WVU Buzzer Beater Motivates Bearcats Through Season


WVillustrated.com Photo by David Miller
Da'Sean Butler's buzzer beater in the Big East tournament served to motivate the Bearcats through the offseason.


By Geoff Coyle for wvillustrated.com

Jan. 28, 2011

CINCINNATI, Ohio – The last time West Virginia visited Fifth Third Arena at Shoemaker Center, all eyes were on the return of Bob Huggins. An early sell out of over 13,000 tickets indicates that the second homecoming is again of great interest, but for the home team welcoming its all-time winningest coach, the importance of this one is not as much about Huggins as it is about his team.

Many of the athletes suiting up for head coach Mick Cronin’s Cincinnati Bearcats only know of Huggins what they’ve learned from stories, never real experiences. What they did experience, though, was the game they played against the Mountaineers at Madison Square Garden, and they remember how much it stung to watch WVU celebrate a Da’Sean Butler buzzer beater.

“I think that game has motivated us all year, to be honest with you,” Cronin said Thursday. “I don’t think it was the fact that it was West Virginia, it was just the fact of how we lost the game more so than the fact that it was them, to be really honest about it.

“But it was them, so hey, that sharpens our guys’ focus for Saturday. As coaches, we use all we can get.”

A game that began a memorable postseason run for the Mountaineers simultaneously ended any hope the Bearcats had at competing in the NCAA Tournament. To have lost it the way they did – a Dion Dixon turnover in the final seconds immediately followed by Butler’s bank shot – had to have broken their spirits.

In the coming months, Cronin worked to build them back up.

“We had meetings at the end of the season and I like to meet with guys as a group more so than individually,” he says. “You’ve got to look in the mirror and ask yourself what you’re going to do every year. What are you going to do to chase your dream?”

Cronin, the former Huggins assistant, says his team proved it would do what it took to chase that dream and the chance to get back in a position to win a Big East quarterfinal game. At 18-3 and slipping in and out of the top 25 from week to week, the education gained in such a defeat has proven beneficial to this team’s success.

“We learned how to compete and not panic last year at the Big East tournament – just keep playing hard and keep playing defense,” Cronin says. “Big East basketball is a whole different animal. There are not blowouts. Blowouts are really apparitions in our league. You’ve just got to keep battling, keep playing.”


WVI Photo/David Miller
Cincinnati Head Coach Mick Cronin

One player especially who had to learn to keep battling was Dixon. The 6-foot-3 guard watched from the bench on that final play after his turnover and upon seeing Butler connect and get mobbed by his teammates right in front of the Bearcats, he collapsed to the court.

In the months leading up to his junior season, he has picked himself up, so much so that he now leads the team with 12.1 points per game, up from 4.9 a year ago.

“When times get tough, there’s two kinds of people,” says Cronin. “You dig in and work harder and get what you want out of your situation, out of your life in general [and] there’s others that make excuses and quit and go home. I give him all the credit. He’s dug in and made himself a better player.”

The game Saturday night is a chance for redemption and in this one, there is no Butler to contend with. In fact, to this point there is no go-to player on the WVU team at all when it comes to making plays and key shots.

When asked if he expected WVU leading scorer Casey Mitchell to return from his suspension in time for the coming game, Cronin replied with a simple “Yes.”

Huggins had a different assessment on Friday.

“I probably know more about Casey’s status than Mick does, I would guess,” he said. “He’s not on the trip. He’s not playing.”

What Cronin does know, however, the potential matchup problems guys like Kevin Jones and John Flowers can present his forwards and the improving defense he sees from the team as a whole. He also recognizes the deficiencies that have led to a 13-6 record.

“In true Coach Huggins fashion, they’re not making shots, as he likes to say,” Cronin says with a smile.

He should be smiling. The chance to right what he feels went wrong in March is here and the opponent isn’t making shots. Not even of the banked-in 3-pointer variety. Cronin, Dixon and the rest of the Bearcats will find out just how far they have come when Huggins and the Mountaineers step in the arena Saturday night.

http://www.wvillustrated.com/wvubasketball/story/id/724

Cincinnati hasn't forgotten Big East Tournament loss
Loss to West Virigina helped Bearcats

By Bill Koch • bkoch@enquirer.com • January 28, 2011


Photo by Craig Ruttle for the Enquirer
West Virginia's Da'Sean Butler (1) is mobbed by teammates after sinking the winning shot to beat Cincinnati during the Big East Tournament on March 11, 2010.

At the time, the loss was devastating.

When West Virginia’s Da’Sean Butler banked in a 3-pointer as time expired in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament last year it snuffed out the University of Cincinnati’s final hope for securing an NCAA Tournament bid.

UC guard Dion Dixon, whose turnover made Butler’s shot possible, was distraught.

Forward Rashad Bishop wasn’t even there. He was watching on TV back in Cincinnati because he had been suspended by UC coach Mick Cronin.

But perceptions change. Ten months later, that same loss is considered a major factor in helping the Bearcats get to where they are today, with an 18-3 record overall and a 5-3 mark in the Big East.

“I think we needed it to mature a little bit more,” Bishop said. “Something like that really helped us come together.”

UC gets a rematch with West Virginia (13-6, 4-3) Saturday at 8 p.m. at sold-out Fifth Third Arena.

“That game took a lot away from the guys as a group,” Cronin said. “I don’t think it was the fact that it was West Virginia. It was just the fact of how we lost the game. But it was them. That sharpens our guys’ focus for Saturday.”

Dixon said he used his turnover to motivate him to raise the level of his play for this season. The results have been impressive. After averaging 4.9 points last year, Dixon leads the Bearcats this season with a 12.1-point average.

“It showed me that you’ve got to work if you want to get better,” Dixon said. “It was a test for me and I turned it around.”

For Bishop, the West Virginia game was the start of a transformation from a quiet role player into a more assertive player and team leader.

“Me sitting there watching that, it made me feel like it was my fault because I should have been there to be on Butler for the shot,” Bishop said. “It just made me want to come back stronger this year.”

Cronin and the UC players have tried this week to portray this game as just another in a long line of challenging Big East confrontations.

But of course, there’s more to it than that. Not only will this provide the Bearcats with a chance to avenge last year’s loss, it marks the second time that former UC coach Bob Huggins has been an opposing coach at Fifth Third.

Huggins is 2-2 against UC since he’s been at West Virginia, having won the last two games against the Bearcats, one in Morgantown, the other in New York.
This definitely is not just another game for him.

“To look up on that wall and see that for 14 consecutive years we were in the NCAA Tournament, with all the conference champions and all those things that are up there, a large part of that wall is what our guys did,” Huggins said. “It would be crazy not to think that’s special.”

Ultimately, though, how the players perform on the court is what really matters and that’s where the Bearcats appear to have an edge, with a deep, experienced roster.
West Virginia has been reduced to eight scholarship players – five under the NCAA limit - assuming that leading scorer Casey Mitchell (16.6 points per game) remains suspended for tonight, as Huggins said he would.

Still, Cronin is concerned about the Mountaineers’ offensive rebounding and the 3-point shooting ability of forwards John Flowers and Kevin Jones.

“They haven’t been the prettiest team all year,” Cronin said, “but they’ve been grinding out wins in Bob Huggins fashion, with defense and rebounding.”

Quote:UC vs. West Virginia

Tipoff: 8 p.m. Saturday, Fifth Third Arena (13,176), sold out.

TV/Radio: FOX Sports Ohio/WLW-AM (700)

UC 18-3 overall, 5-3 in the Big East; West Virginia 13-6, 4-3

Coaches: UC, Mick Cronin (79-71, 5th season, 147-95 overall); West Virginia, Bob Huggins (93-36, 4th season, 683-247 overall).

Leading scorers: UC, Dion Dixon 12.1; West Virginia, Kevin Jones 13.5.

Matchup: UC should have an edge with superior depth against a team that has only eight scholarship players, given the suspension of West Virginia’s Casey Mitchell, the Mountaineers’ leading scorer at 16.6 points per game. These are two good defensive teams and rebounding teams that sometimes struggle to score.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110...n-WVU-loss