Interim
Head Coach by his name.

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