2021 NCAA Tournament

cincyguy13 · 03-31-2021, 09:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyblade

UCLA had next to zero hope of a final four push this year. They are a team that people thought maybe next year. They have no seniors who play. Most people picked them to lose to MSU. They have four stars, but they aren't clearly better than most of the teams he took to the tournament with UC. UCLA fans are saying this is probably their least talented final four team ever.

UCLA has one great scorer (Juzang) and a bunch of role players. We've seen plenty of UC teams with a very similar makeup.

Look at this NCAA tournament. There are two clearly dominant teams (Gonzaga, Baylor) and a whole bunch of other teams that could have made it. What did Houston/UCLA do better than the rest? I'd argue for the most part the just got luckier.

The low possession, tough it out style contributes to keeping games close. You need a game to be close if you are going to get lucky and win (or unlucky and lose). Mick had 3 games that could easily have been losses (including a first four game). He won three coin flips. If he lost the coin flip to MSU, fans would be saying he can't win in March. If he lost it to Bama or Michigan, he had a good run but nothing that special.

He's a great coach, but it seems like all the bad luck he had at UC was just waiting for him to leave so good luck could come back in a wave and even things out.

This years UCLA has more talent than any team mick had at uc. They just aren’t playing Tulane and ecu 16 times a year.

skyblade · 03-31-2021, 09:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cincyguy13

Gonzaga never got those 5 star guys either. Until they did. Gonzaga is a great example of programs being built over time, and it can happen anywhere, if you get the right coach and a school that believes in what he’s doing. 20 years ago they were nothing in a small conference. You don’t start with getting 4-5 star guys. You build it and eventually they pick you. Like Huggins did over time. Like few did. It takes years.

Mick got frustrated he couldn’t get top guys. There is an article recently that said he quit trying. This was evident with the 6-7 guys that were still here transferring to mid majors. I don’t blame him but you can’t expect to win at the highest level like that either.

That's why I wanted to keep Mick around. Get one lucky FF4 run here and with his record of going to every NCAA tournament, higher rated recruits are going to start come.

Now we've started over. We either need a coach to come in and pull a miracle run in the NCAA tournament in the next few years. Or we will be waiting 5-10 years for a coach to gradually rebuild us and get us back to the point we were at when Cronin left.

Either way, we need a coach who is willing to stay. All the small schools that have built themselves up have done it because their coach doesn't leave.

**sedziobs** · 03-31-2021, 09:57 AM

It is kind of frustrating that Mick goes to UCLA and has his first team in years that is better on offense than defense, but then all of a sudden the defense shows up in the tournament in a way that never happened here. We were always great on the defensive end in the regular season, but it all fell apart in March.

cincyguy13 · 03-31-2021, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyblade

That's why I wanted to keep Mick around. Get one lucky FF4 run here and with his record of going to every NCAA tournament, higher rated recruits are going to start come.

Now we've started over. We either need a coach to come in and pull a miracle run in the NCAA tournament in the next few years. Or we will be waiting 5-10 years for a coach to gradually rebuild us and get us back to the point we were at when Cronin left.

Either way, we need a coach who is willing to stay. All the small schools that have built themselves up have done it because their coach doesn't leave.

I was fine with keeping him, just didn’t cry when he left. It got a little stale for everyone, including him. He knew he could go there and immediately get a team that’s more talented than anything he’s every had. He didn’t have to worry about Ellie, Shaq Thomas, Type players that are hard to win with. And he got to live in LA while getting paid more. He moved on. We had to also

cincyguy13 · 03-31-2021, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyblade

That's why I wanted to keep Mick around. Get one lucky FF4 run here and with his record of going to every NCAA tournament, higher rated recruits are going to start come.

Now we've started over. We either need a coach to come in and pull a miracle run in the NCAA tournament in the next few years. Or we will be waiting 5-10 years for a coach to gradually rebuild us and get us back to the point we were at when Cronin left.

Either way, we need a coach who is willing to stay. All the small schools that have built themselves up have done it because their coach doesn't leave.

Agree, if he had a run, things could have changed for the better. That’s how important these runs are. That’s why fans get frustrated when you make 1 sweet 16 in 20 years. That’s what the whole sport depends on. Is it right, no, but that’s the sport of college basketball. You have to win in the tournament

**waterhead** · 03-31-2021, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyblade

Mick tried for plenty of top recruits, but they rarely ended up here. And yes, that is probably because of Cincinnati (or more specifically, the American conference). Look at Brannen's recruiting of high-rated players, to get them he had to take risks on guys who have off-court issues and that hasn't gone over well either.

As I said when Mick left, we need to get over dreaming of getting a coach who is going to bring in five stars or even high-four stars. We need a guy who can get three stars and an occasional four star who fit the system and can develop them into a complete team.

As for CJB, you all know my stance. He may be a great X's and O's coach, but that doesn't matter. Relationships matter more and he failed. You can't develop players if you can't retain them. At this point, keeping him is a death sentence because he won't be able to recruit with everything hanging over his head (regardless of who you think is at fault).

And we need those kids to have some SKILLZ rather than pure athleticism. We ALL knew that. If Cronin recruited more skill (at UC) he probably would have done much better with the 3-4 star guys. In the end much of the time he ended up with juniors or seniors who could play D and who were starting to approach average on offense.

In terms of keeping a family of players together...that's wonderful...as long as there is the hope that will parlay into a deep tourney run or two. if you keep the family together but they can't advance who cares?

cincyguy13 · 03-31-2021, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by waterhead

And we need those kids to have some SKILLZ rather than pure athleticism. We ALL knew that. If Cronin recruited more skill (at UC) he probably would have done much better with the 3-4 star guys. In the end much of the time he ended up with juniors or seniors who could play D and who were starting to approach average on offense.

In terms of keeping a family of players together...that's wonderful...as long as there is the hope that will parlay into a deep tourney run or two. if you keep the family together but they can't advance who cares?

Gonzaga never had a team of athletes that tried to muck the game up even when they weren’t getting 5 star guys. Loyola doesn’t have a team full of athletes. Our fans need realize there are other ways to win

Jon Rycek · 03-31-2021, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sedziobs

It is kind of frustrating that Mick goes to UCLA and has his first team in years that is better on offense than defense, but then all of a sudden the defense shows up in the tournament in a way that never happened here. We were always great on the defensive end in the regular season, but it all fell apart in March.

Yeah they completely won with defense the last 3 games. Michigan had a ton of chances late in that game and they held it down and made everything difficult.

Jon Rycek · 03-31-2021, 10:24 AM

Micks recruiting is about to go off the charts, he’s already getting some great players, now his first year in the tourney at UCLA and he takes them 5 games into the final four as an 11 seed. Proving to a lot of recruits what a lot of us already knew, he can coach, and he knows how to win. I don’t see then getting past the buzz saw that is Gonzaga this year, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mick make and win a NC game in the next 3-4 years.

Loser Mentality · 03-31-2021, 10:26 AM

Congrats to Mick and his guys. In 2 years he's turned UCLA into a better UC that we were used to seeing.

The best part of it all, is it looks like the kids are totally bought in.

The 2 years before Mick, UCLA was a softer version of itself.

They played GREAT DEFENSE on the Bigs of Michigan.

03-31-2021, 09:57 AM	#293
sedziobs Senior Moderator Join Date: Jan 2018 Posts: 2,395	It is kind of frustrating that Mick goes to UCLA and has his first team in years that is better on offense than defense, but then all of a sudden the defense shows up in the tournament in a way that never happened here. We were always great on the defensive end in the regular season, but it all fell apart in March.

03-31-2021, 10:24 AM	#299
Jon Rycek Epic Member Join Date: Nov 2016 Posts: 2,183	Micks recruiting is about to go off the charts, he’s already getting some great players, now his first year in the tourney at UCLA and he takes them 5 games into the final four as an 11 seed. Proving to a lot of recruits what a lot of us already knew, he can coach, and he knows how to win. I don’t see then getting past the buzz saw that is Gonzaga this year, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mick make and win a NC game in the next 3-4 years.

03-31-2021, 10:26 AM	#300
Loser Mentality Senior Member Join Date: May 2019 Posts: 134	Congrats to Mick and his guys. In 2 years he's turned UCLA into a better UC that we were used to seeing. The best part of it all, is it looks like the kids are totally bought in. The 2 years before Mick, UCLA was a softer version of itself. They played GREAT DEFENSE on the Bigs of Michigan.