Houston 1/8 3:00 ESPN

[longtimefan]

Dan Skillings needs more minutes. He fights like **** on the glass. They’re getting blown out, play him.

[Rufus]

I can't believe there is no comments. I just turned it on and a 14 point lead for Houston. It must be really bad if it's leaving the regu lol ars tonguetied

[London 'Cat]

It’s getting ugly now. Houston can score anytime it wants. UC cannot score at all.

[Bearcat9796]

here's a comment, I hope none of the comments that follow trash cwm or anyone else, we're just outclassed

[Oldtimer_UC_fan]

I can't believe there is no comments. I just turned it on and a 14 point lead for Houston. It must be really bad if it's leaving the regu lol ars tonguetied

Most probably watching the Bengals.

[Rufus]

Maybe this was CWM's plan for Ezikpe. Hide the fact that he plays out of control then play him against Houston to punch them in the face.

[London 'Cat]

Oguama had two wide open dunks, hesitated and turned the ball over. Don’t be afraid to take the ball up strong. You could draw a foul, or even better score.

[Lobot]

Well we found Ezikpe for 3 minutes.

Vik needs to take and make some of these open elbow jumpers they’re giving him. He can hit that shot. I’ve seen him pass it up twice now and back his man down only to get blocked

[RedDog]

here's a comment, I hope none of the comments that follow trash cwm or anyone else, we're just outclassed

Exactly. Nobodies fault, they are just better than us. We can critique and identify areas of concern but we aren;t going to beat that team. Sorry Leo, I stand by it.

[London 'Cat]

The 'Cats were outclassed for the majority of the game. However, I was encouraged with how they fought to cut into the lead. But once they got there, they could not finish the job. Not because of a lack of effort. A lopsided loss that looked better than it actually was for UC.

I was very impressed with Houston. They have excellent players at all positions. They are relentless defensively and rebound very well. They looked like a legitimate National Title contender, IMO.

[Gmann]

It went much like I expected. Houston is better and plays harder. They don't take a minute off and concede nothing. Hopefully our guys recognize what max effort looks like and learns from it.

[longtimefan]

It was just so obvious that we were overmatched, it showed even in warmups. We were outplayed, but not out coached. What CWM gets out of that roster is amazing, just give the man some more weapons.

[Rufus]

I like the job that CWM is doing. He is utilizing the talent he has and getting them to play in his scheme. Like it was stated above, just wait and give him some weapons. The thing that concerns me most though is why He can't get them to buy into playing defense. Or perhaps the better question would be why is his defense not as effective as those in the past. Huggins had no problem teaching His defense, Frank Martin has no trouble teaching his players to defend, Cronin started out as a videographer for Huggins for crying out loud and advanced but was able to get kids to buy into an effective defense. We are reminded at every turn that Miller is a protege of Roy Williams and yet we have a defense is that has been nonexistent for the past few years. This is even having conducted some sort of defense "boot camp" during the off-season. I don't claim to be a basketball expert, I'm just a fan that loves UC bball, loathe UK bball , (and OSU). During the Houston game they kept referring to the stats that Houston is the #2 ranked defense. I know that defensive effectiveness comes down to the athletes themselves, but where are the Eric Hicks of college bball. After he got hurt in high school, he knew he'd never be a " leading scorer" so he made himself into a rebounding machine, after the mold of Dennis Rodman. If I were JD, knowing my three pt. shot was sporadic most nights, I would add about 25lbs., hit the weight room, and turn myself a rebounding aficionado / second chance scorer. I'd get my double figures in nightly scoring strictly off the glass. Eric Hicks 6'7", JD 6'7" and Hensley 6'8. Am I just rambling or is there some truth in there somewhere?

[leo from jersey]

I can't believe there is no comments. I just turned it on and a 14 point lead for Houston. It must be really bad if it's leaving the regu lol ars tonguetied

had a family functiuon, bnut I just watched. Very slow first half, still slow in second but they didn't quit.

[zykarious]

From listening to a lot of post-games and radio shows, it seems like Wes believes in letting guys play, then working on things individually or in practice. In practice, this means rather than yanking a guy for lack of effort, he'll try to fix it off court. With the right players, team and culture that can work and if Newman/Phinisee were healthy they'd help with that culture building. The problem I think is that we've got a few guys who have spent the college career slacking off (Nolley and Davenport specifically) and Wes has struggled to get buy in from them. Maybe they wouldn't have been his top choice in recruit or guys we'd even want on his ideal team, but with a rebuild he has to take some guys and try to fix their deficiencies.

He talked tonight post-game about accountability which is a change. In the past he has talked about asking/begging guys, then about demanding, so accountability is the next step. Hopefully that means he's seeing that what he is doing isn't working and he's going to make some changes. Cronin and Huggins would bench a guy for lack of effort or poor decision making, even a star, even if it reduced the teams chances of winning. Wes doesn't seem willing to do that and I think the players see that as license to continue doing what they are doing. I hope that is going to change (based on his post-game comments).

It would be great if the players would establish the culture, but they aren't. He's tried to get them to, but what he has tried hasn't worked, so it's on him to try something new. If that means sitting Nolley/Davenport for a half, if that means losing a game, I'm still all for it. In the long run we will be a better team.