2019-2020 Open Thread

[skyblade]

Originally Posted by cincyguy13

I agree with most of this. I think the staff has done good with recruiting. The transfers, not so much, but like you said, most of these guys aren’t difference makers and if they are, they aren’t coming to the American. Losing Tate looks bad, but the reality is, you hope our freshman can be better than him. The sooner they get minutes the better.

The recruiting is pretty in line with Cronin's recruiting, which I figured it would be. Fans convinced themselves that Cronin can't recruit, but in reality it's largely about conference.

Harvey is the only exception of getting a true 4-star, but given his legal issues and late reclassify, I don't give Brannen too much credit.

Eason is the high-three star/low four-star type guy Cronin generally managed to pull one of every year or two.

The rest (besides Mason) are 200ish guys who generally make up most of the roster.

The thing we really are lacking on is bigs. Bigs are the hardest to recruit and Brannen seems to be having no success. It's odd because a project big (like Ballard) who would probably red-shirt could be a four-year starter here (21-25) with our lack of depth.

[Queens_NYC]

Originally Posted by cincyguy13

Curious, who will be the top 5 in the league? Memphis, Houston, then who? WSU lost their whole team. Temple is trash. Just curious. I think we will still be in the running if Kieth comes back. Could be wrong. But we just won the league this year with Jarron being hurt for half the games. Houston will always be there with Sampson. Memphis will always have talent but other than that, I’m not sure who you can count on in this league. Marshall hasn’t impressed me since they got here.

Right. There's no reason to believe that we can't finish top 3 next season.

The coaching staff is actively pursuing transfers who will at least be stop gaps for Jarron and Tre's spots at the start of next season, and if the younger players (Eason and Gabe in particular) prove to be much better than expected and steal minutes, the transfers will still provide much needed depth and experience.

We should still fight for every high major-quality transfer that fills a need and hopefully the staff adjusts their approach and learns from shortcomings as the process goes on.

[cincyguy13]

Originally Posted by skyblade

The recruiting is pretty in line with Cronin's recruiting, which I figured it would be. Fans convinced themselves that Cronin can't recruit, but in reality it's largely about conference.

Harvey is the only exception of getting a true 4-star, but given his legal issues and late reclassify, I don't give Brannen too much credit.

Eason is the high-three star/low four-star type guy Cronin generally managed to pull one of every year or two.

The rest (besides Mason) are 200ish guys who generally make up most of the roster.

The thing we really are lacking on is bigs. Bigs are the hardest to recruit and Brannen seems to be having no success. It's odd because a project big (like Ballard) who would probably red-shirt could be a four-year starter here (21-25) with our lack of depth.

The last cronin team, 5-6 of the guys that transferred went to low mid major schools. The jury is still out on the guys we have coming in. Brannen has 4 freshman coming in that we have no idea if they are good or not. If they are all good, or even if two are good, the argument that he can’t recruit looks stupid. Saying he has already failed recruiting before the recruits play a game feels like a bit of a rush. He’s been here 1 year and this is his first real class. Eason looks great, Gabe looks great.

The only guys I really wanted out of all these players so far were Brandon Johnson and JaDun micheal. That’s it for me so far. Ballard looked really raw and probably wouldn’t be good in a couple years. I would have like him for the future. All these other players are role players. Don’t know why people are that worried about them. I would also like to sign some guys but we are acting like Jalen Tate was a must have. The guy is probably the 8th best player on a good team.

[cincyguy13]

Originally Posted by Queens_NYC

Right. There's no reason to believe that we can't finish top 3 next season.

The coaching staff is actively pursuing transfers who will at least be stop gaps for Jarron and Tre's spots at the start of next season, and if the younger players (Eason and Gabe in particular) prove to be much better than expected and steal minutes, the transfers will still provide much needed depth and experience.

We should still fight for every high major-quality transfer that fills a need and hopefully the staff adjusts their approach and learns from shortcomings as the process goes on.

They are fighting. They have been there on most of these guys. Just not getting them. I know social media says we made contact with every transfer but I would think we weren’t all the way in on all of these guys. Some years you miss. Keep trying. Once again, most of these guys aren’t hame changers. It looks worse than it actually is

[TheLivingLegend]

Originally Posted by cincyguy13

The last cronin team, 5-6 of the guys that transferred went to low mid major schools. The jury is still out on the guys we have coming in. Brannen has 4 freshman coming in that we have no idea if they are good or not. If they are all good, or even if two are good, the argument that he can’t recruit looks stupid. Saying he has already failed recruiting before the recruits play a game feels like a bit of a rush. He’s been here 1 year and this is his first real class. Eason looks great, Gabe looks great.

The only guys I really wanted out of all these players so far were Brandon Johnson and JaDun micheal. That’s it for me so far. Ballard looked really raw and probably wouldn’t be good in a couple years. I would have like him for the future. All these other players are role players. Don’t know why people are that worried about them. I would also like to sign some guys but we are acting like Jalen Tate was a must have. The guy is probably the 8th best player on a good team.

Valid points

[justinhub2003]

If I had to rank next years AAC (which doing little to no research)
I’d go:

1. Houston (by a landslide )
2. Memphis
3. SMU
4. Tulsa
5. Cincinnati
6. WSU
7. South Florida
8. UCF
9. Temple
10. ECU
11. Tulane


I think it will end up being the worst year ever recorded in AAC history and were looking at 1-2 bid league with 3 at max.

The league is garbage. Flat out trash. And Outside of Houston and UC, who has momentum?

[skyblade]

Originally Posted by cincyguy13

The last cronin team, 5-6 of the guys that transferred went to low mid major schools. The jury is still out on the guys we have coming in. Brannen has 4 freshman coming in that we have no idea if they are good or not. If they are all good, or even if two are good, the argument that he can’t recruit looks stupid. Saying he has already failed recruiting before the recruits play a game feels like a bit of a rush. He’s been here 1 year and this is his first real class. Eason looks great, Gabe looks great.

The only guys I really wanted out of all these players so far were Brandon Johnson and JaDun micheal. That’s it for me so far. Ballard looked really raw and probably wouldn’t be good in a couple years. I would have like him for the future. All these other players are role players. Don’t know why people are that worried about them. I would also like to sign some guys but we are acting like Jalen Tate was a must have. The guy is probably the 8th best player on a good team.

Where did I say he had failed? I've said all along that I don't expect Brannen to recruit much better than Cronin. It's about development and game planning.

Until they actually step on the court and play here, which is the most important way to judge, I look at rankings. Though you are plenty ready to judge guys based on where they transferred to. Cronin's recruiting was judged by rankings, so it's fair to judge Brannen the same way.

Eason is 120ish, Cronin generally pulled in one of these every year or two (Samari Curtis, Keith Williams). Gabe and Saunders are 200ish.

We need a young center and it's almost certainly going to be a project guy like Ballard. It's hard to get centers and harder to get centers who are ready to play now.

Add a project big (or two) and maybe a transfer big man and it's a solid class. I'm fine with that. It's not the spectacular class that fans seemed to think we were missing out on because Cronin couldn't recruit, but I never believed that would happen anyway.

[cincyguy13]

Originally Posted by justinhub2003

If I had to rank next years AAC (which doing little to no research)
I’d go:

1. Houston (by a landslide )
2. Memphis
3. SMU
4. Tulsa
5. Cincinnati
6. WSU
7. South Florida
8. UCF
9. Temple
10. ECU
11. Tulane


I think it will end up being the worst year ever recorded in AAC history and were looking at 1-2 bid league with 3 at max.

The league is garbage. Flat out trash. And Outside of Houston and UC, who has momentum?

I’ll put us top 3 until proven otherwise. I have no faith in smu or Tulsa, knowing that Tulsa just won the league. We just won the league with a first year coach, 6 new players, and a hurt Jarron for much of the year. Forgive me it I don’t have more faith in these other teams.

[cincyguy13]

Originally Posted by skyblade

Where did I say he had failed? I've said all along that I don't expect Brannen to recruit much better than Cronin. It's about development and game planning.

Until they actually step on the court and play here, which is the most important way to judge, I look at rankings. Though you are plenty ready to judge guys based on where they transferred to. Cronin's recruiting was judged by rankings, so it's fair to judge Brannen the same way.

Eason is 120ish, Cronin generally pulled in one of these every year or two (Samari Curtis, Keith Williams). Gabe and Saunders are 200ish.

We need a young center and it's almost certainly going to be a project guy like Ballard. It's hard to get centers and harder to get centers who are ready to play now.

Add a project big (or two) and maybe a transfer big man and it's a solid class. I'm fine with that. It's not the spectacular class that fans seemed to think we were missing out on because Cronin couldn't recruit, but I never believed that would happen anyway.

Wasn’t Eason a top 100 guy like a month ago? Saunders was also top 100 on ESPN at one point. Gabe was also higher than 200. Not saying your wrong but it’s weird that a guy like Eason can be top 100, be the best player on a team that won state and drop. If 2 of these guys are good, all the sudden brannen is a good recruiter.

I agree, we could use a project guy. I would have taken Ballard. We seem to be first in on him. Big schools got involved, we lose him. This is what happens most of the time in college sports.

[waterhead]

Originally Posted by cincyguy13

Wasn’t Eason a top 100 guy like a month ago? Saunders was also top 100 on ESPN at one point. Gabe was also higher than 200. Not saying your wrong but it’s weird that a guy like Eason can be top 100, be the best player on a team that won state and drop. If 2 of these guys are good, all the sudden brannen is a good recruiter.

I agree, we could use a project guy. I would have taken Ballard. We seem to be first in on him. Big schools got involved, we lose him. This is what happens most of the time in college sports.

Put me in the camp of building the future. We have big shoes to fill but not big holes in the roster. We have 3 bigs...let’s get one more. We have 3 wings in Williams, Harvey, and Gabe that I think will be pretty good. We have 3 PG options and MAW can play two positions and probably Mason as well.

I want some depth on interior for foul trouble but I am okay with playing the guys we have to get them ready for next year and beyond