Earlier this week, I kicked off the season review with a look at the Cincinnati program. Up next are the players themselves. Last will be a review of Mick Cronin. Since stat sheet lists players in alphabetical order, that's a good way to go through the roster. That works out especially well because the 3 men at the top of the roster played a combined 33 games.

#0 Jeremiah Davis

It's hard to get a good recap of Jeremiah Davis for this season because he only played in 4 games before injuring his wrist and missing the remainder of the season. Davis will receive a medical redshirt. Davis played nearly 11 minutes a game. He was going to be a key cog off the bench. 

Jeremiah Davis was in gunner mode this season. He used 29.3% of UC possessions while he was on the court. He took shots on 29% of his possessions. He was 7-18 from the field, 3-9 from 3 and 5-6 from the foul line. The 5-6 from the foul line set his career high in free throws made. Davis averaged 5.5 points a game. Jeremiah pulled down 10 rebounds, 2.5 a game. Davis only pulled in 25 as a freshman. He had 5 assists, 1.2 a game. He had 0 steals and 4 turnovers. He fouled 6 times. 

Davis played 13 minutes in the season opener, scoring 5 points on 2-5 shooting. He was 1-2 from 3. He had 3 assists and 1 rebound. Jeremiah scored a season high 9 points in just 10 minutes against Mississippi Valley. He was 2-4, 1-2 from 3 and a career best 4-4 from the foul line. Davis had 4 rebounds and 2 assists. 3 turnovers was the only bad stat. He cooled off against NCAA tournament team NC A&T with 5 points on 2-6. It was the only game he didn't make a 3. Davis had 4 rebounds in that contest. In his final game of the season, Jeremiah played 7 minutes, scored 3 points and had 1 rebound, which was his only offensive rebound of the season. 

So last  year was pretty much nothing for Jeremiah Davis. He would have been a shooter off the bench, which is something that this team desperately needed. He will have the chance at that role next season. He will fight for minutes at the point, although I don't know how good he is at running the point. He is a bit turnover prone and his defense has never been his calling card. The thing Davis does well is shoot. He's not a tremendous percentage shooter, but he will put up shots. The man does not lack confidence. UC should have some guys who can score next year. Jeremiah Davis will be one of them. For better and sometimes for worse. 

#10 Alex Eppensteiner

Alex Eppensteiner played in 7 games this season, starting 1. He played a little under 2 minutes a contest. Epp used 18.9% of UC possessions, which was his 3rd lowest usage rate. He did have a career best 21.6% shot percentage. Eppensteiner was a career worst 1-4 from the field. This was coming off a career best 2-4 as a junior. The 4 attempts tied his career high. Eppensteiner set his career high for 2 pointers attempted at 3. He was 0-1 from long range. Alex managed 2 free throw attempts. He finished 1-2. He ended his career 4-8 at the foul line. Kind of disappointing since he could probably hit 8 free throws in a row easily. Alex scored 3 points. He finished his career with 13 only 2,960 behind Oscar Robertson on the UC scoring list. 

Eppensteiner set a career high in assists with 3 and steals with 2. He had 1 rebound. Alex didn't turn the ball over at all this season. That ties his own UC record of 0 turnovers that he set as a sophomore. 2 of his 4 years Alex Eppensteiner didn't turn the ball over. 

AE saw 1 minute in the season opener and responded by missing a 3. Out of that frustration, he got one of his steals. Epp played a season high 3 minutes in the next game. He didn't take a shot, but he lent out an assist. He showed off his passing skills with an assist in the following game to go with his 1 rebound. Eppensteiner got on the board against NCAA tournament team NC A&T by going 1-2 at the line. This was also the game he shattered his career high in steals. It was a huge minute. We'll say that Alex took a career high 2 shots 4 games later against UALR. He missed them both. In his final non-conference attempt at scoring, Eppensteiner put in a bucket against Maryland-Eastern Shore. It was good that he did that because he didn't play until senior day. He started that game and had an early assist. Because that game went into overtime, it was one of the key assists for the game and helped UC to victory. Alex saw his last action in a Cincinnati uniform against Georgetown in the Big East tournament. He was on the floor for the final UC Big East game. 

Alex Eppensteiner had the career of a walk on. He ended up with a scholarship. He had fans chanting his name. He has the honor of starting UC's final Big East home game and being on the floor for UC's final Big East tournament game. I don't think anyone else can say that. That's a special thing that only Alex Eppensteiner can enjoy. 

#24 Kelvin Gaines

Out of the 3 men talked about in this post, Kelvin Gaines played the most this season. He played in 22 games. He averaged 6 minutes a contest, which was a little less than last year. Kelvin used a career high 11.2% of UC possessions. He had a career best 7.5% shot percentage. The problem with that was that Gaines was a career low 35.7% from the field. His true shooting percentage was 31.7%. Gaines was 5-14 from the field. I'm pretty sure 4 of his makes were dunks. Gaines attempted 7 free throws, a career best. He made just 1. That was down from his career high of 2 as a freshman. Gaines scored 11 points, 0.5 a game. His scoring was down from 0.8 a game. Gaines was also worse as a rebounder. He pulled in 31, 1.4 a game. He had 14 offensive boards, 11.6% offensive rebound percentage, but only had 17 defensive rebounds, a 14.3% defensive rebound percentage. That was 7% lower than last year. KG had 1 assist to 9 turnovers. Those were both worse than last year. He matched his total of 5 steals. Gaines blocked 15 shots, a career low. His 24 fouls were an improvement on 27 as a freshman. 

Gaines saw his first action in the second game of the season, where he scored a bucket, had 3 rebounds, 1 block and 4 fouls. Gaines didn't score the next outing, but he had 3 rebounds and 3 blocks against NCAA tournament team NC A&T. Gaines had 2 rebounds, a block and a steal total his next 3 games. He scored 2 against UMES with 3 rebounds and 2 blocks. Gaines was a defensive force in 6 minutes against Wright State as he blocked 3 shots. KG had a block total the next 2 games before he gave solid minutes against ND with 2 points and 4 rebounds. After playing 5 minutes total in the next 4 games, Gaines saw some regular action. 

Kelvin played in 11 of the last 14 games of the season. He scored 2 points on 1-2 with 2 boards against Rutgers and 2 points with 2 turnovers against Seton Hall. Gaines had 3 rebounds the next 2 games with a steal and a block in one of them. He blocked a shot in the win over Nova. Gaines didn't add much besides 2 missed put back attempts the next 3 games. KG got on the board against Louisville with his first made free throw of the season. He had 2 rebounds in that game. In his last significant action, Gaines played 11 minutes against USF with 1 assist, 1 steal and 1 block. He was on the floor for the final Big East game against Georgetown. 

Kelvin Gaines has a lot to improve on next season. For one, he has to learn how to set a screen without being called for an illegal screen. I'm not saying he has to learn the proper way, just the proper way to get away with illegal screens if he sets that variety. Gaines has to be more assertive offensively. We saw him take the most modest of steps, but he has a long way to go. Cincinnati was definitely playing 4 on 5 with him in the game. He also has to be more assertive defensively. In general, he needs to be more assertive. The only thing he doesn't seem afraid to do is trying to block shots. He will let other guys do the rebounding, he will let other guys do the scoring. He can't take a backseat. Gaines is going to be a junior next year. Juniors take steps forward. Kelvin Gaines has to take a step forward. 

Image via CBS

Gunner Kiel has changed colleges like a girl changes clothes, what up Katy Perry. After transferring out of Notre Dame, sources (SOURCES!!) are reporting that Kiel is landing at Cincinnati. Kiel was at Notre Dame last season so that means he has to sit out this season. He'll be eligible in 2014. Gunner has 3 years remaining as a Bearcat. 

Kiel has a lot of talent. He was ranked the #1 quarterback in the nation by rivals. He has also been a lot indecisive about choosing his schools. He originally committed to Indiana. Then to LSU. Then to Notre Dame. Now to Cincinnati. Kiel transferred from Notre Dame when he couldn't beat out fellow freshman Everett Golson, who ended up being pretty good. 

ESPN's Joe Schad says that the schools Kiel visited were Cincinnati, Miami and Ball State, not exactly traditional powers, and had some SEC schools on his list. Schad also says that Kiel has a good relationship with new offensive coordinator Eddie Gran and QB coach Darrin Hinshaw. 

Any way you slice this, it's good news for Cincinnati. Gunner Kiel is a hell of a talent. He has had his share of drama, but that appears to be out of the way now. He's going to have 2 years of rust on him before he plays a college game, which isn't ideal, but Brendon Kay had 5 years of not playing before he got his chance under the lights and he was great. 

Welcome to Cincinnati, Gunner Kiel. Hope you stay a while. 

The college basketball season has officially ended for everyone. It's a disappointing time for yours truly because college basketball is far and away my favorite sport. The teams I've been rooting for my entire life, the teams that I've cared about the most, the teams that have meant the most to me have been college basketball teams. There is something about college hoops that separates it from the the other sports. One part is that it's a 30 game season played over 5 months. At Cincinnati, we've been able to watch these 18 and 19 year old freshmen come in and develop for 4 years. The player who showed up in November is not the player who left in March. At least, that's the plan anyway. We've seen Kenyon Martin, Steve Logan, Lenny Stokes, Danny Fortson, Cashmere Wright, Bobby Brannen and many others develop into Bearcats we will remember for ages. Steve Logan turned from kind of rolly polly freshman into a player of the year gunner who outscored a team. Kenyon Martin went from a guy who blocked shots into winning every award possible and was the first pick in the NBA draft. They started off as role players, then turned into leaders for Cincinnati. They became a part of our lives for 4 years. 

This doesn't happen to this extent in other sports. College football is only 12 games. We are able to see the maturation of players not just from game to game, but of season to season. The past few years have been special when you take a step back. 5 years ago, the Bearcats were 18-14. They played a DePaul team in the Big East tournament that went through the conference slate without a win. That DePaul team was the worst team in Big East history. That DePaul team beat Cincinnati by 10. 

4 years ago Lance Stephenson came to Cincinnati. Expectations were high that UC would be able to make the tournament. After an up and down year, Cincinnati had a 3 game run in the Big East tournament that saw them play so hard and with so much heart. They lost on a buzzer beater to West Virginia to end the miracle run. Cincinnati played an NIT game that allowed Deonta Vaughn to become the all time leader in assists at Cincinnati. Vaughn was forced to carry a horrible team through 4 years of rebuilding. He wanted to do it. He was able to get Cincinnati to a better place by the time he left. Deonta Vaughn was the best player on bad teams, but he did so much for this program. I hope people remember him later. 

3 years ago our dreams started coming true. On the backs of guys like Yancy Gates and Dion Dixon and Rashad Bishop, guys who had grown and matured over the previous few seasons of losing, Cincinnati made the NCAA tournament. Cincinnati basketball was back. The Bearcats beat Missouri before falling to eventual national champion Connecticut. 

Last year, the Bearcats took the next step. With Gates and Dixon as seniors and Cashmere Wright and JaQuon Parker starting as juniors, Cincinnati broke through to the Sweet 16. Cincinnati hadn't been to the Sweet 16 in over a decade. Even with the great teams Bob Huggins had, Cincinnati had only reached the Sweet 16 twice since 1996. Mick Cronin kicked down the door in 2012. A one year tournament run was one thing. Back to back NCAA tournaments culminating in a Sweet 16 appearance was another. Cincinnati made the finals of the Big East tournament. They hadn't made the finals of a conference tournament since Tony Bobbitt was a Bearcat. It had been a dark time for the program. 2012 was the light. 

This season was a step back from that. Cincinnati had surpassed their season win total every year Cronin was the coach until this year. The only way they could have surpassed the win total from last year was by playing in the national title game last night. In a year where Cincinnati was expected to contend for a Big East title, the Bearcats finished 10th in the standings. Cincinnati was bounced in the second round of the Big East tournament. Cincinnati was a 10 seed for the NCAA tournament. They were bounced in the first round of that. 

Things ended with some disappointment, but there are a lot of positive things to point at. Cincinnati won 20 games for the 3rd straight season. They made the NCAA tournament for the 3rd year in a row. Cashmere Wright cemented his place in Cincinnati history by playing the most games out of anyone to wear a Bearcat uniform. He had the most steals in Cincinnati history. Wright started at point guard for 3 years. In each of those 3 years, Cincinnati went to the NCAA tournament.

Having a season full of unmet expectations is also a positive in a way. It takes a lot to start to expect to win. As a fan base, we've reached the point where we know Cincinnati can win, can make the tournament and can win tournament games. Before 2011, those expectations were not there. Mick Cronin has built a good thing. He's built something that can work and that can be successful. You aren't going to have chances to win every year. The window is very small. When you have players that you believe can win and do special things, losing in the first round hurts and is a disappointment. Just making the tournament isn't going to satisfy the fanbase like the first two years of it did. Now that Mick has built a winner, we want to see them win. 

Everyone wants to win and win right away. As fans, it's easy to look down the road at a program like Louisville. They are winning the national title. They won the Sugar Bowl. They are a comparable program to Cincinnati. If you grew up in the 90s, Louisville was a sagging program in basketball. Denny Crum's era ended with a whimper. Cincinnati was making the tournament every year. Louisville cycled back towards the top of college basketball like all good programs do. Cincinnati had a cycle the other way. The good news is that Cincinnati is cycling back towards the top. UC doesn't have the fancy, NBA style arena. They don't have the Hall of Fame coach. But we know Cincinnati basketball is special. We know that Cincinnati basketball can hang banners. We know Cincinnati can be #1.

I don't think it's unrealistic to think that those things can happen again. A season like 2012-13 might be evidence to the contrary to opposing minds. Sometimes you have to have the bubble of expectations popped. It can be a necessary step in moving forward. It's impossible to improve your win total every season as a coach. It's very hard to win in the NCAA tournament. It was very hard to win in the Big East. Mick Cronin said that he never had a team that worried as much as this team. While that bothers some people who hear that, I think it's not unreasonable to say that this won't be a problem for another Mick Cronin team. I hope to hell that he knows how to handle it now. Expectations can be hard for the players. They read the same things we read. They read the things we write on twitter. This club was not good at channeling their energy towards winning. That's something for Mick Cronin to work on in the future. 

The 2013-14 Bearcats are not going to a favorite to win their league. Not with Louisville and Memphis and Connecticut. I don't mind though. Cronin has gotten the most out of the teams that people didn't believe in. He's made them buy in. I think next year's team will compete. It's not unreasonable at all to start expecting Cincinnati to contend for league titles every year. Not with our league being a normal league instead of a monster league. Last season was a misstep. The good news for the program is that our misstep season resulted in 22 wins and an NCAA tournament berth. This next season is a bit of a rebuilding effort, but the future is bright, my friends. The future is bright. 

The old Big East has decided on a new name. Instead of the great, great option of Conference Scott, the presidents have agreed on the American Athletic Conference, AAC for short. Dan Wolken just tweeted that the preferred name for the league will be "The American." 

The AAC is a million times better than the America 12. The American is something that I could get use to, although they just said that will be the brand and not the ackronym. AAC, the American, it doesn't matter. I just didn't want the A12. Conference Scott though, it really got the shaft. 

I asked a source how they felt about the new league name. They replied "That's whack." 

The league might have just announced the name, but they already released a league wide fight song that will play before the national anthem at every conference game. 

With the season over, I'm thinking of things to start for the offseason. There will be a basketball season in review coming in the following weeks. There will be some things about football and a lot of general nonsense. Like today for instance. There are a couple of topics that I want to talk about, but none of them deserve a full post. So I'll touch on them all at once. Well, I'll touch on them all separately but in the same post. Let's get to it. 

Mike Rice

As a lot of you know by now, Mike Rice was fired by Rutgers for the horrible practice video that was released to the public yesterday. When Rice was suspended earlier in the season, I remember there was some talk about him being more severely disciplined. But without seeing the video, it was hard to be outraged. Until yesterday, Rice was probably going to skate by and be the coach as Rutgers moved to the Big 10. The outrage about Rice was warranted. Not just because Rice slammed his players by dropping f bombs, no the other one, on them, but he also slammed them with basketballs. I forget who pointed this out, but one of the most disturbing things about the Rice video was that he fired basketballs at his players and the assistants handed him a new ball instantly. Things like this were happening for his entirety at Rutgers judging by things like that. Some of the former Rutgers players have said that it wasn't that bad and the tape was taken out of context. But just because they didn't think it was that bad doesn't mean that it wasn't bad.

Acting like an asshole in any capacity is still acting like an asshole, no matter how much respect or regard you hold the person with. Mike Rice was an asshole. I think that even if Rutgers made the final four, Rice would have been fired for this. Winning and losing has a difference on perception. Mike Rice was a losing coach at Rutgers. He was an asshole. 1 + 1 = 2 in this scenario. People can talk about tough practices and players getting cussed at, those things are fine. There is a line in sports. When you cross it, you deserve to GTFO. I hope that Mike Rice can get his life in order. He'll probably get another chance in coaching. I hope that he doesn't succeed because I don't like him, but I also hope he gets over his issues. 

Women's Basketball

I've watched under 10 women's basketball games in my life. I got sucked in the other night with the Louisville-Baylor game. Some of it was because of Baylor's historic streak, Brittney Griner and Game of Thrones didn't start until 9. What I saw was very different. I know the rules between women's and men's hoops were different. There is a shorter shot clock for the ladies, there is no 10 seconds call, set shots are encouraged, and so on. The shorter shot clock was interesting. Why do they have 30 seconds for the women but 35 for the men? Shouldn't it be the other way around? I think a 30 second shot clock is coming sooner rather than later. The sport needs it. That's another topic completely. 10 seconds should be a thing though, get on that, women's hoops. 

The thing that jumped out to me about women's basketball had nothing to do with the actual games. Those were just women playing basketball. What stands out is the officiating. People joke about men's officials being awful, being biased and being the worst, but good lord does women's basketball take it a whole new level. The seemingly random whistles, calling touch fouls that went uncalled the whole game, the technical on Louisville's coach, the non technical on Baylor's coach when she tore her jacket off like she was in biblical times and her first born had died, the awful charge call that led to that call, the seemingly random nature of the games makes it hard to watch. It's also hard to watch if you aren't use to the game. There are some people who can't watch college basketball because it is inferior to the NBA. I feel this way about women's basketball. Trying to get into it with the officials being picked from the local YMCA makes it even harder. 

College sports are a big enough money making industry that it is time to sink some of the money back into officials. Just like the pro sports are going to full time officials, college should do this as well. Incompetence at all levels seems to be at an all time high. With the technology we have to see what's right and wrong in half a second, this is something that can be fixed. The thing I never understood about the human element argument in baseball was that if we can help the humans get the calls correct, wouldn't that help them get the calls correct more often? It doesn't in some parts, because like the NBA and NFL, the officials can rely on replay to help bail them out. Getting things correct is important. College officials do not do this. Especially in women's basketball. I gave women's hoops the ol' college try, but unless I one day have a daughter that plays college basketball, I will not be partaking in this sport very often as a protest about the officials. Taking a stand. 

Baseball

Something happened to me between October and Monday where watching the game of baseball live did not satisfy my interests. I was not really looking forward to Opening Day, that could have had something to do with it. My interest in baseball itself hasn't waned because I have watched a handful of games the past 2 days. What has happened is that I have become spoiled by my DVR. Baseball is the ultimate DVR sport. 

Before I get into this topic, I will acknowledge the people who hate watching sports on their DVR. It can be very hard to ignore score updates, especially in the age of twitter. It can be hard to not just fast forward to the end to see what is happening live. I have done that before. Most recently when Homer Bailey threw his no hitter. I was not watching that game live, but heard about the no hitter so I skipped right to the end. That's more of an issue for other sports. With football and basketball, the end is the most important part. The first 58 minutes don't matter as much when Peyton Manning has the ball down 4. The first 43 minutes of an NBA game are nice, but you want the last 5 minutes when LeBron or Kobe or Durant is going to take over. The end is the most important part of those sports. 

Baseball is different. If you miss the first inning, you could miss all of the scoring. I suppose you could miss all the scoring in a football game if the score after the first quarter was 42-0, but that is very rare. No first quarter lead is safe in basketball. The other events are timed. Baseball is not. That really helps with the DVR case. The game could be 3 hours, 3 and a half hours, or even roughly 4 hours like opening day, you never know what to invest in baseball. It's not the 3 hours 10 minutes of NFL action. It's not the 2 and a half hours of basketball. That could be one of the reasons that someone loves watching it live. I enjoy DVRing baseball because I know that the time of the game doesn't matter, I'm getting that puppy watched in about 40 minutes.

There is a lot of dead time in football, but at least they are huddling. In baseball, all the dead time is spent standing. The pitcher stands, the batter stands, the catcher squats. The fielders get ready for the pitch. Sometimes all of this happens for 20 seconds and the pitcher steps off the rubber or the batter steps out. The reason the crowd boos when these things happen is not because of the flow of the game, but because they are wasting our lives with this. Do you know what the most boring time on earth is? It's the time between when a batter gets ready for the next pitch after he hits a foul ball that makes him start running towards first base. He walks back to the batters box, picks up the bat, does practice swings, steps back in and waits on the pitcher. It seems like this takes an hour. 

This could be a sign that I'm becoming ADD and I'm a product of the technology overload that we are all experiencing. When I watch off the DVR though, I don't look at my phone, I don't check twitter, I just watch the game. If anything, I'm becoming more focused. I've used some weird justifications today, but that one might have been the biggest stretch. 

Final Note

I've been thinking of starting a podcast. If anyone knows a good host, drop a comment or leave me a note on twitter. Thanks.