The Bearcats are a challenge unlike any other UNM has faced this season. The Mick Cronin-coached Bearcats play a lot like the Louisville Cardinals teams where he tutored under Rick Pitino.

Much like what they saw from the Cardinals in the third round of the 2012 NCAA Tournament in a 59-56 less to Louisville, the Lobos tonight expect:

Pressure defense. Cincinnati forces 16.8 turnovers per game and is second in nation in defensive field goal percentage allowing opponents to shoot just 34.6 percent from the field.

Big, athletic post players. Cincinnati is sixth in the nation in blocked shots with 7.4 per game and seventh in rebounding margin at plus-11.3.

Extremely athletic scoring guards. Sean Kilpatrick averages 19.2 points per game, point guard Cashmere Wright adds 14.2.

“They have a dribble-drive motion and can really score off of that and they really pressure you defensively,” Alford said “So they cause a lot of problems out of their offense, but they do a really good job of scoring our of their defense.”

SNOW WOES: The Lobos had a difficult travel day on Wednesday getting to Cincinnati due to a snow storm in the Midwest unlike any the area has seen in about four years. They were supposed to fly Wednesday morning from Albuquerque to Denver to Dayton, Ohio, before busing an hour south to Cincinnati in plenty of time to check in to their hotel and have a 7 p.m. practice.

Instead, snow in Ohio forced the trip to detour from Denver to Chicago to Louisville , then to bus 100 miles northeast through the storm to Cincinnati with an hopeful arrival time of 10 p.m. – without a practice.

After Saturday’s loss, Alford gave the team off Sunday and Monday and players had just one practice Tuesday night, all scheduled obviously before the team knew of Wednesday’s snow woes.

“It’s tough travel,” Alford said Tuesday night after his team’s practice in the Davalos Center, “but we wanted to give our guys a break. I think they needed the break. We wanted to get them home for Christmas. They didn’t get Thanksgiving (off) because of the Virgin Islands trip.”

http://www.abqjournal.com/sports/2012/12...rcats.html

Sounds like some disarray for the Lobos. I hope it has them out of sync.

I'd love to see this one end up like our game against New Mexico State in the 1993 tourney...

(12-27-2012 03:14 PM)Crewdogz Wrote:  I'd love to see this one end up like our game against New Mexico State in the 1993 tourney...

Ha! That was almost not even fair from what I remember. I remember the network "smart people" said the Lobos were looking at a mirror image of themselves. Uh huh, that team was shell shocked, I don't think I remember to that point seeing such an early and continued onslaught like the Cats produced that day.

Thanks for the memory.

I still have that game on a VHS VCR tape. And I still have a VCR to play it on!

(12-27-2012 10:49 PM)BringBackthe Glory Wrote:  

(12-27-2012 03:14 PM)Crewdogz Wrote:  I'd love to see this one end up like our game against New Mexico State in the 1993 tourney...

Ha! That was almost not even fair from what I remember. I remember the network "smart people" said the Lobos were looking at a mirror image of themselves. Uh huh, that team was shell shocked, I don't think I remember to that point seeing such an early and continued onslaught like the Cats produced that day.

Thanks for the memory.

It wasn't the Lobos. It was New Mexico State Aggies.

(12-28-2012 12:16 AM)vabearcat Wrote:  

(12-27-2012 10:49 PM)BringBackthe Glory Wrote:  

(12-27-2012 03:14 PM)Crewdogz Wrote:  I'd love to see this one end up like our game against New Mexico State in the 1993 tourney...

Ha! That was almost not even fair from what I remember. I remember the network "smart people" said the Lobos were looking at a mirror image of themselves. Uh huh, that team was shell shocked, I don't think I remember to that point seeing such an early and continued onslaught like the Cats produced that day.

Thanks for the memory.

It wasn't the Lobos. It was New Mexico State Aggies.

Sure enough. I was in the correct state though. Thanks for the correction.