03-20-2015, 02:46 AM
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/
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/