2026-27 Staff and Roster

[leo from jersey]

UC has signed Deshaun Vaden, a Mount Union (DIII) center from Cleveland. I imagine he will be a walk-on. Or a very end of the bench practice player. He averaged 3.5 blocks in 15.6 mins/game last year.

https://gobearcats.com/news/2026/05/...ts-for-2026-27

he will only get better in practice and the weight room. If injuries or fouls add up, he is there. Perhaps not the second coming of KMART, but someone who has a function. I always loved cheering for those guys.

[swilsonsp4]

UC has signed Deshaun Vaden, a Mount Union (DIII) center from Cleveland. I imagine he will be a walk-on. Or a very end of the bench practice player. He averaged 3.5 blocks in 15.6 mins/game last year.

https://gobearcats.com/news/2026/05/...ts-for-2026-27

Vaden played two seasons at Mt. Union, although they listed him as a Junior this past season. His bio mentions just his high school before that. Vaden was majoring in Media, with a minor in BA.

[GoBearcats31]

https://gobearcats.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster

Roster page is taking shape but considering there are two players with the same #, I'd recommend everyone hold off on buying their jerseys...

[bearcatrunner]

Keep in mind that we need guys for practice as well. So this guy serves not only with giving us more potential fouls, some breathing time at center, some defense with the potential to grow. He also brings defensive ability to the practice floor as well. So guys have to earn buckets when dribbling to the rim like they will have to during the big 12. The portal makes me dislike college basketball with a new team every year. Hopefully we can create some loyalty here and get some continuity. I miss watching young bearcats grow to be seasoned bearcats. It was one of the special things about college basketball the Kenyon and Logan type of players.

[leeraymond372@gmail.com]

he will only get better in practice and the weight room. If injuries or fouls add up, he is there. Perhaps not the second coming of KMART, but someone who has a function. I always loved cheering for those guys.

Yeah. At 6'11" 210 this guy may want to spend a lot of time in the weight room this summer. Also, he may want to eat more carbs than he normally eats. Although it is apparent that Vaden is a developmental player, he may eventually develop into a first tier BIG XII player. I also like to root for guys like Vaden.

[Rufus]

As posted previously, the NIL and transfer portal has taken away the joy of seeing a raw high school kid and watch develope into a baller by his senior year. We got to see a skinny freshman who struggled to even make his first layup and develope in an all American and ,#1 draft pick in Kmart. There's been many come in here knowing nothing, thinking they did, but eventually becoming men and players. You can't do that in just one year.

[leeraymond372@gmail.com]

UC has posted the roster for the 2026-27 team on its website. Here are some summary stat facts (does not include Iweze, Vaden, and the walk-on)): 1) of the 10 new guys that are included here, 7 of the 10 were double digit scorers last year, 2) two were All Conference (Carson (1st Team) and Allenspach (2nd Team)), and 3) if we added all of the average points scored a game for the 10 guys included here, it would total 105.5 points a game for the team, a 46.88 FG percentage, and 50 rebounds a game. Also, as a group, they shot over 70% from the FT line (an exact percentage was not calculated. This FT percentage is an educated guess based on the individual percentages).

It now becomes clear what Calhoun is searching for. He apparently is searching for guys with consistent offense. Based on the scoring numbers from last year, here is a theoretical starting 5: (Riley PG (15 pts / g), Carson SG (11.9 pts / g), Colvin WG / SG 11.6 pts / g, Tejada F 17.7 pts / g, and Allenspach F 13.6 pts / g). That is 69.8 points a game from this starting 5. Note that Fleming is the only other player that scored in double figures last year. Elamin (very athletic) 6.7 pts / g, Mahaffey 7.5 pts / g, and Hastings 6.7 pts / g will probably be wild cards.

Of course, this is all speculation at this point. However, you have to admit, if these scoring numbers carry-over to next year, this UC squad is going to surprise a lot of teams. For you guys that are fans of offense, if everything goes as planned, this UC roster should be a really good scoring roster.

One other thing. This roster has good positional size. It has 6 guys that are 6'9" and taller, 3 guys that are 6'9" where two of those guys can play the wing, and no player is shorter than 6'2". This UC team has good size up and down the roster.

This should be a big team that can score. However, will this roster be able to stop anybody?

[D.A.H.]

i'll get killed for saying this, and I know there are guys who are defensive studs, and a lot of guys who aren't. but, if you can get guys to buy in, and work their butts off at it, hopefully the answer is yes.

[leo from jersey]

i'll get killed for saying this, and I know there are guys who are defensive studs, and a lot of guys who aren't. but, if you can get guys to buy in, and work their butts off at it, hopefully the answer is yes.

agreed - defense is about desire and willingness to do the little things and not play hero ball. Some quality coaching and game planning along with hustle and desire will work wonders. You would have to know that CJC and his staff has heard from the alums about UC defense and toughness. Heck he lived it as he was mentored by Huggs.

[bearcatbret]

I think that CJC has assembled good shooters that are really good free throw shooters. He is going to stress - get fouled and go to the line. Last year, the guys never went to the rim and therefore did not get fouled. If they had, most of them could not shoot free throws anyway.

[Oldtimer_UC_fan]

I think that CJC has assembled good shooters that are really good free throw shooters. He is going to stress - get fouled and go to the line. Last year, the guys never went to the rim and therefore did not get fouled. If they had, most of them could not shoot free throws anyway.

Poor free throw shooting is frustrating as heck. UC has been a poor FT shooting team as long as I can remember, even in the Huggins years. They made up for it by good defense and rebounding.

[bearcatlifer]

When I watch college basketball with other teams it seems as if it is no big deal. Their best players just step to the line and pop it in. With all of our players everyone is holding their breath. The comparative percentages bear this out. Our team is often near the bottom of all of college basketball in free throw shooting. How can this logically be? Do we deliberately recruit guys who can't shoot free throws? Do we inadvertently recruit guys who are too lazy to work on "free" points? Do our coaches think it is not important? Do we not set aside enough time in practice to work on repetitive free throw shooting? Are our players so unprepared that after coaching them to play basketball all session there is no time left to work on free throw shooting? Come on now...we never get a good free throw shooter!? Or at least a critical mass of fair ones.

[Oldtimer_UC_fan]

When I watch college basketball with other teams it seems as if it is no big deal. Their best players just step to the line and pop it in. With all of our players everyone is holding their breath. The comparative percentages bear this out. Our team is often near the bottom of all of college basketball in free throw shooting. How can this logically be? Do we deliberately recruit guys who can't shoot free throws? Do we inadvertently recruit guys who are too lazy to work on "free" points? Do our coaches think it is not important? Do we not set aside enough time in practice to work on repetitive free throw shooting? Are our players so unprepared that after coaching them to play basketball all session there is no time left to work on free throw shooting? Come on now...we never get a good free throw shooter!? Or at least a critical mass of fair ones.

Free throw shooting is just practice combined with good form. Some of these guys just sling it up there with very little form. Oscar had great form. So does Curry.