Liveblog tonight at 6pm. Post for that will be up later.
The Bearcats were one of the premier regular season teams in the 90s. The way Pitt seems to be on ESPN all the time these days. That was Cinci back in the 90s. I was able to get the girl who is now my wife back to my place early in our dating, with the lure of cable and being able to watch her Bearcats play that night. Needless to say, the Bearcats no longer enjoy that lofty reputation or status on ESPN. Pitt on the other hand…
The Pittsburgh Panthers have what the University of Cincinnati used to have and desperately wants to get back.
While the Bearcats are striving to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005, at Pitt there’s little doubt that the Panthers will make their 10th straight appearance come March.
Not long ago, that’s how it was at UC.
“It’s what I call standard of excellence,” said UC coach Mick Cronin. “You don’t want to be the team that doesn’t live up to the tradition of the teams before you. That was stripped away here and that has been the hardest thing to rebuild.”
UC (18-4 overall, 5-4 Big East) could take a huge step toward returning to the tournament by beating No. 4 Pitt (20-2, 8-1) Saturday night at the Petersen Events Center, where the Panthers have won 51 of their last 53 games.
Cronin was on UC’s staff from 1996 to 2001 when the Bearcats were dominating Conference USA in the midst of a run of 14 straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
That streak ended in 2006. Getting a new one started has been the final piece of the rebuilding effort for Cronin.
And as mentioned yesterday. Getting back there in the Big East is not easy.
Pitt’s offense has been struggling in the last couple of games. Just not very efficient. The assists haven’t been there (in no small part because when shots are not going, there’s no assist). But with a week off, and a coach that won’t tip his hand to the media. No one is going to claim any panic.
“The Notre Dame game, the Rutgers game, we didn’t move the ball as well as we had been at the beginning of the season,” McGhee said. “We weren’t setting screens, we weren’t getting other guys shots, we were doing a little too much looking for our own [shots] at times.
“We’ve been grinding out in practice and trying to get that changed.”
Dixon said he stressed ball movement at practice as well as setting better screens. The Panthers responded by having a much better week of practice, at least offensively.
“When we went back and watched the film of the Rutgers game,” McGhee said, “we could see there wasn’t many screens being set, guys weren’t moving the ball and if you look at the statistics, there weren’t many assists. We need to change that.”
“We’re going to focus on our offensive execution and our communication on the defensive end,” Dixon said. “But we played against a couple of good teams and did some things different ways. Against Rutgers, we shot 35 free throws and made 28, which you can’t find too many things wrong with that.”
Cinci has its own struggles with offense. Curable, apparently, by taking better shots and using strategy.
“We’ve got to shoot a higher percentage on the offensive end than we have in our first nine Big East games,” Mick Cronin said. “We’ve got to get better shots. We’ve got to get different shots and we’ve got to get more free throws.”
Cronin said he didn’t believe his team’s shot selection was poor, but that it needs to be better strategically.
“Who’s shooting and where they’re shooting from – strategic,” Cronin said. “A poor shot in my mind is a guarded, challenged shot. That’s the easy part. The hard part is strategic shooting and then obviously we’ve got to finish around the basket. And you’ve got to make free throws. We’re 18-4 but in our losses the big common denominator is the other teams’ free throws, free throw makes and attempts.”
In less fun news, redshirt freshman Lamar Patterson apparently participated in a dine-and-dash over winter break. Unfortunately for Patterson, It was not exactly a flawless execution.
The crimes are outlined this way in a police affidavit:
Patterson and two friends, whom the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era isn’t identifying because they weren’t charged, all ordered chicken wings at the restaurant. They were presented with a bill for $30, but left without paying when the waitress went to the bathroom.
However, the group hadn’t left without a trace. The waitress found a New York driver’s license belonging to Perry Patterson under the table. The restaurant contacted police.
About three hours later, the men returned. One of them, later identified as Lamar, asked for the ID. When staff informed him he was being investigated for theft, Lamar said he didn’t pay the tab because “it was a joke,” the affidavit states.
Perry Patterson is six years older than Lamar. It was unclear Friday how Lamar came into possession of his brother’s ID.
Working through the extremely minor side issue first. Gee, how or why would any under-21 year-old have their older brother’s ID? That never happens. Mysteries that just befuddle.
As for the dine-and-dash. Just dumb. It’s juvenile, stupid and he should know better. That said, it’s not something that should get you kicked off a team. A one-game suspension is warranted (arguably 2- or 3-games for the stupidity of leaving behind an ID and then sheepishly coming back to get it).
We’ll find out tonight. Especially if J.J. Moore plays.
“I really don’t have an issue with putting (Moore) in there,” Dixon said. “I feel very comfortable. But at the same time, Lamar is playing very well. Obviously, Gilbert and Brad (Wanamaker) have been playing at a high, high level. Those things all factor in.
“Yeah, you’d like to see more minutes,” Dixon said. “But he’s a great teammate — that’s one of the reasons we were so sure about him as a recruit. He’s working hard. He’s going to be a great player for us.”
Moore (4.9 ppg, 1.7 rpg) is making the most of his limited playing time. He had six points and two rebounds in seven minutes against Seton Hall and eight points and two rebounds in seven minutes at DePaul.
Like most freshmen in the Big East, Moore needs to improve his defense. He is long and athletic — he is so physically similar to Brown that Moore’s nickname is “Twin” — and has all of the ingredients to be a shut-down defender.
“I definitely feel like I’m progressing,” Moore said. “Coach acknowledged me in film study. He said I’m picking up everything, and I’m getting better each day. I’m just feeding into what he’s saying and keep working hard.”
He’s saying all the right things and talks of Gil Brown helping him as well. Really does seem like this year Brown fully embraced all that being a senior basketball player at Pitt means.
What is the penalty then? Seriously. Not joking.
You seem to indicate that you view this very black-and-white and serious enough to merit a major suspension. Or even kicking him off the team. What is the scale then for being charged with other crimes? DUI? Public intoxication? Resisting arrest?
Are you saying that a kid can never do a stupid thing if he gets arrested, simply because he is on an athletic scholarship?
Patterson vs Madoff
Very curious to see how/if the two JJ’s play — Moore at 3, Richardson in Taylor’s possible absence,
A one game suspension is what you get for missing a team meeting. Yes scott, it is theft and it is criminal. Minor theft, sure, but it the “haw haw, boys will be boys” attitude that I find so disturbing. Say he stole your jacket off of the coat rack on his way out of the restaurant, surely an old jacket isn’t worth more than thirty dollars. Is it criminal now, or still just stupid? What if he stuck his hand in the register and took thirty dollars? What is the difference?
Of course kids on athletic scholarship are going to screw up, but give them a pass and they only learn (or have reinforced, by this age they have already learned it) that their talent makes them too special to follow rules. I think a lot of them have been taught that having an athletic scholarship means they can do all the stupid things they want.
My penalty? I don’t know anything about this kid, to know if he has a history or if this is his first time, but the coaches know. Besides his legal restitution, at the least a couple of weeks of games. I’d probably run his ass off and not play him, until I saw that he got it.
Chas, you ask me about only charged. I assume you mean if there is doubt? That is a much tougher call, since the legal system takes so long. For intoxication and DUI, if there are lab tests, there isn’t any doubt for a coach to hide behind. Public drunkenness, and resisting arrest; was any damage done or anyone else hurt? If not, again run his ass off and sit him for a few weeks.
DUI, because of the potential for injury? Goodbye.
Did you want me to give a hard and fast list? It is impossible, but what I was calling you on was acting like this was on a par with skipping class.
And please, spare me the ” this is the way it is, so if we want to compete we have to live with it, it goes on everywhere,” crap. I’m well aware of reality. I don’t have to like seeing it in a program I am usually so proud of, or act like it is nothing.
