Cronin: UC loss 'an embarrassment' and 'my fault'
Kevin Goheen , Enquirer contributor 7:03 a.m. EST December 30, 2015
UC's Octavius Ellis comes down with a rebound against Temple's Daniel Dingle. David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports
Mick Cronin had the tone of disappointment in his voice Tuesday afternoon after his University of Cincinnati basketball team lost to Temple, 77-70, in front of 10,029 fans at Fifth Third Arena.
It wasn’t the kind of disappointment of not finding the Christmas present under the tree one hopes to find. No, this was the disappointment felt by parents and teachers when their kids and students don’t learn lessons or, worse yet, when they don’t just fail to meet expectations but they don’t seem to care if those expectations are met.
“I’d like to apologize to all of our former players that have to watch our guys play with that type of defensive effort,” said Cronin. “It’s an embarrassment. It’s my fault and I mean that. And to all of the 10,000 people that came to our game today.”
The loss dropped UC to 10-4 overall and 0-1 in the American Athletic Conference but Cronin’s reasons for discouragement are many. It was his team’s third loss at home already this season after they had gone 33-4 at Fifth Third Arena the past two seasons. It’s the second time in a row they’ve allowed 70 or more points in a game, following last week’s 81-79 loss to Iowa State, and the fourth time that’s happened this season. They gave up 70 points just once last season and eight times total the previous three seasons.
They hadn’t allowed 70 points in consecutive games since Nov. 20-23, 2013, when they beat Campbell 91-70 and Iowa State 78-70.
The Bearcats’ hold on a Top 25 ranking (they are No. 22 in this week’s Associated Press poll and No. 23 in the USA Today coaches’ poll) will be up next week but that’s the least of Cronin’s concerns.
Temple (6-5, 0-1 AAC) shot 50 percent from field overall, including making a season-high 10 3-pointers, four of which came from guard Devin Coleman. Guard Quenton DeCosey led the Owls with 19 points. After giving up 15 offensive rebounds and 26 second-chance points against Iowa State, UC allowed 11 offensive rebounds and 19 second-chance points to Temple. Through the first month of the season the Bearcats were averaging around 50 deflections a game. They had 15 on Tuesday.
“Temple made some shots. Give them credit, but our defensive effort is porous, lazy,” said Cronin. “Our problem is we’re just not a good defensive team right now. We lack a lot of toughness. We don’t do anything that’s hard. It’s hard to win games against good, solid teams.”
Temple outscored UC 15-7 in the final 5:05 of the game after Troy Caupain’s layup had given the Bearcats a 63-62 lead. The game was tied 65-65 with 2:57 to play but UC committed three turnovers and made just two of its final eight shots from the field. By contrast, Temple was 2-of-3 from the field and 6-of-8 from the free throw line down the stretch without losing the ball.
“We've lacked talent when we were rebuilding the program. We've lacked height. We've never lacked toughness,” said Cronin. “We got exactly what we deserved. If somehow we'd have won that game, we wouldn't have deserved to.”
Caupain scored a season-high 19 points and had seven assists but he also committed two of the three late turnovers. Octavius Ellis had 12 points and seven rebounds, while Farad Cobb added 10 points but after 11 ties and 14 lead changes UC couldn’t match Temple’s intensity and efficiency on either end of the court.
Ellis and forward Shaq Thomas were not in the starting lineup for the first time this season. The seniors were replaced by senior Coreontae DeBerry and freshman Jacob Evans III, respectively, because of poor practices leading up to the game. Thomas entered the game for the first time with 17:14 left in the first half, replacing sophomore Gary Clark. Ellis came in following the first media timeout and immediately got in the scorebook with a slam dunk off a pass from Evans.
“It was just a wakeup call for me because I know that I’ve been playing too relaxed lately,” said Ellis.
That’s something Cronin has to fix with the entire team before UC’s next game, a 4 p.m. home tip-off against Tulsa.
“For those people who say I'm throwing my players under the bus, I'm not,” said Cronin. “If we lack toughness or Gary Clark can't get a deflection, it's my fault. Everything is my fault, just for the record. If we lack toughness, it's because I didn't recruit enough toughness or I'm not making guys tough enough. I'm just answering a question as to why our defense struggles and why our rebounding struggle. We lack toughness. It's a fact. Watch us play.”
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