New Cincinnati Bearcat basketball assistant is ‘The Shot Doctor’
New UC Bearcat basketball assistant Tim Buckley is ‘The Shot Doctor’. It’s a nickname earned by tutoring several All-Americans at different stops.
He didn’t enter the Richard E. Lindner Center conference room in a lab jacket with a medical bag. He has no vanity plate on his car, nor a parking spot with his nickname earned through years of NCAA Division I basketball.
But, make no mistake, “The Shot Doctor” is on the clock at the University of Cincinnati.
Hired by Bearcats basketball head coach Wes Miller to fill the spot vacated when Josh Loeffler took a head coaching job at Loyola (Maryland), Tim Buckley has a resumé that is well-traveled and well-earned. Somewhere along the way, he was credited with improving outside shooting so much he became known as “The Shot Doctor”.
“I was fortunate enough to work with some good players that improved with their shooting,” Buckley said. “I happened to be the one that worked with them and they kind of nicknamed me that.”
‘Shot Doctor’ better than being ‘Dr. Airball’
Had Buckley’s students become bricklayers, it’s doubtful he’d have any notoriety. The client list is impressive: All-Americans Cody Zeller, Victor Oladipo and Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell at Indiana, Jerel McNeal at Marquette and Donovan Williams at UNLV. All made it to the NBA.
At South Carolina, who returned to the NCAA tournament for the first time since former UC assistant Frank Martin took them to the Final Four, Buckley had the Gamecocks shooting .339 from the arc averaging 8.1 treys per game. Ta’Lon Cooper shot nearly 46% and Myles Stute was at 38.5%.
By comparison, UC shot 33% as a team, averaging 7.6 triples per contest. C.J. Fredrick led shooting .426 from the long distance in 15 games, while Simas Lukošius in 35 games was at .385.
It’s early, but there’s promise from the perimeter
Buckley’s goal obviously will be to up the Bearcat numbers from downtown. While they all had their moments last year, Jizzle James, Dan Skillings Jr. and Day Day Thomas were all clumped in the 29-29% range. Newcomer Dillon Mitchell, a two-year starter at Texas, missed all eight of his tries last season for the Longhorns.
UC believes the 3-ball is something Mitchell can add.
“Without question he has the capability to do it,” Buckley said. “We’ve worked together for a couple of days and I’m excited to continue that throughout the year.”
A veteran face is familiar
From coaching and recruiting at Indiana, Buckley knows all about C.J. Fredrick who ended up at Iowa playing against the Hoosiers in the Big Ten, then at Kentucky in the SEC when Buckley was at South Carolina.
“He can really shoot the basketball,” Buckley said. “We recruited him when he was in high school. There are several guys that have the capability of improving. You can do that in the practice gym and then it has to translate in the games.”
When healthy at Iowa, Fredrick shot 46% as a redshirt freshman in 2019-20 and 47% as a redshirt sophomore in 2020-21. His best game for the Bearcats was a 19-point performance with five treys against Florida Gulf Coast last December.
Plenty of stops over 35 years
Buckley’s career path is 10 years combined as a head coach at Division III Rockford then Ball State where he once knocked off No. 3 Kansas and No. 4 UCLA in the 2001 Maui Invitational. As an assistant, he was at Iowa under Steve Alford then Marquette and Indiana with Tom Crean who gave him a hearty endorsement for the Cincinnati job. Crean credited Buckley for the development of Dwyane Wade and Travis Diener at Marquette and for turning around the Hoosiers.
Post-Indiana, he was an NBA scout for the Minnesota Timberwolves before joining current Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger at UNLV, then eventually working with Lon Kruger’s son Kevin. The past two years have been in the SEC with the Gamecocks.
“I feel a little bit like Forrest Gump,” Buckley said of his travels. “I’m in the right place at the right time with great people. I’m very grateful for the opportunities I’ve had. I’ve contributed a little but I’ve learned a lot more from all the people I’ve had an opportunity to work with.”
Buckley reunites with young coaches
The oldest coach on the staff knew current assistants Drew Adams and Jake Thelen in their early days in the game.
“I coached Drew when he was at Iowa and I was an assistant with Steve Alford,” Buckley said. “Drew came and worked with us at Indiana in our operations position and Jake worked with us as a GA (grad assistant). They’re really good basketball people.”
Given the evolution of the game, will UC play faster?
“He’ll play to whatever our personnel is capable of doing,” Buckley said. “I think he’s got a great basketball mind and he’s adaptive to what the personnel is. He isn’t just stuck in a certain style of play. If this group can get out and run I’m sure that’s something he’s going to want to do. In leagues like this, you’re always looking to find ways to get easy baskets.”
Even record at Fifth Third Arena
With Tom Crean and Marquette, Buckley and the Golden Eagles knocked off Mick Cronin’s Bearcats in Feb. 2008 in what was then known as the Shoemaker Center, 75-60. In Nov. 2019 with then-coach Otzelberger and the Runnin’ Rebs, the John Brannen-coached Bearcats won 72-65 in overtime.