'Nova Preview

The Bearcat faithful were shown a glance into the future on Wednesday night against Georgetown (you know, the one where UC is riding away into the sunset with 3 straight NCAA championship rings).  Before we all book our trips to the NCAA tournament, bust out the champagne, or overwhelm the Bearcats online store to get the sweet new gear, let's discuss some suggestions of how and why UC will get there, starting with the Villanova game on Sunday.

Suggestion #1:

Stop Scottie Reynolds.  Villanova has a really good front court. That we know.  Reynolds is a D O double G on the b-ball court, and stopping him is of utmost priority, and is the reason we beat Villanova last year.  Bishop is the obvious pick for this role.  Villanova also has a shooter in Corey Stokes at 45% from 3.  We'll see if UC remembers how to guard players outside the arc, which has been our downfall in B.East play thus far.

Suggestion #2:

Play turnover-free ball.  Sounds easy, right?  Just don't screw up, it's a piece o' cake.  We saw how 10 turnovers in the first half compared to only 4 in the second half can elevate us to beat a team like Georgetown.  Villanova's got the speed that'll translate a bad pass by Vaughn into 2 points before Yancey Gates wakes up to notice.

Suggestion #3:
Somehow rig Villanova's court in a way that will take Reynolds and/or Cunningham out of the game with a "sprained ankle."  Hey, it worked with DuJuan Summers of Georgetown, so it's gotta work with 'Nova.  And it's not cheating, it's "smart."

Vaughn's gonna drop 20+ points, and if we can just get another Georgetown-like effort from Gates on D, Dixon on offense, and Bishop on both ends of the court, we'll talk on Monday as thenew 5-4 Cincinnati Bearcats.

With the win over G-town, this game doesn't necessarily fall into the must win category that we're usually in.  That is, as long as we beat Notre Dame AND Georgetown again in the next week, and pull out another 3 wins.  Your call.

That's What I'm Talking About Bishop, Get Some!

UC beat the 22nd ranked Georgetown Hoyas last night.

There is no need to blow this win out of proportion. Georgetown was missing one of their top players (probably their BEST player) with DaJaun Summers on the bench.

We can't get too excited because Georgetown is a team that is struggling and had lost three straight before getting to Cincinnati last night.

Let's try not to put too much stock in one good game.

We shouldn't get too jacked up, but we're going to anyway.

Rashad Bishop is emerging from his shell and slowly becoming an outstanding Pete Mickael-ish threat on offense, Dion Dixon is turning into an Eric Martin clone (yeh, I went there), and Alvin Mitchell finally mixed a bit of coffee in with his cocoa and showed some energy on the floor last night. I know Cronin has said it about this team ad nauseum, but this team is finally maturing and realizing what it takes to win at this level.

It will take another win against either Villanova or Notre Dame to be completely convinced that this game wasn't just a flash in the pan for this year's Cats. Taking care of business tonight was step one, and this team stepped up.

Player of the Game: Rashad Bishop
Has realized that he needs to drive and dish and/or shoot more for this team to be successful. He's not a freshman anymore and he knows that now.

Underrated Player of the Game: Yancey Gates
Four blocks, including a clutch rejection down the stretch to preserve the lead.

Non-player of the game: Mick Cronin
Facing a Princeton-style offense, no back door baskets. That's good big man coaching and the first clearly well-coached game of the season for Cronin.

Bummer of the game: Turnovers
Very very very stupid turnovers (mainly in the first half) is what kept the Hoyas close when the Cats could have got some mid-game seperation.

Hoyas Are Bearcats First Step to Becoming a "Good" Team This Year

Ultimately, the measure of whether this Bearcats season was a good one or a bad one will be determined by whether or not UC finishes in the top 9 of the conference with at least a .500 record in conference play. I think we can all agree to that.

To that end, the next four games the Bearcats play WILL decide whether this season is going to be good or bad.

It's rare that a team gets a chance to make such a black or white statement, but the next two weeks is just that for UC:

G-Town, @ Villanova, Notre Dame, @Georgetown.

UC has not lost to any bad teams yet (note: Providence was the worst with an RPI of 72) and they haven't beaten any good teams. Georgetown, Villanova, Notre Dame, and West Virginia are the four NCAA tourney teams that UC has a legit shot to take down and they play 3 of those teams in their next four games.

Of all the teams in the B.East, Cincy matches up best with Georgetown, mainly because they can't shoot. Every team that has beaten us has shot the lights out it seems like, but it''s a good bet the Hoyas won't be able to do that tonight.

Gates will have to be a man down low and keep his fouling to a minimum and Williams will have to keep up with 6'10" freshman Greg Monroe, who plays more like a small forward than a Center. And, has one of those really douchey chin strap beards.

UC Finds Its Life In Midst of Crap-Rock

First thing's first: I am now painfully aware of the amount of Nickelback/Nickelback cover bands that are actually permitted on the radio.  

It was quite fitting that approximately ALL of Nickelback's mega-hits were blaring from the speakers as I watched what I thought was UC throwing away the season with a loss to a St. John's.  Fitting in that while Nickelback's lazy and unimaginative and predictable "rock" was playing, UC showcased mediocracy and laziness on both sides of court.  But, the tide often changes, as they say, and Nickelback changed to the likes of TI and Rihanna's "Live Your Life", and UC found its life.  Wilks, Toyloy and crew: you be Chad Kroeger and his gang, while Vaughn: you be ultra-cool and awesome TI.  

As seen in the Cincinnati Enquirer, "Bishop said he purposely came out more aggressive offensively in an attempt to take some of the pressure off Vaughn."  Great.  Bishop played his best game (until his controversial ejection early in the second half) of the season, and showed signs of a hidden gem waiting to be exposed.  But he purposely came out more aggressive this game.  Meaning....what?  Does he purposely come out not aggressive in all other games? Rashad, I'm begging you, as one frustrated Bearcats fan to a (hopefully) frustrated Bearcats player, I can't take Nickelback-UC anymore.  Their music sucks, and the hair?  Please play the way you did in the first half of Thursday night's game for the remainder of this season!  It was pretty routine when Vaughn took over the game per norm.  Vaughn's the only one on that team who looked like he actually cared UC was losing, and he took over the game.  20 points in the second half?  It sucks Vaughn has to do it on his own, but at least we have him.

Going off my counterpart's checklist, I see us fulfilling only tasks #3, 4, and 5.  Dixon was more or less a non-factor in the game, and Mike Williams was even less of a factor.  I want to know where he was.  The Red Storm didn't have any major inside presence that would have limited his productivity.  I understand he's not going to be amazing every game, but he wasn't even really taking many shots (although we were doing what we do best and missing 3's all night, so he didn't get too many touches on the ball).  He's got to bring the intensity every game, just like Bishop.  If Vaughn plays like he usually does, Bishop plays like he did last night, and Williams and Gates take care of the inside game, we could be really good.  It all has to happen every game though, and that's where things go south.  But they did moderately keep the ball out of Toyloy's hands, which is always a plus.

-Dually posted by Eric and Keller

St. John's: Great, We Won, But What Does This Win MEAN?

Last night's 71-60 victory over the Red Storm was ugly. How ugly was it, you ask?

Think of that chick/dude that you sidled up to that one time you went to the Sigma Tau party your sophomore year of college. You were on a cold streak, haven't been "romantically intimate" for a while, you were missing the sweet scent of a woman and the soft touch of (fe)male skin on your fingertips. You were also a bit totally wasted. It happens to the best of us.

You started flirting with said girl/guy and then leaned in for a playful touch and then, in that moment of crushing reality that hits you just as you are about to lean in for the kiss, you get a glimpse of her/his mug in the light. Yama-Hama, it's FRIGHT NIGHT! The game was exactly that ugly.

But you go in for the kiss anyway because you're desperate for any kind of assurance that you are a guy/girl that a (wo)man (ANY (wo)man) might be interested in. So you make out, give them a fake phone number, and leave. You achieved that small victory, but now what?

Such is the situation Bearcats fans are in right now after the win at St. John's. Yes, we rallied and even showed a little swagger in the final stretch of a conference road game. Even against a less-than-outstanding team like St. John's, that is bound to result in some confidence building. However, we can take the confidence that small victory has given us two different ways.

1. The "Laurel Resting" way -- In which, we are content to beat a Rutgers or a St. John's and then learn nothing from the lessons we learned while playing aggressively. We lose the next 4 games and effectively end any post season hope we had.

2. The "Slump Buster" way -- In which, we use the confidence, however minor, of hooking up with someone we might consider "below our league" and build on that to steadily take down higher and higher rated opponents. Before we know it, we are on our way to third base with the hottest sorority chick in school, based not on talent or good looks, but rather our confidence alone.

Your move Rashad Bishop.

Two and Four -- Finding It Hard to Score

There is an old wise adage that I subscribe to. It goes something like this:

"Ye shall never trust a Bearcat team to do anything that you want them to do because they will let you down time and time again even after they offer you two, maybe three, glimmers of hope but then they always come back and figuratively SMASH your kneecaps with a metaphorical ball-peen hammer of shitty play and then literally make you want to crawl off the very real bar stool you are sitting on and never watch basketball, nay, sports, ever again."

It's not much, but repeating it over and over again throughout the day really keeps me grounded, you know?

UC is 2-4 in Big East Play and they are, by my estimation, 7 wins away from going .500 in the conference. They will most likely need those 9 B.East wins to make it to the NCAA tournament. If they win the rest of their home games and win either at St. John's this Thursday or at South Florida later in the season, they will get those 9 wins. There is no reason to believe this is going to happen.

It's obvious that every B.East team has figured out how to defend us: "Stick the quickest defender on Vaughn for the entire game, frustrate the big men out of crashing the boards and wait for various black and red jersey'd players to throw the ball out of bounds." I'm pretty sure that this is actually written on the chalkboard in locker rooms across the B.East. It is a fool-proof plan. The only team that waivered from this briefly was UConn, who inexplicably went into a zone and let the Cats stay close only to seal the deal by going back into the "face-sit Vaughn at all costs" defense.

Here is what it is going to take to win 7 more B.East games, in 5 easy steps!:

1. Dion Dixon makes consistent three pointers. Dixon is a great sixth man, but we don't have time for that. We need him in the game and we need to set screens for him, feed him the ball, and get him open looks while everyone else focuses on boxing out. Run Dion through some of the multi-screen plays we used to run Vaughn through last year. Vaughn will get open ONLY when Dixon starts shooting the lights out.

2. Mike Williams does the same thing he has done for the past 4 games.

3. Can someone please get Yancey Gates a "5-hour energy" for chrissakes. They cost like 4 bucks. Come On!

4. Rashad Bishop decides to just put his head down and take it to the hole without stopping to think halfway through the drive and pulling up for some lame duck shot or even lamer and duckier pass.

5. New Team Rule: No one pass to Toyloy. He is there for rebounding and getting in the way on defense when Gates gets in foul trouble/gets drowsy. He is a Connor Barwin upgrade, no more no less.

I'll be watching with a checklist on Thursday.

Ex-UC Coach named Head Coach of the NY Jets

Article can be viewed here: http://www.newyorkjets.com/news/articles/show/2821-ryan-s-former-players-expect-everything

As a former UC student/athlete, and current New York resident, I think it's apparent that UC people are taking over the world.  Mike Tomlin of the Steelers was an assistant at UC, and the same with John Harbaugh of the Ravens.  Not to mention Haruki Nakamura of the Raves, Brent Celek of the Eagles, and Andre Frazier of the Steelers.  Coincidence?  I think not.  At least we'll have something to cheer for.  Yeah right, we'll cheer mainly against the Steelers no matter what.

 Look for the Jets go to the Playoffs next year and lose to the undeniably hot Cincinnati Bengals, basking off of the dashing good looks of Carson Palmer. 

Vaughn and Co. chalk up B.East win No. 2

UC once again played to the level of their opponent. Depaul, one of the supposed "bottom 8" teams of the B.East that Cincinnati is supposed to run over, almost squeaked out a run big enough to take the lead, and ultimately spell doom for the Bearcats.

Almost.

Normally I would have expected the run to be thwarted by the hot-shooting hands of Vaughn, but this time it was his supporting cast who showed up. You may remember my previous post, commenting on how important it is for UC to come up with someone(s) that can be the other scoring threat when Vaughn isn't taking over the world. Last night's victory was the start of the rest of UC's team taking control of the game. Yes, Vaughn was the leading scorer, and yes, he had the clinching 2 free throws at the end of the game, but those 2 points were his only of the second half. Gates and Williams took over and started proving that their presence underneath is the difference between Marquette-Game UC and new-and-improved UC.

We also could have won because Depaul didn't shoot the lights out behind the 3-point arc, like it seems every team does to us. Or because we actually did (8-16). Whatever reason, UC got their second win in the ridiculous B.East Conference, where any win is gladly accepted, no matter how ugly or difficult it may be. After the past two wins, even though they were against two bottom-tier teams, I'm pumped for the rest of the season. We have 13 games left, of which I think we need at least 7 wins. I'd like 8; or more, obvi.
If Gates takes caffeine again and doesn't fall asleep like he did against Rutgers, and Williams plays a Robin-like role to Vaugn's Batman, I expect us to surprise some people the rest of the season. We're definitely going to beat Georgetown in D.C. because of the added awesomeness of fans that will be in attendance, so that just leaves 7 more wins, 6 against totally beatable teams. Let's Do Work, son.

Andy Kennedy: Too Traumatized To Tap iT

Former Bearcats coach and fan favorite to replace the Yellow Suited One three years ago, has found himself in the national media again.

Less than a month ago, Andy Kennedy was arrested for ALLEGEDLY punching and shouting racial slurs at a Cincinnati cab driver. Kennedy denies all charges. AND NOW, Kennedy's wife is suing that same cab driver for harming the couple's sex life(!) Yamma Hamma, it's fright night.

Bonus: When did WLWT turn into the New York Post? Their article title: "Coach's Wife Sues, Claiming Lack Of Playing Time"

Let's! Go! Cats!

Bearcat Basketball. Ten years ago, those following college basketball on virtually any level would have known that the Bearcats were easily the greatest college basketball team in the history of the world. I mean, we had The Play that beat Duke, Kenyon Martin, Melvin Levett, and even the Gunslinger, for crying out loud! It’s been a long time since those glorious days. Three coaches later, Cincinnati basketball was looking at yet another 0-4 Big East start. We had Rutgers on the slate last night, a game I originally thought we could and would go through the motions and win, settling on the fact that this was far from an easy win. We started the game looking as I had dreaded: lazy and without any resemblance of a desire to win. And to think: I had rushed to the bar and even paid for a cab to watch my beloved Bearcats get spanked by the pricks from Jersey. And the stupid table at Joshua Tree sucked, was cramping, and the heat was cranked up to near sauna temperatures. Come on Cats! It’s only January, and we’re already in “must-win” game situations! With a recipe for a terrible night looming, the Cats finally realized that yes, they were in fact playing basketball, and decided to show up towards the end of the first half.

Our run started, ended, and revolved around Vaughn. He looked really good last night. Really good. It's obvious he's our star, and it's amazing how he can have such great form shooting, even during a fast break pull-up jumper, when the rest of the team looks like an awkward adolescent throwing various objects in the air. Vaughn proved last night he’s our guy, our dude, or whatever else you want to call him. He’s the shit. The team should be based around him. And for the most part, I’d say it is.

But here’s one of my beefs: What are we doing (ahem, Wilks) shooting 3-pointers from 3 feet behind the line? Frustration set in last night when we were down roughly 15, and we kept settling for shots past NBA-range, instead of letting Sir Yancy dunk over the entire Rutgers team, including the cheerleaders. Does Cronin condone this kind of play? Vaughn needs a consistent back up. To quote the ever-wise Keller MF Schnier, a longtime UC expert, “Vaughn is a man. He's good. We've known this all along, and he's just getting better. He needs some support though. Williams is starting to provide that (he should score at least 20 every game), but there has to be others. Gates could do it, Bishop could do it, Davis could do it, Wilks could do it (although he doesn't play as much as I think he should), and others. We have a lot that could do it, but not many that are, certainly not consistently.”

I was impressed by the way we came out of the locker room in the second half. Cronin must have had some words of encouragement (or discouragement, your call) to pump up the Cats and get them going. That’s the way we need to play in the Big East if we expect to win games and make the NCAA. And whenever Gates decides he’s not bored out of his mind playing D-1 basketball, that’ll add yet another threat to an ever-improving Bearcat inside game. I’m excited and ready to watch UC dominate the world once again. We didn't play perfect, but we've at least "come a long way."

This Was the End, This Was the Beginning

The game last night, January 15, 2009 v. Rutgers, will go down as the definitive end of the downtrodden, "rebuilding" Bearcats of the "start from scratch" era. It will also mark the beginning of a beautiful new day in Bearcat basketball. A day where we no longer say "be patient" or "it takes time," but rather "what seed?" and "Wow, did you just see Yancey Gates rip off that opposing player's head and dunk it so hard that he shattered the backboard glass?." A day where we can watch the Cats consistently climb the ranks of the B.East. A day when we will confidently discuss UC's chances for a B.East title. A day when we will triumphantly sit atop the basketball world like Kings and look back poignantly at the team we once were and grin, because we know we EARNED it.

Was that paragraph too dramatic/jinxing/dumb? Maybe. If you're a pussy.

Not coincidentally, this blog was officially launched at halftime last night. And at this blog, one of our goals is to always be too dramatic, jinxing, and dumb in everything we write. Also, no Zimpher jokes, they are the joke equivalent of listening to Nickelback (stuff that only sexually frustrated, uncreative people do)