TicketsCINCINNATI - The preseason portion of the 2020-21 campaign for the University of Cincinnati men's basketball team continues to take shape.
The second edition of Bearcats under head coach John Brannen returns three starters from last season's squad that posted a 20-10 overall mark, tied for second in the American Athletic Conference (13-5) and shared the regular-season league crown.
Seniors guard Keith Williams (12.6 points, 4.6 rebounds) and center Chris Vogt (11.0 points and 5.9 rebounds) each started 29 games while sophomore guard Mika Adams-Woods (5.0 points, 1.6 assists) started 19 of UC's final 20 games.
Redshirt-junior forward Mamoudou Diarra (3.0 points, 2.8 rebounds) made more impactful contributions as the season progressed while sophomore guards Jeremiah Davenport (18 games) and Zach Harvey (26 games) showed flashes of their potential as reserves a year ago.
Seven newcomers also pepper the 2020-21 roster, including graduate transfer forward Rapolas Ivanauskas from Colgate and junior transfer guard David DeJulius from Michigan. The freshman class consists of forwards Tari Eason and Viktor Lakhin and guards Mike Saunders Jr., and twins Mason and Gabe Madsen.
Q&A WITH COACH BRANNEN
What do you like early on about this group:
"You never know the personality of your entire team until you're put in the fire, so I'm still evaluating that piece. One of the things I think I like and hope it continues is we have a chance to be an everyday team. We have guys that are willing to be everyday guys. Every day they bring focus, they bring energy, they bring a level of coach-ability. They want to get better each and every day.
"Consistency in my mind wins out, even over talent. We've got a chance to be talented, but we're really young. So being an everyday team allows seven or eight new faces to be able to get acclimated a lot quicker than if we were a team that just picked and chose when we wanted to practice hard."
What are you looking to get out of these practices early in the preseason:
"We've got to have continuity in terms of getting to know each other. I don't know everybody's game in our system yet. They've got to understand how to play off guys in terms of the communication that takes place offensively and defensively.
"And like anything in our system are habits. We have to build our habits to the point where they will be effective when adversity hits in the game. When things start rocking you fall back to your habits. We've got to make sure that those habits are built strong enough early in the season so they can sustain us through the rest of the season."
How helpful is it for you now in your second season to have a handful of players who have gone through a preseason with you before and know what to expect:
"You can see their eyes light up because when I yell a drill, they know the drill. It's like anything else, when you know what you are doing it goes faster. When you don't, you slow down and you think too much. I told them last year, this time next year the drills will be something you understand. That's why we have carry over. They're really hitting their spots quicker.
"When you understand what to do then you get the most out of the drill. You get the most options out of it. You understand the nuances of where it plays into parts in the game. Where when you are new, you're just trying to get to the spots. You don't even know why the drill makes sense in the games because you don't know what you don't know in your first year. That's why it's important to have some continuity of a roster because the system is based on that."
On the excitement of having preseason practices underway:
"One of the things that's happened in college basketball – we didn't have it this season because of the pandemic – the summer bleeds into the fall which bleeds into the first practice. October 15th was always the first practice. Midnight Madness, everybody got amped-up for that. Now it's kind of been all one season.
"We've gotten them some different uniforms for the first few practices. We've put them in a position where we really tried to make the first few practices excitable, so they are excited to get out here.
"Because like anything, same way with parenting, there's a messy middle. You practice for a few weeks, you're excited – messy middle – games. Then you're excited about the games – messy middle – conference (play). We've got to be able to get through those times with consistent effort and focus in what we do in practice."
On how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted preseason preparations:
"Our system requires us to be at our best late in the games and later in the season. You saw that in a lot of one-point and overtime games (last season). I felt like our guys were the best in-shape team on the floor. That has to continue.
"The challenge through the pandemic has been keeping the safety of our men health-wise and finding out how much shape we are really in. (That's) based on the fact that we don't have the numbers that we would normally have in terms of the monitoring we could keep in the summer and fall. So, we are without those numbers this year and it's more what you see with the naked eye."
The second edition of Bearcats under head coach John Brannen returns three starters from last season's squad that posted a 20-10 overall mark, tied for second in the American Athletic Conference (13-5) and shared the regular-season league crown.
Seniors guard Keith Williams (12.6 points, 4.6 rebounds) and center Chris Vogt (11.0 points and 5.9 rebounds) each started 29 games while sophomore guard Mika Adams-Woods (5.0 points, 1.6 assists) started 19 of UC's final 20 games.
Redshirt-junior forward Mamoudou Diarra (3.0 points, 2.8 rebounds) made more impactful contributions as the season progressed while sophomore guards Jeremiah Davenport (18 games) and Zach Harvey (26 games) showed flashes of their potential as reserves a year ago.
Seven newcomers also pepper the 2020-21 roster, including graduate transfer forward Rapolas Ivanauskas from Colgate and junior transfer guard David DeJulius from Michigan. The freshman class consists of forwards Tari Eason and Viktor Lakhin and guards Mike Saunders Jr., and twins Mason and Gabe Madsen.
Q&A WITH COACH BRANNEN
What do you like early on about this group:
"You never know the personality of your entire team until you're put in the fire, so I'm still evaluating that piece. One of the things I think I like and hope it continues is we have a chance to be an everyday team. We have guys that are willing to be everyday guys. Every day they bring focus, they bring energy, they bring a level of coach-ability. They want to get better each and every day.
"Consistency in my mind wins out, even over talent. We've got a chance to be talented, but we're really young. So being an everyday team allows seven or eight new faces to be able to get acclimated a lot quicker than if we were a team that just picked and chose when we wanted to practice hard."
What are you looking to get out of these practices early in the preseason:
"We've got to have continuity in terms of getting to know each other. I don't know everybody's game in our system yet. They've got to understand how to play off guys in terms of the communication that takes place offensively and defensively.
"And like anything in our system are habits. We have to build our habits to the point where they will be effective when adversity hits in the game. When things start rocking you fall back to your habits. We've got to make sure that those habits are built strong enough early in the season so they can sustain us through the rest of the season."
How helpful is it for you now in your second season to have a handful of players who have gone through a preseason with you before and know what to expect:
"You can see their eyes light up because when I yell a drill, they know the drill. It's like anything else, when you know what you are doing it goes faster. When you don't, you slow down and you think too much. I told them last year, this time next year the drills will be something you understand. That's why we have carry over. They're really hitting their spots quicker.
"When you understand what to do then you get the most out of the drill. You get the most options out of it. You understand the nuances of where it plays into parts in the game. Where when you are new, you're just trying to get to the spots. You don't even know why the drill makes sense in the games because you don't know what you don't know in your first year. That's why it's important to have some continuity of a roster because the system is based on that."
On the excitement of having preseason practices underway:
"One of the things that's happened in college basketball – we didn't have it this season because of the pandemic – the summer bleeds into the fall which bleeds into the first practice. October 15th was always the first practice. Midnight Madness, everybody got amped-up for that. Now it's kind of been all one season.
"We've gotten them some different uniforms for the first few practices. We've put them in a position where we really tried to make the first few practices excitable, so they are excited to get out here.
"Because like anything, same way with parenting, there's a messy middle. You practice for a few weeks, you're excited – messy middle – games. Then you're excited about the games – messy middle – conference (play). We've got to be able to get through those times with consistent effort and focus in what we do in practice."
On how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted preseason preparations:
"Our system requires us to be at our best late in the games and later in the season. You saw that in a lot of one-point and overtime games (last season). I felt like our guys were the best in-shape team on the floor. That has to continue.
"The challenge through the pandemic has been keeping the safety of our men health-wise and finding out how much shape we are really in. (That's) based on the fact that we don't have the numbers that we would normally have in terms of the monitoring we could keep in the summer and fall. So, we are without those numbers this year and it's more what you see with the naked eye."