Cincinnati Bearcats look to get well at home
Team welcomes Providence, Seton Hall and Louisville in next three games
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Jeff Hanisch-US PRESSWIRE
Justin Jackson provided one of few bright spots for the Bearcats on Saturday, scoring 10 points off the bench.
Written by
Bill Koch
The University of Cincinnati Bearcats have made a lot of strides during the past few years as Mick Cronin and his staff have put the program back on solid footing, but apparently there are still lessons to be learned on the road to consistent success. Dealing with the fact that they now command the respect of their opponents is one of them.
“Even though we were really good last year, people didn’t respect us,” Cronin said. “I watch the way other teams are preparing for us. You can tell what other teams think. They know they’ve got to play really well to beat you. I don’t think our guys understand that. That’s absolutely a hump you have to get over and it’s nipped us at times. We want everything to be easy at times. We try to be too cool.”
For the first four-plus minutes of Saturday’s game 95-78 loss at Marquette, things were extremely cool and easy for UC, which jumped out to a 16-4 lead. But when the Golden Eagles turned up the heat, the UC players wilted. That’s a disturbing development for a team that doesn’t have the rebuilding excuse or a lack of experience to fall back on anymore.
Even Marquette coach Buzz Williams acknowledged after the game that UC has “10 high-major players.”
That’s precisely why Cronin was so disappointed by his team’s performance.
“I know what my guys are capable of,” Cronin said. “There’s a reason I get upset when Dion Dixon has no rebounds and Cashmere Wright has four turnovers because I know that Dion Dixon is the best athlete on our team. You’ve got to be able to battle every night, man. We weren’t ready to give that type of effort.”
Even during the darkest days of Cronin’s rebuilding project, the Bearcats rarely surrendered 95 points.
In fact, before they were scorched by Marquette, it had happened only once before during the six-year Cronin coaching era. That was on March 9, 2008, when they were badly outmanned and beaten on the road at Connecticut, 96-51. You have to go back to the double-overtime 105-101 loss to UCLA in the second round of the 2002 NCAA Tournament to find another UC team that allowed 95 points.
As play began Saturday, the Bearcats were ranked seventh in the Big East in scoring defense in conference games, allowing 63.8 points per game. But that defense was easy pickings for Marquette’s running, opportunistic offense.
“I don’t know how many plays they had to run,” Cronin said. “I think they might have set a record. They might have scored 95 points without running one play.”
For the record, according to Williams, it wasn’t quite that easy. The Marquette coach estimated that the Golden Eagles ran at least three plays. The rest of the time they were freewheeling up and down the court, shooting layups with an occasional 3-pointer mixed in. UC was at a loss to find a way to slow them down.
At 17-8 overall, 7-5 in the Big East, the Bearcats are clearly on the NCAA Tournament bubble. Beginning Wednesday they face a stretch of three straight home games against Providence, Seton Hall and No. 24 Louisville. They get another shot at Marquette at home on Feb. 29 and also have games on the road at South Florida and Villanova before heading to the conference tournament.
“It’s the Big East,” Wright said after Saturday’s game, searching for consolation. “You get another chance at it.”
But even the Big East doesn’t offer unlimited chances. If the Bearcats are as good as Cronin believes they are the time is at hand for them to prove it.
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Cincinnati Bearcats look to get well at home
Awesome!
