01-26-2011, 03:02 PM
Cronin, Rice faced similiar building jobs
By Tyler Barto
Associate Sports Editor
Published: Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Updated: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 22:01
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Keith Freeman
Head coach Mike Rice is tasked with rebuilding a Rutgers program that lost six players from last year’s team — a similar challege to that which Cincinnati head coach Mick Cronin faced.
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Andrew Howard / Senior Staff Photographer
Sophomore wing Dane Miller recorded his third double-double of the year on Saturday with 17 points and 10 rebounds against Seton Hall.
When the Rutgers men's basketball team enters Fifth Third Arena to take on Cincinnati tonight, Bearcats head coach Mick Cronin will see a Scarlet Knights program eerily similar to the one he took over in March 2006.
Saddled with an exhausted roster and transferred players, Cronin took over the Bearcats after the school ousted longtime head coach Bob Huggins when he failed to graduate student-athletes and suffered numerous program violations.
But Rutgers head coach Mike Rice sees a blueprint four years later in how Cronin implemented wholesale changes at Cincinnati.
"[Cronin] has added a lot of depth and talent," Rice said. "He has places to turn to on his bench. He has six, seven players that he can turn to if one of his starting five is not playing well. One thing I take is he's done a tremendous job restocking the talent at Cincinnati."
The Bearcats combined to win just 24 games through Cronin's first two seasons, but Cincinnati (17-3, 4-3) now boasts one of the most physical frontcourts in the Big East.
Bearcat forwards Yancy Gates and Ibrahima Thomas aid Cincinnati in registering the conference's sixth-best rebounding margin a year removed from a backcourt-oriented offense.
Former point guard and program flag-bearer Deonta Vaughn graduated, while enigmatic wing Lance Stephenson, the 2009-10 Big East Rookie of the Year, opted for the NBA after just one year with Cincinnati.
"We just want to play our basketball, control what we can control — how we play defense, how we run our offense — and take each game," senior guard Mike Coburn said. "We're not really worried about their style of play or what they do. We're going to do what we do and try to execute."
Rutgers (12-7, 3-4) dropped a pair of contests a year ago to the Bearcats, who ended the Knights' season in a 69-68 win in the first round of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden.
Referees called a shooting foul with 1.8 seconds left on sophomore wing Dane Miller, which sent Stephenson to the free throw line and ended up being the final points scored in the Knights' season.
Miller denies the foul taking place, but has since moved on from the incident and comes into the matchup off of a 17-point, 10-rebound performance against Seton Hall.
"I really don't think about it, actually," said Miller, the 2009-10 rookie runner-up to Stephenson. "After the game, I went out there and saw my mom and forgot about it, truthfully. I really don't think about games last year."
The Knights similarly rebounded from a 1-4 start to Big East play with two consecutive victories, highlighted by a 66-60 decision over Seton Hall on Saturday in Newark.
It took the 2009-10 Knights until Feb. 14 to earn three conference victories, but Rutgers cannot afford to lose its sense of urgency against Cincinnati, Coburn said.
"I just let them know, ‘Stay hungry,'" said Coburn of the younger Knights. "We've got three [Big East] wins so far. We've got a big road game at Cincy. Try to be focused for the next upcoming game and take it one game at a time. Don't be satisfied."
Rutgers' biggest obstacle — both literally and figuratively — in extending its conference win streak is Gates, who anchors the Bearcats' defense to the Big East's best scoring defense.
Gates' three-point play with eight seconds to play propelled Cincinnati to a 53-51 victory over St. John's on Saturday in New York.
Gates and Thomas combine to average 12.8 rebounds per game to lead the Bearcats while averaging a combined 47 minutes per contest.
"Both guys are 6-10. Yancy Gates is probably 6-10, 240 [pounds]," Miller said. "He's a pitbull, so we have to box him out — double team and box him out. We have to box out everybody, not just those two. This is the Big East. Everybody wants to be aggressive."
Like Cronin, a central part of Rice's plan to get Rutgers into the upper half of the Big East deals with defense, particularly that of the 6-foot-7 Miller.
Maybe in another four years, a first-year head coach will look at Rice's blueprint with the Knights as a template.
"If you want to win you have to defend in the Big East," Rice said. "People who usually do have the best field goal percentage defense [and] have the best defensive stats. We manipulated not just Dane, but all of their thinking about, ‘If you don't defend, you don't win.'"
http://www.dailytargum.com/sports/cronin...-1.2447024
By Tyler Barto
Associate Sports Editor
Published: Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Updated: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 22:01
Keith Freeman
Head coach Mike Rice is tasked with rebuilding a Rutgers program that lost six players from last year’s team — a similar challege to that which Cincinnati head coach Mick Cronin faced.
Andrew Howard / Senior Staff Photographer
Sophomore wing Dane Miller recorded his third double-double of the year on Saturday with 17 points and 10 rebounds against Seton Hall.
When the Rutgers men's basketball team enters Fifth Third Arena to take on Cincinnati tonight, Bearcats head coach Mick Cronin will see a Scarlet Knights program eerily similar to the one he took over in March 2006.
Saddled with an exhausted roster and transferred players, Cronin took over the Bearcats after the school ousted longtime head coach Bob Huggins when he failed to graduate student-athletes and suffered numerous program violations.
But Rutgers head coach Mike Rice sees a blueprint four years later in how Cronin implemented wholesale changes at Cincinnati.
"[Cronin] has added a lot of depth and talent," Rice said. "He has places to turn to on his bench. He has six, seven players that he can turn to if one of his starting five is not playing well. One thing I take is he's done a tremendous job restocking the talent at Cincinnati."
The Bearcats combined to win just 24 games through Cronin's first two seasons, but Cincinnati (17-3, 4-3) now boasts one of the most physical frontcourts in the Big East.
Bearcat forwards Yancy Gates and Ibrahima Thomas aid Cincinnati in registering the conference's sixth-best rebounding margin a year removed from a backcourt-oriented offense.
Former point guard and program flag-bearer Deonta Vaughn graduated, while enigmatic wing Lance Stephenson, the 2009-10 Big East Rookie of the Year, opted for the NBA after just one year with Cincinnati.
"We just want to play our basketball, control what we can control — how we play defense, how we run our offense — and take each game," senior guard Mike Coburn said. "We're not really worried about their style of play or what they do. We're going to do what we do and try to execute."
Rutgers (12-7, 3-4) dropped a pair of contests a year ago to the Bearcats, who ended the Knights' season in a 69-68 win in the first round of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden.
Referees called a shooting foul with 1.8 seconds left on sophomore wing Dane Miller, which sent Stephenson to the free throw line and ended up being the final points scored in the Knights' season.
Miller denies the foul taking place, but has since moved on from the incident and comes into the matchup off of a 17-point, 10-rebound performance against Seton Hall.
"I really don't think about it, actually," said Miller, the 2009-10 rookie runner-up to Stephenson. "After the game, I went out there and saw my mom and forgot about it, truthfully. I really don't think about games last year."
The Knights similarly rebounded from a 1-4 start to Big East play with two consecutive victories, highlighted by a 66-60 decision over Seton Hall on Saturday in Newark.
It took the 2009-10 Knights until Feb. 14 to earn three conference victories, but Rutgers cannot afford to lose its sense of urgency against Cincinnati, Coburn said.
"I just let them know, ‘Stay hungry,'" said Coburn of the younger Knights. "We've got three [Big East] wins so far. We've got a big road game at Cincy. Try to be focused for the next upcoming game and take it one game at a time. Don't be satisfied."
Rutgers' biggest obstacle — both literally and figuratively — in extending its conference win streak is Gates, who anchors the Bearcats' defense to the Big East's best scoring defense.
Gates' three-point play with eight seconds to play propelled Cincinnati to a 53-51 victory over St. John's on Saturday in New York.
Gates and Thomas combine to average 12.8 rebounds per game to lead the Bearcats while averaging a combined 47 minutes per contest.
"Both guys are 6-10. Yancy Gates is probably 6-10, 240 [pounds]," Miller said. "He's a pitbull, so we have to box him out — double team and box him out. We have to box out everybody, not just those two. This is the Big East. Everybody wants to be aggressive."
Like Cronin, a central part of Rice's plan to get Rutgers into the upper half of the Big East deals with defense, particularly that of the 6-foot-7 Miller.
Maybe in another four years, a first-year head coach will look at Rice's blueprint with the Knights as a template.
"If you want to win you have to defend in the Big East," Rice said. "People who usually do have the best field goal percentage defense [and] have the best defensive stats. We manipulated not just Dane, but all of their thinking about, ‘If you don't defend, you don't win.'"
http://www.dailytargum.com/sports/cronin...-1.2447024
