Cronin's message: Choose to be great
Bearcats look for better effort tonight
6:47 PM, Jan 6, 2013
Cincinnati Bearcats guard Cashmere Wright (1) reacts as he comes out of the game in the second half, walks past Cincinnati Bearcats head coach Mick Cronin / The Enquirer/Jeff Swinger
Written by
Bill Koch
Quote:CINCINNATI vs. NOTRE DAME
When: 6:30 p.m. today TV: ESPN2
When University of Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin met with his players Sunday before practice, his message was simple and to the point.
“We’ve been average and we’ve been great,” Cronin told them. “The choice is ours. It’s based on our focus, our attitude and our effort.”
The 14th-ranked Bearcats, who were upset, 53-52, by St. John’s on Saturday, don’t have much time to wallow in their misery, with No. 21 Notre Dame up next at 6:30 today (ESPN2) at Fifth Third Arena. The game was moved up a half hour by ESPN to avoid a conflict with the Notre Dame-Alabama BCS championship football game.
UC (13-2 overall, 1-1 in the Big East) is two one-point losses away from being 15-0. The Fighting Irish (13-1, 1-0) have won 11 in a row, including a 64-50 win over defending national champion Kentucky. They’re coming off a 93-74 win over Seton Hall on Saturday in South Bend.
The Bearcats are looking for answers after having a difficult time scoring in recent games. Their 52 points on Saturday were a season-low and marked the second time in three games – both losses – that they have scored fewer than 60 points.
“You’ve got to play well to win,” Cronin said. “We’ve played well for a lot of the part of the year. Our defense has been able to hold us. But if you don’t put the ball in the basket, it’s going to be a close game. If it’s in the 50s, you’re going to win some in the end and lose some in the end.”
Junior guard Sean Kilpatrick, the Bearcats’ leading scorer at 17.9 points per game, has had an especially difficult time finding the basket lately. He has shot 32.6 percent from the field (31-95) in his last six games, 23.4 percent (11-47) from 3-point range.
“He’s got to be more patient,” Cronin said. “He’s got to be a scorer and not a shooter, which means get to the foul line. He’s got to be a basketball player, a playmaker and a scorer and not a shooter. Shooters are a dime a dozen and he’s got to be more than that. He’s got to be a player and he’s got to be more patient. But he’s not the only one. Right now, of guys that have taken 10 or more shots in our last five games, the only one shooting over 40 percent is Cashmere Wright.”
The Fighting Irish, on the other hand, are the best shooting team in the Big East, leading the league in both field goal percentage (51.5) and 3-point field goal percentage (40.6).
They also feature the best big man in the league in 6-foot-9, 244-pound Jack Cooley, who averages 15.5 points and leads the league in rebounding with 11.4 per game. Cooley has produced 10 double-doubles this season.
This will be the first road game of the season for Notre Dame, which also played its first road game last season at UC, only to leave with a 71-55 spanking.
“The game was over about seven minutes in,” said Notre Dame coach Mike Brey. “They thoroughly treated us like a JV team. This group is a year older, a year more mature and has had more experience. We have to be able to handle what I believe will be a heck of a road atmosphere and a very hungry team, talented and hungry.”
Cronin doesn’t recall last year’s game at Fifth Third as the complete domination that Brey does, but he does remember that the Bearcats played with the kind of effort they’re trying to reclaim after losing their last two games at home.
“Our intensity was off the charts in that game,” Cronin said. “We held them to 33 percent from the field. Sometimes it looked like we had six defenders on the court. That’s the answer for us.”
NOTES: UC will wear new “blackout” Adidas uniforms tonight and the school is encouraging fans to wear black. … After the game, UC president Santa Ono will have his head shaved, fulfilling a pledge he made that he would shave his head if the Bearcats won 10 games in a row this season. UC started the season with 12 straight wins.
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130...RONTPAGE|p