Know Your Opponent: Radford Highlanders
Tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm on ESPN3, the Cincinnati Bearcats return home to host the Radford Highlanders. The Bearcats are looking for their second win in a row following the suspensions of 4 players. Ge'Lawn Guyn returns for the Bearcats. He will see minutes in the reserve guard role. Sorry, Jeremiah Davis. The rest of the team looks to build on their performance against Wright State. Cincinnati is looking for it's first win against a Big South team this season, as they previously lost to Presbyterian. As did Radford. Unfortunately for the Highlanders, they have dropped their last 23 games away from home. That should not change tomorrow. Let's talk about the teams.
Record: 6-3
Coach: Mick Cronin 93-80
Vs Radford: First Meeting
Vs Big South: 8-2
G: Cashmere Wright - The junior point guard plays nearly 33 minutes, scores 9 points with 4.8 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1.3 steals. Wright is hitting 42% from the field, but only 29% from 3 and 61% at the free throw line. Wright uses 21.2% of the UC possessions while on the floor, where he has a 95.4 offensive rating. Cash is hitting 51% of his 2s, but he's taken 31 triples and only made 9. He's also made 9 FTs while only getting there 17 times. Wright has improved his rebounding, getting 11% of the defensive boards this season. He sports a nice 2.6 steal pct. He's turning the ball over 3 times a game, 11 turnovers the last 4 games, which leaves him with a 28.8 turnover pct. That's out of 100 possessions, he's turning the ball over nearly 29% of the time. Wright assists on nearly 31% of the UC made FGs. His assist/turnover ratio is 1.5.
G: Dion Dixon - The senior guard is getting 35.5 minutes a game, in which he scores 13.1 points with 4.1 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.4 steals. He's only hitting 38% from the field, 32.6% from deep an 66% from the foul line. Dixon uses 24.2% of the UC possessions, the most on the team even including Gates, sporting a 99.9 offensive rating. 14 of his 37 FGs have been 3s. Dixon has gotten to the line a lot lately, at least 6 attempts in 5 of the last 6 games, but is only hitting 63.8%. He's only had 3 games this year where he's hit multiple 3s. Dixon hits the offensive glass hard, 7.4%, but not so much defensively, 7.2%. He has a nice 2.7 steal pct. Dion has 14 assists to 22 turnovers.
G: Sean Kilpatrick - Kilpatrick gets 35 minutes a game where he averages a team high 15.1 points a game, with 4.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists. Kilpatrick is hitting 45% from the field, 41.8% from 3 and 82.6% from the free throw line. Kilpatrick uses 21.3% of the UC possessions in which he sports a great 115.8 offensive rating. 55 of his 104 shots have been 3s. Killa doesn't get to the line much, 23 attempts, 22.1 rate. He pulls home 7% of the offensive rebounds and 8.3% of the defensive boards. He's only assisting on 8.6% of the UC FGs. Kilpatrick is the go to guy for the UC Bearcats.
G: JaQuon Parker - Parker is getting 19 minutes a game, scoring 9 points with 4.5 rebounds. He's 6-10 from the field, 2-3 from deep and 4-5 at the line. Parker has used 23.6% of the UC possessions, which has seen him turn the ball over 4 times. 6 of his 9 rebounds have been offensive, 18.5%, while he gets 9.6% of the defensive rebounds. Parker gives UC a different look. He helps spread the floor more and give UC different options. Parker has a nose for offensive rebounding, as you can see.
F: Justin Jackson - Jackson is getting about 26 minutes a game, where he is throwing up 4.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.9 blocks and 1.3 steals. Justin is 51.4% from the field and 44% at the line. He uses only 14.6% of the possessions, some of which are turnovers, 1.6 a game, 28.3 turnover pct. Jackson gets mainly points off offensive rebounds, which he pulls in 9.1% of all offensive boards. He's getting 18.3% of the defensive. Jackson has a 3.3 steal pct, which is quite good. He has a 7.9 block pct which is 104 in the nation. His story are fouls. He's gets dinged for over 3 a game and has fouled out of 4 games. He fouled out of 2 last year.
Bench: Ge'Lawn Guyn - The freshman coming off his suspension is getting 11.5 minutes and scoring 2.2 points. He's 31.6% from the field, 33% from 3. He's 6-19 from the field, 3-9 from 3. He's taken 6 FTs and made 3. Lots of 6's there. Guyn had 1 game where he got his shot to fall. He can't be a afraid to pull the trigger now, since he's definitely getting 10 minutes at least. Jeremiah Davis saw 11, so Guyn should see around that. Dixon, and especially Cash, shouldn't play all of the minutes.
Jermaine Sanders - The freshman small forward is coming off his best game. He's getting 8 minutes and scoring 2.3 points. Sanders is hitting 58% from the field, 50% from 3 and 40% at the line. He uses 14.2% of the possessions. His numbers, and confidence hopefully, took a huge boost after a 3-3 from deep performance against Wright State. Sanders showed some rebounding chops in that game, and is now getting 10.1% of the defensive boards.
Kelvin Gaines - In 7.5 minutes a game, the freshman center is averaging 1.7 rebounds, 1.2 blocks and 0.2 points. He's scored 1 basket. Gaines uses 5% of the UC possessions, which is very low. His job is to rebound, which he has getting 24.3% of the defensive rebounds. He has an 18.1 block pct, which is very high. Defense and rebounding is what Gaines does.
Jeremiah Davis - Davis has only played in 4 games where he got 7.5 minutes. He hasn't scored on 4 attempts. He does have 5 rebounds, but he also has 5 turnovers. I fear his playing time this season is approaching not much. Hopefully he gets late minutes tomorrow and can score.
Alex Eppensteiner - He comes off the bench throwing up trillions.
Record: 3-8, 0-2 in Big South
Coach: Mike Jones 3-8
G: Chance Smith - The senior is getting 25 minutes, where he averages 4 points, 1.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1 steal. He's 33% from the field, 28% from 3 and 50% at the foul line. He's only 1 of 2 from the line though. He uses 10.7% of possessions, which isn't much at all. That's a good thing because he's not a good player. He fouls, 2.2 per game, and turns the ball over, 23.5 turnover pct, a lot.
G: RJ Price - The freshman guard plays 27 minutes a game, averages 7.4 points, 3 rebounds and 2.8 assists. He is only 27% from the field, 30% from 3 and 59% at the line. He uses 22.3% of possessions, even though he's 27-100 from the field. He will turn it over a bit, 2.4 a game, 23.6 turnover pct. He does get guys involved, 22.8% of the Radford FGs come off his assists. Other than that, not an offensive star.
G: Jareal Smith - Four guys really dominate the ball for Radford, the sophomore guard is one of them. In 24 minutes, Smith scores 8.8 points with 2.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists. He's hitting a miserable 31% from the field, 24% from 3, but 80% at the foul line. Smith uses 25.1% of Radford possessions because he's a gunner. Someone who is 33-105 and 11-45 from deep should not be a gunner at all, yet Smith is. When he's not shooting, Smith can be seen turning the ball over 2.3 times a game, 22.8% turnover pct. For a team that can't shoot, Radford has guys who love to.
F: Tolga Cerrah - The sophomore forward is averaging 19 minutes a game with 4.8 points and 4.1 rebounds. Tolga is 47.7% form the field and 42.9% from the foul line. He uses a modest 17.3% of possessions. A large part of that are turnovers, 1.6 a game, 28.5 turnover pct. He's mainly a defensive rebounding threat, 15.8% of defensive boards. Cerrah can't stay on the floor because of fouls, 3.3 a game and 3 disqualifications.
F: Johnathan Edwards - The senior forward puts up a Radford best 9.9 points and 6.8 rebounds in about 25 minutes a game. He's hitting shots at 43%. He's Justin Jackson at the line, 52% this year, 47.5% on his career. He's one of the guys that will take a lot of the shots, 24.8 possession pct, and one of the few guys that puts the ball in the basket, 91 offensive rating. He's 43-100 from the field. Edwards is a nice rebounder, 11.2 offensive rebound pct and 18.7 defensive. He can block shots. He can also get in a lot of foul trouble.
Bench: Javonte Green - The freshman gets 18 minutes off the bench, scores 6.4 points and pulls home 5.8 rebounds with 1.3 steals. He's hitting 39.5% form the field and 64% at the line. Green is the 4th guy that uses a ton of possessions, 25%. He's 30-76 from the field, 0-11 from deep. He's only taken 17 FTs. He's 6-4, but a has nose for rebounding, getting 16.7% of the offensive boards and 17.2% of the defensive. He's got a 4.3 steal pct, which is quite good. Once he learns the game more, Green could be solid.
Brian Darden - Another freshman guard off the bench, Darden averages 7 points in 16 minutes. He's hitting 35.8% from the field, 45.9% from 3 and 83% at the foul line. He uses 20.7% of possessions and has a nice 108.3 offensive rating. He's a pure 3 point bomber, 17 of 19 made shots and 37 of 53 total shots have been triples. If he's not shooting, he's not doing anything else.
Lukas Winegarner - The sophomore big man is putting up 2.9 points and 2.6 boards in 10 minutes this season. He's 40% from the field, 77.8% from the foul line. He uses 20.6% of possessions, a large part of it off 13 turnovers, which turns out to be Lukas turning the ball over nearly a third of the time. He's a good rebound for the short time, 11% of all offensive boards, 16.8% of defensive. He will block a shot or 2.
Blake Smith - The junior has found himself on the bench after 2 years of mainly starting. In 15 minutes, he's putting up 6.3 points and 3.1 rebounds. He's hitting a career best 45% from the field, 33% from deep and 83% at the line. He uses 19.4% of possessions, which should probably be more because he can actually score. He does most of his rebounding on the defensive end. Smith isn't a huge turnover threat.
Kyle Noreen - The freshman guard, another one, is getting about 11 minutes, where he averages 1.5 points and 1.7 rebounds. He's been awful from the field, shooting 21% and 15% from 3. He has made more FTs, 5, than FGs, 4. Noreen knows this, so he only uses 10.8% of possessions. Most of his shots are 3s, 13 of 19. He will only get defensive boards.
Daniel Mitchell - This senior guard is getting a career best 14 minutes, scoring a career best 2.8 points with a career best 1.9 rebounds. He's shooting a career best 34% from the field, but only 18% from 3. Mitchell uses 13.8% of possessions and is 14-41 from the field. He gets some defensive rebounds and doesn't turn it over a lot. That's about it.
Keys
Get out to a quick start. It doesn't have to be a Wright State type of start, just a solid start. Send Radford a message. It was great to see everyone get involved to start the last game, and quite frankly, there is no reason why that shouldn't happen for this game. Dixon, Kilpatrick, Parker and Cash should all get off shots in the first segment. They should all get assists the first segment. I would love to see this team share the ball more. It's a good thing.
Drive to the basket more. The 3 point barrage was nice against Wright State, but the Bearcats can use their superior talent to get to the goal against Radford. They can rack up fouls and get to the line. Send the Highlander bigs to the bench. High percentage shots are high percentage for a reason. Let's see some aggression.
No easy shots on defense (while the game is in doubt). The Bearcats are still undersized, which is why they have to challenge more shots. UC gave up some easy buckets to the Raiders. They can probably give up some against the Highlanders, but not while the game is in doubt. Easy shots late don't really matter. I'm adding while the game is in doubt to the beginning. This is another sending a message deal.
Stay focused. UC's players might be hearing a lot of things about how good they are after they crushed Wright State. UC has had a problem sleepwalking against opponents they should beat up on. Like another Big South team already mentioned. With not a big crowd expected for tomorrow, the focus has to be on Radford. I'm kind of talking like UC has a chance to lose this game, and while they do, it's not big and they should win the game by 20 points. The intensity was there for Wright State. It has to carry over. Bearcat nation against the world.
Prediction
Cincinnati 74 Radford 58
Record: 6-3
Coach: Mick Cronin 93-80
Vs Radford: First Meeting
Vs Big South: 8-2
G: Cashmere Wright - The junior point guard plays nearly 33 minutes, scores 9 points with 4.8 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1.3 steals. Wright is hitting 42% from the field, but only 29% from 3 and 61% at the free throw line. Wright uses 21.2% of the UC possessions while on the floor, where he has a 95.4 offensive rating. Cash is hitting 51% of his 2s, but he's taken 31 triples and only made 9. He's also made 9 FTs while only getting there 17 times. Wright has improved his rebounding, getting 11% of the defensive boards this season. He sports a nice 2.6 steal pct. He's turning the ball over 3 times a game, 11 turnovers the last 4 games, which leaves him with a 28.8 turnover pct. That's out of 100 possessions, he's turning the ball over nearly 29% of the time. Wright assists on nearly 31% of the UC made FGs. His assist/turnover ratio is 1.5.
G: Dion Dixon - The senior guard is getting 35.5 minutes a game, in which he scores 13.1 points with 4.1 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.4 steals. He's only hitting 38% from the field, 32.6% from deep an 66% from the foul line. Dixon uses 24.2% of the UC possessions, the most on the team even including Gates, sporting a 99.9 offensive rating. 14 of his 37 FGs have been 3s. Dixon has gotten to the line a lot lately, at least 6 attempts in 5 of the last 6 games, but is only hitting 63.8%. He's only had 3 games this year where he's hit multiple 3s. Dixon hits the offensive glass hard, 7.4%, but not so much defensively, 7.2%. He has a nice 2.7 steal pct. Dion has 14 assists to 22 turnovers.
G: Sean Kilpatrick - Kilpatrick gets 35 minutes a game where he averages a team high 15.1 points a game, with 4.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists. Kilpatrick is hitting 45% from the field, 41.8% from 3 and 82.6% from the free throw line. Kilpatrick uses 21.3% of the UC possessions in which he sports a great 115.8 offensive rating. 55 of his 104 shots have been 3s. Killa doesn't get to the line much, 23 attempts, 22.1 rate. He pulls home 7% of the offensive rebounds and 8.3% of the defensive boards. He's only assisting on 8.6% of the UC FGs. Kilpatrick is the go to guy for the UC Bearcats.
G: JaQuon Parker - Parker is getting 19 minutes a game, scoring 9 points with 4.5 rebounds. He's 6-10 from the field, 2-3 from deep and 4-5 at the line. Parker has used 23.6% of the UC possessions, which has seen him turn the ball over 4 times. 6 of his 9 rebounds have been offensive, 18.5%, while he gets 9.6% of the defensive rebounds. Parker gives UC a different look. He helps spread the floor more and give UC different options. Parker has a nose for offensive rebounding, as you can see.
F: Justin Jackson - Jackson is getting about 26 minutes a game, where he is throwing up 4.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.9 blocks and 1.3 steals. Justin is 51.4% from the field and 44% at the line. He uses only 14.6% of the possessions, some of which are turnovers, 1.6 a game, 28.3 turnover pct. Jackson gets mainly points off offensive rebounds, which he pulls in 9.1% of all offensive boards. He's getting 18.3% of the defensive. Jackson has a 3.3 steal pct, which is quite good. He has a 7.9 block pct which is 104 in the nation. His story are fouls. He's gets dinged for over 3 a game and has fouled out of 4 games. He fouled out of 2 last year.
Bench: Ge'Lawn Guyn - The freshman coming off his suspension is getting 11.5 minutes and scoring 2.2 points. He's 31.6% from the field, 33% from 3. He's 6-19 from the field, 3-9 from 3. He's taken 6 FTs and made 3. Lots of 6's there. Guyn had 1 game where he got his shot to fall. He can't be a afraid to pull the trigger now, since he's definitely getting 10 minutes at least. Jeremiah Davis saw 11, so Guyn should see around that. Dixon, and especially Cash, shouldn't play all of the minutes.
Jermaine Sanders - The freshman small forward is coming off his best game. He's getting 8 minutes and scoring 2.3 points. Sanders is hitting 58% from the field, 50% from 3 and 40% at the line. He uses 14.2% of the possessions. His numbers, and confidence hopefully, took a huge boost after a 3-3 from deep performance against Wright State. Sanders showed some rebounding chops in that game, and is now getting 10.1% of the defensive boards.
Kelvin Gaines - In 7.5 minutes a game, the freshman center is averaging 1.7 rebounds, 1.2 blocks and 0.2 points. He's scored 1 basket. Gaines uses 5% of the UC possessions, which is very low. His job is to rebound, which he has getting 24.3% of the defensive rebounds. He has an 18.1 block pct, which is very high. Defense and rebounding is what Gaines does.
Jeremiah Davis - Davis has only played in 4 games where he got 7.5 minutes. He hasn't scored on 4 attempts. He does have 5 rebounds, but he also has 5 turnovers. I fear his playing time this season is approaching not much. Hopefully he gets late minutes tomorrow and can score.
Alex Eppensteiner - He comes off the bench throwing up trillions.
Record: 3-8, 0-2 in Big SouthCoach: Mike Jones 3-8
G: Chance Smith - The senior is getting 25 minutes, where he averages 4 points, 1.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1 steal. He's 33% from the field, 28% from 3 and 50% at the foul line. He's only 1 of 2 from the line though. He uses 10.7% of possessions, which isn't much at all. That's a good thing because he's not a good player. He fouls, 2.2 per game, and turns the ball over, 23.5 turnover pct, a lot.
G: RJ Price - The freshman guard plays 27 minutes a game, averages 7.4 points, 3 rebounds and 2.8 assists. He is only 27% from the field, 30% from 3 and 59% at the line. He uses 22.3% of possessions, even though he's 27-100 from the field. He will turn it over a bit, 2.4 a game, 23.6 turnover pct. He does get guys involved, 22.8% of the Radford FGs come off his assists. Other than that, not an offensive star.
G: Jareal Smith - Four guys really dominate the ball for Radford, the sophomore guard is one of them. In 24 minutes, Smith scores 8.8 points with 2.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists. He's hitting a miserable 31% from the field, 24% from 3, but 80% at the foul line. Smith uses 25.1% of Radford possessions because he's a gunner. Someone who is 33-105 and 11-45 from deep should not be a gunner at all, yet Smith is. When he's not shooting, Smith can be seen turning the ball over 2.3 times a game, 22.8% turnover pct. For a team that can't shoot, Radford has guys who love to.
F: Tolga Cerrah - The sophomore forward is averaging 19 minutes a game with 4.8 points and 4.1 rebounds. Tolga is 47.7% form the field and 42.9% from the foul line. He uses a modest 17.3% of possessions. A large part of that are turnovers, 1.6 a game, 28.5 turnover pct. He's mainly a defensive rebounding threat, 15.8% of defensive boards. Cerrah can't stay on the floor because of fouls, 3.3 a game and 3 disqualifications.
F: Johnathan Edwards - The senior forward puts up a Radford best 9.9 points and 6.8 rebounds in about 25 minutes a game. He's hitting shots at 43%. He's Justin Jackson at the line, 52% this year, 47.5% on his career. He's one of the guys that will take a lot of the shots, 24.8 possession pct, and one of the few guys that puts the ball in the basket, 91 offensive rating. He's 43-100 from the field. Edwards is a nice rebounder, 11.2 offensive rebound pct and 18.7 defensive. He can block shots. He can also get in a lot of foul trouble.
Bench: Javonte Green - The freshman gets 18 minutes off the bench, scores 6.4 points and pulls home 5.8 rebounds with 1.3 steals. He's hitting 39.5% form the field and 64% at the line. Green is the 4th guy that uses a ton of possessions, 25%. He's 30-76 from the field, 0-11 from deep. He's only taken 17 FTs. He's 6-4, but a has nose for rebounding, getting 16.7% of the offensive boards and 17.2% of the defensive. He's got a 4.3 steal pct, which is quite good. Once he learns the game more, Green could be solid.
Brian Darden - Another freshman guard off the bench, Darden averages 7 points in 16 minutes. He's hitting 35.8% from the field, 45.9% from 3 and 83% at the foul line. He uses 20.7% of possessions and has a nice 108.3 offensive rating. He's a pure 3 point bomber, 17 of 19 made shots and 37 of 53 total shots have been triples. If he's not shooting, he's not doing anything else.
Lukas Winegarner - The sophomore big man is putting up 2.9 points and 2.6 boards in 10 minutes this season. He's 40% from the field, 77.8% from the foul line. He uses 20.6% of possessions, a large part of it off 13 turnovers, which turns out to be Lukas turning the ball over nearly a third of the time. He's a good rebound for the short time, 11% of all offensive boards, 16.8% of defensive. He will block a shot or 2.
Blake Smith - The junior has found himself on the bench after 2 years of mainly starting. In 15 minutes, he's putting up 6.3 points and 3.1 rebounds. He's hitting a career best 45% from the field, 33% from deep and 83% at the line. He uses 19.4% of possessions, which should probably be more because he can actually score. He does most of his rebounding on the defensive end. Smith isn't a huge turnover threat.
Kyle Noreen - The freshman guard, another one, is getting about 11 minutes, where he averages 1.5 points and 1.7 rebounds. He's been awful from the field, shooting 21% and 15% from 3. He has made more FTs, 5, than FGs, 4. Noreen knows this, so he only uses 10.8% of possessions. Most of his shots are 3s, 13 of 19. He will only get defensive boards.
Daniel Mitchell - This senior guard is getting a career best 14 minutes, scoring a career best 2.8 points with a career best 1.9 rebounds. He's shooting a career best 34% from the field, but only 18% from 3. Mitchell uses 13.8% of possessions and is 14-41 from the field. He gets some defensive rebounds and doesn't turn it over a lot. That's about it.
Keys
Get out to a quick start. It doesn't have to be a Wright State type of start, just a solid start. Send Radford a message. It was great to see everyone get involved to start the last game, and quite frankly, there is no reason why that shouldn't happen for this game. Dixon, Kilpatrick, Parker and Cash should all get off shots in the first segment. They should all get assists the first segment. I would love to see this team share the ball more. It's a good thing. Drive to the basket more. The 3 point barrage was nice against Wright State, but the Bearcats can use their superior talent to get to the goal against Radford. They can rack up fouls and get to the line. Send the Highlander bigs to the bench. High percentage shots are high percentage for a reason. Let's see some aggression. No easy shots on defense (while the game is in doubt). The Bearcats are still undersized, which is why they have to challenge more shots. UC gave up some easy buckets to the Raiders. They can probably give up some against the Highlanders, but not while the game is in doubt. Easy shots late don't really matter. I'm adding while the game is in doubt to the beginning. This is another sending a message deal. Stay focused. UC's players might be hearing a lot of things about how good they are after they crushed Wright State. UC has had a problem sleepwalking against opponents they should beat up on. Like another Big South team already mentioned. With not a big crowd expected for tomorrow, the focus has to be on Radford. I'm kind of talking like UC has a chance to lose this game, and while they do, it's not big and they should win the game by 20 points. The intensity was there for Wright State. It has to carry over. Bearcat nation against the world. Prediction
Cincinnati 74 Radford 58
