Houston 1/28 2:15 CBS

[Black and Red Attack]

Have to believe our defense improves once Newman returns. How much is the question, and since that's his calling card, does that have a negative impact on our offensive improvements?

[Lobot]

Houston took down UCF in Orlando tonight by 10. Marcus Sasser sustained a knee injury during the game. Doesn’t sound serious but status unknown for Saturday.

[John P]

The team's stats for this year are, most definitely, better than last year. The thing that is now missing is big time college defense. Miller has got to find a way to make these guys play some D.

I agree with this but I'm just not sure some of these guys have the ability to play good D. All the desire in the world won't help you if you just don't have the ability.

[leeraymond]

I had a chance to go back and look at all the wins from last year's team. Believe it or not, UC held opponents under 70 points in 16 of their 18 wins. This year, UC has held teams under 70 points in 11 of the 14 wins. Also, check this out. In UC's losses this year, they have given up 70 or more points in 6 of the 7 losses. It appears to me that UC's BIGGEST PROBLEM IS DEFENSE. Miller needs to take defense personally. If Miller were to take the team's defense personally, I believe the players would pick up on that. He should express to the team that it is unacceptable to give up 70 or more points, especially at home. I remember one game where, I believe, Temple scored over 70 points and Cronin was upset about it. He told the team, "an opponent should not be able to come into our gym and score 70 points". Those players took defense seriously. I recall Jacob Evans saying, during the time that he was at UC, defense was pretty much what the UC coaching staff was all about. If only UC could hold teams to under 70 points. This UC team is NOT far off the mark. The team's stats for this year are, most definitely, better than last year. The thing that is now missing is big time college defense. Miller has got to find a way to make these guys play some D.

[red_n_black_attack]

UC is able to beat Houston, but they at minimum need to do these three things:

1. Get the ball inside to Vik. Between his scoring and getting their bigs into foul trouble the Cats will need to have a monster game from Vik for 35 minutes or more.
2. Sometimes Vik will need to pass out to an open shooter, and they have to hit a good deal of those shots. If they miss some or too many, the D will collapse on Vik. These need to work hand-in0hand
3. Stop the bad passes. I get there will be some turnovers. Both Memphis and Houston has athletes that create trouble. I mean the lazy passes. UC is sometimes careless with the pass and it lets the other team get an easy bicket without much effort.