Young Cincinnati Bearcats on the Right Track

Mick Cronin and his athletic 10-man UC basketball squad flew back to the friendly confines of Cincinnati on a high note Sunday.

Faced with its two toughest challenges of the early season, matchups with Florida State and UNLV in the Global Sports Classic in Las Vegas, UC did what it needed to do, while gaining priceless experience.

In game one on Friday night, the Cats suffered the campaign's first loss, a 58-47 grinder to the Seminoles. The 11-point deficit makes this game look like Florida State dominated Cincinnati.

But, let's look inside the box score.

First, Rashad Bishop and the Bearcats still played phenomenal defense. FSU, who would go on to win the finale on Saturday night, shot just 38 percent from the floor while coughing up 18 turnovers. Most nights, those numbers will equal a solid win for UC. Unfortunately, Deonta Vaughn (two assists, six turnovers) and the Bearcats played even worse on the offensive end.

As any knowledgeable fan knows, all teams struggle offensively at some point in the early part of the season, especially young, inexperienced teams. Cincinnati has one three-year player on scholarship, while the other nine Bearcats in the rotation can only boast one varsity letter at best.

The great sign from this setback was the defensive effort. As Cronin has stressed since day one, defense must be a constant, so that when the team has an off-night shooting the basketball, it will still be in the game.

In the early game that night, tournament host UNLV was shut down by Mike Montgomery's Cal Bears, setting up the matchup Bearcat fans had wanted anyway—UC vs. UNLV.

UNLV had won 19 straight games at the Thomas & Mack Center before falling to California. Cronin knew that handing the Runnin' Rebels their second straight loss on their home floor would be a daunting task.

The game started out as a continuation of the FSU game, with the Bearcats falling behind 7-0 right off the bat. This is the point where Cronin displayed his coaching ability.

In the previous night's loss, 6'9" freshman Yancy Gates had turned in a poor performance: three points, four rebounds, and four fouls in 19 minutes. Cronin opted to start sophomore seven-footer Biggie McClain in an attempt to wake Gates up.

It worked because Gates entered the game as a man possessed. He immediately threw down a monstrous dunk, grabbed a defensive rebound, and then scored again. Gates would finish with 16 points and seven boards in that same 19 minutes, including several big buckets down the stretch.

The game was back and forth all night, as UNLV pulled ahead late in the first half to grab a 31-27 lead at the break. 6'3" freshman Dion Dixon kept the Bearcats in the ballgame, draining three three-pointers, while starting shooting guard Larry Davis struggled (0-for-10 from the field).

Late in the second half, the Bearcats found themselves down by two coming out of the under four minute media timeout. Sophomore Alvin Mitchell, the team's second leading scorer, creamed back-to-back three-pointers, and then PF Mike Williams scored on the baseline to give UC a six-point lead with under three minutes to play.

The lead would hold up, thanks in large part to two gigantic free throws by Williams with 11 seconds to play and the Bearcats clinging to a one-point lead.

So, as the Cincinnati Bearcats now enter a two-game stretch against two long-time nemeses, UAB and Xavier, Cronin and his crew can go forward with a little extra confidence and experience. UC is shooting for at least a 10-3 non-conference record, and splitting the two games in Vegas was step one to making that happen.

Stay tuned for more Bearcat excitement.