Cronin craves stronger starts from Bearcats
Head coach: No first-half struggles wanted
9:44 PM, Jan 4, 2013
UC held Pitt to just 27 points in the second half of Monday's win. / Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Written by
Bill Koch
One of the first orders of business for University of Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin as he prepared his team to face St. John’s Saturday was to remind his players what happened last year against the Red Storm.
UC had just come off a big win over Notre Dame only to have St. John’s show up at Fifth Third Arena and knock off the Bearcats 57-55 on a last-second tip-in by Moe Harkless.
“We came out flat and got caught sleeping,” Cronin said.
The 14th-ranked Bearcats (13-1 overall, 1-0 Big East) are coming off another big win, having won on the road at Pittsburgh last Monday, but this time they’re determined not to get caught napping when they face the Red Storm (8-5, 0-1) at 4p.m. at Fifth Third.
The best way to accomplish that is to execute better offensively in the first half than they have in recent games that they have won only because they were able to rally in the second half.
“We’ve just got to be more patient on offense to start games,” Cronin said. “That’s the answer. Our defense is not the problem. I think we’re impatient on the offensive end. When teams make us take our time it takes us a while to settle down and start to read the defense. We try to be too aggressive too early in the shot clock.”
The Bearcats were seven for 32 from 3-point range in the loss to St.John’s last year and fell behind by 15 points after a 21-3 run by the Red Storm to start the second half.
“We’re going to have to get the ball inside against their zone,” Cronin said. “We can’t come out and shoot 33 3s. Last year when we lost to them at home that was a big problem. We missed a lot of open shots but we settled too much.”
St.John’s is coming off a 98-86 overtime loss at Villanova on Wednesday in a game that saw sophomore guard D’Angelo Harrison score 36 points, the most by a St.John’s player since Lamont Hamilton scored 36 against Columbia on Dec.23, 2006.
Harrison leads the Big East in scoring with 22.1 points per game, but UC’s Sean Kilpatrick, who ranks fourth in the league with 18.6 points per game, says Harrison is just one of many capable players in the league.
“He’s a pretty good player,” Kilpatrick said. “That’s what happens in the Big East. You’re not going to get recruited to play in the Big East to be a stiff. Everyone in the Big East can play.”
Cronin was a little more effusive in his praise of Harrison, who was a member of the Big East all-rookie team last year and was a second-team preseason all-league pick this season.
“He was good last year,” Cronin said. “He’s better this year. He’s probably the best scorer in the Big East. He shoots it five feet behind the line with more comfort than anybody in the country that I’ve seen. He poses a lot of problems for you because he can score behind the line. He can go at the rim and he draws a lot of fouls. He’s got our attention, no doubt about it.”
St.John’s, which has lost three of its last five games, plays a zone defense, something the Bearcats haven’t faced very often this season and has the league’s leading shot blocker in center Chris Obekpa, who averages 5.3 blocks per game. Offensively, in addition to getting the ball to Harrison, the Red Storm looks to score in transition.
“We know that they like to run and they like to push the tempo just like we do,” Kilpatrick said. “But with us practicing that every day, we should be all right.”
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