2017-2018 Season
 

I really like this years team. But am I the only one that thinks this team is only going to get better through the end of this year and even more so into next year. The only big loss they take is Caupain. They are adding 3 kids that look promising, and I really like the young guys that are already starting to develop like Cumberland.

I don't think we lose much honestly. The offense is only getting better, as well as the depth. D has been great. It looks to improve as well, however.

I'm really liking what im seeing from Brooks in the short min hes seeing. He has a ways to go, but he is going to be a force on D.

I think we will have the option to play a big or small line up next year with him. We have been running a lot of 3 guard play the last few years. I think we will have more versatility next year. He would be leading the team in blocks right now if he got the same min as the starters. He just needs to Keep improving, and he can be huge for us. He already looks to be an impact in the lane.

Both the front and back courts look solid going into next year. I can't really see a weakness.

Depending on how this year finishes I could see them starting out as a high seed out the gate next year. 10 or higher, maybe more......

Preseason means nothing of course, but its just a sign that they have made it back to "pre Huggins break up" expectations. Probably the best team in Clifton since the 2000 or 2003 teams.

Anyone agree?

If everyone returns (which seems likely at this point) then I agree, we are due for another big year. A starting 5 of Broome, Evans,Cumberland, Clark, and Washington may be our most potent in ages.

I'm interested in seeing how Jenifer fits into the rotation next year and how often we go small with him and Broome on the floor.

A healthy/more physical Quadri Moore could be an X factor next season as well.

No.

Quadri Moore will continue to be the waste of a scholarship he currently is. Lets not pretend that he will suddenly learn how to play anything that resembles defense.

It gets more interesting if David Collins commits

Losing Troy will hurt. He plays 30 minutes or more every game and his T/O ratio is one of the best in the country. Broome will need to take care of the ball. He has had problems with that at Scared Heart. Having him practicing with the team now will certainly help that but until you do it in the games......

If Collins commits, I think Moore red shirts.

Also helps going against one of the nations best defenses every day in practice

Next Year's roster is gonna be pretty awesome. We will just need someone to step up as our closer (I vote Evans)

Starting lineup:
PG: Cane Broome 6'0 JR
SG: Jarron Cumberland 6'5 Soph
SF: Jacob Evans 6'6 JR
PF: Gary Clark 6'8 SR
PF: Kyle Washinton 6'9 SR

Bench:
G Justin Jenifer 5'10 JR
F Quadri Moore 6'8 SR
F Nysier Brooks 6'11 Soph
F Tre Scott 6'8 Soph
G/F Keith Williams Fresh 6'5
G Trevor Moore Fresh 6'5
F Eliel Nsoseme Fresh 6'9


We have 12 guys as it is right now. Im guessing Keith will back up both Jarron and Evans.

Yes, the current bench rotation is about 25-30 "big man" minutes shared by Brooks & Scott (when healthy). That will likely stay the same. About 20-25 "wing" minutes, mostly Cumberland now, will likely go mostly to Williams. 10 or so PG minutes - mostly Jenifer this season. My guess is that he remains the #2 PG, but gets more burn. Nsoseme seems like an obvious redshirt candidate with 5 experienced bigs sharing 2 spots. Moore might get some of the wing minutes, but another commit might make him a RS candidate as well.

I agree. A lot of people are excited for Broome, and for good reason. He brings things Caupain cannot - faster pace, more dribble penetration (something this team really needs). I would love to see them run some pick and roll/pick and pop action - both bigs can catch the ball & would be dangerous rolling to the hoop; they can also both shoot and would be dangerous if left open on the pop. They could run 1-3 PnR with Cumberland or Evans as well. The only thing stopping them now is that Caupain is not quick enough to be effective as the ball handler on the PnR.

All that said, Caupain is super, super solid with the ball in his hands. He doesn't turn it over, he makes few terrible choices, and he has a great sense for the game - he knows when to shoot more, when to pass more, and never gets out of control. Those things seem like a given because he is so good at them, but I guarantee there will be moment next year when we miss them.

Brooks ain't no F.

Oops.

Man we have a lot of size on the bench.

I don't disagree with much of your post but I would caution on just how much we're losing. Troy might not be putting up the best offensive stats this season but it's mostly because he doesn't need to. He has played the role of floor general and team leader perfectly this season. Losing a guy like Troy is really going to hurt this team, no matter who replaces him.

I think Cane Broome has a chance to be a special player in his own right but you cannot expect him to just step in and replace Troy from day one, he's going to have to earn that.

Either way things are looking up for UC hoops right now. This season is very reminiscent of the "good old days" for me and next season has all the potential to be just as good or better. If Mick can continue to consistently bring in scorers and make even more improvement on his half court offense we can be a very dangerous contender for a long time to come.

Its been a long time coming. I'm new to the board obviously, and I was reading through some older post. I see alot of frustration from alot of people with Cronin. I Think he is a good guy to keep around however. I know its been hard to swallow the last decade, but half of that was really hardly fair to count against him. He is the only coach to beat a higher seed. Lets not pretend that Coach Huggins didn't under achieve quite often. IMO, if you are a Huggins fan (which I am), you can't be too hard on Cronin. Hes pretty much done nothing but improve almost every year. The only thing that has been missing is recruiting. The kids coming in these days don't care about past. Its what have you done for me lately. Cats play in an old arena in a conference that is not thought of as a top league (Even though I think that is unfair. AAC is having a down year, but I think its right on the heals of the lower tier "power leagues") Perception is everything. Unfortunately the last decade has ruined our reputation with recruits and we are somewhat unproven. With some post season success and continued improvement (along with a revamped 5/3) I can see that start to change. Teams like Xavier and OSU have pasted UC and their strangle hold on best in Ohio. As much as I dislike X, OSU bothers me more honestly. I have respect for X and the program they have built. Its really unacceptable to me that we let OSU pass us in basketball. I think another thing that hurts recruit is that the game has changed so much since UC of the 90's. I was looking at the stats, comparing this years team to the 99 team for example. Cats this year are averaging almost 78 a game and they are rated way lower in rank on O than the 99 team which only scored around 72. Todays game tends to favor a higher pace. The young guys like to run and gun. Its hard for UC to get these high skill 1 and done guys because of the way they play. I'm fine with getting 3 or 4 star guys that stay longer and buy in to the D mindset though. But id at least like to see them get recruiting into the top 25 yearly again. Don't need alot of 5 star guys to be consistently relevant.

I wouldn't say OSU passed us in basketball.. idk they might get some better recruits, but wouldn't say their program is any better than ours at all.

Paragraphs are your friend. Welcome to the board.

Next Year
 

At some point this program has to get back to winning conference titles consistently. NCAA tournament success has a lot of variables, but we should be able to win our league. I just looked back. In the last 13 years we have one conference championship and zero conference tournament championships. That has to start changing beginning next year. I think we will be better next year.

Anyone want to take a shot at our starting 5 next year? I don't know enough about the new recruits. I know we've said this for the last couple of years but anything less than sweet 16 and top 1-2 in our league would be a huge disappointment.

I think id be willing to throw $20 down it will be
1) Broome
2) Cumberland
3) Evans
4)Clark
5)Washington

Starting 5 I think.

PG Broome
SG Cumberland
SF Evans
PF Clark
C Washington

That is a group that should be really good.

PG- Broome
SG- Cumberland
SF- Evans
PF- Clark
C- Washington

The bench: Jenifer, Keith Williams ( best recruit coming in), Brooks, Scott, Quad.
Possible redshirts: Trevor Moore, Eliel Nsoseme

Biggest issue next year is going to be our OOC schedule. We have no one on our schedule, our preseason tourney sucks, and not many teams willing to play us with our returning players. If we don't get some games, we could be in the same spot next year with the seeding

I think it will be us and uconn for the league next year. If semi comes back, SMU could be pretty good but they are losing their 2 seniors, which is a big loss. Ucf should be decent but don't think the league will be that different from this year. Maybe a slight improvement but still won't be great

I like the first 5, but I wonder who will be that scoring spark off the bench.

What and who with are we in a tourney next year?

Hopefully and should be Williams. Should be the role Cumberland had this year

I think Williams will surprise many of us. Could have a similar season that Evans and Cumberland have given us in their freshman years. Williams doesn't seem to be the shooter that they are, but can get to the rim and create his own shot.

Hopes for next year and beyond (not sure how realistic they all are)

1) Tougher OOC scheduling

2) Continued improvements on offense. We know our D will be stellar.

3) Less whining by MC. I realize that the best coaches are outspoken. And most of the time I agree with him. But I don't think it helps our cause. A lot of my friends out here on the east coast know nothing about UC other than the fact that we have a coach that complains all the time. Let's win some games in March and then you can complain all you want.

4)Is it unrealistic to hope that some day we can regularly land 4-5 star players? I'm obviously not thinking we can load up like UK every year. But I feel that we've had a lot of great players but not yet one future NBA level star (I guess SK was as close as we've gotten). I feel like most of the teams that make a run in the tourney at least have one player like that on their team

Thoughts?

I appreciate everything our seniors have done and the effort they have given us for 4 years. Troy has been one of my favorite players and KJ has represented us well. However, next year will be the first time in 4 years where we won't be slow and methodical as opposed to fast and dynamic. I assume Broome will run point but even Jenifer will push tempo.

I don't think there is any way on Earth Cronin will be able to slow them down nor do I think he will want or attempt to. This will be the first year in Cronin's tenure where he will be forced to play guys who are all VERY good on the offensive side of the ball as opposed to guys who are good on D or a bottle neck on offense.

It will be a team that will be built for March success because we will have dynamic play makers on the perimeter. We can probably iso any of the 3 next year and expect a decent result. We will be solid on the interior once again.

We are picking up addition by subtraction. By many accounts our best player on the team hasn't played a single minute all year (Broome). Obviously Cumberland is going to be a HUGE step up at the 2 guard as well. No question in my mind...we will be significantly better.

Iowa is the best team in it

I think we need a back up PG next year. I like Jj but it's hard for him to play against elite competition because his size

Sickening. Really wanted to win last night and have a chance to beat UK. UCLA has a real good shot at winning it all.

Hard to think about next year when it seems like forever away but seriously next year is going to be unreal.

Someone said it, but right now are biggest issue is the schedule. We know what we have in conference but what is our OOC so far? Just the Cayman classic (Iowa UAB Wyoming) Anyone know any other teams? NKU?

As far as our roster I think we are good to go. Whether someone redshirts or not. I would love a transfer big man to sit out next year and then be able to start once Gary and Kyle are gone.

Maybe we can get a Rhode Island home and home. Mick seems to be close with Danny Hurley. I think some games like that are the best we can hope for

Think it's fair to say we'll be preseason ranked next year. I've been telling people #18 this morning. Seem reasonable? Will be interesting to see how much pollsters value Tory/Kevin.

I think we will be underseeded as usual so around 18 is realistic IMO. I do think that we should be a top 15 team when all is said and done. Although I do think the loss of TC will affect us a lot (even though he didn't have the breakout season we all hoped for)

Iowa started 3 freshman this year and almost made the tourney. They lost their leading scorer, but some Iowa fans also feel he was detrimental to the team on the court. It will be interesting to see if those 3 freshman improve enough and carry that team to the Tournament.

I think Iowa will be decent but if that's our best OOC game, it's not good

I expect a very solid starting 5 with tons of offensive potential.

Washington
Clark
Evans
Cumberland
Broome

I hope we can get one solid backup big and wing. I hope Brooks works real hard in the off season on some moves and can pick up about 15 minutes per game next year ala DeBerry. His D should be solid. We could also go guard heavy with 1 big at times. I hope Williams is ready for about 15 minutes as well. He is a pretty good athlete so he should be able to play some D as well as put a few points on the board.

We could really run like hell if we put in Jenifer and Broome with Evans and Cumberland on the floor.

I'm excited. Hopefully we can manage to play another season without significant injury. It should be a great year. Just in time for a new arena and hopefully capitalize on some decent recruits as we move into our new home.

Hard to expect better than 16-2. But if that's what it takes, we need to find a way.