Cronin: ‘Speeding up Georgetown will be hard’
03/13/13 at 4:06pm by
Bill Koch
After Wednesday’s 61-44 victory over Providence in the Big East tournament, UC is now 22-1 when it scores 61 points or more. The one loss was in overtime, 73-66, at Connecticut. But getting to 61 might be a tough chore Thursday in the quarterfinals against a Georgetown defense that allows only 56.9 per game in conference games, the best mark in the Big East.
“Because they’re so good defensively, if they can get to 60 points on you, you’re in trouble,” said UC coach Mick Cronin.
Cronin talked as if he had hit on a solution to the Bearcats’ offensive woes after Wednesday’s game by playing redshirt freshman Shaq Thomas, a more athletic option than David Nyarsuk, in an effort to speed up the game and allow the Bearcats to score in transition where they’re more comfortable.
But the UC coach knows that because the new approach worked against Providence doesn’t necessarily mean it will produce the same result against the fifth-ranked Hoyas.
“Speeding Georgetown up is going to be hard,” Cronin said.
UC lost to Georgetown, 62-55, at Fifth Third Arena on Feb. 15. The Bearcats led, 51-50, with 6:53 remaining before the Hoyas, led by Big East player of the year Otto Porter Jr., pulled away. The Bearcats shot 31.5 percent in that game and made only 4 of 24 3-point shots so they need all the help they can get from their running game.
UC’s new adidas uniforms – with orange lettering and camouflage shorts – were a hit with the players but not so much with the media covering the game Wednesday. When Sean Kilpatrick said the players loved them, a reporter asked if they feel better than they look.
Cronin was quick to come to adidas’ defense.
“If you guys were going to go out tonight, they wouldn’t dress like you either,” Cronin said. “They think they look good. And the most important thing is the recruits think they look great. That’s the most important thing. So we’re appreciative that adidas includes us in their program in the postseason.”
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