Grading The Cincinnati Bearcats 2014-15 Season
This week seems like the perfect time to ask around the Cincy on the Prowl writers and have them all evaluate the season. It is fresh enough in our minds that we ought to have strong opinions, but we’ve also had a few days for the wounds to heal from that final loss.
Here is the criteria everyone was asked to assess: Offense, Defense, Coaching, Recruiting, Overall
Ben Levin
Offense: B
I loved what I saw this year in the way of low post scoring. Gary Clark is going to be a force to be reckoned with for three more seasons in Clifton. The Bearcats have a lot of guards who can penetrate the lane and get to the hoop, too. However, this team had trouble scoring at many times because apart from Farad Cobb and Kevin Johnson, nobody can make a jump shot. Nobody. Even Cobb and Johnson, UC’s only two three-point threats, have been known to be streaky and go ice cold for long stretches. UC must address its lack of outside shooting during the off-season.
Defense: A
This team was awesome defensively. The Bearcats ranked 6th nationally in scoring defense, allowing a stingy 55.8 points per game. Further, UC held opponents to just 38.8% shooting (15th nationally), and did this while only committing 14.9 personal fouls per game (11th nationally). The only fault I have with UC’s defense is the inability to rebound in zone defenses. It literally is this simple: when a shot goes up, instead of watching the ball sail through the air and then jumping for it, you turn around, find the offensive player you are responsible for guarding, box him out, and then turn around and jump for the ball. I don’t want to sound preachy here, but I played the game, and it really is that simple. UC gave up far too many second chance points this year, thus the A- instead of an A.
Coaching: B+
In my honest opinion, the on-floor coaching got better when Mick Cronin left the team in December due to medical issues. The biggest reason why: the kids didn’t have to play in fear anymore. Cronin yells, yells, and then yells more (gee, I wonder how he got that aneurysm). He yells at the players for every mistake they make, and promtly yanks them and sits them on the bench. Commit a turnover with 18:33 remaining in the first half and the score tied at 2-2? You’re gonna get yanked out of the game, sat on the pine, and screamed at for a few minutes. It makes the kids tight and afraid to make mistakes, and you can’t play like that. Also, I absolutely loved Larry Davis’s use of the matchup zone later in the season, and UC’s offense against the zone also improved. I really wish that UC would give Davis the job and make Cronin an Assistant AD/Recruting Coordinator.
Recruiting: B+
My rating is a combination of last year’s and this year’s recruiting efforts. Gary Clark was a huge get for this staff, and Corey DeBerry and Quadri Moore have the potential to be very serviceable big men, too. For next year, Rivals top-100/ESPN 4-star SF Jacob Evans and Rivals top-150/ESPN 4-star PG Justin Jenifer are both signed, as well as 6’8″ PF Trevon Scott. A school like Cincinnati, now in a non-power conference, can’t really do much better than that. The signing JuCo SG Farad Cobb somewhat addressed UC’s outside shooting deficiency, but he is very streaky. The only thing UC could have done better is sign another three point threat in the class of 2015. Jenifer is a tremendous player, but isn’t know for his outside shooting.
Overall: B
In a year that saw UC seeking to replace All-American Guard Sean Kilpartick and veteran Forward Justin Jackson, the Bearcats far exceeded their expectations. An NCAA bid and a win in the first round (or is it the second round now?) is quite the accomplishmet for such a young team. However, a fourth-place finish in The American and some disappointing losses showed that this team has quite a bit of work to do this Summer in order to become a Top-25 program next year.
Chris Bains
Offense: C+
As usual, the offense was underwhelming. Cincinnati posted a better field goal percentage this past season (44.6%) than at anytime in the Mick Cronin era. But that’s more a testament to Ellis, Clark, and DeBerry’s offensive prowess than the system, which seemed to stymie this team at times. The coaches need to loosen their grip on the reigns for this to not be just an average offensive team.
Defense: A-
In the grand sense of recent UC defenses, this was a bit below average, as they displayed far too many lapses in focus and were too susceptible to the three than in years past. But that’s a minor knock on a defense that was overall excellent. Typically UC gets an A or A+ in this area but I’m giving them an A- this season. They should return to form next year.
Coaching: A
There’s a massive caveat here because Larry Davis coached most of the year. If this were Mick’s team start to finish, and he also lost to East Carolina and Tulane, I’d probably grade them a little worse. Given what Davis walked into (several suspensions, new players, trying to corral a group of young players now without their head coach), he really did a really nice job.
Recruiting: B
The players Cincinnati are bringing in will fill holes in the back- and mid-courts. Jacob Evans should contribute right away at the 3 and Justin Jenifer and Tre Scott could be come staples down the road. However, where UC still is lacking is a four-year power forward who can play the 5. Ellis and DeBerry both graduate after next year, leaving Quadri Moore as the main option here in 2016. He’s raw, can be coached up, but it doesn’t exactly instill confidence that he’s Cincinnati’s lone threat at the 5 after next season. They really missed on a back-to-the-basket big in this cycle.
Overall: A-
This team gets a “B+” if Mick coaches the entire season and they have the exact same results. But I can forgive them for getting ran out of Licourdas Center by Temple and dropping East Carolina and Tulane because they had an assistant coach leading them. Given the circumstances, the Bearcats still exceeded my expectations and won a boatload of games.
Jesse Smith
Offense: C
I liked the transition to more inside-out action at the end of the season, but all in all the Bearcats offense didn’t scare a soul this year. I felt like we used too much of the shot clock on a consistent basis which at times didn’t get them good looks.
Defense: A+
With Ellis and Clark on the back end it allowed the wings to gamble sometimes because both bigs were so exceptional changing shots. They did give up a lot of offensive rebounds, but I blame that on the supreme aggressiveness of the backline. Defense is the backbone of this program and when you think of defense you think of the Bearcats defense.
Coaching: A-
Honestly with Mick going down if Coach Davis didn’t lose to Tulane and ECU this would’ve been an A+, but I can’t give an A+ with those loses and I can’t give a B with Coach Davis getting the Bearcats to the big dance again. Davis wasn’t scared to make lineup adjustments some good, some bad, but he wasn’t scared to push buttons.
Recruiting: A
The Bearcats have two 4 star recruits coming (Jacob Evans and Justin Jenifer) and one 3 star Tre Scott. Evans and Jenifer will help the offense a lot and help make the Bearcats even deeper in the backcourt and on the wings. Our Centers are Seniors and weren’t addressed in this class, but I’m banking on Mick and crew to make it happen with the 2016 class.
Overall: A
After losing a ton of leadership and production this team was very good. Who thought they would lose Mick Cronin during the season? Nobody and for them to be a top tier AAC team and win a game in the NCAA tournament was a testament of how good this team progressed this year.
Mike Jorgensen
Offense: B-
This season had the best ball movement and offensive game plan of any team in the Mick Cronin era. However, that is tantamount to being the skinniest kid at fat camp. There were still many times where we just couldn’t create points when we needed to. Our defense was 6th this year in points allowed, our offense was 294th in scoring. Our defense can’t get much better, so its up to our offense to close that gap a bit.
Defense: A+
Its not the overpowering physical defense we were used to with Huggins, but its just as effective. The only word I can think of to describe our defense is “scrappy”. Our defensive effort was a constant throughout the entire season. Mick always reminds us that you can’t coach the ball into the hoop but you can coach defense. It is nice that no matter how bad our offense is on any given day, our defense will keep us in any game (including against #1 undefeated UK).
Coaching: A-
Larry Davis did everything and more than we could ask of him. I was very worried about him taking the helm since he had a losing record after 9 years of head coaching experience. Perhaps the difference was having Mick Cronin to do the X’s and O’s. I have been a long time skeptic of Mick Cronin, I think the biggest lesson this season was this: Mick has an excellent mind for the game. On relatively short notice, he drew up the best game plan against Kentucky of anyone in the country. If someone manages to beat Kentucky this season then it will be thanks to the Mick Cronin scheme.
Recruiting: C-
This is a relative sore spot for me. Once again I reviewed the ESPN Top 100 Recruits in vain. You may say, “well, only P5 schools can recruit at that level”. This is untrue, there are 5 teams from the American who have signed Top 100 players not to mention VCU who grabbed 2 players from that list. The recruiting speaks to the stature and prestige of the program and it looks like we failed yet again to grab a blue chip player. With 7 freshman this past year I know there aren’t a lot of spots opening up, but it still would have been nice to land one big time recruit.
Overall: B
Given the circumstances of the season and my preseason expectations, this team would merit an A+. I don’t think we can rightly ask for anything more than what they gave us although if we didn’t drop Tulane, ECU, or the Xavier game then we would have had a higher seed in the NCAA tourney and might still be playing. Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Its over now and almost everyone is back next season. Expectations are at an all time high.
There you have it! The collective wisdom of our crew gives very strong marks overall to this year’s team. Stay tuned as I’ve extended our conversation and asked for a collective list of superlatives for the season!