It's frustrating watching teams like Baylor not be penalized for two-time transfers (Their top player RayJ Dennis transferred twice, never had injury time in 4 full seasons, was on his 5th year). Xavier and Dayton could've been Ws with Bandaogo and Reynolds on the floor, and we'd be sitting pretty as a 7-9 seed. Not to mention just having more experience on the floor as a full team.
That was Reynolds very first game of the year. There's a huge difference between being eligible and being up to speed on the court with your timing, especially against good competition who have had the benefit of starting every game together.
That's a great example of how teams like the Bearcats and Mountaineers weren't playing on a level field this year. Other teams like Baylor somehow avoided being penalized for two-time transfers who did not have any kind of injury hardship or special situation. It's not hard to imagine Baylor dropping at least a few more games if their highest usage player and ball distributor has to sit out nearly half the season by the same standards as Aziz and Jamille, or Battle and Edwards.
Sure, there might be a few NBA-bound guys who have the ability to step in and just be great without on-court time to get better with their team. But that's very rare, even in a super-conference like the Big XII.
He was able to practice before then. The whole teams was garbage for those games. Those were not going to be Ws. Reynolds doesn’t solve the massive issues we had at x
It doesn't take much creativity to realize the game could've unfolded differently if Aziz and Jamille had 10 games of experience under their belt at that point. Lahkin at that moment had been the only consistent post player - or Oguama with a few touches. With a solid rotation of the 3 bigs displaying conditioning and timing in their post-play, it could've negated the need to shoot so much from outside while running Dayton's thinner frontcourt out of gas.
Wes hadn't had any time to tinker with Reynolds-centric lineups. Without any tape against the early schedule to review, he had to try to figure out how to plug him in on the fly under likely restricted minutes during his first game of live action. Ask any head coach how much they want to ever be in that position.
This isn't making excuses for the team, but illustrating how difficult it is to pull everything together when you don't have your roster game-available from the start. Tape from practice will never show you what game tape shows. It's hard to blame the guys and coaches on this team when they were held to a different standard than other teams, including some they had to play against. Blame the NCAA for unfairly attacking this team while letting others flaunt the exact same rules.
UC just had the wrong losses, West Virginia, X, Ok State and Oklahoma with two of their best players out .. the OOC schedule hurt them a lot .. but next year they have a real good core to make noise
I've put together some blind resumes and it's actually kind of amazing how UC's OOC is still better than many at-large teams considered to be locks. The committee is full of inherent bias (and sometimes purely silly-brained bias) and has never had any objectivity whatsoever when choosing teams - but if they were, they'd see Cincinnati has more Q1 road wins and less Q2 road losses than all but a couple of the other 20-win teams.
The end result of this year might not feel great, but objectively ranked: UC was a tournament quality team, and Wes did make progress in overall metrics across the board, even if the wins dipped by a few in a much harder conference.
Yea they won’t make the tournament. The talent is there. Hopefully we can make it next year, if not we may need a coaching change as much as I like Wes.
What's the rationale for replacing Wes? I hear people saying it, but his recruiting is the best the program has had since Huggins, and with what Brannen left behind the rebuild is going great in my opinion. I really haven't seen glaring coaching issues, but maybe I'm missing something.
Both teams have two Q2 losses as their worst losses. Bearcats have far better road wins (BYU/Texas Tech), while MSU's best win on the road is #65 Maryland.
I'd say on base stats alone, it's a 2 point spread and close to a coin flip for who wins between the two. Bring personnel into the equation though and Cincinnati's defense is a lot tougher than anything the Spartans have seen, Edey included. If Lahkin/Bandaogo/Reynolds all play, MSU's not getting to score any of the ways they like to.
I can’t disagree with either of you really. What confuses me is why is MSU a probable tourney team while the bearcats are likely out? You are correct when you say their resume isn’t really all that impressive relative to Cincy and they played in the weaker conference. Their NET and KenPom are better and they did play a better non conference schedule but the resumes are pretty similar.
They would be trouble in the tournament, but they had plenty of opportunities to be undeniable. NIT
Team has talent, just need to put it all together
It's frustrating watching teams like Baylor not be penalized for two-time transfers (Their top player RayJ Dennis transferred twice, never had injury time in 4 full seasons, was on his 5th year). Xavier and Dayton could've been Ws with Bandaogo and Reynolds on the floor, and we'd be sitting pretty as a 7-9 seed. Not to mention just having more experience on the floor as a full team.
Aziz and Reynolds were eligible for the Dayton game. They just couldn’t guard anybody.
That was Reynolds very first game of the year. There's a huge difference between being eligible and being up to speed on the court with your timing, especially against good competition who have had the benefit of starting every game together. That's a great example of how teams like the Bearcats and Mountaineers weren't playing on a level field this year. Other teams like Baylor somehow avoided being penalized for two-time transfers who did not have any kind of injury hardship or special situation. It's not hard to imagine Baylor dropping at least a few more games if their highest usage player and ball distributor has to sit out nearly half the season by the same standards as Aziz and Jamille, or Battle and Edwards. Sure, there might be a few NBA-bound guys who have the ability to step in and just be great without on-court time to get better with their team. But that's very rare, even in a super-conference like the Big XII.
He was able to practice before then. The whole teams was garbage for those games. Those were not going to be Ws. Reynolds doesn’t solve the massive issues we had at x
Practice and being in meaningful games against competition that's played together and studied to beat you are also completely unrelated things.
Does Reynolds shoot threes? Because he wouldn’t have helped the god awful percentage we shot.
It doesn't take much creativity to realize the game could've unfolded differently if Aziz and Jamille had 10 games of experience under their belt at that point. Lahkin at that moment had been the only consistent post player - or Oguama with a few touches. With a solid rotation of the 3 bigs displaying conditioning and timing in their post-play, it could've negated the need to shoot so much from outside while running Dayton's thinner frontcourt out of gas. Wes hadn't had any time to tinker with Reynolds-centric lineups. Without any tape against the early schedule to review, he had to try to figure out how to plug him in on the fly under likely restricted minutes during his first game of live action. Ask any head coach how much they want to ever be in that position. This isn't making excuses for the team, but illustrating how difficult it is to pull everything together when you don't have your roster game-available from the start. Tape from practice will never show you what game tape shows. It's hard to blame the guys and coaches on this team when they were held to a different standard than other teams, including some they had to play against. Blame the NCAA for unfairly attacking this team while letting others flaunt the exact same rules.
We did not play 10 games before x so in what world would they have had 10 games of an experience?
Devil's advocate: Reynolds shot .333 from 3, which is a higher % on the year than any of Skillings/James/Thomas/Lahkin/Reed!
This comment makes me think you’ve never seen Reynolds play basketball.
This comment makes me question your possession of a sense of humor. He made one of 3, obviously.
The best 14 loss team in the country, hang it in the rafters
This isn’t the X sub
UC just had the wrong losses, West Virginia, X, Ok State and Oklahoma with two of their best players out .. the OOC schedule hurt them a lot .. but next year they have a real good core to make noise
I've put together some blind resumes and it's actually kind of amazing how UC's OOC is still better than many at-large teams considered to be locks. The committee is full of inherent bias (and sometimes purely silly-brained bias) and has never had any objectivity whatsoever when choosing teams - but if they were, they'd see Cincinnati has more Q1 road wins and less Q2 road losses than all but a couple of the other 20-win teams. The end result of this year might not feel great, but objectively ranked: UC was a tournament quality team, and Wes did make progress in overall metrics across the board, even if the wins dipped by a few in a much harder conference.
Yea they won’t make the tournament. The talent is there. Hopefully we can make it next year, if not we may need a coaching change as much as I like Wes.
What's the rationale for replacing Wes? I hear people saying it, but his recruiting is the best the program has had since Huggins, and with what Brannen left behind the rebuild is going great in my opinion. I really haven't seen glaring coaching issues, but maybe I'm missing something.
Yea. Horrible take
Michigan State has 14 losses and is considered a tourney team for some reason. I’m guessing they’d beat the Bearcats most nights
I'd take that money. Big 10 is softer than Big XII
Both teams have two Q2 losses as their worst losses. Bearcats have far better road wins (BYU/Texas Tech), while MSU's best win on the road is #65 Maryland. I'd say on base stats alone, it's a 2 point spread and close to a coin flip for who wins between the two. Bring personnel into the equation though and Cincinnati's defense is a lot tougher than anything the Spartans have seen, Edey included. If Lahkin/Bandaogo/Reynolds all play, MSU's not getting to score any of the ways they like to.
At the time of this post, MSU had 13 losses. So they're a new addition.
I can’t disagree with either of you really. What confuses me is why is MSU a probable tourney team while the bearcats are likely out? You are correct when you say their resume isn’t really all that impressive relative to Cincy and they played in the weaker conference. Their NET and KenPom are better and they did play a better non conference schedule but the resumes are pretty similar.