UC Basketball right around the corner!

[Cyclone792]

Enjoyable first half. Forgettable second half.

We've seen some of their potential recently in games against Louisville, Syracuse, and Villanova, and we've also seen some of the ugliness recently in St. John's and the second half tonight in Notre Dame.

I hope they're able to land in the Big East tournament, and that's my realistic goal for this season. They already do have three Big East wins, and they've got another four or five winnable Big East games. I wouldn't classify tonight's game as a winnable game, and it showed once the second half started.

[CTA513]

UC lost 91-74 and Notre Dame had 42 free throw attempts.

[Redlegs23]

Man that second half was frustrating. Hopefully they rebound in a big way Saturday against Pitt. Tonight's game goes to show how difficult it is to win on the road in the Big East. 7 point halftime lead turns into a 17 point loss.

[CrackerJack]

UC gave up 64 points in the 2nd half - wow.

[NorrisHopper30]

70% from the field in the 2nd half for ND, eww.

[SeeinRed]

As bad as the second half is to watch, I think this game was encouraging in the fact that if the Bearcats could have played at the level they did in the first half for the full 40 minutes, they would have walked out of there with a win. The difference was the D IMO. They were very good in the first half. They controlled the post and didn't chase the ball around like they did in the second half. When you are in a zone defense, you can't be flying around trying to make a steal or a block everytime the player has the ball. If you over pursue and get caught chasing like they did in the second half, you are going to open things up. How many others got frustrated that they were jumping at every player on the perimeter? They left so many shots open by watching the ball instead of the player. ND was able to capitalize and knock down a lot of shots. It looked like a dog when you hold a bone in front of them and move it around. The dog fixates on the bone instead of the entire picture and then faked out when you act like you throw the bone. Thats how bad they looked.

I don't know if UC got to cocky and were trying to make plays on D, or if they were just caught flat footed and unable to get themselves going causing them to try too hard, but the second half was an absolute disaster. I think the next thing this team needs to work on is their composure. Stay with your game and don't worry when the other team scores a couple quick points. Play the entire 40 minutes.

[BearcatShane]

Big Game vs. Pitt today at 4. This is huge, lets hope the Shoe is rockin' and UC is off to a 4-2 start in Big East play by this Evening.

[SeeinRed]

Just read this post on Bill Koch's blog:

nancy zimpher comments

One of our news reporters, Cliff Peale, conducted an interview with Nancy Zimpher this morning. They touched on many issues, just a few of which were related to athletics. Here's some of what she had to say about athletics:

UC met its quota of 9,000 or so fans for the bowl game and ended up making a profit on the game.

On the bubble and practice fields that are included in Brian Kelly’s new contract, she said any project would have to go through the university's normal budget process and the athletic department would have to raise its own money, which is what Mike Thomas has said all along.

She acknowledged that the costs of big-time sports, including coach's contracts and practice fields, are kind of surprising to her.

"I think our business planning could have been more front-loaded,” she said. “This is sort of a referendum on what it takes to be competitive in the Big East. I don't think we aspire to be the biggest program in the Big East. But it hits the pocketbook when you talk about comparable facilities. It hits the pocketbook when you talk about comparable coaches' salaries.”

It pretty much tells you everything you need to know about Nancy. She doesn't aspire to be the best, she just aspires to be average when it comes to athletics. That is probably the most disturbing part of her reign at UC. We don't need to win, just compete. Well, how do you think you make money off athletics? By putting an average team out there? Come on now. Do here, Lindner and Mike Brown all hang out together and talk about running a sports team/program? She may do wonders for the acedemic side of things, but it doesn't have to come at the expense of the athletics side. That really lowers my hopes of keeping BK around for any length of time.

[Cedric]

Just read this post on Bill Koch's blog:



It pretty much tells you everything you need to know about Nancy. She doesn't aspire to be the best, she just aspires to be average when it comes to athletics. That is probably the most disturbing part of her reign at UC. We don't need to win, just compete. Well, how do you think you make money off athletics? By putting an average team out there? Come on now. Do here, Lindner and Mike Brown all hang out together and talk about running a sports team/program? She may do wonders for the acedemic side of things, but it doesn't have to come at the expense of the athletics side. That really lowers my hopes of keeping BK around for any length of time.

She hasn't done wonders for the academic side. She's been pathetic. Student morale is at all time lows and the University is in economic chaos across the board. Most common citizens don't know much about how a University if being run and how things are going. They just assume that things are good because she fired the big, bad Huggs. They would be wrong. She has been terrible in every facet.

[GoReds33]

She hasn't done wonders for the academic side. She's been pathetic. Student morale is at all time lows and the University is in economic chaos across the board. Most common citizens don't know much about how a University if being run and how things are going. They just assume that things are good because she fired the big, bad Huggs. They would be wrong. She has been terrible in every facet.

I wouldn't say terrible. Now I was, and am a big Huggins backer. I was at his last home game he coached here. His firing was possibly deserved. Now on the academic and university side, I don't think she is doing too bad. Campus is looking better than ever. Sure, the whole university hit a snag with Varsity Village. There are projects that should be accomplished though. I hope she can get us over the budget crisis though.

[SeeinRed]

She hasn't done wonders for the academic side. She's been pathetic. Student morale is at all time lows and the University is in economic chaos across the board. Most common citizens don't know much about how a University if being run and how things are going. They just assume that things are good because she fired the big, bad Huggs. They would be wrong. She has been terrible in every facet.

I don't really know much about the acedemic side at the moment. I haven't been there for about a year, but I do trust what you say to be true. It really does suprise me that she still has a job here. She was brought in to "clean-up" UC, but the only thing she did was get rid of the coach that brought the college back to being relevant. Why do you extend the person you brought in to do your dirty work? She did whay you brought her in to do, and she has not done a single thing well. The Huggins fiasco was an absolute mess for the school both in PR and money. From what I know it was all over a personal grudge. When will it end.

[Hoosier Red]

To be fair, she didn't say she had no aspire to be the best program. Just said she didn't aspire to be the biggest. I think it's more of a budget thing.

I doubt the Boston Red Sox aspire to have the highest payroll in Baseball, but I imagine their goal is the be the best team in baseball.

[Matt700wlw]

UC giving it to #16 Pitt!!!

Up by 13 with 6 minutes to go!!!!

[CrackerJack]

UC up by 13 late with 6:26 left....

[CrackerJack]

And they pull it out by 3 - nice block by Bishop at the end, risky, but it worked.

4-2 in BE, 2-2 versus ranked teams. Big win.