2019-2020 Season
 

Hello everyone... as we are about halfway through a great football season and I thought I would get the thread going for the upcoming basketball season and wanted to welcome everyone back for hopefully a big year for the Cats starting Nov 6th @ OSU. We also have a few scrimmages coming up against Thomas More and Dayton. We have a couple big non conference games that will prepare us for conference play with OSU, UNLV, a good Vermont team, Tennessee, Iowa and of course Xavier.

I wanted to get everyone's thoughts on the upcoming season, any concerns with the team and projected staring lineups. I will get it started with my thoughts..

I think my biggest concern for the upcoming season is the fear of the unknown, this team is a shell of what is was last year so aside from Keith, Tre and Jarron we don't really know how this team will gel together against tough competition. I know Jarron will be back from his foot injury as should Trevor Moore, Davenport looks to be out until December and Gillman is lost for the season due to medical issues. I think Zach Harvey is going to be a great player for us this year but I think he may struggle a bit in the beginning.

My projections for the Starting lineup against OSU is....
G-Chris McNeal
G-Jarron Cumberland
G/F- Keith Williams
F-Tre Scott
C-Mamoudou Diarra

First off the Bench being...
Jaevin Cumberland
Zach Harvey
Chris Vogt and Sorolla

Next off the bench in under 10 min ppg
Trevor Moore
Davenport
Adams Woods (early in the season) I expect Adams Woods to get more or less time depending on the play of McNeal and the play of himself. Like I said there is just so much unknow with this team, they look like they have really gelled off the court so hopefully that translates to on the court, either way I am excited for the John Brannen era to start and finally see what this team can do.

Finally what are you thoughts on final record for the year.

I am saying they finish around 20-8 at the end of the regular season.

I think we will be a bubble team this year, I think brannen is going to be a solid coach for us I think 20-8 sounds right, I really think Zach Harvey come seasons end is going to be what jc was for us his freshman year, with tre as our only 4 in our lineup we should have a lot of small ball lineups.

I really hope Trevor Moore has improved over the off season, he’s a great kid and put a lot of time in, in the off-season, I hope it pays off for him, he needs to start hitting shots

Hopefully rotating between Scott/Diarra/Vogt/Scarrolla will be enough to have a productive front court. We really could use one more big just in case of injuries or someone to cause some interference on defense. Can we get another big guy walk on from the football team?

I could see both Cumberlands starting just because it'll mean more experience on the court. Probably depends on people's health as the season unfolds.

Between a good number of injuries and the new staff I think we'll have to be patient. But there are certainly a lot of positives and I think the season will be exciting. The conference is looking up!

The starting lineup should be interesting. I dont see cumberland coming here to come off the bench when he had plenty of places he could go. But I also don't see us starting without a PG.


I'm not sure if we start with Scott at the 5. Can't wait for that first game.

Tough call on the starters. Pick your poison between leaving your only other proven shooter on the bench, a 2nd big, or your PG. Adjustments can be made very quickly in any game but the starting lineup will be interesting.

If you put the best 5 out there to start we will likely be very small to start the game with 4 guards and an undersized 5.

I think good side of the bubble this year would be my best prediction at this point as well and I would be satisfied with that especially if we are playing our best ball in the end.

I think we have to start Diarra, simply because I think we need another big besides Scott to be able to provide 20+ minutes per game and Diarra has by far the most potential. He may also be a better three point shooter than most/all of the (non-Cumberland) small ball guard options.

We can all agree that Jarron, Scott and Williams fill out the 2-4 spots. So then it comes down to McNeal, Jaevin or some other guard. Jaevin is a far better 3 point shooter and also had a better assist/TO ratio (1.94) his senior year than McNeal had in his most recent year a UNM (1.42). McNeal has to provide significant value as a PG or on the defensive/rebounding end to get the spot over Jaevin and I don't see that happening.

Add in that Game 1 might be more matchup based because we are going to need a big body to take on Caleb Wesson.

Brannen says his offense is always evolving so I would imagine that we see multiple starting lineups.

Bubble team? Cmon now. How does anyone look at this roster and think we’re gojjg to be worse than last year. Our top three scorers from last year our back, we add in a ton of experience through grad transfers and a freshman that I’ve hesrd could be in the NBA after two years. You’re right though, losing Reshawn Fredericks is tough. Idk how we can possibly replace that production. I’m also on the Mick stinks train, so I think Brannen can docmore with this team. Super excited.

I’ll be honest. My expectations are to make noise in the tourney. I want a sweet 16. Brannen likely won’t get many players as good as Jarron Cumberland and that’s not a diss to him, that’s extremely high praise to Jarron. Jarron could go down as one of the best Bearcats ever. He’s been good every single year unlike guys like Kenyon who took a few years to develop and he’s been the best player we’ve had in the 3 tourneys he’s appeared in,

So I expect to see us do something big this year. CJB is inheriting his top 3 scorers back and the returning player of the year.

The reality is... outside of Harvey, who fell into our Lap after legal issues, we aren’t exactly killing it on the recruiting trail. We likely will miss out on Traynor & Eason and have to settle for another kid ranked in the 300’s... so this Roster maybe the best it’s going to get for at least 2-3 seasons.

Let’s take advantage of it and make some noise.

I would agree with that, I think its important to win some of the big non conference games, I think this team is fully capable of beating OSU... but we really don't know what team will show up game one in Columbus. I think they beat Iowa in Chicago. I think they lose to Tennessee and I think they will have a gutty win @ X. I think we split with Memphis and Houston.... maybe drop one to temple and then maybe lose a random one we should win against like USF or SMU or some middle of the conference team. But I think they make the tourney and depending on seeding could make a nice run.

I think the Madsen twins will be nice in the future especially Gabe, Saunders could be a solid player, but Zach Harvey would never be here if it wasn't for his legal troubles, usually dudes like that aren't coming to Cincy. Priority for 2020 class is to fill that last scholarship with a solid big. Unfortunately Brannen has struck out on some of the bigger names in that class we had a chance with.