Iowa St. 1/17 2:00 Peacock

[leo from jersey]

I have always thought the mid range jumper was the most neglected and very important shot. Most take bunnies or long range. It takes confidence to put up a mid-range. Talent too

[leo from jersey]

Looks like Terry & CWM as well as former players have gotten on the same page. Things did need to be said as losing is unacceptable

[zykarious]

The predictive measures like us because we haven't been blown out, just lost a bunch of close games. If we can take down 2/3 more top 25 teams and beat teams we should, it would be hard to leave us out with a kenpom around 40 and several Q1A wins.

Of course, that leaves a lot of work to be done. But it's at least looking a bit more possible now.

[BearKatz]

Well it totally sucks I missed Wes's biggest win to date. Looks like the Cats played a solid game in both halves today. Hopefully I'll be able to stream the game in a few days.

[sedz]

The predictive measures like us because we haven't been blown out, just lost a bunch of close games. If we can take down 2/3 more top 25 teams and beat teams we should, it would be hard to leave us out with a kenpom around 40 and several Q1A wins.

Of course, that leaves a lot of work to be done. But it's at least looking a bit more possible now.

WAB can help here. It's an official selection criteria now on the team sheets.

We'll gain 7 WAB if we go undefeated the rest of the way. We're currently at -2, so that would get us to +5. Need to be at +1 to make the field, which means we can take 4 losses. 9-4 the rest of the way. If we drop road games at Arizona, Houston, Kansas, and Texas Tech, can we sweep the rest? I don't see it but I hope we've turned a corner. If I see another couple games full of wing actions maybe I'll be convinced.

[Rufus]

Well color me surprised. I never thought this would occur. Like Sedz I hope this causes us to turn the corner. One thing I do know though is that when guys have fun playing and competing with each other it changes the whole chemistry. And too the players all should be relieved, the pressure off and able to play relaxed now. Hopefully. Seeing the excitement on the floor afterward should pay dividends too. Unless I'm wrong Miller did not put Abaev in at all in the second half or did I miss that? Kudos to CWM he definitely need this win let's hope he can keep it rolling now.

[leo from jersey]

Well color me surprised. I never thought this would occur. Like Sedz I hope this causes us to turn the corner. One thing I do know though is that when guys have fun playing and competing with each other it changes the whole chemistry. And too the players all should be relieved, the pressure off and able to play relaxed now. Hopefully. Seeing the excitement on the floor afterward should pay dividends too. Unless I'm wrong Miller did not put Abaev in at all in the second half or did I miss that? Kudos to CWM he definitely need this win let's hope he can keep it rolling now.

He didn't but Tyler and Tillery did. Tillery had some moments

[sedz]

We scored 1.19 points per possession. Incredible offensive performance against a top 10 defense. And we didn't do it with good shooting, just a pedestrian 51% effective field goals. We did it by taking care of the ball and grabbing offensive rebounds. Only 8 turnovers in 66 possessions, a 12% TO rate. Iowa St is top 5 in the country forcing turnovers on 23% of possessions. We cut that in half. and we forced 8 live ball turnovers leading to transition buckets. We took their strength and flipped the script. Instead of inviting traps in the middle of the floor (with post ups or high ball screens), we ran wing actions and reversed the ball repeatedly. Good to see an effective offensive scheme. We rebounded 42% of our misses, our second highest rate of the season, just behind Tarleton St.

Harris was our best player with 3.2 net points. He got to the rim 5 times (2 more than anyone else), the free throw line 8 times (6 more than anyone else) and led in DBPM with 2 steals and a block with ZERO turnovers. What a great game for Buck, even with the missed dunk and a couple bad threes. Baba Miller was second best with 2.5 net points, leading with 12 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 blocks. Celestine was third best, making 4 of 10 from deep.

Abaev was our only player with a negative BPM. Not a terrible game for him, it's just that everyone brought their game today. He was 0 for 2 with 2 fouls in just 5 minutes, but he made a couple smart passes and had a positive DBPM.

Day Day and Jizzle were a combined 9 of 14 from midrange. I'll become the biggest midrange fan if they hit that percentage all the time. But they don't, so we shouldn't rely on that going forward.

[Rufus]

He didn't but Tyler and Tillery did. Tillery had some moments

Tillery played some productive moments. I see some improvement from him.

[GoBearcats31]

Go Bearcats

[Rufus]

I liked what I seen today. I said in an earlier post that this game, especially the first half, was very physical. It reminded me of Huggs thugs. Here's hoping the good guys find their inner "Rocky's" going forward. And they didn't wilt and the four minute mark like we've seen all too often. When Buck missed that dunk they could have taken that as an omen but held fast.

[bearcatbret]

A sloppy finish to the first half and a slow start to the second half, they managed to keep composure. Some good performances from players that you would not expect.
Cincinnati Topples No. 2 Iowa State, 79-70, For Highest-Ranked Win Since 2012 - University of Cincinnati Athletics - Official Athletics Website

[Cliftonite]

I refuse to subscribe to "Peacock," in addition to anything else I have already, so am unable to watch these games. Thomas and Jizzle looked like they stepped-up. Not sure what's going on with ISU, but winning these last 2 games fairly soundly is obviously a good development, if not completely unexpected.

Then again unranked KU just whooped them by 21 pts., so have to keep it in perspective I guess. But that's two B12 wins early on, and almost three, that I didn't expect.

[leeraymond372@gmail.com]

I bet you all of the Jack Daniels in Tennessee that nobody saw this win coming, including me. I did not see the game, but I have seen a bunch of highlights. There are a number of things that surprise me about this win: 1) ISU normally shoots about 51% and UC held it to 43%; 2) UC dominated the ball and the offensive possessions. For instance, UC had 69 shot attempts and hit 30 shots. ISU only had 51 shot attempts and hit 22 shots; 3) UC outscored ISU both halves (35-31 and 44-39); and UC out rebounded ISU 39-32 where UC had 15 offensive rebounds and ISU had 11. UC did not dominate ISU, but this UC win was a solid convincing win. UC held the lead for 33:41 minutes of the game.

UC's bench came up big today outscoring ISU's bench 20-5. UC had all of its wings and guards score in double figures except for Tillery and Abaev. Tillery's play has evolved. He played a good game in 18:56 minutes of action with 4 points, 2 assists, 2 rebounds, and no turnovers. I have noticed that there is a certain rhythm that the team plays with when Tillery is in the game. Best win since Cronin's Sweet 16 season.

The beer always tastes better after a win.

[Geaux Juan]

I bet you all of the Jack Daniels in Tennessee that nobody saw this win coming, including me. ......

Bearcatjd is probably too modest to reply, but he did predict a win yesterday in the AM. Check out post #2.