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Old 01-25-2021, 09:51 AM   #11
justinhub2003
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When we lost a few in a row I just started to be interested in watching player development and trying to get excited for the future. It is a different kind of enjoyment but it's also a lot less stressful than watching the end of so many close games that determine if we are on the bubble or not. If there is no success to follow then the enjoyment will obviously start to disappear.

I have enjoyed watching Eason and he is still on a leash right now so there is more to see. I was having some fun seeing Harvey start to come into his own. Davenport has been a great story. Seeing Mason so comfortable out there was a bit surprising. Watching growth and development is still worth tuning in for to me.

Oh I’ll still watch games. I just don’t mind losing. It used to put me in the shittiest mood. Now, it’s normalized a bit more and I’m not bothered. But if they called it quits, I wouldn’t be that upset.

I’ve been thinking about canceling my season tickets even before this season. This is just the nudge I needed. I’ve always said that Bearcats basketball fandom (in terms of season ticket sales) is very fragile. I think a lot of programs can weather the storm of Covid and poor performance. But if you couple it with micks inability to win in March, then I think we will see an overall drop in enthusiasm and thus a drop in attendance. John can still win the fan base back but he has his work cut out for him. I hope he does. I’m just not going to spend my money for a while.
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Old 01-25-2021, 10:28 AM   #12
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Originally Posted by justinhub2003 View Post
Oh I’ll still watch games. I just don’t mind losing. It used to put me in the shittiest mood. Now, it’s normalized a bit more and I’m not bothered. But if they called it quits, I wouldn’t be that upset.

I’ve been thinking about canceling my season tickets even before this season. This is just the nudge I needed. I’ve always said that Bearcats basketball fandom (in terms of season ticket sales) is very fragile. I think a lot of programs can weather the storm of Covid and poor performance. But if you couple it with micks inability to win in March, then I think we will see an overall drop in enthusiasm and thus a drop in attendance. John can still win the fan base back but he has his work cut out for him. I hope he does. I’m just not going to spend my money for a while.
I don't think losing is being "normalized". I mean we are just a few games away from winning the league last year.

This team does not have the right players in leadership roles and most of them are young. I don't blame this on Cronin or Brannen. Last year we had lead by example Jaron and vocal leader Scott. Williams is not the same type of player we are looking for.

But I think that is something that Brannen sought out (or is seeking) in recruiting. Fire, leadership, competitiveness, work ethic, attitude etc. When he's had a few years to recruit we will have at least half the squad made up of players with some (or all) of these qualities. The Madsens as most can see have fire and strong work ethic. Mikey...yes. Davenport...yes. Eason is very competitive and exciteable. Harvey...not so much...MAW...meh.

But you can't have all of your players 3 or 4 stars with all the qualities most other coaches would be searching out. I think Brannen is on the right track to have at least 3 of them on the court at almost all times in the future. I don't necessarily see a bump in quality in terms of BB skills etc but I see the character of the team he wants to build and that is why I am optimistic and waiting it out rather than get on his case right now.
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Old 01-25-2021, 10:45 AM   #13
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I don't think losing is being "normalized". I mean we are just a few games away from winning the league last year.

This team does not have the right players in leadership roles and most of them are young. I don't blame this on Cronin or Brannen. Last year we had lead by example Jaron and vocal leader Scott. Williams is not the same type of player we are looking for.

But I think that is something that Brannen sought out (or is seeking) in recruiting. Fire, leadership, competitiveness, work ethic, attitude etc. When he's had a few years to recruit we will have at least half the squad made up of players with some (or all) of these qualities. The Madsens as most can see have fire and strong work ethic. Mikey...yes. Davenport...yes. Eason is very competitive and exciteable. Harvey...not so much...MAW...meh.

But you can't have all of your players 3 or 4 stars with all the qualities most other coaches would be searching out. I think Brannen is on the right track to have at least 3 of them on the court at almost all times in the future. I don't necessarily see a bump in quality in terms of BB skills etc but I see the character of the team he wants to build and that is why I am optimistic and waiting it out rather than get on his case right now.

I think what concerns me most about John is that his teams take too damn long to get rolling.

In a 1 bid league, that’s the best approach. But I don’t aspire to just winning the conference tourney to make the ncaa’s. I want to be good from
Tip to finish and get better along the way.

I also feel there is a recruiting bump that usually happens with a coaching change. But we have nothing in 2021... and while Tari is a nice get, we’re gonna have to recruit much better to be better.

I don’t think we can win the league or even make the tourney with the roster we have. We need a star player. We need shooting. We need a defensive big. And with no 2021 class, and the transfer market going to be ultra competitive.

All in all. It’s hard to see the vision. Hopefully it becomes clear soon. But with damn near 3 weeks of no practice, we gonna look even worse.

Also seems like WSU is likely not gonna happen. Lol we seriously may never play again
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Old 01-25-2021, 11:14 AM   #14
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I think what concerns me most about John is that his teams take too damn long to get rolling.
Last year he wanted to play his system and in the end realized he could not. When you take over a team and can't play your brand it could take that a while to settle in. But it did eventually.

This year we are just very young and inexperienced and don't have the alpha leaders we need.

After CJB has had his players in place and has some seniors and juniors I don't expect to start off slow...but I do understand why we have so far. The older players are also there to teach the younger players the system, the plays, the brand, the culture, be on court coaches, etc. We don't have that yet. Next year we should start out a little faster and the following year we should be ready from go IMO.
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Old 01-25-2021, 01:09 PM   #15
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Uc won't play for another 10 days minimum. Yikes
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Old 01-29-2021, 06:56 AM   #16
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If you don’t want to make excuses for the coach, fine. But if there was ever a year to give the guy a break, this would be the one. Basically a brand new team, besides Keith who hasn’t been good, and had limited practices, multiple week long shut downs.
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Old 01-29-2021, 07:48 AM   #17
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If you don’t want to make excuses for the coach, fine. But if there was ever a year to give the guy a break, this would be the one. Basically a brand new team, besides Keith who hasn’t been good, and had limited practices, multiple week long shut downs.
I don’t think we should be the kinda fans that give coaches breaks. We suck plain and simple. Veterans have gotten worse and we’ve not seen very much growth from new comers. We’ve regressed in every statistical category when teams who also have 2nd year coaches are ranked and trending up. We decided not to adapt to Covid and thus have no 2021 class.

And there are talks of shortening the Conference tourneys so maybe only the top 6 teams get in or something, which means our poor play could even further eliminate us from at least being a Cinderella team if they do something like that.

John is 2 seasons in and we still have no idea what our identity is. We have no culture.

Every Team has had to deal with covid. So, no excuses.

We expect to win at cincinnati. We aren’t in the big east. We are in the frickin AAC... if we finish in the bottom 3rd its borderline a fireable offense.

WSU has a frickin interim coach, they are 8-4 and 4-2 in the league. They damn near lost their whole team in the offseason. Then their coach. Are they making excuses? Nope
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Old 01-29-2021, 11:19 AM   #18
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I don’t think we should be the kinda fans that give coaches breaks. We suck plain and simple. Veterans have gotten worse and we’ve not seen very much growth from new comers. We’ve regressed in every statistical category when teams who also have 2nd year coaches are ranked and trending up. We decided not to adapt to Covid and thus have no 2021 class.

And there are talks of shortening the Conference tourneys so maybe only the top 6 teams get in or something, which means our poor play could even further eliminate us from at least being a Cinderella team if they do something like that.

John is 2 seasons in and we still have no idea what our identity is. We have no culture.

Every Team has had to deal with covid. So, no excuses.

We expect to win at cincinnati. We aren’t in the big east. We are in the frickin AAC... if we finish in the bottom 3rd its borderline a fireable offense.

WSU has a frickin interim coach, they are 8-4 and 4-2 in the league. They damn near lost their whole team in the offseason. Then their coach. Are they making excuses? Nope
We’ve had all these arguments. Most of our roster is freshmen or sophomores. The freshman have barely practiced. 2 of the main sophomores look a lot better. Davenport and Harvey. Tre Scott had his best year under Brannen. The players not progressing is just false. Keith is what is was with cronin. Same player. Is that just his ceiling? Maybe that’s just who he is. Not everyone can be great or the man. Some players are just support players.

The facts are, the freshmen arrived late and have practiced less than any other freshmen class ever. There might be a reason duke and Kentucky don’t look good either. And their freshmen are way better than ours.

Yes every team is dealing with it. But the ones that are counting on freshmen and sophomores aren’t exactly doing great. Especially freshmen and sophomores that need time to develop

Last edited by cincyguy13; 01-29-2021 at 11:31 AM.
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Old 01-29-2021, 11:30 AM   #19
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If you want to blame everything on the coach, I could never change your mind. You are going to find a way to do that. We have never experienced seasons like the last two. We weren’t even able to see what we would have done in the tournaments last year.
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Old 01-29-2021, 11:34 AM   #20
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Have we even been able to practice in the last month? I really don’t know. If not, are people still expecting people to improve?
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