Brigham Young 1/6 10:00 ESPN2

[leeraymond]

Maybe, just maybe, the defensive culture is back at Cincinnati. You got to give it to them, UC played some pretty good defense on one of the BEST SCORING teams in the country at home. UC held BYU 30 points under their scoring average. BYU shot 32.8% for the game and 29.4% in the second half. BYU's best scorer, Robinson, only had 6 points. Basically, UC blew BYU out in the second half. UC outscored BYU by 18 in the second half. Hopefully the UC players now see the importance of playing good defense. My guess is if UC can hold its opponents to 65 points and under, the team will win its share of conference games. This was a national win. The beer always taste better when the team wins.

Texas is the next game up. Texas has lost all of its toughest games (UCONN, Marquette, Texas Tech). They lost the Marquette game at Marquette and lost to Texas Tech at home. Their best win is LSU (9-5). They have 5 guys that score in double figures. They score about 78 points a game and give up about 65 points/game. On paper, Texas does not look that different from UC. Because of their lost to Texas Tech at home yesterday, they may not be ranked in the top 25 come Tuesday. On paper, at least, UC matches up very well with Texas. UC also matched up well with BYU. Believe it or not, THIS IS A GAME THAT UC CAN WIN if they play very smart and play some GOOD SOLID DEFENSE.

[Rufus]

"why the negativity?' we beat a ranked team on the road which hard to do in any conference!"

This isn't negativity it's positive criticism. If one player has half of all to's it needs to be pointed out. And then the coaching staff needs to figure out why this is so. You can bet the the staff knows these numbers too. Day Day may well be the better defender but seven to's from your point guard in unacceptable. We on this forum are merely pointing out the obvious. A win is a win. Celebrate it. Enjoy it. Get ready for Texas.

[leo from jersey]

Just watched this morning. I am very happy with the second half. The Cats usually respond to CWM halftime speeches. This was the 14th game of the season and as I have mentioned from the start of the year, this team has no floor leader. Yes, we had a great second half of the first half and a great second half, but we fought out of trouble and a hole. We should never had gotten into that hole. BYU was weak and we outrebounded them. They had a questionable coaching decision on resting their shooter. My hope is that we play it strong against teams with an inside presence. We need to learn to fight through screens and not watch as the other team rotates on the perimeter for wide open 3s (Skillings). Again, back to my first thought. CWM thanks for high scoring guards. I enjoyed watching them. Please go to the portal this off season and get a guard who can set the tempo, pass and defend the perimeter. One who can call the rest into accountability when things start to slide. Overall, in spite of my concerns, what a great victory. I just want to see more of them and this BYU team seemed to level up to their pre season ranking tonight.

[GoBearcats31]

28 in KenPom

i believe they were 42 before the conclusion of the game

Rose from 37 to 25 in NET

[Gmann]

Very happy for CWM and the team. First win against a ranked opponent in 3 years. It was almost a mental hurdle that they had to get over when playing good or ranked oppornents. I think this is the benefit of playing in a better conference you have to compete every game.

It helped that other than Knell, BYU had a very poor shooting night. I believe the 'Cats had a lot to do with that. You could see that we were much more athletic and physical than them and it wore them down. It was almost like they had no fight in them toward the end of the game. I've said all along CWM has accumulated the talent. They still make a lot of mistakes and bad decsions that hopefully they improve on going forward.

I believe BYU will struggle in the Big 12 because of the superior athletes the teams have that they are lacking.

I thought all along that Bandaogo would play last night and he is a difference maker. That's the guy we saw last year in the NIT.

More J James please.

[BearKatz]

"why the negativity?' we beat a ranked team on the road which hard to do in any conference!"

This isn't negativity it's positive criticism. If one player has half of all to's it needs to be pointed out. And then the coaching staff needs to figure out why this is so. You can bet the the staff knows these numbers too. Day Day may well be the better defender but seven to's from your point guard in unacceptable. We on this forum are merely pointing out the obvious. A win is a win. Celebrate it. Enjoy it. Get ready for Texas.

Spot on Brother.... Not sure why a few members are calling out NEGATIVITY! As you said, we're merely pointing out the obvious! The first 10mins of the game, were unacceptable. Did UC turn it around it the 2nd half, absolutely and that was also pointed out! The so called negative criticism was warranted in regards to Thomas's play. (7) TO's speaks volumes and the fact that James should have played more was pointed out by a half dozen or so members... Even the announcers at the end of the game said the 2nd half run led by James sparked the comeback by UC...

It's not negative criticism to point out the obvious, or at times question Wes's reasoning. I guess we're no longer aloud to vent during the game, without being called " Coaches" or "Negative".
I thought that's what Forums were for?

[Lobot]

Wes backed up his decision to play Day Day at the end but congratulations to Mark Pope for sitting the only guy doing any damage for over 5:00 of game clock. I don't get that at all. By the time he put Knell back in it was too late.

[Lobot]

Box Score:

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-ba...meId/401603398

[Longtime Lurker]

Just to show that the questioning exists everywhere, concerns from the BYU side. https://www.deseret.com/2024/1/7/240...axson-robinson

Agreed with some of the reasoning, and with questions about the day-day vs Jizzle split (and whether there is a more of a role for playing them together especially with CJ out and when JNIII isn't on the floor), The other thing i will say about Jizzle vs Day Day is that Jizzle drives with way more purpose and is strong enough to finish through contact. And BYU is probably going to regress to the mean over the course of the season-they just don't seem to have the athletes to be able to hang in the BIg12 if the outside shot isn't falling. But, both BYU and UC are still trying to figure things out with key contributors in and out of the lineup (Traore for them looked out of sorts coming back yesterday, and they needed him inside) . WIth that being said, I think the analysis from this article is still a little too negative-BYU has a ton of weapons and will get some good wins, and for UC that's a great win in a very tough environment).

This league is going to humble everyone-we will win a few that we probably shouldn't and drop a few to teams that on paper don't seem good enough. I'm still excited over the improvement in talent and seeing how this time shakes out over the season through the BIg!2 gauntlet.

[bearcatjd]

Awesome win & finally CM picks up a big upset. Hopefully this carries over to the rest of the games. Bring on Texas!

[swilsonsp4]

Here's how good the Cats' D was down the stretch. At 12:52, BYU led 49-44. They stumbled to reach 60 the rest of the way, while UC put up 27.

[cpawstoney]

Just watched this morning. I am very happy with the second half. The Cats usually respond to CWM halftime speeches. This was the 14th game of the season and as I have mentioned from the start of the year, this team has no floor leader. Yes, we had a great second half of the first half and a great second half, but we fought out of trouble and a hole. We should never had gotten into that hole. BYU was weak and we outrebounded them. They had a questionable coaching decision on resting their shooter. My hope is that we play it strong against teams with an inside presence. We need to learn to fight through screens and not watch as the other team rotates on the perimeter for wide open 3s (Skillings). Again, back to my first thought. CWM thanks for high scoring guards. I enjoyed watching them. Please go to the portal this off season and get a guard who can set the tempo, pass and defend the perimeter. One who can call the rest into accountability when things start to slide. Overall, in spite of my concerns, what a great victory. I just want to see more of them and this BYU team seemed to level up to their pre season ranking tonight.

Jizzle James is just a freshman. I'm looking forward to see him mature by the end of this season and get better next year.

[cpawstoney]

"why the negativity?' we beat a ranked team on the road which hard to do in any conference!"

This isn't negativity it's positive criticism. If one player has half of all to's it needs to be pointed out. And then the coaching staff needs to figure out why this is so. You can bet the the staff knows these numbers too. Day Day may well be the better defender but seven to's from your point guard in unacceptable. We on this forum are merely pointing out the obvious. A win is a win. Celebrate it. Enjoy it. Get ready for Texas.

I was disappointed with Day Day's play in the final few minutes. If I remember correctly, he turned the ball over three times in consecutive possessions. That needs to be corrected, now!

[cpawstoney]

Wes backed up his decision to play Day Day at the end but congratulations to Mark Pope for sitting the only guy doing any damage for over 5:00 of game clock. I don't get that at all. By the time he put Knell back in it was too late.

LMAO!

[Rufus]

We on this forum brought attention to Popes decision on this as well. That's the purpose of the forum. As BearKatz said that many turnovers ( 13 ) is way too many. And many were unforced. The first dozen or so minutes the 'cats looked lost, overwhelmed, lazy, I used the term snake bitten as they seemed to be in awe of the #12 ranked BYU team. And that manner of play from a any player especially the pt. guard is unacceptable and should be neither tolerated or applauded by the fans or the head coach.