Houston March 1st, 4:30 CBS

[daveh]

you didn't read that from me.

no i didn't. i was agreeing with your post. outside of SL the first few games, this team isn't very good at the three ball. yet some on here said they shoot more 3's.

[leo from jersey]

I still think we should have done that. We only took 20 threes - lower than our average in conference. That's not firing away. Note that my goal was to make a dozen, not 6. To win a game when you are a huge underdog, you usually need to get lucky. Shooting a lot of threes gives you more chances for luck. Texas Tech made 12 threes in their win against Houston, Alabama made 11, San Diego St made 9. It can be done.

You must get open. The Cats had some open 3s and they missed. UH plays smart defense and they hustle.

[sedz]

ha! i saw some mumbo jumbo on here, that the road to victory for the 'cats was to fire away from three.

I still think we should have done that. We only took 20 threes - lower than our average in conference. That's not firing away. Note that my goal was to make a dozen, not 6. To win a game when you are a huge underdog, you usually need to get lucky. Shooting a lot of threes gives you more chances for luck. Texas Tech made 12 threes in their win against Houston, Alabama made 11, San Diego St made 9. It can be done.

[leo from jersey]

Simas was our worst player with negative 4.7 net points. He hit some big threes but ended up 3 for 10 and had 3 turnovers and negative defensive BPM. Skillings was next worst, also turning it over 3 times while going just 1 of 4 from the field with negative defensive BPM.

Sedz quote above about SL here can be said about three of the six normal starters on this team and epitomizes each one. They are all one dimensional and predictable. SL refuses to try for rebounds and is liability on defense many times. DS can't shoot the three consistently and if he does drive he's out of control. He does try to rebound but if they don't come he goes into hiding and is a liability on defense. Mitchel is not afraid to mix it up underneath but is not an outside shot threat and reluctant to drive inside for shots. He needs to be very active to get open shots. If he's not very active he concentrates on his defensive assignment and goes ghost on offense. And Aziz is good enough defensively but is not an offensive threat, no post game, and can't be relied upon to get the lob from our two guards that produce the majority of our points. It says a lot about this team when two of our most productive points producers are the two staring guards We are used to Huggins demanding all of his players to involved in every facet of the game. He called it playing hard. CWM in allowing his players play their type of game does not demand that they go for rebounds or follow their own shots, excel at free throws shooting etc. It has been said on this forum before that we fan's are used to getting two or three shot attempts on any trip down to our goal. But not now. Sampson once said that He at Houston would never beat Cincinnati until they get as physical as us. The script has flipped. We are used to imposing our will and pace to the opponent all we have now is athletes who can shoot when open but rarely find the man open man to shoot.

It is interesting that DS had his quick 3 tos and then was yanked. CWM chewed him out and it seemed to have worked. Maybe some reality treatment is what he will respond too or at least being chewed out on National TV for all to see.

[zykarious]

JJ is not NBA ready as he lacks floor awareness. That results in poor ball handling/passing skills and pitiful defense. Does his Dad and advisers think he can develop this at UC? What about Ray? Is hometown enough? Will the Cats have the NIL money available if they don't pay DS and use it to keep others. Will teams that have plenty of NIL come after the players. Will the Cats push any out the door to use the NIL money on others. Will Page stay? Who is left? The Cats must keep Betsey, but his shot has gotten noticed. Can the Cats develop any other skill in him. Some might wish to go to a winning program and appear on national TV a lot and the Tourney once in their career.

Do we want Page to stay? He can't/won't rebound or box out, even after getting a massive cut in playing time because of it. I wouldn't be that surprised if Wes told him to move on.

A similar question could be asked of Ray, if he can't find the floor even with CJ and Hickman injuries and Simas/Dan playing poorly, will there be mutual agreement that he'd be better off at a mid-major?

As I see it, there are 5 key guys we want to keep. JJ, Day Day, Reed, Betsey and Mitchell. I assume Dzellat and McKinley will stay around, not counting on them, but it's a bonus if they develop.

Then we have to find a way to attract a quality wing who can handle the ball and a center in the off-season. I've been saying for years that failing to recruit/develop a center is an issue, but we'll have another year trying to pull in the hardest guy in basketball to recruit, a transfer big man who can defend, rebound and score (because everyone in basketball wants that guy).

[leo from jersey]

Who will transfer out?

JJ is not NBA ready as he lacks floor awareness. That results in poor ball handling/passing skills and pitiful defense. Does his Dad and advisers think he can develop this at UC? What about Ray? Is hometown enough? Will the Cats have the NIL money available if they don't pay DS and use it to keep others. Will teams that have plenty of NIL come after the players. Will the Cats push any out the door to use the NIL money on others. Will Page stay? Who is left? The Cats must keep Betsey, but his shot has gotten noticed. Can the Cats develop any other skill in him. Some might wish to go to a winning program and appear on national TV a lot and the Tourney once in their career.

[Rufus]

Simas was our worst player with negative 4.7 net points. He hit some big threes but ended up 3 for 10 and had 3 turnovers and negative defensive BPM. Skillings was next worst, also turning it over 3 times while going just 1 of 4 from the field with negative defensive BPM.

Sedz quote above about SL here can be said about three of the six normal starters on this team and epitomizes each one. They are all one dimensional and predictable. SL refuses to try for rebounds and is liability on defense many times. DS can't shoot the three consistently and if he does drive he's out of control. He does try to rebound but if they don't come he goes into hiding and is a liability on defense. Mitchel is not afraid to mix it up underneath but is not an outside shot threat and reluctant to drive inside for shots. He needs to be very active to get open shots. If he's not very active he concentrates on his defensive assignment and goes ghost on offense. And Aziz is good enough defensively but is not an offensive threat, no post game, and can't be relied upon to get the lob from our two guards that produce the majority of our points. It says a lot about this team when two of our most productive points producers are the two staring guards We are used to Huggins demanding all of his players to involved in every facet of the game. He called it playing hard. CWM in allowing his players play their type of game does not demand that they go for rebounds or follow their own shots, excel at free throws shooting etc. It has been said on this forum before that we fan's are used to getting two or three shot attempts on any trip down to our goal. But not now. Sampson once said that He at Houston would never beat Cincinnati until they get as physical as us. The script has flipped. We are used to imposing our will and pace to the opponent all we have now is athletes who can shoot when open but rarely find the man open man to shoot.

[leo from jersey]

ha! i saw some mumbo jumbo on here, that the road to victory for the 'cats was to fire away from three.

you didn't read that from me.

[GoBearcats31]

UC is 7-11, a half game behind Kansas State (Wednesday) and a game up on Oklahoma State (Saturday)

Beat both and hopefully finish 10th or maybe 11th (8/9 likely puts you on track to face Houston again)

[daveh]

32to 28 rebounding for the Cats. Only 2 TOs in the second half. UH was 24 % from 3 so why the loss. I suspect the lack of an interior defense may have been the problem. The entire defense needed help. Our dependence on the 3 didn't help. Foul trouble too.

ha! i saw some mumbo jumbo on here, that the road to victory for the 'cats was to fire away from three.

[sedz]

Frustrating game to lose because the gameplan was good. Houston only had 6 offensive rebounds and only made 3 triples. We shut down their normal scoring scheme. But they shot 64% inside the arc and were on fire from midrange. It's hard to stop a team that does that. Roberts only scored 8 points on 4 of 9 shooting with zero offensive rebounds. We didn't lose because he has more muscles than us. And we only had 11 turnovers in 64 possessions - that's 17% which is well below the 22% that Houston forces in conference. We scored a point per possession on the road against the best defense in the country. We didn't lose because of our offense. We lost simply because Houston has good shooters who hit a lot of tough shots. Hard pill to swallow, but I'm proud of our performance today.

Day Day was our best player with 5.3 net points. He was on fire in the second half, and he also led us in defensive BPM. It's too bad he got into early foul trouble. Jizzle was next best with 3.8 net points, leading with 5 assists and 3 steals. Aziz, Mitchell, and Reed were close to neutral.

Simas was our worst player with negative 4.7 net points. He hit some big threes but ended up 3 for 10 and had 3 turnovers and negative defensive BPM. Skillings was next worst, also turning it over 3 times while going just 1 of 4 from the field with negative defensive BPM.

With carnage across the bubble today, I'd say our position improved. This loss will not hurt, especially since we beat the metrics spread by 6 points, so our NET ranking may go up a bit.

[leeraymond]

Did you all really think that UC would win this one? UC lost this game in the first half, although it outscored Houston in the second half. Crucial turnovers by Skillings, Simas, and Betsey in the first half, along with Thomas being on the bench, doomed UC again playing Houston. The points off of turnovers were the difference in the game for Houston (17 to 9). Both Skillings and Simas each had 3 turnovers in the first half.

What is it with Skillings? Why does he fall on the floor all of the time? That guy needs to take some ballet classes to help him with his foot work. Simas was weak with the ball today.

UC is now 1-10 in Quad 1 games. Miller has now lost to Kelvin Sampson 9 (nine) consecutive times. Miller needs to build a roster that can handle Houston. The wing-oriented roster does not give UC enough paint defense. Mitchell, Simas, and Reed were no match for Roberts today. He backed them all down in the paint. UC's wings also had problems dealing with Houston's good shooting guards.

If UC wants to beat Houston, it needs to begin to prepare for Houston in the summer. UC needs to build its program around beating Houston. Houston is the best team in the BIG XII. Also, Houston is perhaps UC's biggest rival in basketball other than Xavier. However, this has not been much of a rivalry the last 4 or 5 years. If UC can build a roster that can beat Houston, then it will be able to beat any team in the BIG XII.

If UC continues ONLY to prepare for Houston during the week that it plays Houston, it will never beat them. UC needs to build drills into their practices designed to beat Houston. Miller needs to study film on Houston all summer to understand its weaknesses, then build systems to take advantage of those weaknesses.

If a team can beat Houston, then it can beat most of the teams in the country. Miller needs to understand that.

[John P]

I watched the game. The team played hard like they have been recently. they lost to a VERY good team. SL is a good 3point shooter but is not good defensively or seeing the floor. Dan Skillings has so much raw talent but plays out of control and really hurts this team at crucial points. DD had foul trouble and sat out a lot of minutes. hopefully they can win out and get a few win in the conference tourney and then we wait and see.

Thanks, it's good to see a rational recap of the game. It's funny how last years so many guys were ragging on DD and this year he's valued so highly. I like DD and it hurts this team when he's not on the floor. I'd like to see Reed getting more minutes he's proving to be a great asset.

[leo from jersey]

I believe UH let up some at the end. Regardless of how the Cats played Houston is the standard and until we beat them, the Cats are not top tier. I don't care for second tier. Until this team gets some strength and a floor leader, they will remain second tier. Your floor leader doesn't get overly excited and commit early fouls sitting himself on the bench and not on the floor. No excuses for the fouls. He wasn't ready for a game of this importance.

[Jeff Burk]

I watched the game. The team played hard like they have been recently. they lost to a VERY good team. SL is a good 3point shooter but is not good defensively or seeing the floor. Dan Skillings has so much raw talent but plays out of control and really hurts this team at crucial points. DD had foul trouble and sat out a lot of minutes. hopefully they can win out and get a few win in the conference tourney and then we wait and see.