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

After playing UC, Irish will watch football friends
Extra night in town lets them see game
7:20 PM, Jan 6, 2013


Jan 5, 2013; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish guard Eric Atkins (0) , forward Jack Cooley (45) , forward Cameron Biedscheid (1) and guard Jerian Grant (22) walk toward the bench for a timeout in the first half against the Seton Hall Pirates at the Purcell Pavilion. Notre Dame won 93-74. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports / Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

Written by
Bill Koch

Normally, the Notre Dame basketball team would head back to South Bend, Ind., immediately after tonight’s game against the University of Cincinnati at Fifth Third Arena.

But this isn’t a normal night for the Fighting Irish.

With the Notre Dame football team playing Alabama in the BCS championship game at 8:30, the Irish have elected to stay in town to watch the game together at the team hotel. The Irish have been in town since Saturday night.

“When we looked at this trip we said we’re going to hustle back to the Marriott,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said Sunday. “We’ve got a room set up and some food, so we’ll bus back Tuesday.”

The basketball game, which will be telecast on ESPN2, originally was scheduled for 7 p.m., but was moved up a half hour to avoid a conflict with the football game, which will be shown on ESPN, starting at 8:30.

“ESPN did us a favor,” Brey said. “It’s certainly a heck of a night for Notre Dame fans.”

Brey said the Notre Dame football players and basketball players have “a close relationship.” Brey also has a close relationship with Irish football coach Brian Kelly, who spent three years as the head coach at UC, leading the Bearcats to the Orange Bowl in 2008 and the Sugar Bowl in 2009 before leaving for his dream job in South Bend.

“I’ve been here for 13 years,” Brey said. “This is my fifth football coach. Every coach that’s been hired, fans will ask me, do we have the right guy this time? After knowing him for six months, I said, ‘This is the guy.’ It’s really an inspiration for our team and our players to see football doing that. It’s been fun with the buzz around football.”

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130...ll-friends

Cronin's Message: Please for the love of God, can we hit a 2-footer?!?!?!

Yeah we need to hit easy shots, bethic is also critical that the defense and defensive intensity has to be there. How many lay ins did we give up Saturday and rebounds. We re going to have offensive struggles but the D has to the constant that carries us through.

I expect a different mentality in the paint tonight. I think the St. John's shot blockers were firmly in the heads of our entire team.

(01-07-2013 10:38 AM)BeerCat Wrote:  I expect a different mentality in the paint tonight. I think the St. John's shot blockers were firmly in the heads of our entire team.

I think the Wright State, Xavier, New Mexico and St. Johns big men must have been in our heads because we've struggled to score inside against everyone lately.

I'm pretty confident that we win tonight. The loss to St. John's probably lit a fire under this team.

(01-07-2013 10:40 AM)BearChatter v2.0 Wrote:  

(01-07-2013 10:38 AM)BeerCat Wrote:  I expect a different mentality in the paint tonight. I think the St. John's shot blockers were firmly in the heads of our entire team.

I think the Wright State, Xavier, New Mexico and St. Johns big men must have been in our heads because we've struggled to score inside against everyone lately.

This team struggles against shot blocking bigs and teams with more quickness. St. John's had both, Wright State had quicker guards but was weak inside. New Mexico had the bigs, Alabama did too.

UC's offense is based on two things dribble drive and creating turnovers into points. Quickness and great guard play minimize the turnovers and fast break chances while good bigs kill the dribble drive opportunities.

A good shooting night and a game where the Cats go to the line overcomes some of those issues.

(01-07-2013 10:40 AM)BearChatter v2.0 Wrote:  

(01-07-2013 10:38 AM)BeerCat Wrote:  I expect a different mentality in the paint tonight. I think the St. John's shot blockers were firmly in the heads of our entire team.

I think the Wright State, Xavier, New Mexico and St. Johns big men must have been in our heads because we've struggled to score inside against everyone lately.

Are you serious? Those other teams didn't have near the reputation as St.Johns does. Yes, we struggle regardless but it went to a new level against St. John's.

(01-07-2013 11:31 AM)BeerCat Wrote:  

(01-07-2013 10:40 AM)BearChatter v2.0 Wrote:  

(01-07-2013 10:38 AM)BeerCat Wrote:  I expect a different mentality in the paint tonight. I think the St. John's shot blockers were firmly in the heads of our entire team.

I think the Wright State, Xavier, New Mexico and St. Johns big men must have been in our heads because we've struggled to score inside against everyone lately.

Are you serious? Those other teams didn't have near the reputation as St.Johns does. Yes, we struggle regardless but it went to a new level against St. John's.

LOL. I wasn't impressed with SJU at all. Seriously.

UC should have beaten Xavier by 20-25, beaten Wright St. by 20+, beaten New Mexico by 10+, and SJU by 15+.

This UC team is beyond offensively challenged. I think Mick is running his Dad's high school offense. It's pathetic and painful to watch.

I was offered free tickets to the game on Saturday and passed. Who wants to watch that crap? I hope Jermaine Lawrence wasn't watching.

I see a slaughter happening tonight with UC being embarrassed. I've been offered tickets from 2 different sources and passed on them again. I'd rather drive a nail in my foot than sit through a UC game right now. Ugh.

I keep looking for progress and improvement and all I see is regression.

Edit: Most have put the offense on the shoulders of S K. It's pretty clear that Cash is the pure shooter. Mick oughta design some plays where Parker or someone runs the PG position here and there, and have Cash play off the ball and make something happen. I'm not talking most of the time, but a play here and there. He is more of a sure bet than Kilpatrick at this point. And Parker tends to disappear, although I love his gutsy play.

I was offered free tickets to the game on Saturday and passed. Who wants to watch that crap[/i].


The problem with this program is that there are too many fans are like this guy...

(01-07-2013 12:21 PM)KCat Wrote:  I was offered free tickets to the game on Saturday and passed. Who wants to watch that crap[/i].


The problem with this program is that there are too many fans are like this guy...

There are very few fans like Chatter, and we should all be very happy about that.

(01-07-2013 10:38 AM)BeerCat Wrote:  I expect a different mentality in the paint tonight. I think the St. John's shot blockers were firmly in the heads of our entire team.

Spot on Beercat. We looked so weak and timid in the paint, that it was frankly embarrassing. ND does not have nearly the same shot-blocking capability as SJU.

Chatter, you are a horrible fan. Period. You should forfeit your right to ***** about anything concerning UC sports.

Chatter comes across as being a very miserable person to be around in general. Just what I have gathered from following this message board, hopefully it's not the case in real life.

(01-07-2013 12:52 PM)bearcats23 Wrote:  Chatter comes across as being a very miserable person to be around in general. Just what I have gathered from following this message board, hopefully it's not the case in real life.

I was voted class comedian in high school.

I'm just blunt and most people can't handle honest blunt analysis.

I was hoping this year's team would win it all so I could retire as a Bearcat fan. Now I'm gonna have to wait and see how Caupain and Co. do. I have hope for them.

(01-07-2013 12:54 PM)BearChatter v2.0 Wrote:  

(01-07-2013 12:52 PM)bearcats23 Wrote:  Chatter comes across as being a very miserable person to be around in general. Just what I have gathered from following this message board, hopefully it's not the case in real life.

I was voted class comedian in high school.

I'm just blunt and most people can't handle honest blunt analysis.

I was hoping this year's team would win it all so I could retire as a Bearcat fan. Now I'm gonna have to wait and see how Caupain and Co. do. I have hope for them.

You can call it blunt but it comes across as negative, miserable, and pessimistic.

(01-07-2013 12:54 PM)BearChatter v2.0 Wrote:  

(01-07-2013 12:52 PM)bearcats23 Wrote:  Chatter comes across as being a very miserable person to be around in general. Just what I have gathered from following this message board, hopefully it's not the case in real life.

I was voted class comedian in high school.

I'm just blunt and most people can't handle honest blunt analysis.

I was hoping this year's team would win it all so I could retire as a Bearcat fan***. Now I'm gonna have to wait and see how Caupain and Co. do. I have hope for them.

You're not a Bearcat fan. Bearcat fans don't turn down tickets because they don't think the team will win or that the team just is not exciting enough.

(01-07-2013 01:35 PM)BeerCat Wrote:  

(01-07-2013 12:54 PM)BearChatter v2.0 Wrote:  

(01-07-2013 12:52 PM)bearcats23 Wrote:  Chatter comes across as being a very miserable person to be around in general. Just what I have gathered from following this message board, hopefully it's not the case in real life.

I was voted class comedian in high school.

I'm just blunt and most people can't handle honest blunt analysis.

I was hoping this year's team would win it all so I could retire as a Bearcat fan***. Now I'm gonna have to wait and see how Caupain and Co. do. I have hope for them.

What he said
You're not a Bearcat fan. Bearcat fans don't turn down tickets because they don't think the team will win or that the team just is not exciting enough.

(01-07-2013 01:35 PM)BeerCat Wrote:  

(01-07-2013 12:54 PM)BearChatter v2.0 Wrote:  

(01-07-2013 12:52 PM)bearcats23 Wrote:  Chatter comes across as being a very miserable person to be around in general. Just what I have gathered from following this message board, hopefully it's not the case in real life.

I was voted class comedian in high school.

I'm just blunt and most people can't handle honest blunt analysis.

I was hoping this year's team would win it all so I could retire as a Bearcat fan***. Now I'm gonna have to wait and see how Caupain and Co. do. I have hope for them.

You're not a Bearcat fan. Bearcat fans don't turn down tickets because they don't think the team will win or that the team just is not exciting enough.

Says you.

I've been a Bearcat fan longer than most of you have been alive. LOL.