Oklahoma 3/5 8:00 ESPN+

[leeraymond]

For the record I am not a Huggins fan. I was at school during those years and it was winning at a cost to the Universities image. I prefer college athletes and I really liked Mick for that and I really like Wes as well. I've not heard of a single issue with any of his players and I couldn't be happier about that.

My thought with Wes is that I think he is a great young coach and I don't want him to leave. He does so many things right, that as fans we don't tend to focus on. However, I think many would agree we need to get less predictable with defenses and I believe Wes could use a mentor on the staff as I think he is still growing into being the complete coach he could be.

Wes Miller should be given a chance. I believe that all coaches deserve a chance not unless something catastrophic has gone wrong (Brannen Case). With that said, If Miller is such a great young coach, he is doing a good job of pretending not to be a great coach. He has a 24-29 conference record at UC and he only wins 58% of all of his games. Miller has been UPSET at least twice every year he has been at UC. His defenses have given up 70 points a game in conference play every year he has been the UC coach. His defenses are not getting better, in terms of points allowed.

Miller has been associated with college basketball as a coach now for roughly 20 years. I heard him say that with my own ears. He has been a head coach for 13 years. That is a long time. We should NOT be talking about Miller getting mentors. He has been around long enough where he should be mentoring younger coaches.

Being honest and truthful, I am not sure if Miller is a championship coach at the high major D-1 level. He won a few championships in the SOUTHERN CONFERENCE. The Southern Conference is a low level mid-major conference. The question I now ask is why did it take Miller 6 years to really start winning in the Southern Conference? Cronin won the OVC Tournament and took Murray State to the NCAA's his very first year in the conference. Cronin won the regular season championship and the tournament championship again in his third year. I like Miller. I really do. I am just not sure if he is a championship coach.

[red_n_black_attack]

Originally posted by red_n_black_attack View Post
I hope you're kidding about bringing in Huggins? Wes has hired former head coaches as assistants, and needs to bring in others who are looking to become HC. The great coaches have a big coaching tree because they were smart enough to bring in the brightest and best assistants. I don't believe Huggs would take a "consultant" role or defer to Wes if there are disagreements with Wes having final say. Huggs would be too disruptive to be of real assistance.

Huggins has been gone 20 years, and he turns 71 before next season. We need to move on.

Exactly my point, plus the ego

[bearcatrunner]

For the record I am not a Huggins fan. I was at school during those years and it was winning at a cost to the Universities image. I prefer college athletes and I really liked Mick for that and I really like Wes as well. I've not heard of a single issue with any of his players and I couldn't be happier about that.

My thought with Wes is that I think he is a great young coach and I don't want him to leave. He does so many things right, that as fans we don't tend to focus on. However, I think many would agree we need to get less predictable with defenses and I believe Wes could use a mentor on the staff as I think he is still growing into being the complete coach he could be.

[leo from jersey]

Or, bring in a few guys who can make threes. We thought CJ was that guy, but his injury problems continued and he didn’t help. JJ is 35% on threes this year, as a freshman. That number will go up.

My friend do you not think that recruiting one dimensional players who shoot, but play defense with their hands and not their feet, can't dribble with their head up thus not seeing the court resulting in not passing to the open man or a wild pass has caused this team to be close, but no cigar.

[leo from jersey]

Our D is good enough to win games EXCEPT they need someone to teach them the fundamentals so they guard without fouling. That's why Wes has defensive assistant coaches. THEY are the ones not doing their job with the fundamentals. They can be replaced easily by a lot of defensive coaches. And Wes needs to quit emphasizing jacking up 3s any time they want. Originally, when Lahkin first started played, he was at the low post and had a decent game. Moving him to the 4 was a big mistake. He's a back to the basket guy - not a perimeter shooter. We're going to lose guys to the portal almost assuredly. Either JJ or DayDay because each wants more playing time. Nobody will get drafted. Some will graduate. But until Wes changes his philosophy on shooting 3s, we're doomed to fail.

Good second post. CWM has assistants for recruiting it seems. He seldom communicates with them during the game as well. Are they fans or are they observing. Look we both know these guys have received much tutoring before coming to UC. How can you not with a HOF Dad. Yet they play defense with their hands and not their feet, dribble with eyes down, wild passing if they even see a teammate. They want to make flashy plays and thus out of control. Have the 5th and 6th grade coaches become dads who want to make their kid the next Pete Maravich, although he could dribble, pass and play defense, instead of teaching the beginning fundamentals.You see what the players want to do and if a coach tries to change it they pout or if the kid has heart plus humility, they win championships. The last five years at UC - Pouting or championships.

[longtimefan]

Our D is good enough to win games EXCEPT they need someone to teach them the fundamentals so they guard without fouling. That's why Wes has defensive assistant coaches. THEY are the ones not doing their job with the fundamentals. They can be replaced easily by a lot of defensive coaches. And Wes needs to quit emphasizing jacking up 3s any time they want. Originally, when Lahkin first started played, he was at the low post and had a decent game. Moving him to the 4 was a big mistake. He's a back to the basket guy - not a perimeter shooter. We're going to lose guys to the portal almost assuredly. Either JJ or DayDay because each wants more playing time. Nobody will get drafted. Some will graduate. But until Wes changes his philosophy on shooting 3s, we're doomed to fail.

Or, bring in a few guys who can make threes. We thought CJ was that guy, but his injury problems continued and he didn’t help. JJ is 35% on threes this year, as a freshman. That number will go up.

[WestCoastAlum]

Our D is good enough to win games EXCEPT they need someone to teach them the fundamentals so they guard without fouling. That's why Wes has defensive assistant coaches. THEY are the ones not doing their job with the fundamentals. They can be replaced easily by a lot of defensive coaches. And Wes needs to quit emphasizing jacking up 3s any time they want. Originally, when Lahkin first started played, he was at the low post and had a decent game. Moving him to the 4 was a big mistake. He's a back to the basket guy - not a perimeter shooter. We're going to lose guys to the portal almost assuredly. Either JJ or DayDay because each wants more playing time. Nobody will get drafted. Some will graduate. But until Wes changes his philosophy on shooting 3s, we're doomed to fail.

[leeraymond]

If I had a criticism of this tough loss to Oklahoma it would be the huge difference in the look of those two offenses. Oklahoma was running three or four high post screens in a row with their center Godwin coming as close to a moving pick as he could get away with. All to get some motion and some defensive switches. I see nothing like that from Cincinnati's offense. Thomas and James are good guards. Throughout the Big 12 the top teams seem to be loaded with really big physical guards that they don't match up well with.

Lahkin has basically killed us. Coming into Big 12 play, it looked like we had an offense that went through him. The guards could play off tossing it into him at the high post. He could go inside, he could step outside and hit a shot, and he could work the ball back out. It seems like upgrading to this league filled with solid big men just overwhelmed him. Reynolds has a decent touch but he can't kick the ball back out or handle double teams. Bandaogo is limited offensively. Lahkin needed to be your Danny Manning.

Bearcats rebounded and played pretty good D for long stretches, but their offense is lacking.

And we have to remember that without 4 ticky-tacky touch fouls on guys throwing up threes that were not going in, you could have taken 12 points off the board. I don't recall seeing that happen in any game before. What a sad way to lose.

I do not believe that Lakhin was/is overwhelmed by the big men of the BIG 12. For some reason, the UC coaching staff stopped looking at him as a primary scorer and relied on the guards to do most of the scoring. Look at how that has worked out.

[longtimefan]

I agree with you. The biggest problem is they can't shoot. They should be taking a lot more makeable shots.

Which is the problem. There’s a reason so many of those threes were wide open, OU wasn’t really worried about those. They tried to cut off everything inside. To loosen that up we have to hit a decent portion of wide open threes. 20% is not going to get that done.

[Oldtimer_UC_fan]

But he is allowing them to take them. Reminds me
of Travis Steele, formerly of X. Allowed everyone
& anyone to shoot 3s.
Cant’t the coaching staff develop the bigs- a jump
hook or something ?

I agree with you. The biggest problem is they can't shoot. They should be taking a lot more makeable shots.

[sedz]

If I had a criticism of this tough loss to Oklahoma it would be the huge difference in the look of those two offenses. Oklahoma was running three or four high post screens in a row with their center Godwin coming as close to a moving pick as he could get away with. All to get some motion and some defensive switches. I see nothing like that from Cincinnati's offense. Thomas and James are good guards. Throughout the Big 12 the top teams seem to be loaded with really big physical guards that they don't match up well with.

Lahkin has basically killed us. Coming into Big 12 play, it looked like we had an offense that went through him. The guards could play off tossing it into him at the high post. He could go inside, he could step outside and hit a shot, and he could work the ball back out. It seems like upgrading to this league filled with solid big men just overwhelmed him. Reynolds has a decent touch but he can't kick the ball back out or handle double teams. Bandaogo is limited offensively. Lahkin needed to be your Danny Manning.

Bearcats rebounded and played pretty good D for long stretches, but their offense is lacking.

And we have to remember that without 4 ticky-tacky touch fouls on guys throwing up threes that were not going in, you could have taken 12 points off the board. I don't recall seeing that happen in any game before. What a sad way to lose.

Solid assessment.

[Gypo O'Leary]

If I had a criticism of this tough loss to Oklahoma it would be the huge difference in the look of those two offenses. Oklahoma was running three or four high post screens in a row with their center Godwin coming as close to a moving pick as he could get away with. All to get some motion and some defensive switches. I see nothing like that from Cincinnati's offense. Thomas and James are good guards. Throughout the Big 12 the top teams seem to be loaded with really big physical guards that they don't match up well with.

Lahkin has basically killed us. Coming into Big 12 play, it looked like we had an offense that went through him. The guards could play off tossing it into him at the high post. He could go inside, he could step outside and hit a shot, and he could work the ball back out. It seems like upgrading to this league filled with solid big men just overwhelmed him. Reynolds has a decent touch but he can't kick the ball back out or handle double teams. Bandaogo is limited offensively. Lahkin needed to be your Danny Manning.

Bearcats rebounded and played pretty good D for long stretches, but their offense is lacking.

And we have to remember that without 4 ticky-tacky touch fouls on guys throwing up threes that were not going in, you could have taken 12 points off the board. I don't recall seeing that happen in any game before. What a sad way to lose.

[SKell82155]

Wes Miller wasn't missing all those 3's

But he is allowing them to take them. Reminds me
of Travis Steele, formerly of X. Allowed everyone
& anyone to shoot 3s.
Cant’t the coaching staff develop the bigs- a jump
hook or something ?

[Gypo O'Leary]

Huggins has been gone 20 years, and he turns 71 before next season. We need to move on.

...and he has the coldest beer tap in the State of West Virginia

[Lobot]

Huggins has been gone 20 years, and he turns 71 before next season. We need to move on.

Huggins needs to retire and focus on his sobriety. End of story.