Bearcats finally get opportunity vs. Buckeyes

“The” Ohio State University has been very forthright to a degree of arrogance in the past, “Yes, Cincinnati, Xavier, or any MAC team or mid-major in the state of Ohio, we will play you, but only in our house.”

Somewhere down the road that attitude gets tested. No, the Cincinnati Bearcats will not play the Ohio State Buckeyes at Value City Arena, nor Cincinnati’s Fifth-Third Arena, but in Boston’s TD Garden in the Sweet 16 – East Regional. In fact the two teams have only played once since 1962 with Ohio State claiming a 72-50 win in the Wooden Tradition in 2006.

The Cincinnati program crested under coach Bob Huggins, now at West Virginia, in the 1990s and early 2000s.  Now, after a restructuring project that gets them into the Sweet 16 under Mick Cronin for the first time in 11 years, the Bearcats have plenty of opportunities to seize, one being a nemesis that has looked down on the UC program.

“It will be a great challenge because both teams have great talent, and it will be another game like this one or even more tougher,” said Bearcats guard Sean Kilpatrick, who nailed a couple of key threes late in Sunday night’s 62-56 win over Florida State, “I mean, we know how tough they are, but we’re also a tough team as well.  We haven’t gotten this far off of just being soft any night.  We’re a tough team.”

Cincinnati brings Cronin’s hard-nosed defensive mentality to the court.  The improvement this team has made since December and to throw 26 wins on the table plus an appearance in the Big East Tournament Final defines the Bearcats’ capabilites of taking down the Buckeyes. 

“I have great respect for their program,” explained Cronin, “Other than that, they’re the next team we play.  You know, these guys have a goal.  We have a goal, and, you know, we get in the tournament to win it.”

Cincinnati relies on it’s guards in Dion Dixon and Sean Kilpatrick who open up the inside game for big-man Yancey Gates.  Kilpatrick leads UC with 14.3 ppg. and made 2.47 threes per game. Meanwhile ,Dixon is a consummate playmaker.  With the game tied 50-50 Sunday night, Cronin dropped UC into a 2-2-1 off a score.  Dixon intercepted the inbounds pass and slammed it for a 52-50 lead. From that point, Cincinnati never lost it’s momentum.

“I told the guys before the game that a game like this, we needed to get steals, and we had 19 points off turnovers and 13 steals,” explained Cronin, “Dion’s play was the difference in the game.  But, you know, other guys made big shots for us, but that was a tremendous play on his part, you know, reading the passing lanes.  Great anticipation.”

Going forward, the matchup with Ohio will be interesting with Gates on the inside against J.J. Sullinger and then the Dixon/Kilpatrick/Cashmere Wright matchup with Aaron Craft and William Buford could define the game.

The X-factors are athletic freshman Ja’Quon Parker of Cincinnati, who averages 12.7 ppg. and 7.6 rpg. in Cincinanti’s last seven. For the Buckeyes, DeShaun Thomas has upper his game as he has averaged 15.9 ppg. and 5.3 rpg.  He is the most versatile Buckeye and might cause UC it’s biggest problems.

“They pose tremendous matchup problems because of the way Deshaun Thomas is playing lately,” noted Cronin, who has seen his Bearcats beat eight ranked teams, “He’s been off the charts the times I’ve seen him.”

- Ken Cross

 

Around the nation

Most figured it would be a down year for the PAC-12, but what was once one of the nation’s mightiest three or four leagues has slipped mightily. Through games of Sunday, WarrenNolan.com had the league as the ninth-best RPI league thus far this season. According to Joe Lunardi’s Monday edition of “Bracketology,” (subscription required) just two of the league’s teams — Cal and Stanford — would get in the NCAA Tournament if the season ended today.. Part of the reason for the league’s slide is that two preseason Top 20 teams, UCLA and Arizona, have had off-years and probably wouldn’t make the tourney if the season started today. Meanwhile, Oregon State, which has big wins over Texas and Cal and looked ready to perhaps challenge for its first NCAA Tourney appearance since 1990, is now 1-5 in league play. … At least the PAC-12 can take consolation that it’s not the SWAC; that league ranks dead-last among Division I’s 33 conferences (if you group the independents as a league). The league’s 10 teams went a combined 7-96 in non-league games. … Among the teams included in Lunardi’s field of 68 is Bill Carmody’s Northwestern Wildcats, who are 24th in Nolan’s latest RPI. Northwestern is just 2-3 in Big Ten play so far, but the conference is the top-rated league thus far, and the Wildcats have scored huge wins over Michigan State and Seton Hall thus far. Northwestern has never made the NCAAs, even though it started playing basketball in 1905. … Among other teams that started the year in the Top 25 but fell out include Memphis, Pitt and Vanderbilt. Memphis is going to have to pick things up just to make the Tournament; the Tigers are 12-5, but just 1-5 against top-50 RPI opponents. Pitt has now lost seven in a row after an 11-1 start, with four defeats coming by five points or less. The Panthers remain the only winless team in the Big East. They’ve not missed the NCAA Tournament since 2001, but this might be the season. Vanderbilt, however, seems to be hitting its stride, standing 13-4 with Festus Ezeli back and in the starting lineup. VU has won seven in a row, all by double figures. The Commodores have two huge tests later this week: at Alabama on Thursday, followed by Mississippi State in Nashville on Saturday. … The three undefeated teams from last week — Baylor, Murray State and Syracuse — all remain unbeaten. Now, there are only two 1-loss teams (Kentucky, Missouri) and eight 2-loss teams. … Perhaps the most-shocking score of the season was this one from Saturday: Florida State 90, North Carolina 57, with the Seminoles getting 32 points from Deividas Dulkys, a senior who averaged 7.3 points per game last season. How out-of-the-blue (no pun intended) was that scoring outburst? Dulkys has a reputation as a practice shooter, but hadn’t scored more than six points in any of the previous nine games, and had been shut out twice in that span. This was the first really big win for FSU, which lost by 20 at 9-8 Clemson just a week before, and also fell to 8-8 Princeton on Dec. 30.

- Chris Lee, VandySports.com

 

Around the nation

Scan hoops guru Ken Pomeroy’s current ratings at kenpom.com, and you’ll see most of the usual suspects in his top 40 teams. However, it’s the No. 1 (Wisconsin) and 40 (Long Beach State) spots that are jumping off the page right now. Wisconsin’s resume isn’t super-impressive right now — the Badgers are 11-2 with losses to Marquette and North Carolina, and their only two wins of note are over UNLV and BYU — but Wisconsin is tremendously efficient on both ends of the floor, with Pomeroy ranking UW’s offense as the 12th-best in America, and its defense as the best. Wisconsin isn’t lighting up the scoreboard, but what the Badgers do is slow the game to their liking with only 60.1 possessions per game, and then value the basketball (only 14.3 percent of the Badgers’ possessions end in turnovers). Once Pomeroy adjusts the figure for the tempo UW’s opponents play, the Badgers rank last among the 345 Division I teams in possessions. For comparison, VMI leads the country with 78.4. … Long Beach State ranks highly despite a 7-6 mark because Pomeroy figures the 49ers out-of-conference schedule to be the fourth-toughest in America. LBSU has helped itself with defeats of Xavier and Pitt, though Xavier played without suspended starters Mark Lyons and Dezmine Wells. … On that note, the Musketeers got Lyons back against Hawaii last week, but were still upended by the Rainbows. XU finally snapped a three-game losing streak on Christmas with an 87-77 defeat of Southern Illinois. … Virginia coach Tony Bennett announced on Monday that forward James Johnson will transfer. Johnson, a redshirt freshman who is playing sparingly in his first season, is the fourth person in Bennett’s first recruiting class at UVA to leave. … Speaking of transfers Tennessee has struggled to a 5-6 mark in coach Cuonzo Martin’s first year, but the Vols will get a huge addition in an unusual way for the second semester by landing Rivals.com’s No. 11 recruit in this year’s senior class in Memphis’s Jarnell Stokes. Stokes transferred high schools for his senior season and then was ruled ineligible, but took enough courses to graduate in December. The 6-foot-8, 250-pound forward will be eligible to practice on Jan. 11, and could play for UT this winter.

- Chris Lee, VandySports.com

 

Thomas latest Buckeye option with Sullinger in peril

The first half of Saturday’s 74-66 win over South Carolina was an attrition for No. 2 Ohio State.  Jared Sullinger scored on an easy stick back and was fouled to begin the game plus a subsequent free throw.  It was an easy task and looked like it might foreshadow the romp that most people suspected Saturday in Columbia.

That was until Sullinger went out with 16:46 remaining in the first half when Sullinger had to come out of the game with another foot injury.  He tried to come back but couldn’t  thanks to a bone bruise in his left foot.

At that point, Ohio State was disoriented and it took the Buckeyes a while to regroup.  It was like they almost had to come to grips with the idea that Sullinger would be unavailable for the rest of the day.  That style of thought must have permeated after halftime as South Carolina surprisingly shot 52.6% from the floor in the first half and took a 33-29 lead into the locker room.  Much of that stat had to do with missing Sullinger’s defensive presence and shot blocking ability inside.

“We had to get a little juice into it,” said sophomore forward Deshaun Thomas, who had a career-high 30 points in the win, “We made some mistakes on offense and had turnovers in the first half and that is not us.”

Thomas went 13-of-16 from the floor as he had five offensive rebounds and kept an obvious key presence in the game when it was still in doubt.

“Today, his energy and his toughness got him easy buckets that he is not going to have to work hard for,” said Buckeyes point guard Aaron Craft, “It’s a huge lift and a dagger to the other team.  When he gets confidence that he is going to knock down shots, its tough for the other team.”

Thomas was the story, but Buford picked OSU up and kept them close when they were trying to adjust themselves in the first half after Sullinger’s injury.  He scored seven points in the first 9:24 of the first half as Ohio State did grab an 18-11 lead before USC took advantage of the adjusting to life without Sullinger to close strong.

“They were box and one-ing me and when I run the baseline, the man was running with me, I told the big man to duck in and basically it was 4-on-4 for me to find the open spot,” said Buford, who played the entire 40 minutes and scored 17 points.

Thomas was at his finest midway through the second half when he scored 11 of 13 points over a 3:50 stretch to give the Buckeyes a 55-46 lead with 9:21 left.  In addition, he forced turnovers and had five of his six rebounds on the offensive glass as he is the latest on a multi-talented team to pick up the slack as Sullinger continues to struggle with injuries.

“In the second half, they kept giving me the middle which was open,” he said, “That’s what everybody says — “That’s what you’re here for to shoot the ball and knock that down.’  So I just started knocking jumpers down and getting the offensive rebound and putting it back up.”

-Ken Cross

 

Around the nation: Tuesday edition

Austin Peay was the coaches’ preseason pick to win the Ohio Valley Conference, but stumbled out of the gate by losing its first nine games. The Governors finally stopped the slide with an overtime win over Arkansas State on Dec. 5, then pulled a huge upset of in-state rival Tennessee on Saturday. Coach Dave Loos’s team was helped by the return of starting center John Fraley, the OVC’s fourth-leading rebounder from a year ago, who missed the previous nine games with injury until returning to get 12 points and five boards in 29 minutes vs. UT. … Two of Peay’s losses have come to 9-2 Middle Tennessee State, which is surprisingly the NCAA’s leader in field goal percentage (53.5 percent). The Blue Raiders ranked 243rd in Ken Pomeroy’s effective field goal percentage last season, but neither of its two leading scorers, transfers LaRon Dendy (14.2 ppg) and Marcos Knight (13.6) were on campus a year ago. … Kansas point guard Tyshawn Taylor played through pain in KU’s win over Ohio State on Saturday, and passed out a career-high 13 assists, though also committing seven turnovers. But the damage was done: Taylor was playing with a torn meniscus and a sprained MCL, and now is expected to miss three weeks. If the timeline is correct, that should put him back in time for the Jayhawks’ next really-tough game, which comes at home against 6-1 Kansas State on Jan. 4. Kansas has nine days between the OSU win and a game with Davidson on the 19th. The Wildcats will play KU in Kansas City in a rematch of the classic Elite Eight game between the two teams, which Kansas won 59-57. Davidson lacks a big-time play-maker like it had in Stephen Curry that year, but DC has given both Vanderbilt and Duke all it wanted already this season behind 6-foot-7 sophomore forward De’Mon Brooks, who’s a load for anyone to guard. … UCLA coach Ben Howland finally kicked last year’s leading scorer, Reeves Nelson, off the team after a suspension earlier in the season. Nelson had already been suspended twice this year, and was averaging just 5.7 points per game for the 3-5 Bruins. … Patric Young, the one non-guard in Florida’s starting lineup, was named the Southeastern Conference player of the week after consecutive double-doubles last week. The biggest performance was a 25-point, 10-rebound effort over Arizona in what is UF’s only real quality win so far. The problem with getting Young the ball more is that he’s hitting 53.3 percent of his free throws. Of course, the Gators aren’t much better as a whole, ranking 317th nationally with a 59.3 percent mark.

- Chris Lee, VandySports.com

 

Gophers’ win over Virginia Tech no ordinary ‘W’

Minnesota basketball coach Tubby Smith had a fashioned a nifty 8-man rotation in the early going as most of the Minnesota Gophers’ attack was centered around senior forward Trevor Mbakwe.  However, the Gophers were dealt a  serious blow last weekend in the finals of the Orlando Classic when Mbakwe went down with a torn ACL and was lost for the season.

The basketball Gods can often be unforgiving because next on the Minnesota schedule was Virginia Tech, a legitimate upper-half ACC team, who had gotten off to a 5-1 start and had generated positive momentum with recent wins over Oklahoma State and St. Bonaventure while battling Syracuse for a while and losing 69-58 in the semifinals of the Pre-season NIT.

The Gophers stepped up as a unit without their leader on Wednesday night as they used four clutch free throws by Julian Welch in the final 1:31 to edge the Hokies, 58-55.  The victory once again punctuated Tubby Smith’s stellar career as a tactician who, when dealt a tough blow, still puts his team in position to come out on top under tough circumstances.

Welch, led Minnesota with 15 points and led a trio of Gophers over 30 minutes a piece as minutes were increased to make up for Mbakwe’s absence.  Rodney Williams played 37  minutes and shot 6-of-7 from the floor for 14 points and eight boards.

Mbakwe was the Gophers’ leading scorer with 14 ppg. and 9.1 boards as he had also shot 60.4% from the floor in becoming the go-to guy for Smith.  He finished last season with 19 consecutive double-doubles and achieved the feat in Minnesota’s first three games, all wins.

“We are certainly going to miss him,” Smith commented, “He’s our leader – a big emotional leader for us.”

-Ken Cross

 

 

 

Coast-to-coast: Monday edition

West Winds: ”What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” is no adage for UNLV’s 90-80 upset victory over North Carolina on Saturday night.  The Runnin’ Rebels served notice under first-year coach Dave Rice that their return  to prominence may not even be that far away.  The win could have been the biggest since the 1990 national championship season.

East Edict: The St. Louis Billikens served noticed with their play in the 76 Classic in Anaheim over the Thanksgiving holiday that senior Brian Conklin is becoming the catalyst for Rick Majerus.  The Billikens look like they could be a surprise in an Atlantic 10 that has basically seen Xavier as the league’s favorite for 2011-12.

Southern Swag: The Virginia Cavaliers are looking for a rebirth in the ACC basketball wars as Tony Bennett enters his third season in Charlottesville.  One major key is athleticism and play around the basket which the Cavaliers are beginning to show.

Midwestern Matters:  It could be a long season in Iowa City, especially after the Hawkeyes were smacked by Big South member Campbell, 77-61, last week.  Coach Fran McCaffery is trying to cajole his young team, but not hurt its collective psyche.

-Ken Cross

 

Coast-to-Coast: Thursday

In the Heartland: Michigan State fell to Duke 74-69 in the opener of the State Farm Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. The game (Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s record  win number 903) dropped the Spartans to 0-2. They were on the short end against top ranked North Carolina in the Carrier Classic the previous Friday. Regardless of the start Spartan coach Tom Izzo is still encouraged. “We are going to learn from these games,” Izzo said following the Duke contest. “We have to put a full game together but I like how we are competing. We will only get better.”  Specifically, Izzo would like to see turnovers reduced and improvements on the inside play.

In the East: Pitt had a tough time but went on to defeat Rider 86-78 on Sunday. It was the Panthers’ 58th straight non-conference win at home. Ashton Gibbs led the way for Pitt with 24 points. Backcourt mate Travon Woodall had a ‘stat stuffer’ performance in that contest. Woodall contributed 17 points, 10 assists and 7 rebounds. Panthers are currently ranked ninth in both the AP and ESPN/USA polls.

In the South: Brian Gregory is setting the tone. The new mentor at Georgia Tech suspended leading returning scorer Glen Rice Jr. for what the Atlanta Journal Constitution termed ‘violation of team rules’. Rice was suspended for the first three games of the season. The Yellow Jackets then ushered in the Gregory era with a 92-59 victory over Florida A & M.

In the West: Ashley Hamilton earned the first WCC Player of the Week award for this season. The junior redshirt from Loyola Marymount averaged 19 points, 4 rebounds for two games. Hamilton, a 6-7 forward,  scored a career high 23 points in the Lions’  big upset of UCLA in Los Angeles last Friday. It was Loyola’s first win over the Bruins since 1941. The Lions, currently 1-1, will entertain Harvard at Gersten Pavilion on Saturday.

- Ray Floriani

 

Coast-to-Coast: Tuesday edition

In the South: Earlier in October, Vanderbilt’s second team preseason All-Southeastern Conference center, Festus Ezeli, got bad news when he learned he’d serve a six-game NCAA-mandated suspension for receiving extra benefits. Last week, Ezeli learned he’d miss another month, or perhaps more, after spraining his MCL and PCL.

In the East: The Big East was perhaps the nation’s strongest hoops conference until Syracuse and Pitt left. Now, it gets weakened further with the move of West Virginia to the Big 12. The AP’s Dave Skretta examines winners and losers as the latest shoe drops in conference realignment.

In the Heartland: With the NBA’s labor troubles, this year should be one of the better years for college basketball as so many players chose to stay in school for another year. That makes Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger’s selection as the only unanimous preseason All-American on the AP’s team all the more impressive.

Out West: We’ve heard this before: Southern Cal’s Kevin O’Neal is rebuilding. ESPN’s Erik McKinney takes a look at the Trojans, who return just one starter from last season. Of course, O’Neal did the same thing last season, and managed to guide the Trojans to the NCAA Tournament, even though they were expected to finish in the bottom-half of the PAC-10 standings.

- Chris Lee, VandySports.com

 

Coast-to-Coast: Monday edition

In the East: New Providence basketball coach Ed Cooley grew up in the city in the 1980s and has come home to take his dream job. Friars followers are going to see a more disciplined PC squad which could take some time to gel as Providence is picked 15th in the 16-team Big East.  Cooley feels at home now after making the move from Fairfield where he led the Stags to a 25-8 record a year ago.

Midwest Musings: Many times preseason prognostications dealing with the Wisconsin Badgers leave Bo Ryan’s club underrated and in the middle of the Big Ten.  Badgers fans will be happy to know that UW is getting it’s due already as Wisconsin was picked second behind Ohio State by the Big Ten media.  Coach Bo Ryan laughed that perhaps Badger basketball is boring, but he also noted that winning is anything but boring.

South Bound: Mark Gottfried takes over the North Carolina State basketball program with a rebuilding flavor.  His lone senior, C.J. Williams,  was slated as an almost certain starter at a guard spot.  Williams is now out indefinitely as he suffered a hairline fracture in his left thumb.  Although his statistics were minimal a year ago, Gottfried knows you can’t coach experience as the new coach hopes his maiden voyage doesn’t get too far off the coast without Williams playing a key role on the ship.

Out West: The basketball history of the Colorado Buffaloes has been a tragic tale, just short of Shakespeare  and with only ten NCAA appearances in it’s 109-year history.  However, in 2010-11, the Buffs’ surged to 24 wins under new coach Tad Boyle, the most in CU history for one season.  That resurgence could continue as the Buffaloes will move to a new range in the Pac-12 this coming season.  Colorado basketball fans were relieved recently to know that Boyle plans to be in Boulder for the long haul.

-Ken Cross