Northern Kentucky 11/19 7:00 FanDuelTV / ESPN+

[sedz]

We ran a lot of 4 high tonight. Opens up the back door lobs. Taking some cues from NC St last year.

[sedz]

For the fourth consecutive outing Simas is player of the game with 7.5 net points and a 17.1 BPM. No one else came close to those numbers. 18 points on only 9 shots - that's 100% effective field goals. Mitchell and Aziz also had solid outings.

Day Day had the worst game in his first game back. He looked good physically but made a bunch of mental errors. 3 turnovers in only 14 minutes, 1 for 5 from the field, and a game worst negative 5.7 defensive BPM. Hopefully that was just shaking off the rust.

Jizzle was 1 for 7 from midrange. Doesn't matter how much size, athleticism, and skill we have on the court if we're chucking up midrange shots. Wes is clearly ok with that, and it's going to put a ceiling on our offense.

[GoBearcats31]

Simas 16/23 from three (69.6%)

[bearcatbret]

Reading the comments, you guys sound like a bunch of old hags crying about the sky is falling. The hometown team puts a much better spin on things. Lukosius Drills Five 3-Pointers in Second Half, Leads Cincinnati Past NKU - University of Cincinnati Athletics

[D.A.H.]

Haven't read any of the thread, but it seemed like nku had an ungodly number of shots bounce around the rim and fall through. late in the game, some didn't fall, but, for most of the game, they couldn't miss. i think they shot 60% in the first half. the one thing that bothered me, was that uc got outrebounded - shouldn't happen

[London 'Cat]

Reading the comments, you guys sound like a bunch of old hags crying about the sky is falling. The hometown team puts a much better spin on things. Lukosius Drills Five 3-Pointers in Second Half, Leads Cincinnati Past NKU - University of Cincinnati Athletics

Once again, I take no comfort in this result due to NKU was 0-3 coming into the game. The 'Cats have not been tested at all yet, and have not had to play well to win yet. I'm not saying they have not played well, because they have at times through these first four games. There is also some tinkering with lineups, which these early season games allow you to experiment. But, the 'Cats do have some things they need to clean up before they play better opponents. Win and move on, learn for the next game, continuously improve. That's what we all want to see.

[leo from jersey]

For the fourth consecutive outing Simas is player of the game with 7.5 net points and a 17.1 BPM. No one else came close to those numbers. 18 points on only 9 shots - that's 100% effective field goals. Mitchell and Aziz also had solid outings.

Day Day had the worst game in his first game back. He looked good physically but made a bunch of mental errors. 3 turnovers in only 14 minutes, 1 for 5 from the field, and a game worst negative 5.7 defensive BPM. Hopefully that was just shaking off the rust.

Jizzle was 1 for 7 from midrange. Doesn't matter how much size, athleticism, and skill we have on the court if we're chucking up midrange shots. Wes is clearly ok with that, and it's going to put a ceiling on our offense.

With his (JJ) poor shooting, the defense isn't on him for drives and pick &rolls as they know he will shoot it and with the way the Cats are not rebounding, they encourage it. The best play in the game was based on a Pick & roll by SL and then his dish for a pretty basket. I wonder why so many fail to give SL the credit he deserves, Yes, some announcers are now mentioning him, but SL is the best on the team and has been since late last year after recovering from the accident. SL plays under control. In the run, he was lights out and he played the point. CWM, while trying to be positive said two things.1. JJ can play much better (he had stats but so many wretched little things became big things). 2. The front court didn't crash the boards. I saw them watching more than I was. Again, UC has not had rebounding since Cronin. I can't get used to seeing them get pushed around inside as they were last night. What "monster factory"? I would add perimeter defense needs work, but Day Day when he was first in, got a hand on two balls. He will get better. Once more a great win, but I, along with others, can enjoy each win, but want to see wins against X, Dayton, the toughest conference in the country and go to the tournament. This is UC basketball and I accept nothing less. Now front court, get your bodies and not just your eyes in the game.

BTW SL single handedly broke the zone.

[Gmann]

I was there last night and let me just say this was a good test for the Cats. I give NKU credit in that they came out aggressive and gave it every thing they had. In the first half every bounce was going their way and we were still up at the half. I thought our depth would wear them down and the breaks would even out and it did. We clearly need to improve in areas especially rebounding but this is a game we would have lost in the past. I like the energy on defense and movement on offense. We can beat you a lot of diffeerent ways with this roster. I think Wes has the team he envistioned and I am encouraged.

[zykarious]

With his (JJ) poor shooting, the defense isn't on him for drives and pick &rolls as they know he will shoot it and with the way the Cats are not rebounding, they encourage it. The best play in the game was based on a Pick & roll by SL and then his dish for a pretty basket. I wonder why so many fail to give SL the credit he deserves, Yes, some announcers are now mentioning him, but SL is the best on the team and has been since late last year after recovering from the accident. SL plays under control. In the run, he was lights out and he played the point. CWM, while trying to be positive said two things.1. JJ can play much better (he had stats but so many wretched little things became big things). 2. The front court didn't crash the boards. I saw them watching more than I was. Again, UC has not had rebounding since Cronin. I can't get used to seeing them get pushed around inside as they were last night. What "monster factory"? I would add perimeter defense needs work, but Day Day when he was first in, got a hand on two balls. He will get better. Once more a great win, but I, along with others, can enjoy each win, but want to see wins against X, Dayton, the toughest conference in the country and go to the tournament. This is UC basketball and I accept nothing less. Now front court, get your bodies and not just your eyes in the game.

BTW SL single handedly broke the zone.

We have great rebounding when Skillings can play. We lost our best rebounder and replaced him with our worst rebounder in Hickman. Simas has never been good at rebounding and that's unlikely to change. We have to get more out of the perimeter guys. We have two bigs fighting for rebounds, while the other team crashes with 3/4 guys because our perimeter players didn't even get a good box out.

Hickman shouldn't be a starter. Start Reed or Betsey and tell them they better be in there fighting for board.

[leo from jersey]

We have great rebounding when Skillings can play. We lost our best rebounder and replaced him with our worst rebounder in Hickman. Simas has never been good at rebounding and that's unlikely to change. We have to get more out of the perimeter guys. We have two bigs fighting for rebounds, while the other team crashes with 3/4 guys because our perimeter players didn't even get a good box out.

Hickman shouldn't be a starter. Start Reed or Betsey and tell them they better be in there fighting for board.

1. Skillings is not playing and he often plays out of control costing more than a rebound.2. SL's job isn't to rebound, but to score and settle(slow) down the offense as it is often ran too hectic with a shoot first mentality even when the shots don't fall. 3. I agree about never getting a good box, but I have seen our two have position but get pushed out. If they would put a body on others, the rebound will be there. Plus watch them while the shot is in the air, they are looking (watching others) and fail to think where the shot will rebound and thus lack position to get the ball. They don't communicate under the basket, and we saw at least 4 lost (reflected) rebounds with their putting a body on each other instead of NKU (no teamwork). They also don't go after the ball but slap it back. That is often good, but not when you don't see the floor and the ball goes to the opponent. There were several cases that instead of slapping, go for the ball. I think they would have come up with it. They didn't see that. They were in position as well for a rebound but they were slapping. Slapping is a developed skill and not an emergency tactic. One needs to slap to a teammate. Yes, there are times when there is no other play, but our guys don't seem to be able to slap a ball while finding the same uniform color. They are too lazy and timid to fight. I really like Betsey and he should only get better. Although a frosh, he needs to take charge underneath when he is in.

[leo from jersey]

One more remark. Do they teach these kids how to see the floor in their fundamentals or are eyes on themselves and the basket only. It was decades ago, but the coaches taught how to momentary stop and take the mental picture of the floor while you are moving.

[leeraymond]

Cincinnati had to dig a little deeper to win last night's game. It just goes to show, when dealing with rivalry games, expect the unexpected. However, there is a real concern here with this team right now. UC gives up too many offensive rebounds. NKU had 15 offensive rebounds last night. UC had 6. Also, NKU outrebounded UC by 9 overall with a smaller team. Remember, Nicholls State had 17 offensive rebounds, UC had 15, and Morehead State had 11 offensive rebounds, UC had 5.

Is it me, or does it appear that Aziz is not as aggressive on the boards this year as he was last year? Aziz and Page are the two tallest players that play a lot and they both are averaging just 4.3 rebounds a game. That is not enough. Aziz is much better than that. UC better get its rebounding house in order before Saturday because Georgia Tech has 3 guys that are averaging 7 or more rebounds a game.

[longtimefan]

We shot over 70% in the 2nd half. Hard to get offensive rebounds that way.

[sedz]

Aziz's rebounding numbers are way down this year so far. For his career he has grabbed 24% of available defensive boards, but this year he is at barely half that rate, just over 13%. His offensive rebounding numbers are down too. That's got to change.

[sedz]

We shot over 70% in the 2nd half. Hard to get offensive rebounds that way.

We rebounded 22% of our misses. NKU rebounded 42% of theirs. We got cooked on the glass no matter how you look at it.