Dare to expect BIG THINGS from this team

From: Kenneth Wilson
Date: 05 Jul 2006 - 10:36 AM EST

You can temper your enthusiasm if you like. I choose not to. I'm expecting big things...NOW! I really, really, like Mick. I don't know who else could have done what he's done in three months. Phenomenal accomplishment!!! Why should I expect less on the court? I'm sure that he is not.

The BEast will not be the #1 conference in the nation again this year. West Virginia, UCONN, Villanova, Seton Hall, Rutgers, and Notre Dame lost EVERYTHING.

TOP-5: My pick to win it is Georgetown, with Pittsburg a close second. Syracuse, Marquette, and Louisville will be solid tournament teams, but beatable.

Providence will be much improved...DePaul, South Florida, St. Johns???? Who knows. Look at the rosters and tell me why the Bearcats shouldn't expect to finish ahead of 12 or 13 of these teams?

I'm calling it right here, right now. THE BEARCATS BEAT OHIO STATE IN INDIANAPOLIS! OSU lost EVERYTHING last year. Will their new guys be more ready to play than our news guys???

I'm excited by the possibilities.

From: "richard l. kandell" <address@hidden>
Reply-To: UC Basketball Forum <address@hidden>
To: "UC Basketball Forum" <address@hidden>
Subject: Re: [UC Basketball] I hope these guards can play
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2006 15:08:27 -0400

Now I know that just about everyone on the Forum is a big Bearcat fan, and
wishes them nothing but success - but we need to put where we are in some
perspective:

a. The last time we brought in a bunch of jc players to "build" the
program we wound up in the Final 4, and probably should have won the
national championship the following year - however the center and point
guard on those teams have a combined what(?) - about 20 years of play in the
NBA. The current crop hasn't played a minute of division 1 basketball.
Maybe Mick did get lucky and sign the 2nd coming of Corrie and Nick, along
with the appropriate role players, and just maybe he didn't.

b. How many of us would settle for the next couple of years just to not
be embarrassed in the BEast? Some of us doubted they could win 10 games
overall next year, and now we have guys suggesting not only the NIT, but
even the NCAA. Boy oh boy do I hope they are right - but before declaring
this the best group of recruits since the beginning of time, how about we
see whether any or all of them can actually compete at a high division 1
level? ;-)

c. Once more I caution against putting too much stock in Clark Francis'
ranking which are heavily based on volume - and how many times are we going
to have 37 basketball recruits in one season? :-) Remember, under his
calculations a team with seven 3 point recruits finishes ahead of another
with two 10 pointers. Which would you rather have? I know, I know, this
year we needed 18 recruits just to field a team, much less practice, but be
careful of putting a lot of stock in Francis' ranking.

d. Do not, I repeat, do not, compare this year's team with that of last
year. Last season, with all the turmoil, we started 3 seniors, a junior and
a freshman. Hicks, a 4 year player, while undersized, had the heart of a
lion. White, if you include the semester he practiced with the team, had 3
1/2 years, was a Mickey D AA, and came within a hair's breath of being an
NBA first round draft choice. Downey, the freshman, was one of the prized
recruits in the nation despite his size. I could go on, but we all know
their stories - while last year's team was hardly what one could call deep,
it was reasonably experienced and, at least in the top 5/6, pretty talented.
Maybe we have 8 first round draft choices on next year's team, but I'd
prefer to wait until they actually play some games before becoming
enraptured with their skill levels. You don't have to be a UC fan for
several centuries to remember highly touted players, especially juco's, who
have not performed at CBA quality levels much less NBA levels.

e. The one thing all this recruiting has done is that I am no longer
dreading next year, at least we should not look like a team with a Sagarin
rating well over 200. We could win 20 - how many times can we play
Northeast Montana State A&T? ;-)

Richard K.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Justin Tubbs" <address@hidden>
To: "UC Basketball Forum" <address@hidden>
Sent: Monday, July 03, 2006 4:58 PM
Subject: Re: [UC Basketball] I hope these guards can play

> I agree that we don't have div. 1 experience this year. Last year we
basically needed a miracle after losing Armein. Last year was almost a
miracle and probably would have been if James and Jihad played that last
game, or if McNamera doesn't hit that lucky shot over Hicks. I believe that
we watched a miracle last season competing the way that we did and here is
to believing that will happen again, just with fresh faces. Also, the team
practicing ll year with Mike Williams is bound to help also. Tom, I meant
no disrespect, just having fun.
>
> Jon Macomber <address@hidden> wrote:
> It's all looking good, but remember none of these guys have any Div I
> experience. Looking at returning players we basically have McGowan (963
Div
> 1 minutes), and then Allen (240 min) & Tilford (158 min). And
Allen/Tilford
> are borderline Div1/Big East talent.
>
> Mick did exactly what he needed to do - went out and got quality JUCO
talent
> (with size) that are ready to play.
>
> But we still have a first-year coach putting his system in place,
virtually
> no experience, and we're playing in the toughest conference in the
country.
> It would be a miracle (literally!) if this team had great success this
year.
> But hey, the same was said about Kennedy last year.
>
> We're on the right track and Mick did an unbelievable job filling out the
> roster. But It will take awhile to get the pieces to fit.
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kenneth Wilson"
> To:
> Sent: Monday, July 03, 2006 12:57 AM
> Subject: [UC Basketball] I hope these guards can play
>
>
> > You gotta love the size of this roster. Cedric McGown at the 3??? Hall
> > at the 5. Marcus Sykes, Ronald Allen, Aboul Herrera all candidates for
> > the 4...I've seen John Williason play. He will be on the floor! Great
> > job Mick!
> >
> >>From the "what if" files - With Devon, this is a top-25 team. Hasheem
> > Thabeet is listed as the #10 prospect for the '07 NBA draft on ESPN.COM.
> > He'll be UCONN's bes player next season.
> >
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>
>
>
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