As I’ve said many times, playing Cinci is always interesting in the Rich household with the wife being a Bearcat alum.
Cinci comes in on a 3-game win streak. What’s the significance?
During three-plus seasons in the Big East Conference, the University of Cincinnati basketball team never has won four conference games in a row.
With a three-game winning streak to their credit, the Bearcats can reach that plateau today. All they have to do is knock off the No. 4-ranked team in the country at perhaps the most difficult road venue in the league when they take on Pittsburgh at the Petersen Events Center.
It’s a huge challenge for a still-young UC team that seems to be coming into its own. The Bearcats (17-8, 7-5 Big East) have gone 7-2 since their 0-3 start in league play, and their confidence is growing with each game.
“We’re going to go in there and do what we’ve got to do,” UC junior guard Deonta Vaughn said of playing the Panthers. “We’re going to be really digging in. It’s going to be tough playing against them, but if we beat them we can really see ourselves right there in the NCAA Tournament.”
Cinci is playing for a chance at the NCAA Tournament. In case you missed what ‘Nova did when they started to see their season start to slip or what WVU did last night with their back against the wall. Of course those teams did it at home, the road is a different beast.
The Bearcats have a shot, but they need at least one big win, win the games in conference they should and to play on the third day of the Big East Tournament. Right now their RPI hovers near 50. It needs to be higher.
The guy Pitt has really struggled to stop when playing Cinci has been Deonta Vaughn. That’s Jermaine Dixon’s primary job today.
Freshman Yancy Gates, a highly touted recruit, is coming off the bench to average 11.0 points and 5.8 rebounds in conference games. Gates has been named Big East Rookie of the Week twice in the past eight weeks.
The 6-9, 255-pound Gates scored a season-high 21 points on 8 of 11 shooting in Cincinnati’s 71-61 victory over St. John’s on Wednesday.
“(We got) him the ball in position where he can be effective, which has been a challenge for us at times,” Cronin said. “If we can continue to get him the ball in those types of positions, he’s a guy who’s going to be effective.”
Vaughn always gives Pitt fits.
He’s averaging 20.3 points in four career starts against the Panthers. In his last visit to Pittsburgh, Vaughn made six 3-pointers, including some from NBA range, in a 24-point effort. He scored 23 of his game-high 30 points in the second half in Pitt’s win over Cincinnati in the Big East Tournament opener last season.
While junior guard Jermaine Dixon will draw the primary assignment, coach Dixon says it will require a team effort to defend the 6-1 junior from Indianapolis.
“Our strength is that we can put a number of different guys on him,” the sixth-year coach said. “Jermaine will be guarding him. Bradley (Wanamaker) will be guarding him. (Vaughn) is in there for 40 minutes, so he’s going to have different guys on him.”
Regarding Yancy Gates, he’s also serving as their energy guy by coming off the bench.
“I never had the mindset that I had to start to be productive,” Gates said. “Coming off the bench and starting is the same. You get in the game and you’ve got to do your job. Coming off the bench allows you to see the flow.”
Cronin said he decided to start Toyloy ahead of Gates for the Jan. 17 game at DePaul because he wanted his best defensive lineup on the floor at the game’s outset. That move has also served to prevent Gates, who has started 15 games, from picking up quick fouls early in the game.
“He’s in there pretty quickly,” Cronin said of Gates. “It’s nice to have Steve Toyloy on our team, a guy that can really defend, rebound and accepts his role. In late-game defense, he’s excellent and when given the opportunity, he finished around the basket.
“It’s important to be two-deep at that position because of the foul trouble that arises in this conference with the physicality that goes on out there. As soon as one of them gets one foul, I’m taking him out right away. That one foul is like a magnet for two and then the other guy would have to play the rest of the half.”
Since Gates went to the bench, Cinci has been 5-2. Granted that included playing St. John’s twice, but it also included sweeping G-town and beating ND.
I mentioned after the WVU game, that I was feeling a little greedy so I wasn’t totally thrilled with Pitt going to scrubs at the end, since it cost Pitt in holding the ‘Eers to below 40% shooting. Turns out the team was a bit disappointed as well.
“We put a lot of emphasis on defense in practice,” guard Brad Wanamaker said.
“We played more like the old Pitt team,” Fields said. “Still, I guess we’ve got to work, because they still shot 40 percent.”
The Mountaineers shot 40.4 percent.
“It was close,” Dixon said. “I don’t know if it counts. Levance likes to debate. We’ll see.”
Whether Dixon gave the Panthers the benefit of the doubt over a few percentage points was apparently up for discussion.
I think he’s going to make them work to be better.
Personally, I’ve found it amusing that since the UNC-Duke game ended, ESPN has completely skipped their Saturday night primetime game of OSU-Wisconsn, in favor of hyping the Pitt-UConn game for Monday. The team, of course, swears that they aren’t looking past the Bearcats.
“We’re definitely not looking past Cincinnati,” Pitt guard Jermaine Dixon said. “They’ve been hot. They’ve been on a winning streak. But even if they weren’t, we never look past a team. We’re not thinking about UConn right now.”
Dixon won’t have any problem getting his players’ attention on Cincinnati. In the past month, Cincinnati has beaten Georgetown (twice) and Notre Dame to put itself in position to make the NCAA Tournament only two years after finishing dead last in the Big East.
Since an 0-3 start in the conference, Cincinnati is 7-2 and ran its winning streak to three games with a 71-61 victory against St. John’s on Wednesday night in which it shot a season-best 62.6 percent.
“It’s pretty easy to sell that they are a really good team,” Jamie Dixon said. “Sometimes, you have to stretch it. This time, there is no question this is a team that’s playing well and is an NCAA Tournament team.”
Said Blair, “They are at their peak.”
I have hated the “good [player name]/bad [player name]” ever since I heard a telecast where Trevor Matich beat it into the ground regarding Tyler Palko a few years ago. I know Louisville fans often do that with Edgar Sosa. I want to nip that in the bud with Sam Young.
The good Sam Young stays patient, moves the ball and waits for his shot. He drives to the basket, goes hard to the offensive glass for rebounds and gets out in the transition game.
The bad Sam Young attempts to take his defender one-on-one too much, gets his pocket picked by defenders and throws lazy passes. He displays negative body language and doesn’t appear to be on the same page as his teammates.
That’s not the observation of an outsider. It’s the observation of senior point guard Levance Fields, who said Pitt needs the good Sam Young to show up on a more consistent basis.
Stop it now. The point of the story is fine — stay within the gameplan, don’t freelance, etc. Just, please, please, please. No “good Sam, bad Sam.” Sam needs just eleven more points to pass Brian Shorter for 10th on Pitt’s all-time scoring list. If he gets back to his average and Pitt goes deep this year, he should finish his career at Pitt in 6th on the list (passing Ricardo Greer) and possibly 4th to pass Jason Matthews and Don Hennon (1840 and 1841).
