UC's preseason expectations never materialized
Mar 23, 2013

Written by
Bill Koch

While talking to reporters last fall, University of Cincinnati point guard Cashmere Wright said that if fans saw the Bearcats walking the ball up the court this season it would be an ominous sign.

“If we see that, it’s a bad season going on,” Wright said.

Designed to function as a pressing, running team, UC flourished with that style during the pre-conference season and won its first 12 regular-season games. But as 2012 gave way to 2013 and Big East Conference play began, scoring in transition became largely a thing of the past as opponents figured out how to slow the Bearcats down.

And as Wright predicted, that spelled trouble. While it would be wrong to characterize a 22-12 NCAA Tournament season as bad, the 2012-13 Bearcats certainly failed to meet the expectations that were laid out for them when Wright made that statement.

UC finished its seventh season under Mick Cronin on Friday in Philadelphia with a 67-63 loss to Creighton in the second round of the Midwest Regional. By then, the Bearcats bore little resemblance to the team Cronin talked about in such glowing terms back in October.

Picked to finish fourth in the Big East and ranked No. 24 in the pre-season AP poll – rising as high as No. 8 on Dec. 24 – they didn’t even finish among the top eight teams in their own league. They lost eight of their last 12 games, and never did devise a way to get back to the transition game they embraced so eagerly last fall.

Once Big East competition started, it didn’t take long for UC fans to realize just how much they missed the low-post scoring and rebounding of the frequently maligned Yancy Gates. With Gates gone, Cronin believed he had fortified the front line with more agile players who would facilitate the running game while not sacrificing production.

It didn’t work out that way.

Junior college transfer Titus Rubles, returning forward Justin Jackson, senior center Cheikh Mbodj and newcomer David Nyarsuk all were counted on to give the Bearcats an inside presence that never consistently materialized.

According to Cronin’s pre-season plan, the Bearcats were going to wear down opponents with their depth and athleticism, but that didn’t happen either, leaving the offensive burden to fall on the shoulders of guards Wright, Sean Kilpatrick and JaQuon Parker. UC’s offensive problems were compounded when Wright, who was then at the top of his game, sprained his right knee on Jan. 15 at DePaul and took weeks to regain his shooting touch.

The Bearcats hoped that playing Creighton in the NCAA Tournament would afford them a chance to revisit their transition game but UC didn’t score a single point in transition against them the Bluejays.

The Bearcats held Creighton to eight points below its season average but were unable to score enough points to take advantage of their defensive success and lost for only the second time this season when scoring 61 or more points. The other loss was in overtime vs. Connecticut.

After the game, Cronin said he couldn’t have asked for a better effort from his players.

“I have no regrets,” he said. “Our guys have given maximum effort all year. As a coach, what you’ve got to assess is your team’s ability and what their best effort is. If they’re giving you their best, you’ve got to be happy.”

It was the ultimate compliment a coach can lavish on his players, but also an admission that they simply weren’t talented enough to take their place among the nation’s elite teams, which is where they expected to be when the season began.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130.../303230073