The Day After, Still a Big Win

UC assistant athletic director Mike Harris summed it up best Friday when he said, "it's a great day to be a Bearcat fan".  It's the day after a big win against West Virginia and the players are not caught up in the celebration, instead they are looking back at it with appreciation.

It was a sign this team is maturing.  The youngsters are growing up.  Thursday night they went into a must win game without one of their senior leaders, Mike Williams was on the bench with a sore knee.

Deonta Vaughn said the teams recent confidence helped them, but so did following the game plan and playing defense.

What about the Game, It's a BIG one

Last year when UC beat West Virginia the Bearcats were able to hold Bob Huggins to o points, but Mick Cronin was also scoreless in his teams win.

Enough with the coaches, neither of them will hit the winning shot Thursday night.    The Mountaineers come into the game in a much better position for the NCAA Tournament than UC is, that's why this is a must win game for the home team.

Coach Cronin knows that West Virginia is a very good basketball team, here is his view of the Mountaineers.

On Tuesday when we spoke with the team they were just about to look at film of their up coming opponent, but they already know what WVU is all about.

That's a look at the opponent in this very important game.    As for the degree of "importance", it must be big.  ESPN is sending the team of Brent Musburger and Bob Knight. Which leaves one very big question.  UC has only played Ohio State once in the past 50 years, how will Brent work the Buckeyes into the conversation?

Game Time:  7:30   TV:  ESPN   Radio:  WLW

Locker Room Lock Out

In Saturdays loss to Louisville Coach Mick Cronin didn't like what he saw out of his team. Following the game he sat them down to watch film and Monday when they went to practice they were locked out of the players locker room.

What was the players reaction to loosing their "creature comforts"?

Not only did they loose their locker room privileges, they lost their Bearcat gear too.

The purpose of such a measure is to make a point with the team.  Apparently they got the message.  For one Larry Davis said this is the maddest he's seen his coach.

Coach Mick Cronin spoke after the Louisville game about how it's much more difficult to go from sixth in the conference to the top, as opposed from going to the basement to sixth.  In his eyes now that UC is sixth, it's time to take it to the next level, and in that next level there are no moral victories.

Coach Cronin speaks of taking the program to the next level.  One problem is not having anyone in the locker room that has been there.  Part of the "banishment" is a message to the teams leaders, and that includes a guy that has been very instrumental in taking UC from the basement to the middle of the pack.

There was a fair share of discussion about the return of Bob Huggins on Thursday night.  The evening news may have a few short clips, but Bearcat Sports Page.com will bring you the "entire comment".  Unfortunately, the evening news is limited by the amount they can use, we are not.   Several of Coach Cronin's thoughts were well over a minute.   We will have them all over the next couple of days.

Young Team, Making Progress and Playing With Passion

In their last 6 conference games the Bearcats are 4 and two with a couple of road wins.  This is not an easy conference for a teams "mentality".   That was one of the topics covered Tuesday afternoon before practice.   Games are going to be won, but games are also going to be lost.  With such a young team it's important for them to remain "even keel" and not get too high or too low.

Last year this team was in the second year of the reconstruction process, looking back how far has this program come?

Monday afternoon the team looked back at some film from the team last year.  One thing Deonta Vaughn noticed is that last years team played with tremendous passion.  Passion this years team is having trouble matching.

Wednesday morning we will post some of the comments made today about the game against the Fighting Irish at US Bank Arena.

Win Helps Hangover

Monday night the Bearcats were back on the court at Fifth Third Arena trying to "move on" after the loss to Xavier over the weekend. The opponent was a Big South team in Charleston Southern.

Last week before the Xavier game head coach Mick Cronin said that he scheduled the game Monday for his team to "get Xavier out of their system" before their gameThursday against Mississippi State.  Did the 74-55 win accomplish the goal?

The only down side in Mondays win was the crowd, or lack their of.   Less than 6,00o were on hand.  Thursday UC hosts the Big East/SEC Challenge at  the US Bank Arena downtown as part of a doubleheader with Louisville.  A big crowd is needed so events like it will return in the future.  This year it's Mississippi and Mississippi St, who knows in the future other SEC teams like LSU, Florida and Kentucky could be playing downtown in this event, but not without success this year.

Bearcat Sports Page.com will have interviews about Mississippi State leading up to Thursdays game.