Doc: UC's persistence vs. Purdue just what Bearcats do
Paul Daugherty, pdaugherty@enquirer.com 2:32 a.m. EDT March 20, 2015


Bearcats guards Troy Caupain (10) and Kevin Johnson celebrate UC's 66-65 win against Purdue. (Photo: The Enquirer/Kareem Elgazzar)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – So now, they get a chance to be Milan High and the 1980 hockey team – miracles? Sure, why not? – and Buster Douglas and Rocky Balboa and. . . well, you get the point.


Bearcats guard Troy Caupain (10) is hugged by forward Jermaine Sanders after tying the game at the end of regulation on Thursday in Louisville.(Photo: The Enquirer/Kareem Elgazzar)

"That's what (we) play basketball for,'' Troy Caupain said.

UC beat Purdue in overtime Thursday night, 66-65, for the right to play unbeaten Kentucky, which routed Hampton in the late game, on Saturday at 2:40 p.m. How? I'm not exactly sure.

Technically, the Bearcats won because Caupain made a layup that took several years before deciding to fall. That got them to overtime, where they won because Coreontae DeBerry decided he was Shaq (O'Neal, not Thomas) and Farad Cobb somehow had an uncontested layup with the game entirely in the balance, and made it.

Those are facts. The greater answer, for some, is that this is what the Bearcats do. They play until they're told they can't. Sometimes, that's what matters most. Such as Thursday.

UC majors in inelegant wins. This one was an A-plus effort. What the Bearcats do best is grab a pant-leg and not let go. That's what they did Thursday, when they trailed by seven with 48 seconds left in regulation. It's what they did 23 seconds later, when they had the ball down a point, and Caupain drove the left baseline, skipping a pass toward Shaq Thomas on the opposite side. The ball bounced inches from Thomas' fingertips.

Game over? Nope. The Bearcats still had the pant-leg.

Purdue's Jon Octeus made one of two free throws. After a timeout, Caupain got another chance. With 7.4 seconds left, he took an inbounds pass from Kevin Johnson at quarter-court and ran it straight at the basket. The layup journeyed from one side of the rim to the other. And back. The basketball definition of agony in motion.

Then it dropped in.

DeBerry took over then. Let me write that again: DeBerry took over then. Forced into full time duty with 16:22 left in regulation – when Octavius Ellis delivered an elbow to A.J. Hammons' breadbasket and got himself ejected – the backup center was a revelation. Not only did he keep himself out of foul trouble, he made two huge baskets in OT. One, a twisting, spinning reverse layup, was positively balletic. Then, Cobb went ramming-speed to the rim, oddly unbothered, for a layup that made it 66-63 with 28 seconds left.

That was a big enough cushion against foul shooting Purdue, and we don't mean free throws. The Boilers couldn't hit the ice in Antarctica. They shot threes like the rim was the size of a bottle cap. But, let's allow Larry Davis the more graceful explanation.

"An unbelievable job of not giving in and doing what the Bearcats stand for,'' said UC's interim head coach.

As for DeBerry's reverse layup – Yogi Bear gets a 10 on the floor-exercise! – Davis said, "You're not going to believe this. But I've seen him do that this year at least 10 times in practice. When we needed him the most, he came through.''

But back to Caupain's layup. Countries have formed and disbanded in the time it took that ball to roll around the rim and into the net. It took so long to drop, Caupain actually stopped underneath the basket and. . . watched it circle.

"Yeah,'' he agreed. "It was wonderful. Coach said attack the rim. I came off a screen (and saw) a wide open lane. I looked up and it was going around the rim and the buzzer went off.''

That set the stage for a typical UC win: Defense, try-hard, want-to, and all the grace of a St. Paddy's day bender.

In the first half, UC's normally claw-full defense allowed 20 points in the paint. The Boilermakers had five more rebounds, even as they took 12 more shots. At that point, it appeared the biggest difference between the two teams was, one team had 14 feet, 2 inches worth of centers, and the other was UC.

The starter, Hammons, stands 7 feet and 261 pounds. His running mate, a freshman named Isaac Haas, checks in at 7-2 and 297. That, friends, is another definition of madness.

Purdue bullied the Bearcats in the first half, then Ellis went out and you could see the curtain closing. Only, you didn't count on the passion. You don't, usually, because it's not on the stat line.

It came to play Thursday. Its reward was date with UK. Fair enough.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/c.../25061571/

Purdue falters in final minute, loses to Cincinnati in OT
Nathan Baird, nbaird@jconline.com 12:18 a.m. EDT March 20, 2015


Cincinnati's Shaq Thomas (3) shoots over Purdue's Raphael Davis during the first half of an NCAA tournament second round college basketball game Thursday, March 19, 2015, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)(Photo: Timothy D. Easley, AP)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A distraught Rapheal Davis held his head in his hands and tried to make sense of the disappointment.

Purdue's junior captain, an emotional leader on and off the floor since the summer, simply couldn't put into words the disappointment of a 66-65 loss to Cincinnati in a Midwest Regional second-round game on Thursday.

The rest of the Boilermakers did their best to explain a seven-point collapse in the final minute of regulation. Purdue's first game in the NCAA tournament since 2012 unfolded as the physical grinder both teams predicted.

The Bearcats, in the words of Purdue freshman Dakota Mathias, "kept coming."

"I think we did a really good job of battling with them," Purdue senior guard Jon Octeus said. "Toughness also means making free throws and not turning the ball over and getting those stops when you need to.

"I guess you can say 90 percent of the game we battled, and even then we still had opportunities to win the game. It just didn't come for us."

Rediscovering its trademark man-to-man defense at mid-season led Purdue back to the NCAA tournament for the first time in three years.

But the Boilermakers rarely matched that proficiency on offense, and ultimately it ended their season. Every errant 3-pointer in their Midwest Regional second-round game against Cincinnati, every missed free throw, every turnover in a crucial moment – set the stage for the Bearcats' stunning comeback in the final minute of regulation.

Cincinnati's victory at the KFY Yum! Center snapped Purdue's streak of 14 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances with at least one victory.


Cincinnati's Jermaine Sanders, right, attempts to tip the ball away from Purdue's Vince Edwards during the first half of an NCAA tournament second round college basketball game in Louisville, Ky., Thursday, March 19, 2015. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley) (Photo: Timothy D. Easley, AP)

"The guys that are returning, you've got to build on it," Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "You get into a pressure cooker like this -- but anybody who's followed us all year, we've had this happen to us before. You've got to make your free throws, you've got to take care of the basketball, and you've got to do those things down the stretch.

"We didn't do those things, and it came back to get us."

On an otherwise brutal shooting night for Purdue, Edwards and Mathias hit 3s to help Purdue separate late in regulation. Octeus hit a pair of free throws to put Purdue up 56-49 with 48.5 left.

But Cincinnati's Kevin Johnson responded with a 3 at the other end. In less than 10 seconds, the Bearcats cut the Purdue lead back to 3.

Octeus missed the front end of a one-and-one with 25.5 left, and the front end of a double-bonus with 7.4 left. He made the second for a 59-57 lead.

Out of a Purdue timeout, Cincinnati point guard Troy Caupin drove the length of the floor. In the Boilermakers' nightmares and regret, his layup will sit on the rim forever. Painter said the replay was "heartbreaking" – that the ball started to roll off, then reversed and dropped through at the buzzer.

"Like a pool shot," Painter said.

Farad Cobb's layup with 28 seconds left in overtime gave Cincinnati a 66-63 lead. Octeus' layup with 7 seconds left pulled the Boilermakers within 1, and when Caupin missed a free throw with 5.6 left, Vince Edwards rebounded and brought the ball up the court.

The freshman forward had a great night, totaling 14 points, eight rebounds and seven assists as the lynchpin that helped Purdue thwart the Bearcats' 2-3 zone early. But his 3-point glanced off the back of the rim at the buzzer.

"It's great to finally be back in the tournament, but it's a tough way to go out," sophomore guard Kendall Stephens said. "It hurts the most because this is probably the closest team I've ever been on. It's going to hurt not to see them every day."

The Boilermakers' season ended with another frustrating second half. Purdue led 29-26 at halftime but could never separate in the second half thanks in part to a 4-for-26 performance from 3-point range.

Cincinnati played the final 16:22 without junior forward Octavius Ellis, its leader in scoring, rebounds and blocks. He was ejected when his elbow to Hammons' face in the paint was ruled a Flagrant 2 foul. He covered his face with his jersey and left the court in tears.

Purdue center A.J. Hammons, who said he has not made a decision on whether or not to return to school for his senior season, finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds. But the shooting woes prevented the Boilermakers from capitalizing on Ellis' absence. Cincinnati eventually re-took the lead with 5:40 to play, and from there the teams traded the lead.

"We had to keep pounding it inside, but at the end, it wasn't enough," Purdue center A.J. Hammons said.

http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/col.../25059077/