8. How good can Cincinnati be? Mick Cronin took the leap of faith plenty of other coaches passed on, signing mercurial star Lance Stephenson to a letter of intent. On the court, there's no question he can get it done. He is New York City's all-time leading scorer, with 2,946 career points. If Cronin can keep Stephenson under control off the court and curb any potential ego clashes, the Bearcats -- a much-improved 8-10 in the league a year ago -- could be a sleeper team this season.

Cincinnati
Somewhere in Ohio, Deonta Vaughn is screaming "Finally!" The senior no longer has to carry the Bearcats by himself. With a vaunted rookie class that includes Lance Stephenson and, technically, Cashmere Wright, Cincinnati should make plenty of noise this season.

Bilas--

9. Cincinnati: The Bearcats are ready to turn the corner. Mick Cronin has brought in good talent and has coached them up. Having Cashmere Wright back after his knee injury will be a big plus alongside Deonta Vaughn, and allows Vaughn to work off the ball. Lance Stephenson is a super talent, but the key player is Yancy Gates. He can be as good as he wants to be, and if he exerts himself, nobody can stop him. This is an NCAA tournament team.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/notebook?p...nd/bigeast

9th place? How is that "ready to turn the corner"?

If UC finishes 9th, I'll be tremendously disappointed.

(08-25-2009 06:32 AM)BJUnklFkr Wrote:  9th place? How is that "ready to turn the corner"?

If UC finishes 9th, I'll be tremendously disappointed.

I couldn't agree more. That ninth place tag and yet saying "this is an NCAA tournament team" makes it sound like he is talking out of both sides of his mouth. In a slightly down year in the BE, I don't see nine teams making the tournament.

Honestly, this year I think you could take his #7-10 picks (PITT, ND, UC and Seton Hall) and put them in reverse order.

(08-25-2009 07:37 AM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  Honestly, this year I think you could take his #7-10 picks (PITT, ND, UC and Seton Hall) and put them in reverse order.

If UC is even in the #7-10 range I'll be disappointed. This is a top 6 Big East talented team.

agreed nacho.....at least 4-6 range......with our talent level and BE seemingly down from last year if we are worse than 7 it's going to be major disappointment.

Too many ifs to make a strong statement on the win side.

If Lance is suited up...
If the coaching staff can handle the teaching, the egos, the game strategy & execution. Did I mention egos and hurt feelings...
If Yancy plays to his potential...
If Thomas can contribute early and consistantly...
If McClain can show at least some improvement...
If Cashmere can remain injury free...

The coach before last had the gift of being able to yell, curse and make humble even the most difficult of players; and then come over, put an arm around, becoming the father figure. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. I've heard Mick has the yelling and cursing down, but I haven't heard that he also has the father part going. I hope he does, because tough love works.

This is the year.

Make it happen, Mick.

Even with the upgrades and extra year of experience, I still don't see UC finishing ahead of Nova, WVU, UL, UCONN, Cuse and maybe even my league dark horse Seton Hall. Just being objective. Aint' happening. Betting the house on a PG that has never played a minute in college, an all world freshman who has not been cleared to play yet, and a senior guard who tends to disappear when he is denied the ball is a recipe for an ulcer. I'd be freaking thrilled if this team wins 10 BE games and gets the #7 seed at MSG. If offered it right now, I'd take it in a heartbeat.

(08-25-2009 05:37 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  Even with the upgrades and extra year of experience, I still don't see UC finishing ahead of Nova, WVU, UL, UCONN, Cuse and maybe even my league dark horse Seton Hall. Just being objective. Aint' happening. Betting the house on a PG that has never played a minute in college, an all world freshman who has not been cleared to play yet, and a senior guard who tends to disappear when he is denied the ball is a recipe for an ulcer. I'd be freaking thrilled if this team wins 10 BE games and gets the #7 seed at MSG. If offered it right now, I'd take it in a heartbeat.

I agree I don't think UC will pass the top 4. But I think UC is closer to a top 4 team then a 7-10 team this year. Should be top 6 with the potential to shock and maybe move past someone in the top 4.

I don't understand how Georgetown goes from finishing 7-11 in the BE last year (and getting beat by us twice) to finishing #4 in the league. They lost arguably their best player and are replacing him with a talented but not overly impressive player in Hollis Thomas who has been with the team for the past year. They return Greg Monroe, Austin Freeman, and Chris Wright who are all good players but I still see a team that has a thin and not very physical frontcourt. I'd say losing Mike Williams but adding Cash Wright, Lance Stephenson, and Ibrahima Thomas certainly puts us much higher than our rating indicates. Seton Hall is also severely underrated, these rankings are a joke for the most part relying almost entirely on name prestige. I wish Katz would have done these rankings rather Bilas. If I had to do the rankings I'd say it would look something more like...
1. Nova
2. WVU
3. UConn
4. Cincy
5. Ville
6. Seton Hall
7. Syracuse
8. GTown
9. Pitt
10. ND

All I know is, I'm not putting up with any more losses vs. Providence, SHU, DePaul or USF. If UC finishes #9 based on any of those events, I'll consider this coming season a failure (Lance or not). If they lose to teams that actually prove better, then, not so much in the disappointment department.

(08-26-2009 12:42 AM)BJUnklFkr Wrote:  All I know is, I'm not putting up with any more losses vs. Providence, SHU, DePaul or USF. If UC finishes #9 based on any of those events, I'll consider this coming season a failure (Lance or not). If they lose to teams that actually prove better, then, not so much in the disappointment department.

maybe not seton hall so much, as we play them on the road i believe this year, and they will be a good team. but i do agree, we HAVE to beat the teams we are substantially better than on paper. last year, up until the three game slide at the end (at USF, SH, DePaul in MSG), i thought we did a good job of beating the teams we were supposed to beat while getting some surprise wins as well. my only concern was we probably should've gotten at least one win against providence, though they were a senior laden team. this year we have to seize the oppurtunity and take the games we SHOULD win, and try to get a couple we maybe SHOULDN'T win as well.

Yes Mr. Stealz... almost forgot, we'd better beat Xavier too.

(08-26-2009 04:20 PM)BJUnklFkr Wrote:  Yes Mr. Stealz... almost forgot, we'd better beat Xavier too.

that's always a plus...

I'm so glad Providence has lost all the dudes, esp McDermott. I friggin hated that guy. I could deal with a loss or maybe two to teams we should beat, but not in the friggin BE tourney.