Who is our next UC coach?

[Bearcat93]

The college sports landscape has changed so much that I don’t feel comparisons to 10 years ago even work today. With the portal-this is both good and bad-you can collect talent very quickly. To me, it’s what you do with the talent that drives success. You can see it with IU football (just one example), you don’t need 3-5 years like it was years ago. You run an offense (or defense) that attracts players (along with NIL). I’m just not sure what Wes’s offense and for sure his defense actually is (just a fan’s take, I’ve never coached basketball). That being said-I know I said this in an earlier post-if any coach was successful in regular season play for 5+ years and never won a post season game ever, I’d look for another coach. You simply cannot win championships that way and I still believe that’s the goal in major level
sports.

[red_n_black_attack]

Lo,
Id like to explore this thought of not expecting to win road games. Interpreted strictly, everyone would be .500 then in conference play., which I don’t think is what you mean. In my mind, highly performing teams win half of their road games, or at least 2-4 of them, which is how you prepare for success in the tournament which is a road location almost 100% of the time. Thoughts?

Agreed, and maybe we should say we should expect to lose a road game to nearly equal teams. I think the Bearcats are at a spot to expect to go 7-3 at home and 4-6 on the road, or 11-9 in conference play. There will be surprise wins (eventually) to go with the surprise loss to K St. I thought they had a good chance against Zona, but dang that three point stat line.

[red_n_black_attack]

I don't think Wes will be fired or replaced, but I would like to see us press on defense. We have the bodies and depth to install a full-court press every possession, and I'd offer assistant head coach job to Jim Crutchfield, and let he own the defense. Wes can manage the offense, and hope the shooting gets better. The article below is paywalled, but essentially 69 year old Jim Crutchfield has had amazing success taking two losing schools and turning them into a winner with a menacing full-court press.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/603...onboarded=true $$$$

[longtimefan]

This whole conversation is way premature. Wes is the best recruiter here since Huggins, he’ll keep building even in this era. He’ll be fine.

[Lobot]

Lo,
Id like to explore this thought of not expecting to win road games. Interpreted strictly, everyone would be .500 then in conference play., which I don’t think is what you mean. In my mind, highly performing teams win half of their road games, or at least 2-4 of them, which is how you prepare for success in the tournament which is a road location almost 100% of the time. Thoughts?

I can agree with some of that and you can argue that the goal should be to win every contest if you're the coach and players. As a fan I do not expect to win road games in this league. Are you going to grab a 3-4? Sure if you play well.

I'll disagree that the NCAA Tournament games are road games. They can feel like it depending on location and the opposing fan base but by and large these are neutral court games. Totally different vibe that's more similar to a conference tournament with multiple fan bases stuffed into the arena than a true road environment.

[bearcatlifer]

4 years is plenty long.I like Wes and I think he puts his heart into the job but if you cant get to the tournament in 4 years you gotta go. This is not Tubervilleland where he wanted us to be happy just to be fielding a team.We have the reasonable expectation as fans to have a competitive team. You can preach patience all you want but if people stop caring and stop coming to the games then you get the 1980's UC athletics all over again

[red_n_black_attack]

This whole conversation is way premature. Wes is the best recruiter here since Huggins, he’ll keep building even in this era. He’ll be fine.

Exactly why I propose keeping Wes and adding great assistant coaches

[leeraymond]

Did anyone watch Michigan hang 94 on Cronin using a point forward? I think we should try that with Mitchell. We don't know what we've got until we try to use our talent in different ways. We don't run actions for arguably our two best players, Skillings and Mitchell.

Yeah. However, those forwards at Michigan have GOOD positional size. Sam Walters can handle the ball at 6'10", Will Tschetter at 6'8" 230 can handle, and Dan Wolf, who is a 4/5, can really handle is 7'0". These guys have good positional size or are big bodies. These guys would absolutely kill Dillion Mitchell because Mitchell just does not have the size to deal with big fours and fives. Mitchell is no match for these types of forwards. It is a mistake to play Mitchell at the four when UC plays big front lines. As much as I hate to say that, I trust what I see.

[sedz]

Yeah. However, those forwards at Michigan have GOOD positional size. Sam Walters can handle the ball at 6'10", Will Tschetter at 6'8" 230 can handle, and Dan Wolf, who is a 4/5, can really handle is 7'0". These guys have good positional size or are big bodies. These guys would absolutely kill Dillion Mitchell because Mitchell just does not have the size to deal with big fours and fives. Mitchell is no match for these types of forwards. It is a mistake to play Mitchell at the four when UC plays big front lines. As much as I hate to say that, I trust what I see.

Lol, who are you going to play at the 4 then? You want even less mobility on the floor? Page would foul out in 10 minutes and get abused by quick forwards. We have no one else bigger than Mitchell.

We can try a point forward regardless of who is on the court. The idea is to force bigger, slower defenders to move around screens and free up guards to operate in space on the wings. It can work regardless of how big our frontcourt is. Our offense is the big problem right now. The defense has been fine. We need to try something different.

[longtimefan]

Lol, who are you going to play at the 4 then? You want even less mobility on the floor? Page would foul out in 10 minutes and get abused by quick forwards. We have no one else bigger than Mitchell.

We can try a point forward regardless of who is on the court. The idea is to force bigger, slower defenders to move around screens and free up guards to operate in space on the wings. It can work regardless of how big our frontcourt is. Our offense is the big problem right now. The defense has been fine. We need to try something different.

Tyler McKinley could be that guy, but not this year.

[leo from jersey]

. Our offense is the big problem right now. .

That is stating the obvious and like leeraymond I also trust what I see. What I see is what I don't recognize as basketball.

[leo from jersey]

Tyler McKinley could be that guy, but not this year.

and key Tillery could be our floor leader although until they are on the court, one just doesn't know.

[sedz]

We can shake up the offense without waiting for players who aren't on the roster and even if Mitchell might not be able to defend big men.

[Bearcat93]

I can agree with some of that and you can argue that the goal should be to win every contest if you're the coach and players. As a fan I do not expect to win road games in this league. Are you going to grab a 3-4? Sure if you play well.

I'll disagree that the NCAA Tournament games are road games. They can feel like it depending on location and the opposing fan base but by and large these are neutral court games. Totally different vibe that's more similar to a conference tournament with multiple fan bases stuffed into the arena than a true road environment.

I’ll just add that Huggins image & to probably a greater extent his players off the field conduct, we were cheered against in many tournament games across the 90’s & 2000’s. But I’ll restate it maybe a little better: teams that play poorly on the road are challenged more so in the ncaa tournament .
I

[UC4me]

Yowza, there are some extreme reactions in this thread. Roy Williams saying Wes can coach means far more to me than a three game losing streak in a ridiculously hard conference. I don't have a complaint against Wes in the least. I believe he will be an, actually no, IS an excellent coach. Three games is nothing to lose your stuffing over. I personally believe the issue is something our university has done for ages. We played an embarrassingly easy non-conference schedule that did little to prepare us for conference play. We do this every year. It drives me crazy. I look at some of the other non-conference schedules of our conference foes and have no trouble understanding why they are far more ready than we are. I mean, Grambling State in late December as our final tune-up before conference play?! Coach Wes can coach. We just have to knock off playing about 10 schools every year we have no business playing. 3 to 5 to work out some kinks? OK, fine. Close to 10? Forget it.