Doc: Root for UC's Cashmere Wright
Mar 18, 2013


Cashmere Wright could go off on Friday in Philadelphia. He could be on. Dreaming is free between now and then. Wright could be right, again. / Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Written by
Paul Daugherty

This is the week for offering Why Nots. The first weekend of the Madness, and the days leading up to it, are made for all who think big. You’re in the game, you’re in the game.

The other guys put their sneakers on one foot at a time, same as you. The Final Four is for pedigrees, save the stray Butler or two. This week is all comers. It’s open house. Hope hangs its shingle. As Mick Cronin noted, “You don’t get 10 extra points to start the game, because of your seed.’’

It is in this spirit we offer up the Why Not? of Cashmere Wright. He has had a career at Cincinnati worthy of Job. This season iced the unlucky cake. And yet he will finish his time at UC having played in more games than any Bearcat, ever. That says some things:

Wright is tough. Wright is competitive. Wright has a high pain threshold. Wright is worth rooting for.

I don’t do a lot of rooting. It’s not exactly in the job description. I’m not a fan, at least not in the traditional sense. Sometimes, exceptions are made. When it comes to UC basketball, I rooted for Kenyon Martin, a self-made college superstar. I rooted for Erik Martin and Eric Hicks, overachievers.

I rooted for Deonta Vaughn, who stayed the rutted course. Now, I root for Wright, whose UC years had a lot to say about keeping on and keeping up. Probably, his time is down to a game, or two. His life is just beginning. Armed with a college degree in Criminal Justice and life lessons learned by dusting off the seat of his pants time and again, Wright ought to do just fine.

He had 20 points in 25 minutes against DePaul on Jan. 15, when he sprained his right knee. Coming back from that hurt has been a maddeningly slow process. We know all about that. Wright looked to have regained some form or confidence or nerve in New York last week. He made four threes in a row against Georgetown.

He could do that again Friday, against Creighton.

Why not?

The Blue Jays like to run and shoot. That might help the Bearcats do likewise. Freed from the shackles of the Big East tractor pulls – or “football games,’’ as Cronin called them – UC gets some rhythm and flow and some open shots. They go in. Why not?

Wright can make shots.

In his last four games, Wright is 17-for-36 from the field, including 10-for-20 from three-point range. Before the first of those four, against Louisville, Cronin got Wright in the gym and addressed a few mechanical issues he’d seen on video. One was obvious: Wright was trying too many overly long threes. The other had to do with form: Wright was “really flat-footed,’’ Cronin said. That made for a low release point on the shot.

The coach also said Wright was “slinging the ball off his shoulder.’’ Or something.

Cronin admits that all the advice might have meant nothing. “It might have just been something for him to think about that got him to stop thinking about missing’’ shots. “Sometimes, it’s just mental.’’

Wright is also continually dealing with an achy and misbehaving shoulder that tends to pop out during games. That could take a body’s focus off flat feet and shoulder slings.

You can talk all you want about defense. Mick Cronin has. But regardless of what a coach might tell you, making shots is the key to everything. If you don’t make shots, you can’t press. You can’t trap, at least not as effectively. If you can’t press and trap, you’re not going to get many easy transition baskets. You aren’t going to score enough to win consistently. If you can’t make shots, you are going to look a lot like UC has since early January.

For about half the time in New York last week, UC looked like the team you thought you were getting way back in November. Running, swarming, attacking. Making shots. Make a red circle around that last point.

If Cashmere Wright is on, Sean Kilpatrick doesn’t get as much attention. If anyone can do the slightest bit of anything offensively near the basket, the clamp loosens further. “(Defenders) swarm the three-point line, we haven’t made them pay the price inside,’’ offered Cronin, a familiar lament.

Cashmere Wright could go off on Friday in Philadelphia. He could be on. Dreaming is free between now and then. Wright could be right, again.

Why not?

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130...ash-Wright